The Incident Room

Galation · #1

Hi,
can anyone provide a review of this intriguing title?
The Incident Room: Transgressions on and off the go board
John Fairbairn

I am always looking for flavour books on Go and this looks like a nice summer reading.
Thank you in advance!
Galation

John Fairbairn · #2

I would have preferred if you had not mentioned this. The reason is that the book as initially designed, with nice textured and coloured pages, passed all the Amazon/Kindle tests (including supplying me with a lovely author's copy) until I happily approved it for publication. Then the bots that run the show apparently decided it was too difficult to get the pages to bleed correctly and consistently.

My first reaction was to give up completely, but eventually I found the energy to revamp the book with white pages. I then decided on getting not another author's copy, but one like the typical buyer receives, before I announced it. If I didn't like it, I would withdraw the book altogether.

In fact, I may still do that, because my copy has yet to arrive. I think it is scheduled for tomorrow.

So, given that my cover has been blown, and there may be people who want to grab it before it possibly disappears for ever, here is a summary of what's in it.

First the blurb:

Quote:

This is a collection of incidents from the game of go, presented in 100 pages as bite-sized accounts suitable for bedtime reading, that relate to rules transgressions, rules disputes, rules etiquette, go diplomacy, and sometimes just plain daftness. For a game that is widely touted as having the simplest of rules, there is a remarkable variety of such incidents. This is not a complete catalogue, but certainly captures the scale and scope of the problems. The main intention, apart from entertainment, has been to try to capture the first or best examples of each oddity, or to point up cases where different interpretations or adjudications are used in the principal countries where professional go is played.

The easiest way to indicate the contents is to list the indexed items:

Quote:

Absence or illness 10, 22, 33, 40, 44, 50
Adjournments 18, 19
Appeal 72
Approach ko 83
Atari unfilled (see also Fill-in moves) 70
Both lost 17, 37
Capture problems 41, 69
Chosei see Eternal life
Clocks 54, 74, 78
Coin toss 76
Counting 11, 24, 31, 46, 58, 72, 81
Dame fights 43
Dame filling 49, 51, 56, 68, 70, 79
Diplomacy 5, 38, 43, 58, 71, 75
Dropping stones 45, 55
Ear-reddening move 11
Eternal life 42, 77
Fill-in moves 23, 25, 27
Forfeit 22, 41
Gambling go 24
Hikaru no Go 6, 8, 13
Hiseikai 17
Illegal ko capture 32, 36, 52, 75, 80, 82
Illegal moves not ko 57, 73
Ing rules 46
Interference 12, 28, 38
Jigo (see also Counting) 17, 18, 26, 46
Ko filling 83
Komi 11, 19, 26, 31, 46, 50, 56, 69, 71, 72
Loss on time 13, 17, 33, 34, 39, 47, 53, 64, 65, 66, 84
Mego – see Gambling go
Odd finishes or results 7, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 24, 26, 31, 32, 36, 37, 39, 41, 46, 50, 58, 69
Pair go 71
Passes 21, 44, 52, 75
Prisoner problems 31, 58, 69, 74, 78
Quadruple ko 9, 59, 76
Quintuple ko 20, 77
Seki 15, 16, 21, 27, 46, 81
Self atari 63
Silly behaviour 71, 80
Stone placement 37, 45, 45, 57
Sudden death – see Time limits
Suicide 57
Superko 67
Ten -thousand year ko 14, 15, 16, 21
Time limits 17, 45, 47, 64, 65, 71, 76, 78
Triple ko 7, 8, 52, 60, 67, 77, 82
Two moves in a row 35, 51
Void (no result) 8, 15, 16, 32, 39, 42, 76, 77
Windlass ko 9
Yose ko see Approach ko
Zi 43, 49, 56, 71, 81

I repeat: this is for entertainment. I am not at all interested in comments by rules mavens, though I suspect quite a bit of it will be new to them.

MagRes · #3

Please provide an update with information on the print quality when you can. I will wait to place an order until your proofing.

Galation · #4

John Fairbairn wrote:

I would have preferred if you had not mentioned this.

Sorry, I got there by chance and immediately became courious and then I needed to know and... :oops:

John Fairbairn wrote:

there may be people who want to grab it before it possibly disappears for ever

in fact now I will try to have my copy, do you know the story of the silver coin with the 3 caravels with wrong design?

Thank you for your answer. :tmbup:

Galation

John Fairbairn · #5

My copy has just arrived. It looks much better than expected, so I'll leave it on tap.

My reservations weren't about accepting a Macdonald's hamburger instead of Morton's steak au poivre. It was more along the lines of making do with a Morton's steak and missing the three peppercorn sauce. I think I've still come up with a decent steak.

Ferran · #6

John Fairbairn wrote:

My reservations weren't about accepting a Macdonald's hamburger instead of Morton's steak au poivre. It was more along the lines of making do with a Morton's steak and missing the three peppercorn sauce. I think I've still come up with a decent steak.

You're an education in idioms, sir. Thank you.

Take care.

notsimple · #7

This post is a little old, but I only found out about this book through this post so I thought it made sense to go here.

I read through this book last week, it was fun and interesting and I got through it too quickly! Definitely something I'd suggest for someone looking for Go material that's not just more study material!

Bonobo · #8

Being a latecomer here, this immediately stirred my interest—and had me sold already :cool:

:

John Fairbairn wrote:

I would have preferred if you had not mentioned this.

As if that wasn’t enough, you go on:

Quote:

[…] there may be people who want to grab it before it possibly disappears for ever […]

You know to sell for sure :lol:

How nicely you embedded the order to “grab it”[!] between “there may be people who want to” and the “possibly disappears […]” (emphasis added).
And lastly, “for ever” instead of simply “forever” sounds a lot longer to my non-native speaker ears (with a silent echo of “and ever and ever and ever”) … finest NLP/Jedi Mind Tricks

If you hadn’t my utter respect already you’d have earned a LOT of points now, for perfect performance and buildup of tension. I always enjoy reading you (whether I agree or not) … it is phenomenal edutainment.

And this finally got me running, not walking, to Amazon:

Quote:

This is a collection of incidents from the game of go, presented in 100 pages as bite-sized accounts suitable for bedtime reading, that relate to rules transgressions, rules disputes, rules etiquette, go diplomacy, and sometimes just plain daftness. […]

Thank you!

thirdfogie · #9

It took about two hours to read The Incident Room, which is easily a record for a book by JF. The stories did make me feel better about all the times that I have fallen into a trance and ignored the clock or placed a stone other than on the intended point or accidentally let a stone drop, thus disturbing the existing configuration.

There are no incidents of pros picking up a group of the opponent's stones when they still have liberties left, which I have done three or four times.

SoDesuNe · **#10**

I also had a good time reading it. Very interesting and entertaining!

CDavis7M · **#11**

Yup. This is a fun book. I'm not interested in rule differences. While that is part of the book, the story is more about the slip up and reasons why it happened. Interesting to see that some players are consistent offenders. I keep it for bedtime reading as suggested.

As to the original discussion on print quality, everything is fine in the book I received. Colors are fine. It's worth noting that it's a "landscape" orientation book. Whether that is a transgression is up to you.

The Incident Room

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