Gateway To All Marvels

[John Fairbairn]

GoGoD is again pleased to make an announcement that may in turn please Kindle users. We have just issued a further e-book on Amazon: Gateway To All Marvels (GTAM).

GTAM is special edition of the 1347 Chinese classic Xuanxuan Qijing (XXQJ; or Gengen Gokyo by its Japanese name), which is surely the most significant go book ever produced. It has become the foundation for virtually every problem book since, as well as being the main source for early go theory.

e-GTAM brings together every problem and every variant from perhaps every subsequent edition, and discusses how the almost 500 problems and their solutions have evolved and varied, and also how even modern professionals often disagree on the correct solutions or, dare we say it, trip up.

A characteristic feature of the original collection was the addition of titles which provide clues either to remembering the problems or to solving them. I have explained all these allusive titles in detail, which means that the book is also an entertaining romp through Chinese history and culture. The original Chinese characters have been provided and indexed.

Discussion of the problems is also aided by identification of "key techniques", some new, some old, so that, for example, "rooster on one leg" and the "tombstone tesuji" now join newcomers such as the "caterpillar connection" and “crushed hat” . The significance of this is that it provides a new insight into problem-solving. XXQJ is well known for its “under-the-stones” problems and this technique (one of about 40 identified) does indeed occur 46 times in the 466 problems. But did you know there are two types of “under-the-stones”? More importantly, did you realise that “rooster on one leg” appears 35 times and “elbow lock” 24 times whereas as the “belly attachment” only appears 12 times and the L-group 4 times. GTAM’s thematic index will help you re-orient yourself to a more efficient way of solving hard tsumego problems.

These techniques are not just fully indexed but are also (taking advantage of the Kindle format) presented in a way that means they can be treated as optional further clues to the problems. Hypertext links are provided not just between problems and their solutions but also to many cross-references.

On the whole, XXQJ problems are famously hard. But the combination of entertainment, themes, clues and presentation in GTAM makes them highly accessible even to kyu players.

The lengthy principal texts in the ancient Chinese edition have also been translated and annotated here. They include the original prefaces, the complete "Go Classic in Thirteen Chapters", Ma Rong’s “Rhapsody” and Liu Zhongfu's "Go Secrets".

We believe that this book alone will conveniently last you for many, many long-haul flights and all the waiting in airports that goes with modern travel.

Note that it is a very large file: 34MB. The base price has therefore been set at US $14.99.

The Amazon url is http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0085MJ6F0

You will also see on Amazon that previous GoGoD e-books "Inoue Genan Inseki" and "The Life of Honinbo Shuei" are also available.

[CnP]

Thanks for this John, it has to be one of the quickest times between me hearing about a book, buying it and having a look through. It looks like you've done an excellent job in producing what appears to be a superior version of this work (with hyperlinks!), thankyou!

Whilst I don't want to sound like a flea biting the dog I have two very minor comments, in case you're reading this:

1) the kindle sample doesn't include any Go diagrams (that I found by skimming), which look very nice on my Asus tablet by the way, so people might be interested in seeing those in the sample.

2) Like I say I'm not using a Kindle device so this may well be my problem but the hyperlinks from the problems to the solutions don't seem to work (but the link from the introduction to the start of the problems worked fine). I'm posting it here since other people can confirm and I don't think that needs fixing for it to be well worth the price.

edit: Of course there is so much more to this work than just the problems.

[John Fairbairn]

CnP: Thank you. The problem with showing diagrams in the sample pages seems to be down to Anazon. They use the first 5% of the book and appear not to allow the special demo file I made.

All the hypertext links work on my Kindle and on Mark's, using the original .prc file supplied to Amazon, and believe you me I tried every single of the several thousand links. I can't speak for any other device. However, I can't be certain if Amazon have done something to the file during their conversion.

[RBerenguel]

I'm checking the sample, I'll probably be buying the book too. Great work John! Any chance of having Jowa's booklet for kindle...?

[CnP]

Ok, thanks for your reply John, it could just be me. I'll be sure to leave positive (and honest!) feedback on Amazon.co.uk as soon as I've read a bit more.

[RBerenguel]

Hi John,

The hyperlink from the first problem to its solution does not work (not clickable) in Kindle for iPad (and Kindle for iPhone). Looks like Amazon messed with something :/

[John Fairbairn]

Again this link works on my Kindle. What you should see is a right pointing arrow and the phrase Solution 1, which will be underlined (to show it's hypertext).

If somehow or other Amazon has also downloaded the demo file I provided, the hyperlinks were deliberately deactivated there, but Problem 1 was not in that demo.

Until I can get a response from another actual Kindle user, I feel stuck, but I should say that if the hypertext links don't work in this particular book, I'd say it is pretty unusable even though the Search function may do instead.

In the interim, I'll see whether I can re-post the book without a demo file, which Amazon chose to ignore anyway (the option to include is given in Mobi Creator, which is software Amazon recommends).

Edit: I can't yet see how you re-post a book or get advice on known link problems, but I did notice that Amazon has a Lending Library where you can borrow the book for 5 days for free. For existing purchasers, Amazon do offer refunds.

Edit 2: In case it was the demo file causing problems I have uploaded a new version minus that. It will therefore not be available for about 12 hours from 1800 GMT, 24 May 2012. Until working on a Kindle is confirmed by others, I suggest a "borrow and look" only.

[Dennieboy]

I downloaded the book for the windows application and the android version and it seems that the solution numbers are clickable and work, but not the underlined word Solution.

Now for the fun part, I removed the DRM and used the mobi unpack tool to look at the source and I can find no reason why this is so. The source file clearly has the link tag for the whole "Solution number" text and since there is no underline tag there, it seems it might be a Kindle bug. It is also weird that I don't have the same problem with the Problem links. There the whole underlined text works.

Hope this helps.

[gowan]

Everything seems to work for me with Kindle for PC. As far as the solutions go, the word "Solution", though underlined, is not a link but the numeral for the solution in e.g. -->Solution 3 is a link to the solution.

[palapiku]

Thanks, great book (I assume) for a good price. I will definitely buy it as soon as it's available in an open format that doesn't require Amazon apps.

[oren]

Just got it! Thanks!

[jts]

(Thanks!)

[RBerenguel]

Everything seems to work for me with Kindle for PC. As far as the solutions go, the word "Solution", though underlined, is not a link but the numeral for the solution in e.g. -->Solution 3 is a link to the solution.

Just checked, indeed clicking on the number works. Phew! This quite solves it completely. So far I'm enjoying it quite a lot, the first problem already got me. Ahh.. these immortals

[dankenzon]

I must express my personal gratitude and admiration to Mr. John Fairbairn for compiling, editing, ... all his work on all these books: 9 Dan Showdown, Kamakura, Final Submit... and now this collection of ebooks (I am really looking for the new one collection about Shuei)

All this work from Mr. Fairbairn bringing us the classics, the anecdotes, the histories behind all this Go history is helping us to integrate to a tradition that we've ignored so long.

I've always feel envy for the amount of story, jokes and curious facts about chess players thru the history. Now we are starting to recover and know the same for go.

Thanks Mr. Fairbairn

[CnP]

Ah great - yes, clicking on the number not "solution" works fine for me too. Definately a big improvement on having to jump back to the table of contents! - I'm sure it'll catch people out though.

edit: - thanks Dennieboy for pointing out the solution!