Book Details

Title, The Direction of Play
Author, Takeo Kajiwara
Translators, John Fairbairn and The Ishi Press Staff
Publisher, Kiseido
Published, “1st Edition - March 1979”
Language, English
ISBN, 978-4-896574-26-2
Length, 250 Pages

Table of Content

• Introduction
• Chapter 1: The Direction of Play in the Opening: The Corner Stones
• Chapter 2: The Early Stages Are Decisive
• Chapter 3: Move Two Lost This Game
• Chapter 4: The Professional Approach
• Chapter 5: The Direction of Play and Joseki
• Chapter 6: Once Upon a Game
• Chapter 7: Test Yourself
• Chapter 8: The Direction of Play for Fighting

Synopsis

1. An excellent, although a bit advanced, book on direction of play.
2. Fills a much needed gap in understanding the opening and fuseki as a whole.
3. Requires a basic understanding of whole board thinking to really appreciate and understand the explanations.

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Tesuji

Description: In this volume of the Elementary Go Series, Davies lays out the some basic tesuji that every player should learn along with practice problems and different contexts for teach tesuji.

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Friday Go Forward: Week 22

Overview

As I’m sure you all are aware, this week marks the start of my Korean Training Reboot! I am having the time of life as I’m going over the basics of all basics for the first time ever. Now I know it probably sounds stupid to some of you that I’m spending my time on books intended for 30 kyus, but I feel like I am getting a lot of value just drilling basics such as “can my stone escape from atari.” It’s not so much that I’m learning something “new,” but instead I am really trying to polish the fundamentals of my reading ability. Here’s to hoping I know what I’m doing!

Games

• DGS - 2 ongoing games
• Nova - 2 ongoing games

Education & Training

• Finished Attacking and Defending Moyos.
• Finished on Elementary Go Series, Vol 4 - Life and Death.
• Started and finished Level Up 1.
• Started working on Level Up 2.
• Worked on Modern Master Games, Vol. 1.
• Worked on Elementary Go Series, Vol 5 - Attack and Defense.
• Worked on Whole Board Thinking of Joseki, Vol. 1.
• Worked on Essential Life & Death 3.

Level Up 1

Description: Level Up 1 is part of the Level Up! Series that serves as a workbook in private go schools in Korea. Though designed for children, the content and practice provided is invaluable for adults and children alike.

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It’s only Day 2 of my Korean Training Reboot and I’m happy to report that I am really enjoying this series. Although I could theoretically fly through most of the beginning books, I have been taking more time to be very thorough with the content. I’m hoping that this will help to reveal any inconsistencies with my basics as I work my way through the series.

In terms of progress though, I’m almost done with _Level Up! - Volume 1 _and plan to post the review in the near future. For my preliminary findings though, I’m 99% sure that this series will be awarded the best introductory series to go in my book. Although it might be written and designed for kids, I have a feeling that any adult who goes through this entire series will rise through the ranks much faster than by studying any other book.

This is just a preliminary analysis though, so I will let you know if my opinion changes when I’m done with the series. =D

Normally I try not to post twice in a day, but being as it is the first of July, I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to go ahead and post about my new training program: Korean Style Reboot!

Starting today, I will be faithfully following the Korean texts you see above everyday until I finish them all. (I’m still missing the answer book from the Jump Level Up series and the Train Like a Pro series, but I I have more than enough to start with. =D) In the meantime, I have also created a new account on Tygem (zenlotus) that will start from 18k and go as far as I can take it. I’ll still be on the other servers, but my primary focus will be on Tygem when I have the time.

And to clarify, it’s not that I won’t study any of the other books I have, it’s just that I will be making sure to spend a dedicated amount of time each day to the Korean baduk books.

Korean training reboot initiate!

Since I started reviewing books back in 2010, I have been updating the book review template as time has gone on. Categories were added and removed based on whether or not I felt it was relevant anymore. As some of you might have noticed, the book review format changed recently; but I’m already feeling dissatisfied with it even though I just updated it recently. On top of it all, I’m not sure my opinion is enough to validate whether a category is relevant or not.

I posted this question to the reddit baduk community and got some interesting responses regarding some things that they would like to see. In addition, one user brought a great topic to my attention that I thought deserves some time here on this post: reduplication of effort.

For those who aren’t aware, there are already quite a few resources out there when it comes to go book reviews:

1. GoBooks.info
2. GoBooks Nemir
3. Sensei’s Library
   In my experience so far though, many of the sites tend to be outdated (in regards to user interface and design layout). In addition, while the content is still relevant, I always found it difficult to really determine whether or not I should purchase the book or not. In addition, the reviews are often simply huge blobs of text that can be difficult and tedious to navigate for the average user. Most of the time, due to sheer curiosity, I buy the book anyways; but this defeats the whole purpose of a book review.

My goal is to provide the best user experience for people interested in providing go books. This means designing the most intuitive user interface along with providing information in the most concise and useful manner possible. By doing so, casual players who would otherwise be discouraged by the lengthy reviews (since they aren’t as committed to the game as some of us are) can easily navigate the reviews I post and purchase the appropriate book for themselves!

So, to try and provide the best book review format in existence, I’m asking for your help to make this a reality! If you could leave a comment with things that you would find useful (or not useful) in book reviews, it would be greatly appreciated!

Here is a list of some items to get you started:

• [ ]Author’s Teaching Style
• My background as a reviewer before reading the book
• General pros and cons
• My expectations of the book
• What I liked about it
• What makes the book unique
• Relationship with similar books
  As always, please be as honest and blunt as you would like to be. If you like or dislike the things I mentioned above or currently use in my reviews, say so! The more vocal and opinionated you are, the more useful the book reviews will be to you. I’m looking forward to seeing your feedback!

Friday Go Forward: Week 21

Overview

If it isn’t apparent, my studying sessions have gotten pretty crazy. I know that it would be better for me to focus on one book at a time, but my attention span just can’t handle too much of one topic. As much as I’d love to fully absorb everything I’m reading, my goal is to absorb as much as possible with the least amount of time and effort. Therefore, if I am getting bored and not really paying attention anymore, I move on to another topic.

I know it’s not the most thorough method, but I have a lot of books that I’d love to read and different explanations to be exposed to. Once I’ve reviewed every book that I own, you can be sure that I will be returning to the ones that I want to really gain a mastery over. So for now, I’m okay with being a jack of all trades and master of none. xD

Games

• KGS - 0 games (0 wins : 0 losses)
• DGS - 3 ongoing games
• Nova - 3 ongoing games

Education & Training

• Finished Essential Life & Death,__ Vol. 2.
• Finished The Direction of Play.
• Finished Elementary Go Series - Tesuji.
• Worked on Attacking and Defending Moyos.
• Worked on Modern Master Games, Vol. 1.
• Started working on Elementary Go Series, Vol 4 - Life and Death.
• Started working on Elementary Go Series, Vol 5 - Attack and Defense.
• Started working on Whole Board Thinking of Joseki, Vol. 1.
• Started working on Essential Life & Death, Vol. 3.

Overall Rating: 8 / 10 Ponnuki

Basic Information

• Title: The Chinese Opening
• Author: Yuan Zhou
• Publisher: Slate & Shell
• Publication Date: 2013
• Page Length: 184 pages

Synopsis

• A great introductory book to the Chinese Opening.
• Explanations are kept at a high level and thus allows for easy reading.
• Appropriate for 10 kyu and stronger.
• Recommended for serious players.

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