Dictionaries page
If you want overviews on Go, rather than comprehensible fragments, one place to seek them would be the major reference works. This is not likely to be helpful to beginners, naturally enough.
Table of contents |
Nihon Ki-in's encyclopedia series
The structure of the Nihon Ki-in's encyclopedia series is revealing:
Top Level
- Great Fuseki Encyclopedia (布石大事典)
- Great Joseki Encyclopedia (2 volumes)/Chinese translation version name《定式大辞典》
- Great Tesuji Encyclopedia (手筋大事典)
These are anonymous corporate works, typically priced at 24000 yen for a large volume of 1000 pages in a slipcase.
Middle Level
- Basic Fuseki Encyclopedia by Lin HaiFeng (基本布石事典)
- Basic Handicap Go Encyclopedia by Otake Hideo (基本置碁事典)
- Basic Joseki Encyclopedia by Ishida Yoshio (基本定石事典)
- Basic Life-and-Death Encyclopedia by Cho Chikun (基本死活事典)
- Basic Tesuji Encyclopedia by Fujisawa Hideyuki (基本手筋事典)
These are all in two smaller-format volumes, about 500 pages per volume, typical price per volume 2300 yen. The Joseki Encyclopedia is the updated version of the Ishida Joseki Dictionary. Volume 1 of the Cho book has been translated as the two volumes All about life and death. None of the rest has been translated into English. The Rin book has some recent material but is mostly about fuseki theory up to the mid-1970s. Volume 1 of the Fujisawa book is one of the important books to study at dan level.
There is more info about these encyclopedias at
http://www.nihonkiin.or.jp/pub/kihonjiten.htm (in Japanese).
Introductory Level
There are ten Small Encyclopedias. pocket size, about 220 pages and 900 yen. No authors, marketed also as 'Quick' guides. Topics:
- Life and Death
- Tesuji
- Even Game Joseki
- Handicap Go
- Fuseki
- Trick Plays
- Hoshi Joseki
- Endgame
- Proverbs
- Technical terms (?)
Five of the series books have been translated into English, by Yutopian.
Seibundo Shinkosha Dictionaries
A series of dictionaries from the 1970s published by Seibundo Shinkosha (誠文堂新光社) comprises much very good material. It included
- Tesuji Encyclopedia [3](Republished in 3 volumes) by Segoe Kensaku and Go Seigen (手筋事典)
- Small Joseki Dictionary (2 volumes) by Suzuki Tamejiro and Kitani Minoru
- Fuseki Dictionary (2 volumes) by Takagawa Kaku/《布石辞典》高川秀格
- Ko Dictionary by Murashima Yoshinori/《コウ辞典》 村島誼紀 誠文堂新光社 1983/10出版 ;《劫争辞典》村島誼紀 理艺出版社
- Strategy Dictionary by Segoe Kensaku[2]/《作战辞典》瀬越憲作
- Handicap Go Dictionary by Maeda Nobuaki/《让子棋辞典》前田陳爾
- Yose Dictionary by Kano Yoshinori[1]
/《ヨセ辞典》 加納嘉徳 誠文堂新光社 1974 ;《官子辞典》加納嘉徳 理艺出版社
- Modern Joseki Application Dictionary (3 volumes) by Go Seigen
/現代定石活用辞典(上中下) 呉清源 誠文堂新光社 1976
- Famous Tsumego Dictionary (1 volume) by Hashimoto Shoji
- Masterpiece Tsumego Dictionary (1 volume) by Sekiyama Riichi and Sekiyama Toshio
More recently by the same publisher:
- Small Joseki Dictionary by Kato Masao (定石小辞典)
- Small Life and Death Dictionary by Kato Masao (死活小辞典)
Comments
The Joseki Dictionary here is the Small one, a cut-down version of the Igo Daijiten.
The Takagawa Fuseki Dictionary is quite different from Rin's. Where Rin's dictionary is a broad survey of fuseki practice up to the 70's, Takagawa's is much more an exposition of how he sees fuseki. (Takagawa, Fujisawa Hideyuki, and Go Seigen were considered the masters of fuseki of that time.) Like all experienced pros he has tried all kinds of fuseki in his career. In this dictionary most of the example games are with him playing either Black or White.
There is little enough in the Japanese encyclopedia and dictionary material that tells one about the middle game. One series of books that addresses this is the Igo Dan Players Series, initially over eight volumes - but perhaps not quite up to the editorial standards of a dictionary.
The progression here seems clear enough: towards the top amateur levels, you can get something about openings and tesuji from books; for the rest you are thrown back on the abundant supplies of pro games and problem collections.
A Korean series
For comparison, the titles of a Korean dictionary-style series, probably on the same general level as the Small Dictionaries.
- Handicap Baduk
- Trick Plays
- 3-3 Invasions
- 4-4 and 3-4 Openings
- Middle Game and Strategy
- Invasion and Reduction
- Poseok (i.e. fuseki)
- Haengma
- Soksu (bad style)
- Endgame
This has a different feel entirely - certainly more pragmatic, oriented towards fighting. The contrast only goes to support the general argument put forward by John Fairbairn on the Haengma / Discussion topic. There is new thinking coming out of Korea about the way to organise the material of Go/Baduk.
isshoni: I'm not sure this information belongs here, but for readers of Japanese, some of the titles above are available in Japanese: see for example this search on Amazon Japan or
this other one on Junkudo or visit the Nihon Kiin's bookshop.
Other Joseki dictionaries
There have been a number of joseki dictionaries down the years. One that is cited elsewhere on SL is
- Gendai Joseki Jiten by Yamabe Toshiro.
There are certainly others, by Takagawa, Miyashita Shuyo. Of course the information in these compilations is uneven, and of limited value as a reference unless you want to make your own comprehensive study of some joseki.
A 1998 one-volume
- Igo Joseki Dictionary by Kobayashi Koichi (Gakken)
seems not to be at all well known.
BobMcGuigan: A small dictionary-like text on joseki that should not be lost sight of is
- Joseki Genten by Kajiwara Takeo and Nakayama Noriyuki,
three volumes, published in Japan by Koma Shobo in 1981. It has a lot of insightful Kajiwara-style thinking.
Online Life and Death dictionary
Basic Life and Death Dictionary (In Japanese by Eba Hiroki)
[2] Sakusen Jiten in Japanese. AKA Fighting Dictionary.
[3] Dave Sigaty: The Tesuji Dictionary by Segoe and Go is classic. Anyone who has the chance should grab it.