In the Beginning

Description: In the first volume of the Elementary Go Series, Ishigure covers some basic principles and methods in the opening of the game. While a great overview of the beginning as a whole, this book is more suited for intermediate to advanced players as opposed to beginners.

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Overall Rating: 5 / 5 Ponnuki

Basic Information

• Title: The Second Book of Go
• Author: Richard Bozulich
• Publication Date: January 1998

Synopsis

• Lives up to your expectations of being the “second book” of go that you’d like to have after learning the rules, but it may be overwhelming for the casual player.
• Covers a wide array of vital topics that really makes it worthwhile to purchase.
• Do not expect to grasp everything the first time you read this book.
• Appropriate for 18 kyu and stronger.
• Recommended for serious players and above.

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Overall Rating: 5 / 5 Ponnuki

Basic Information

• Title: The Nihon Ki-in Handbook of Proverbs (Volume One)
• Author: Translated and Edited by Max Golem
• Publication Date: March 19, 1999
• Page Length: 163 pages

Synopsis

• This is a fantastic book for players who want to be exposed to lots of different concepts without being inundated with dense diagrams and explanations.
• The book covers a very broad range of material that makes it a valuable purchase for those who have a difficult time with some of the other more dense material.
• Appropriate for 20 kyu and stronger.
• Recommended for all players.

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Overall Rating: 5 / 5 Ponnuki

Basic Information

• Title: Opening Theory Made Easy
• Author: Hitake Odeo, 9 dan
• Publication Date: October 1992
• Page Length: 170 pages

Synopsis

• The best introductory book to opening theory.
• Concise, easy to read, and easy to carry.
• Appropriate for 15 kyu and stronger.
• Recommended for any player with an interest in understanding the opening.

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Review:

Tel’s Go Notes is an excellent website that serves as an amazing companion to the interactive Go tutorials that exist out there on the web. It’s purpose is to provide a one stop solution to clarify a lot of mental misconceptions. A very simple example of this is: What is the object of the game? Many of you will scoff at this question and say “Territory… duh,” but when we look over your games you’ll find that you actually spend significantly more time trying to kill your opponent’s stones than build territory. (This is not a terrible thing, but it’s something you’ll need to eventually grow out of).

Tel does an excellent job of taking a lot of basic concepts and explaining them in a simple and straightforward manner. This is one of the best websites to quickly get a great overview of topics such as life and death, elementary territory building, and what makes a “good” connection. To be honest, even a number of the beginner books I purchased don’t cover such topics nearly as well (in terms of clarity and just the right amount of explanation).

In terms of criticisms, I only have two (and they are just slight nuances). First, the diagrams (particularly on the home page) are kind of small for my liking. They get the job done, but I think they can definitely be larger. For sections such as “what is a ladder,” an embedded sgf file would remove the necessity for all those diagrams. Second, I think the navigability of the site is a little tough. My suggestion would be to have navigation bars on the top and bottom of the site in order to ease maneuvering around the website. Again these are but slight nuances in light of a great website.

Synopsis

Although we have plenty of sites trying to teach Go, this one is a one-stop website for beginners that will provide what you need without filtering through a bunch of advanced concepts. Top notch.

_So as I’ve been working on the guides for purchasing Go equipment, I realized that one of the killer aspects of buying online is the shipping cost. It makes it near impossible for me to write the guides since some of the products which deliver some of the best quality are within the (let’s say) $50 range but shipping makes it like $60-$70. So one of the things I thought of was to see how available Go equipment might be in the area. _

Since I live in the Montgomery County area, there is a decent amount of Asian stores around here. I happened to be in the area of an old time favorite (W.J. Bookstore) and decided to check it out. They did have a small section for Go stuff, and they sold some of the same products my brother first bought when he started a few years back.

Here’s a picture of the stones that we bought years ago. If you want the review, click here (coming soon).

The original board that we bought wasn’t there anymore, but they have a new product (review coming soon) that I think is far better (and only costs $15 with tax!!!).

