Go Reviews

Learn to Play Go, Volume IV: Battle Strategies
By Janice Kim and Soo-Hyun Jeong,
Published by Samarkand
Reviewed by Lawrence Ku, 11k
May 26, 2003

This was the first English go book my parents bought for me, so I have a special feeling for it. In comparison with other go books, "Learn to Play" uses large pictures to demonstrate many variations and provides explanations of many go terms that will be very useful for a beginner. When I received this book, I was 21 kyu and it gave me a systematic view of attacking techniques, helping me a lot in my own attacking skills even though I could not fully understand all of the material in part 1, which covers middle game techniques such as invasion and reduction, battle strategies, how to attack, and how to take care of your stones or how to make good shape. While the second part of the book, which covers life and death and ko fighting, was a bit too easy for me I recently re-read "Learn to Play" and found Part 1 still very useful.

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