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 Post subject: My Fighting Fundamentals Review
Post #1 Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2013 10:15 am 
Lives with ko
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The middle game of Go is hard. There are no two ways about it. The competitive efforts of push and shove, invasions and reductions, and inevitable gains and losses reap benefits to the superior player and punish the weaker. Several books have been written to help the Go student navigate through this part of the game with varying levels of usefulness and applicability. Robert Jasiek adds another volume to this body of work. Fighting Fundamentals provides an overview of the essential concepts that one must keep in mind when choosing how and where to fight on the board.

There are a number of ways to try to teach players “how to fight” but the essence of the topic itself defies any easy, step-by-step process. The middle-game board presents near-infinite combinations of initial plans, continuations, and refutations to those moves. So any attempt to show “do this, then do that” will inevitably fall short of preparing a player for the situations that arise in actual games. Instead of trying to be problem focused Fighting Fundamentals raises several vital concerns about the how and why of fighting and then shows a multitude of examples drawn from mostly professional play to demonstrate how they can be applied. On top of this a few true problems are presented at the start of sections with the answers discussed much further on. Personally, I found this to be an effective approach. I’d look over the problems when they first appeared and try to come up with cogent answers to them. Most are in the “why is this right or wrong” instead of “Black to play” so the concept of the answer is as important as actually reading out moves. Then after reading the section and approaching the answer section, I’d go back to the problems again and reevaluate them based on the material I’d just gone over. This proved productive since I often found that my initial answers were off and I could near-immediately apply the new considerations to something close to a “real world” situation.

An overview of topics that Fighting Fundamentals covers: types of fights, setting primary and secondary aims for each fight (which may have to be modified depending on how play develops), overall strategy, and some general tactical techniques for successful offensive and defensive play. Both the attacker’s and defender’s points of view are considered since every player will be on both sides of the coin at some time and must predict likely moves by their opponent to make effective plays. Every one of these areas is practically demonstrated with dozens of examples of play from real games. Jasiek goes over the why of the move and covers alternatives in his usual, thorough manner. The reader isn’t left wondering how a variation in the line of play would work out very often.

The subtext through all of these chapters is reading. Thorough reading skills are essential to estimating how a given fight will play out and in addressing any unexpected plays or developments along the way. Jasiek points out multiple times how necessary this is but in the end it is left to the reader to actually exercise and develop these skills. Truly (and rightfully) “left to the student to prove”.

As a 6k (AGA) I found the general concepts easy to grasp, especially once alternate developments in various situations were shown. When studying the initial positions of the examples and trying to predict the plays, much of the detail of reading out 10+ moves down the line was beyond my ability, but the plays (and reasons for them) were well explained so made sense after the fact. This is no surprise, since if I was able to predict pro-level sequences, I’d be a much better player, but these did give me significant insight as to why these lines were chosen as opposed to simpler or easier goals. The large numbers of examples also helped reinforce how the concept could be applied in various situations.

I’d recommend this book to high-mid level players (7k-2d AGA) mainly as a guide to developing more productive and realistic goals in the middle game and resultant fighting. All of the principles will need to be explored and worked through in the player’s own games, but this book can be a real eye-opener as to what and how one can come through the post-opening conflict with better whole board positions instead of contesting every small area for its own sake. No middle-game book can instantly transform a player into an expert fighter, but Fighting Fundamentals definitely shows the path to developing these skills and playing a smarter and better game. I’m looking forward to seeing improved results in my play after reading this.

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Currently reading: Plutarch, Cerebus, and D&Q 25th Anniversary


This post by BaghwanB was liked by 2 people: happysocks, RBerenguel
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