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Go for Beginners
 
 
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Go for Beginners (Paperback)

~ Kaoru Iwamoto (Author) "There is no better way to learn how go is played than to go through a short demonstration..." (more)
Key Phrases: vacant points, false eye, own stones, General Strategy, Demonstration Game
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
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Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Learn to Play Go: A Master's Guide to the Ultimate Game (Volume I) by Janice Kim

Go for Beginners + Learn to Play Go: A Master's Guide to the Ultimate Game (Volume I)
Price For Both: $24.02

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Product Description

Go, an ancient, subtly beautiful game of territory, is the oldest game in the world still played in its original form. This book contains its rules, techniques, a glossary of terms, and a list of international and American Go organizations.

From the Inside Flap

Go, an ancient, subtly beautiful game of territory, is the oldest game in the world still played in its original form. This book contains its rules, techniques, a glossary of terms, and a list of international and American Go organizations.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 160 pages
  • Publisher: Pantheon; American ed edition (March 12, 1977)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0394733312
  • ISBN-13: 978-0394733319
  • Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #41,787 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #21 in  Books > Entertainment > Puzzles & Games > Reference
    #40 in  Books > Entertainment > Puzzles & Games > Board Games

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More About the Author

Kaoru Iwamoto
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
There is no better way to learn how go is played than to go through a short demonstration. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
vacant points, false eye, own stones
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
General Strategy, Demonstration Game
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Customer Reviews

26 Reviews
5 star:
 (14)
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 (8)
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (26 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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96 of 98 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars A thorough introduction, but hard to swallow, July 3, 2002
By "starryeyedmike" (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
This was my first book on go. There's no question that it has all the information anyone could ever need to get started playing what I consider the greatest game in the world. However, for most Westerners, the material is very difficult to digest. I believe there are a couple of reasons for this: first, remember that this is one of the top players of the last century, writing a book for beginners. He's lost some of the appreciation for the hefty learning curve the game imposes on the uninitiated. It can be discouraging when he tells you how "easy" some of this stuff is (which, of course, is true once you understand it, but not at first). Second, as some have noted, the book is "concise." I might go a step further and call it "dense." I like this quality in books I read now (as a better player), but as a beginner, it was tough. Third, Iwamoto takes a bottom-up approach, which probably works for some, but left me missing the forest for the trees. A section typically begins with an example (board diagram), and says "In this situation, White needs to play at X, or Black will capture three stones at Y." The principles behind the examples tend to be glossed over, and without a background in the game, I had no idea how to generalize.

Eventually, I did in fact absorb all this material, even without a mentor to help my play along. With the benefit of hindsight, however, I find Janice Kim's "Learn To Play Go" series much, much easier to digest at the beginner level. True, Iwamoto covers in one book what Kim covers in four, but the first two suffice to get you rolling without banging your head against the wall (important if we're going to spread the GOspel throughout the West).

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33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars best available introduction, April 12, 2003
By Alex "pugnax1" (Warren, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
I am only a beginning Go player, but I have ransacked the bookstore shelves for a solid introduction to the game, and this work is by far the best.

Part I provides an amazingly clear explanation of the rules. Part II explains the basic strategy and tactics necessary to play an opponent and understand what you are doing. The only serious alternative, Janice Kim's series of volumes, moves at a snail's pace ideal for people unused to playing other strategy games (for example, chess). Although Kaoru Iwamoto wrote this book in the 1970's, it has the look and feel of a work written in the 1990's. You will be captivated and inspired to pursue the game further.

Incidentally, beginners in search of Go opponents should take advantage of the free real-time services on the Internet. You can watch games between world-class players or challenge any of hundreds of ranked opponents. Along with buying this book, I recommend visiting IGS Panda Net, registering yourself, and downloading gGo and GNU Go.

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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Superb Intro to the Worlds Oldest Game - David Bronczyk, July 17, 2003
By B. Bronczyk (Harleysville, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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Since learning the essentials of Go in 1978, I've read two exceptional books for beginners: this one by Iwamoto, and "Go: A Guide to the Game" by D.B. Pritchard (an out-of-print book published by Stackpole Books in 1973). Both books give the neophyte a glimpse into the game's unmatched strategic and tactical subtlety - far greater than that of chess - and its storied past, and both build a solid foundation for developing true mastery. Iwamoto's scheme of organization is excellent, and the sequencing of the basic elements is very logical. I needed several readings in order to digest all the densely packed concepts and examples, but I persisted, reminding myself that it would be unrealistic to expect easy and early prowess in such a deceptively simple "children's" game. I would recommend that a would-be Go player read this book while playing (i.e., freely experimenting and improvising) with computer Go - David Fotland's "The Many Faces of Go" is an outstanding and user-friendly software package.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Primary Go +++
I would call this manual "Essential Primary Go". It really does present the essential primary patterns of Go-play. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Kevin Kiersky

2.0 out of 5 stars Go for Beginners Book Fell Apart
Book was used and showed signs of discoloring. After a couple of uses of book for reference- pages began to fall out.
Published 20 months ago by Toni Lupo

4.0 out of 5 stars MAYBE A BIT TOO ADVANCED
I read Yasunari Kawabata's "The Master of Go" a couple of months ago, and I was so thrilled by the novel and so puzzled to know what this game was about, that I bought a 13x13... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Cesar Diaz

5.0 out of 5 stars The best way to learn go
Having played and taught go for 35 years, and having seen many books come and go, I still consider Go for Beginners to be the best book to introducing the game and to teach some... Read more
Published on November 16, 2007 by Steven D. Jamar

5.0 out of 5 stars Good, a lot of content in it.
This a very good introductory book. If you have played around 10 games and and least won some, this is probably a good book for you. Read more
Published on July 4, 2007 by Nicolas Barriga Richards

4.0 out of 5 stars informative
This is my first book on Go. Hard to understand but quick to read through. I read it through in two days and i'm just starting to digest it all.
Published on March 21, 2007 by Annnemarie P. Davey

4.0 out of 5 stars Go for Beginners
Met my expectations. Very good for teaching a beginner like me and my son how to do this game and have fun at it!
Published on March 8, 2007 by John Carland

5.0 out of 5 stars Examples Galore
This book is in the style of most Go books in its use of examples an nearly every page. For the beginner this can be difficult to cope with but it is important nonetheless. Read more
Published on July 23, 2006 by Chuck Vose

5.0 out of 5 stars Great beginning book
Great introductory book. Besides just the rules, it also includes basic strategy and tactics.
Published on July 20, 2006 by Learner

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good but a little dated
This is the book I learned from almost 20 years ago, mainly because it was one of the very few books available in English back then. Read more
Published on March 20, 2006 by Richard B. Mott

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