The Life of Honinbo Shuei

[RedStick]

Thank you John. I am glad you have been able to partner with Amazon on this project and I, like the silent majority of people who read this forum, am incredibly grateful for the work you have done to create high quality English resources on the game of Go.

[ez4u]

Thirty seconds from the first post here to my iPad.

My favorite bit so far (from the preface):
"This may make him sound like a man who lived mainly for go or for himself, locking himself up in a mountain abode, studying relentlessly to seek the elixir into which were distilled moves of the utmost perfection. Well yes."

[snorri]

If John wrote this book in the sand I would visit the beach before it washed away. I'd say he can use any medium he sees fit.

[RobertJasiek]

John is the best Western go writer

Wait a second: There are - among many others - these Western (or frequently translated) go writers for books or magazine articles, webpages or other media:

- James Davies
- Richard Bozulich
- Yang Yilun
- Kim Sung-Rae
- Yoon Youngsun
- Janice Kim
- Yuan Zhou
- Richard Hunter
- Robert Jasiek
- Peter Shotwell
- Franco Pratesi
- other authors of books or magazine articles
- Bill Spight
- other newsgroup and forum writers
- other webpage authors
- Elwyn Berlekamp
- other mathematical researchers
- Tristan Cazenawe
- countless computer go researchers researchers
- other researchers in formal go theory

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Let me do a preliminary sorting:

Mainly go books / magazines:
- James Davies
- Richard Bozulich
- Yang Yilun
- Kim Sung-Rae
- Yoon Youngsun
- Janice Kim
- Yuan Zhou
- Richard Hunter
- Franco Pratesi

Go books + webpages + newsgroup / forum articles + history research:
- John Fairbairn

Go books + webpages:
- Peter Shotwell

Newsgroup / forum articles + webpages + go theory research:
- Bill Spight

Go books + newsgroup / forum articles + webpages + go theory research:
- Robert Jasiek

Go theory research:
- Elwyn Berlekamp
- Tristan Cazenawe

Others:
- other authors of books or magazine articles
- other newsgroup and forum writers
- other webpage authors
- other mathematical researchers
- countless computer go researchers
- other researchers in formal go theory

**************************************************************

Let me identify the most interesting names in the Mainly go books list:

Mainly go books / magazines:
- James Davies
- Richard Bozulich
- Yang Yilun
- Kim Sung-Rae
- Yuan Zhou

IMO, these can be sorted in two types:
A) Quality of go theory or its meaningful presentation is more important than quantity:
- James Davies
- Yang Yilun
B) Quantity is more important than quality:
- Richard Bozulich
- Kim Sung-Rae
- Yuan Zhou

As you know, I prefer quality over quantity. James Davies and Yang Yilun have different styles or objectives, so the choice is difficult. My criterion would be: Who has written more "must read books"? James Davies!

**************************************************************

Comparing John Fairbairn and Peter Shotwell, I would go for John Fairbairn.

Comparing Elwyn Berlekamp and Tristan Cazenawe, I would choose Tristan Cazenawe because he offers the broader range of research approaches.

**************************************************************

Let me filter the so far less interesting candidates, then these remain:

Mainly go books / magazines:
- James Davies

Go books + webpages + newsgroup / forum articles + history research:
- John Fairbairn

Newsgroup / forum articles + webpages + go theory research:
- Bill Spight

Go books + newsgroup / forum articles + webpages + go theory research:
- Robert Jasiek

Go theory research:
- Tristan Cazenawe

**************************************************************

Applying the wisdom of Jeff Boscole, the world is a mutual admiration society. So we can simply leave it there; from different perspectives or with different weights, different persons appear to be more relevant. If there must be a competition for a single person, I am prepared to defend the honour of Bill Spight, Tristan Cazenawe (even if that means that I must study his research more closely) and myself. The achievements of James Davies (go books for kyu players) and John Fairbairn (mainly history and names, also a bit of introduction of Asian go concepts to the West) are great but somewhat one-sided.

**************************************************************

EDIT: Correct name Franco Pratesi.

[RobertJasiek]

I would say this title belongs jointly to such people as Richard Bozulich (especially him), John Power, and James Davies of Ishi/Kiseido, Dr. Sidney Yuan of Yutopian, and other translators such as Robert J. Terry. (And I'm probably overlooking many others.) Some have been bringing go to the west for over 40 years. The level of go played in the west (or at least, in the English-speaking part) would be much lower without their efforts.

You are indeed overlooking the go theory and go research side of contribution as well as newsgroup / forum / webpage contributions. Then there is another kind of Western go promoters (if we do not stick to only the writers): promoters of a national go population. And there are persons in organisations or frequent tournament directors etc.

[Loons]

Having just finished it, I am confident that this biography, together with the coming volumes will be immortal in western go literature.

[palapiku]

Wait a second: There are - among many others - these Western (or frequently translated) go writers for books or magazine articles, webpages or other media

I didn't say he was the only one! Just that he was the best. At least, the best active one.

[RobertJasiek]

Just that he was the best. At least, the best active one.

And there I disagree, especially because - from a player's POV - go theory for playing is much more important than go history.

[SoDesuNe]

Bought.

Thank you, John Fairbairn.

[RobertJasiek]

your collective sniping.

There have been different opinions including great praise. This is not "collective sniping".

It would be a bad idea NOT to discuss a newly used media format for go contents. Suppose we did not discuss it and next everybody would publish only for Kindle; would this make us readers happier? We should have discussed the (good or bad) possibility of Kindle books earlier. Now we just react to what happens: A book in a format that not everybody can use.

[Vesa]

Bought it. Read it. Again wonderful material from JF.

I've gone through the most popular games of Honinbo Shuei many times, but as my Japanese is adequate only for the basic go commentary, I've missed a great deal of the story.

[Edit] I use Kindle on two laptops and my Android phone without any problems.

Cheers,
Vesa

[PeterHB]

He does NOT make significant money for these efforts, yet he has to take all this abuse. 3 hours was all it took this time before folks take a shot at him.

Could you manage to thank him for his efforts, and encourage him or offer to help him pursue other formats - something he states he is evaluating, before you attack him?

"People like" John Fairbairn deserve our thanks.....

Hear, hear. I look forward to the commentaries in part 2 and 3. JohnF has books in SmartGo, Kindle, CD, website and paper form. Let him be, and once he sees which formats sell best, he will probably move them from one format to another. He has done a lot for the availability of good Go books in comprehensible English. My inclination is towards the extra interactivity of the SmartGo format, but the Kindle version may turn out to be most popular. Time will tell.

[ez4u]

I bought it and am reading it on Kindle for Mac.

I have neither an iPad nor a Kindle.

Bummer man!

Thanks, JF!

[oren]

Bought it and so far enjoy it quite well. Thanks JF!

[Boidhre]

Bought, looking forward to it.