In other words, they have a nice amount of Go books (all in Chinese of course) and lower end Go equipment that would be great for any beginning players who aren’t looking to invest a lot of money. I also tried going down Rockville Pike to see if another Asian bookstore still existed, but unfortunately it’s gone so no luck there.

In the event any of you live in the area, this is the address (it’s on the second floor of the Wintergreen Plaza):

827 Rockville Pike #A
Rockville, MD 20852
(301) 309-1007

Review

Please turn your attention to one of the most awesome Go related artwork that exists out there. As you peruse through E3A, you’ll find the characters humorous and absolutely relatable as you progress in Go. The layout is simple and unique with the artistic nature of chidori. Nothing much more needs to be said, so go check it out!

Some favorites…

Synopsis:

I absolutely love this site and recommend to anyone playing Go! Can’t wait till the shop is up!

Review

Yunnan Arts is a local (Virginia) business, owned by Mike and Wen, who sells Go equipment to the public. I had the pleasure of meeting with them last week and experiencing their products while playing some awesome Go with Mike.

To start, here’s a brief overlay of the equipment I got to see and experience personally. (Note: The Go Congress has recently passed so a lot of their wares have already been sold and the new shipment had not come in yet).

Here are some of my favorites:

The following is a table/bowl set that are sold separately. I know it’s not clear in the photograph, but the red stripes on the table and board here are actually tiny stripes of red, black, red, black, etc. It looks super cool…. I only wish my camera could have taken a clear shot of that… but I had no luck with that.

The following is a photograph Mike and I decided to take for fun. They are the four sets of stones we had the leisure of playing with:

As a quick comparison of all the stones, they all handle well as is expected. The jade sets were very interesting to play with since they have a different feel, but definitely one I will eventually add to my collection. Slate and shell is by far my favorite (to be more accurate, shell is my favorite). Is that a surprise? Absolutely not. I will have to say though, that slate is not the best black material. I know it’s tradition and it’s been paired together, but Wen put it perfectly when she said that the set was like a beautiful women marrying an ugly man. There just is a staggering difference between the two. Haha.

Conclusion

I had a magnificent time being able to get to know Mike and Wen and experience their products. Their products come directly from manufacturers in China so you know you are getting genuine equipment.

Even though I have not had the pleasure of ordering online from them yet, their products are top notch and I can’t wait to add their Go equipment into my collection!

Review:

So for those who are looking at Yutopian too… yeah I detest the layout too. It’s just I know that there have got to be an amateur web designer who could easily redesign this. (Just another thing on my list if I ever get to be a prominent figure in Go) And not to mention the ordering method is almost just as sketchy as Kiseido. Fortunately for all of us though, it’s just as safe!

I ordered the Go Proverbs book by Nihon Ki-in, and it came within the 8 business days that was promised. The condition and packaging was nothing to complain about.

Keeping with tradition of my previous reviews, here’s my e-mail confirmation:

Conclusion:

Nothing to worry about if you plan on purchasing books. I haven’t purchased any equipment from them yet, but I’d say if you really want something specifically from that site… you’ll probably be alright. (I still am personally biased towards YMImports if you compare the same products side by side).

Review:

Sensei’s Library is Go’s wiki database. It encompasses pretty much any Go information that you could possibly want. It has a lot of great tips and is great for players of all levels and types. Since it’s a collaborative website, the clarity of the information is not always as consistent. This is not a huge problem though, since most of the articles I’ve perused through so far have been pretty solid.

My favorite part is the fact that if there is ever a term in the article that is confusing, they generally have already anticipated such confusion and hyperlink it to its definition. And trust me, I’ve been confused plenty of times (e.g. shicho (a ladder)… ponnuki (the diamond shape made from a one stone capture)….).

Conclusion:

Sensei’s Library will definitely be on my list for places to hit whenever I’m confused or don’t know where a term is, and it should be in your repertoire as well.