Okay I have bought three Jasiek go books from Schaak en Go Winkel het Paard. When I saw this shop name, after a while, I became really curious in the Dutch pronunciation of 'go'; whether that 'g' sounds like a typical Dutch one or something like the English 'g'. I also met an interesting guy when I was wandering around the street to find the shop. He approached saying that he is from Morocco and asked me some several questions such as 'Where are you from?', 'Why are you here in Holland?', 'How long have you been here?' and maybe some more. He then asked whether I have a hundred euro bill and that he wants to exchange it with his two 50 euro bills. I said 'okay', but somehow he had not any money. It seemed not making sense from then on, so I just said that I have to go. He told me to follow him that he will give his two 50 euros there, but why should I? We said 'bye' each other and I went on my way. It was a very interesting experience.

When I finally found and went into the shop, there were so many books but most of them were for chess. Go books were shelved in a small corner part of the store. Jasiek's books were also there but what arouse my interest was that there were no written prices or barcode in those books. Still, the store owner somehow knew which book costs how much. And anyway, the books are really expensive.

This thread will be my study journal of go books written by Robert Jasiek. I will start with 'First Fundamentals'. Hope this would be GOOD for you and me.

Also have a look in the hide tag to see the picture of the books I bought.

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Wait, please.

What strength are you starting from?

I quite not understand your question? You mean the books' recommended player strengh of the reader? or my own go strength?

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Wait, please.

What is your own go strength?

In general, when strangers approach you and ask to exchange large denominations of currency, say no! Often enough, they have counterfeit money that they are trying to pass off. If it was real currency, they would have no trouble breaking it at a bank or in a store.

MJK is the same as lovelove.

Interesting is one way of putting it but it sounds a lot like he was planning to rob you. Maybe I'm paranoid but when a stranger approaches to ask if you're carrying a large amount of money it seems best to tell them no.

Anyway, I'm glad your okay and I look forward to reading your journal. I've always been curious about Robert's books but I found the samples to be a bit dense for something I would read for fun and there are lots of others competing for my attention.

Unfortunately, I would not be surprised if you get targeted for cons like this because you look or speak like a foreigner.

I am sure he was trying to rob me. There were not a big problem mainly because I was in a street with plenty of people, and he kept looking at those people passing by really nervously; he seemed not a proficient robber. And he had not gun, perhaps it is prohibited. Honestly, a bad but lucky experience, which could be found intersting, it is. Well, thanks for the advises and now I know how to deal more simply, 'no'.

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Wait, please.

Isn't it obvious?

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Wait, please.

So which is it?



Good question. Why?:)



Such can be made in different countries, when you are unlucky to meet unexperienced robbers.



Serious specialised sellers can recall dozens of thousands of prices by heart.



In comparison to Korean books, which are really cheap:)

Books (and most other things) are expensive in (Western) Europe. Such is life.

Still don't know. I should have asked in the shop.

Because I'm enrolled in a bachelor course in Holland.

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Wait, please.

Let me start my first on-topic post.

I woke up really early at dawn today because of a mosquito noise, but somehow there wasn't such a thing; perhaps an auditory hallucination. I have just read 'First Fundamentals' from page 1 to the middle of 17 which a new subunit starts from. The book begins with an introduction and a short, unfortunately uninteresting, tale. The first unit is titiled 'Choose the Big and Valuable'. I read two subunits named 'Avoid premature endgame.' and 'Choose the bigger space'. The name of the units and subunits are the principles that every go player must comply, and together constructs the 'First Fundamentals', the book itself. I like the auther's precise and non-figurative naming and terminology; it helps the reader understand clearly. It is quite simple how the book explains the principles on why it is and how it works; with examples and text. The examples are from beginner games to show real game mistakes. The text is from obviously the auther himself and is written in fine English.

After reading more pages of this book, I will also post a summary of what I 'learned'.

I have some questions below to the auther.

1. Why do you refer to yourself as third person. It does sound a bit strange.
2. You seem to always stick with the set of 'in the corner', 'on the side', and 'in the center'. Why 'on the side' and not 'in the side'?
3. In page 16 example 23, you wrote 'Black A can take up an even higher position'. I was confused about the meaning of 'take up' so looked up the dictionary, and there was, among the three pages for 'take', a small section as below.

take sth ↔ up 6. to move into a particular position
I took up my position by the door.

Is this what you meant? Or could you explain the meaning of your sentence?

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Wait, please.

Both are possible. Some people use the English pronunciation, some the Dutch one. And of course, if they use the Dutch pronunciation, it still depends where they're from. People from the south (Brabant, Limburg) use a softer G than people from the north and west. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_and_soft_G_in_Dutch)


If you want tips on when and where to play go, just let me know.

2. Prepositions are funny things. Robert has used them correctly though. I think the reasons for "in" are easy. Imagine that you put a piece of art in a room. You can put it IN the center, or IN the corner, but can you put it IN the side? Not really. You'd probably put it ON the side (if you hung it). I suspect that is why we use the words we do.

3. I believe you chose the correct definition. This is also standard English.

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- Brady
Want to see videos of low-dan mistakes and what to learn from them? Brady's Blunders

[Note to administrators: I hope that my participation in this thread about my books is considered ok. If not, I can move my answers to the Books forum.]



I prefer to avoid the first person in books, which IMO sounds strange. Surely it is a matter of preference.



I hope it is correct use of prepostitions in English.



The intended meaning is "take (play on) the intersection A to develop the currently low position (of the black stone 11), so that it becomes a higher position (for the black group at its outside end around the stone 11)".

"on the side" is correct. "In the side" would be used like "I hit him in the side," "The car was hit in the side" and so on.

"take up" is a bit strange here. I would say "take a higher position." It's not ambiguous though, it's clear what you meant.

Without the context, "take up" can also be used in a phrase like "take up go", meaning that someone starts playing or learning to play go.

I love bonobo because bonobo likes everybody!

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- Brady
Want to see videos of low-dan mistakes and what to learn from them? Brady's Blunders