Customer Reviews

Learn to Play Go, Vol. 5: The Palace of Memory

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This volume continues the great work that the authors have done in volumes I-IV.

One of the unique things about this series - and one of the things I like about it - is that they are written "broadly" instead of "deeply". That is, each book is written to a phase in your development as a Go player, covering the things that you're going to be seeing on the board during that phase - openings, fighting, end-game and all.

This is in contrast to most Go books, which cover a particular aspect in great detail, trying to cover the advanced and not-so-advanced aspects at the same time.

When I look for a new Go book, I always wish for some kind of guide as to what level it's appropriate for. Though there's a lot of individual variation in this area, I'll take a shot at it for this book: I would say that it's teaching material for 20k to 10k players. It would also serve as good review material up to, say, 5k, providing a fresh perspective and filling in some details.

Players below those levels would definitely want to go back to previous volumes in the series and work their way up to this one. Players above those levels might not find much new here, unless they've gotten there mainly through a lot of play and not much study - in which case they might still benefit from this presentation.

This is an excellent book about Go.

In the preface of this book, Janice Kim says that she considered calling the book "My System." Of course, the reference was to Aron Nimzovitch's chess book with that title. That book stressed some elements of chess, such as the blockade and overprotection that had been underestimated or overlooked by many good players. Anyway, as I'm sure we all realize, that title simply would not do.

But it would have been the wrong title anyway. The proper title, had Kim wanted to make an analogy with chess, would have been similar to that of World Champion Wilhelm Steinitz's book from the 1880s (The Modern Chess Instructor). Needless to say, that sort of title would not have been appropriate here either, but it is the proper analogy.

Steinitz came up with about a dozen fundamental principles of positional play. And Kim has done roughly the same thing in this book. Of course, Steinitz was devising these principles himself, while Kim is simply repeating what has been well-known for centuries.

Or is she? The simple principles that she drums into us, all of which ought to be well-known to all low-kyu players, are not the whole story. The implications of these principles constitute the teaching she presents. For example, we all should know that the threat of a five-stone capture of a single stone (a pon-nuki with a friendly stone added touching two of the capturing stones) is inefficient. Kim shows an implication of this is that we ought not threaten to make such a capture, and an implication of not wanting to make such a threat is that we ought not form a "closed triangle" that will lead to us making such a threat.

She's turned a set of go proverbs into a coherent procedure for evaluating moves in most fights.

Kim starts by reminding us that in a race to acquire territory, the maxim is to get out in front of one's opponent and then cut him off! And then there are her Fourteen Points (as I call them) of Shape in Fighting:

1) Attach, Hane
2) The Tiger's Mouth
3) The One-Point Jump
4) Jump-Cut the Knight's Move
5) Cut, Extend
6) Prevent the Bamboo Joint
7) The Empty Triangle
8) Sacrifice Two
9) Cap, Knight's Move
10) The Center of Symmetry
11) Peep, Connect
12) Hit the Head of Two (or Three)
13) The Squeeze
14) The Star Capture

Kim gives us more advice than this. On openings, she reminds us that her principles are: first approach the corners (in one of five ways: the 4-4, 3-4, 3-3, 3-5, or 4-5 points), second enclose or approach "unbalanced" corners, then play in the side star regions, make secondary side extensions that aim at invasions, after the sides, enlarge and defend towards the center, the third line is the line of territory, the fourth line is the line of influence, find your "good side," bases are crucial: don't make groups without a base, and stay away from strength.

And there are endgame principles: locate the big endgame, calculate, look to the edges, take and keep sente, be sure to get the double-sente moves, endgame moves related to a group's base are urgent, watch your liberties, watch the safety of your stones, and finally, save the endgame for the endgame!

On all her principles, Kim gives some great examples and exercises for the reader.

This is a fine finish to a marvellous set of five introductory Go books.

My first Go book was the first volume of Janice Kim's <i>Learn To Play Go</i> series. From there, I quickly jumped into the other three books in the series. When browsing for a new board on the website for Kim's company, Samarkand, I saw her announcement that the fifth book in the series was out. I picked it up immediately.

