Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go

Regardless of what the title might suggest, this is not a beginner's flavored book. If you still get vertigo at the sight of an empty 19x19 board, then you're better off with - hell, I don't know! This is the first book about Go I've read, so I cannot suggest anything other than playing 100 games, or something, and pick this one up when you're above 15kyu, or something. Kageyama is not teaching the fundamentals of Go, but rather the value and importance of such fundamentals. He's preaching at all the advanced amateurs who start to choose more convoluted moves over the fundamental ones, just because they feel that's what stronger players do. “Don't do that”, is what Kageyama says in this book.

And he says it with a great voice, a passionate, emotionally driven voice. You got to love when he writes stuff like “What? Incredible! That would be the acme of bad shape. If White plays ‘b', Black ataries him with ‘c'. Kindly spare me the gruesome sight”, or “Given a chance like this, only a feeble-minded player would be uncertain where to play - `not this point, not here either, perhaps I should leave the position as it is.' Black's hand should be trembling with eagerness to play. He should be overcome with emotion.” So the prose is excellent. How about the lessons? They flow quite nicely - most lessons flow quite nicely, anyway. Truth is some of the examples surpassed me completely, and Kageyama won't hold your hand every step of the way. At times, all you get from him is “you should see why diagram 6 is better than diagram 7”, and sometimes I can't see that, and sometimes I tell him “Hey, Toshiro (I'm on first name basis with him), I can't see why 6 is better”, just to have him answering “Then print both diagrams and look at them every morning, until one day you pop out of bed and say ‘Wow!, diagram 6 is better!'” Great guy, he is.

I feel Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go is one of those books to which one comes back every once in a while. I bet I'll dive at it again when I'm two or three k-letters better, finding in it stuff it surpassed me before, and I don't think that will stop until I'm 9dan... 9dan... ah... ah ah ah... AH AH AH AH AH AH AH!!!!!