Yang Yilun

Yang Yilun (楊以倫 Pinyin: Yáng Yǐlún) is a professional 7-dan Go player in the Chinese Go Association.

As of 2006, Yang lives in the United States. He is a popular teacher and author of several volumes on Go, including Yang Yilun's Ingenious Life And Death Puzzles, Whole Board Thinking in Joseki, and Fundamental Principles of Go.

Yang was born in Shanghai, China in 1951 and became a professional Go player in 1966 at age 14. In 1973, he joined the Chinese National Go Team and participated actively in the China-Japan matches of that period. In 1979, Mr Yang began coaching the Shanghai Professional Go team and trained many notable players, among whom are Chang Hao 9 Dan, Rui Naiwei 9 Dan and Hua Xueming 7 Dan. Since 1986, Mr. Yang has been teaching in the United States. Mr. Yang also teaches students via the Internet using both KGS and IGS go servers.

Mr. Yang has won a number of titles including:

• 1973: First Place in the National Young Men's Competition
• 1978, 1979, 1980, 1985, 1986: National Champion in Team Competition
• 1986: First Place in the Yuntze Cup Tournament.

Books

• Fundamental Principles of Go
• How to Destroy and Preserve (pocket book based upon a Yang Go Workshop)
• Rescue and Capture (Pocket Series volume 1)
• Sabaki, How to Manage Weak Stones (pocket book based upon a Yang Go Workshop)
• Tricks in Joseki (Pocket Series volume 2)
• The Workshop Lectures Volumes 1-6
• Yilun Yang's Go Puzzles (two volumes) (pocket book)
• Yang Yilun's Ingenious Life And Death Puzzles (two volumes)
• Whole Board Thinking in Joseki (two volumes)

Other teaching

• Yang Yilun's method of approaching life and death
• Game reviews at GTL: http://gtl.xmp.net/members/info?p_key=1440&pseudo=yly

Deshi Comments

• ihgo: I found that Mr Yang's lessons on KGS plus are amongst the best ones. He tackles a lot of fundamentals in a crystal clear way.
• Anonymous: one of the best teachers for english speakers world wide
• KDBerg: I have been a fan of Mr. Yang for about 15 years. I have taken lessons from a dozen different professionals. What makes Mr. Yang so unique is that he has spent years understanding the game as well as perfecting ways to transfer that understanding. His ability to present complex concepts in terms of heuristics that even beginners can understand is amazing. Mastering his way of thinking about Go is something every amateur should strive for.