Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go

[oren]

It's of course one of the most famous translated books from Japanese published in 1970 as "Amateur and Pro". The Nihon Kiin just announced they're doing a reprint now as the third book in the Nihon Kiin Archives.

The first is a collection of games from Dosaku to Shusaku.
The second is a book on handicap go by Kajiwara.

These are all being made available online on the Nihon Kiin's e-books as well as print.

[wineandgolover]

I love the chatty style of this book.

Combine that with really good content, and it's still my favorite go book of all time. I didn't know it was out of print. Glad they are re-printing.

Strongly recommended for 20k-5k (and maybe a wider band than that).

[DrStraw]

When I sold all my go books a few years back this book was one of only two I did not offer for sale. The other was Invincible.

[EdLee]

Does anyone have access to the Japanese version ?
Could someone show the original Japanese text of (any of) the following ?

(Page numbers from the English version; emphases added.)

Don't forget the fundamentals.

Faithfulness to the fundamentals is something that becomes second nature ...
... was getting a really firm grip on the fundamentals.
... I still have not acquired this one fundamental.

Concerning Fundamentals. ... is how uniformly faithful their players are to the fundamentals.

... the professional's faithfulness to the fundamentals.
... how important the fundamentals are.
... the first things he should learn are the fundamental skills.
... go back and study the fundamentals once more.

This is not in the fundamentals.

... they have not grasped the fundamentals.

... to play while constantly reminding yourself of these fundamentals is impossible.
... the fundamentals have to be handled subconsciously.
... he meets it frontally, faithfully following the fundamentals.
The question is not how well he understands the fundamentals intellectually ...
You have to soak up the fundamentals ...
If the fundamentals do not operate subconsciously ...

... completely ignored the first fundamental of...
... what happens when you forget or ignore the fundamentals.

... not shirking your studies of the fundamentals.
Study the fundamentals, ...
Study the fundamentals.

amatopuro.jpg (12.5 KiB) Viewed 6255 times

From discussions elsewhere:

Nakade Thread.

However, as a follower of Kageyama, I believe in the power of the fundamentals.

...likes to quote Kageyama but I think it's based on a misconception: the use of the word 'Fundamentals' in the English title. This is from James Davies.
The Japanese title means "Amateurs and Professionals" and, as far as I can recall, Kage doesn't use the word 'fundamentals' in his book at all...

[John Fairbairn]

I have now found my copy of the Japanese book. It does indeed use the word "kihon" (within - not in the title) and so apologies to RJ. But it wasn't actually the book I was thinking of!

The book in my mind's eye was more a set of essays. I'm guessing it may have been by Nakayama, as I'm sure there was an English version, but maybe it was a book serialised in the AGJ.

It's all so hazy now, but rummaging through my shelves made me feel not so bad about that because bits of paper in various books show I last looked at them over 30 years ago, and there are an awful lot of books to remember. That said, there were quite a few books I have no memory of reading (or even buying). But someone did make a comment recently about there being no books on go psychology, and I found three at once.

The most "fundamental" of these was a Go Super Book, Go Psychology for Fun by Mihori Sho. It has a chapter relevant to a couple of current threads here, on the psychology of mastering go theory. The most fundamental point was said to be deciding where to play and for this the essential mindset to ingrain was "First, direction of play; second, the actual point". Ignoring this is the commonest reason amateurs are admonished by professionals, apparently.

There is also a section in this part on the psychology behind the proverb "Approach from the widest side" with a good example where two pros disagreed whether the proverb had merit, but again this is apparently one of the major sources of confusion for amateurs. Somewhat related to that is over-attachment to proverbs and in particular to the one that tells us not to crawl on the second line. Crawling is better than not crawling if it takes a sente move away from the opponent.

There is also a section that will warm the cockles of Bill's heart: "Profit in sente is not profit".

The most high-level psychology book, though, remains Yoda's book I once reviewed (or discussed) here, on how a pro thinks.

Another interesting book I re-found was "Knowing go: an introduction" which is a collection of disparate essays on the various topics in the game that keep coming up but are too small to be dealt with properly in books. Much of it reads like the L19 forum: What is the explanation behind the Red Ears move, What is the definition of a joseki, Why are ancient rules different, Is go a mind sport, What is the etymology of dame, What is the significance of the star points, etc. And not least the conundrum (which maybe we haven't quite got round to here): What is go?

***
I'm actually writing this to fill in time until the gardener turns up, and since he isn't here yet I've been browsing the shelf behind me again and I've just found the Kageyama book I had in mind! It was Kage's Secret Chronicles, and the reason I couldn't find it was that the spine lettering had been bleached off by sunshine (a major defect of Ishi Press books) and I'd just assumed it was a problem book. This book never gets mentioned now, but just flipping through it reminds me of how good I thought it was when I read it. Likewise flipping through Ama to Puro, I can now see why some people find that book tiresome, though I'd still rate it highly.

[bobmcg]

John: Re books of essays by Nakayama, Jitsuroku Igo Kodan was the basis for The Treasure Chest Enigma. There are also Gokyo Monogatari and Igo no Sekai which have similar essays and stories. A few choice essays from Gokyo Monogatari were translated into English and published in Go World issue 50.

I too like Kageyama's Kage's Secret Chronicles of Handicap Go and mine also has bleached out spine lettering.

[Bill Spight]

There is also a section that will warm the cockles of Bill's heart: "Profit in sente is not profit".

A result in go theory.

But I liked this even better:

The most fundamental point was said to be deciding where to play and for this the essential mindset to ingrain was "First, direction of play; second, the actual point".