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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Review:

Slate and Shell is one of the most well known publishers and distributors of Go books in English. Naturally, it was only a matter of time before I arrived at their home page.

Their Go books contain a nice variety that cover most of the major topics you’d hope to see at a site that exclusively sells Go books. As one of Kiseido’s competitors, they pretty much have everything you might expect from Kiseido and probably a little more. This is not to be much of a surprise since their market is the English literate population.

I ordered three books: How Not to Play Go, Understanding How to Play Go, and Understanding Dan Level Play by Zhou Yuan. The shipping was only $5.00 and they did not disappoint since I received my order within a week (ordered on the 21st of August, and it arrived around the 25th).

In comparison to Kiseido, I’d have to say that their e-mail confirmation was far more professional and comforting.

Here’s a screenshot of Slate and Shell’s….

Here’s a screenshot of Kisedo’s…

As you can see, DRASTIC difference. (Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy Kiseido’s books. It’s just they could do a better job on not making me worry that I’ve just handed my information over to a Grade C hacker.)

Conclusion:

Slate and Shell has a great selection of books at great prices. In addition to the typical Go books that you will expect to pay around $25.00 for (e.g. dictionaries of tesuji), Slate and Shell offers a nice selection of books in the lower price range (e.g. How Not to Play Go by Yuan Zhou $10.00) that still contain quality information.