Customer Reviews

Cho Hun-Hyeon's Lectures on Go Techniques

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

an excellent book for those who have learned the rules, know how to finish a game, but when are faced to an actual 19x19 game, don't know what to do in the tactical field.

if you are scared of cross-cuts, attachments, cappings and all kind of technical 'standards', this is your book. for 18-kyu - 11 kuy

I took a chance when I bought "Cho Hun-hyeon's Lectures on Go Technique," and I'm very glad I did. This fantastic book covers all the basics of contact play. If you've ever been intimidated by a superior player's crosscut in a handicap game, this book is for you. If you're brand new to Go I would recommend Cho Chikun's book "Go: A Complete Introduction to the Game."

Over time I noticed that certain fundamental shapes kept appearing in professional games I would look over, shapes that didn't appear as often in my own games. However, with over 35 books in my Go library, this is the only one I've found that addresses these concepts.

Prior to buying this book I was unfamiliar with Cho Hunhyun (his last name is spelled a number of different ways in English). Cho is Korea's first Go superstar, and was largely responsible for the game's resurgence in popularity in his home country. He was born in Korea in 1953, studied Go in Japan from 1963 to 1972, and became Korea's first professional 9-dan in 1982. He dominated the tournament scene in the eighties, winning every major Korean tournament (10 titles) in 1982 and again in 1986 (11).

In my opinion this book is best for players from 15-5 kyu, although I believe that both weaker and stronger players could benefit. I am 6-7 kyu and this is one of my favorite books. Note that as of the date of this review no Volume 2 had been published.

I found this book to be very helpful. The first section provides brief, but useful, explanations of some fundamentals. Then, the problems expand upon your learning. Actually, I learned mostly from the problems, because they are very well explained.

I found the layout very suitable for learning - nice sized diagrams with suitable amounts of text.

The best thing about this book is that most of its explanation is why the weak moves are weak. Whereas many books say things like "playing at A does not work, which you can see by playing it out for yourself" this book actually shows you. For me, about a 20kyu player, this sort of explanation is required - because in the past I usually wouldn't see what made my moves weak. Also, on many examples, he shows the solution for several moves past the first key move, which is useful for beginners such as myself.

I feel this book has helped me to better grasp some of the fundamentals of go. I expect to read it several more times, so that everything really sinks in...

Reading "Cho Hun-hyeon's Lectures (vol 1)" pushed me from 13kyu to 11 kyu.
The 45 Problems are easy to understand.
Each problem is discussed in detail.
If you could NOT find the proper solution, Cho tells you what you made wrong: For each proper solution, there are about 5 explonations to mistakes.

One of my favourite books.

Ce bouquin est une aubaine pour les joueurs moyens (je suis 17 kyu sur KGS) qui souhaitent améliorer leur technique. Il est très bien présenté. Les séquences de coups sont assez courtes mais nécessitent un Go-Ban pour ętre étudiées convenablement. Je n'en suis encore qu'au début mais j'ai l'impression que chaque page me fait faire des bonds en avant. A chaque chapitre, une séquence est présentée à partir d'une partie réélle puis toute une série de séquences alternatives sont proposées et commentées. Chaque séquence est critiquée en termes simples et sans sous-entendus incompréhensibles comme on en trouve trop souvent dans les bouquins avancés (du genre: "cette séquence est mauvaise à cause du shisho au 8ème coup" alors qu'on a pas vu l'ombre d'un shisho). Je trouve ce bouquin franchement exceptionnel!