In studying the game, I'd gotten to the point where the opening and issues of shape were becoming important, and it's amazing how Kim's book just enlightened me on these sometimes difficult areas of the game. In one review for Volume IV of the series, a reviewer mentions how Kim interweaves advice on specific plays with general concepts. This effective technique is used here as well.

This is an excellent go book, but obviously it is not for everyone. If you've never played the game before, this is going to be way over your head, and I would suggest Volume I of the series. If you're familiar with the basics, Volumes II-IV are definitely worth reading. Once you've digested those (or equivalent material elsewhere), I totally recommend Volume 5. Not only does it continue the series' reputation for excellent go writing, it extends it.

I have gone through all the previous volumes including this one, and found it to be an excellent tool to improve my playing. I have been playing for a few years and have used a lot of internet resourses, and have never seen some of the pearls presented in this series. The "templates of fighting" chapter and its use further in the book was eye opening. Complaints I have read by other reviewers, like "what does developing the centre mean?" show that this book is too advanced for their level of play, or have not read or paid attention to previous volumes.

This book covers the basic formations found in most games, and the benefits of each.

It also provides useful opening principles, called fuseki, that will increase your confidence in the beginning stages of a game, especially if your opening play is unbalanced like mine was before reading the book.

Other sections include Jungsuk (tactics useful in a localized region of the board) and endgame play.

It is written for players at the intermediate kyu levels, and is a good complement to books on the middle game such as A&D.

This is a very well written book, that makes lots of good points and demonstrates them well. It should not however be read without first reading and understanding the previous 4 books in the series. A medium kyu player should find this book helps improve them, while a beggining player will encounter only frustration.

Extremely well-written book brought my game up more than a notch. Janice's writing manages to explain conceptually and instruct specifically at the same time, which is no easy task. The examples and problems presented led my understanding up to and through each lesson both without being so easy and obvious I felt I was just regurgitating the example, without solutions so obscure that they made me feel I'd missed the point, and with a nice little grading curve so to speak so at the end of each problem set I had a frame of reference for how solid I was on the lessons (so if you got 1-4 Review more, 5-6 Average, 7+ Excellent sort of thing).

So the book is helpful, yes, but next you must be asking yourself it it's helpful to you. Specifically, this book helped my game develop tremendously by teaching me how to look for big plays, it got me better at ignoring small plays, it taught me how to take advantage of an opponent's mistakes (even small ones). This is done by walking through how to narrow down your choices for opening moves and how to judge the relative merits of the few good options you really have, a subject that previously mystified me. This book teaches how to transition from that strong opening into a commanding mid-game, an area I didn't consider myself terribly weak before (I'm no pro but I didn't feel totally lost there) but I got a tremendous boost in mid game too, and there's also an excellent section on end-game principles and strategies on how to get the lion's share of the big endgame moves. I don't think you need to be all that established a player to begin reaping the benefits of this book's lessons, and I also suspect it would be helpful to players into the single-digit kyu ranks as well (though certainly not being that far myself as I read this, take that with a grain of salt)

Again I want to stress how masterfully the author balances conceptual understanding and specific instruction. She uses the easy to remember sayings, shows you how they work, and how and when to apply them.

My brother in law, who had gotten "ahead of me" (we've gone back and forth playing stronger for *years*) before I read this, was dumbfounded when I read this book and started winning by unprecedented margins. I lent him the book when I was done with it but you might want to start off buying 2 copies, one for yourself and one for your favorite rival (after you start your own copy of course ;) )

This book is a quick read and does provide some basic principles that help my game.

A good example of "once someone showed it to me I figured it out myself" :-)

This book lays a great foundation for fighting in Go. The book teaches about the basic shapes of fighting and also explains ideas and concepts of the openning. There is an endgame section that I have not yet read, but if it is anything like the rest of the book it will be great.

I really enjoyed previous books in this series, but this volume has a number of problems. Proofreading of the text was next to non-existent, with many typographical errors. A daunting number of errors in the board diagrams make them difficult to follow, especially for a novice. This is especially surprising for a book in its 3rd edition.

I hoped to ask for some kind of errata, but samarkand.net is defunct and I can't find a website for Good Move Press. If this book was a washing machine, I would return it as defective.

All of this said, the book is ambitious and maintains many of the strengths from other books in the series.