Anybody read "Fight Like a Pro the Secrets of Kiai"?

[wineandgolover]

It is now available on Smartgo Books, and I'd love to know what others think. Thanks.

[RBerenguel]

Just to keep it as an active post, I'd also love some opinion on the book.

[Hushfield]

The book starts off with a general introduction on kiai (translated throughout this book as 'fighting spirit'), using well-known examples from endgame situations to show that passively answering your opponent's moves will end up losing you points. This is about 5 pages, including diagrams. Next up is 1 page on the relationship between kiai and komi, 2 pages on fear and kiai and 2 pages on kiai and psychological warfare. The bulk of the book consists of 16 extensive game reviews between professionals, in which certain moves illustrate the different meanings and uses of kiai. The game reviews are very thorough, and as more attention is paid to the psychological effects of certain moves I find it rather interesting. So while the title might be "the secrets of kiai", don't expect extensive lectures on what this is. After just the brief introductory elements I outlined above, it's all game reviews.

I have played through around half of the book, and I like it so far.

Hope this helps.
Hush

[bengozen]

I wrote a full review here on my blog: http://www.bengozen.com/book-review-fig ... s-of-kiai/

In summary though, it's more of a comprehensive review and application of a number of things you learn from the Mastering the Basics series as whole. To be clear also, it is not a book with fighting techniques like you might expect. For example, it doesn't teach you secret fighting tesuji but instead shows how they are applied through different pro games.

So in other words, I would say it's a bit more like a book of game commentary on professional games themed around kiai and fighting. Hope that helps, and if you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to let me know.

[wineandgolover]

Thanks, guys.

[salerno]

I agree, it's mostly a game reviews book. But I want to add that they are great reviews, thorough but at the same time fluent, easy and interesting to read. Besides, all the games (or almost) are from the last five years, which make the book a really updated collection of english game reviews.

Oh, one other great thing about the book is that it is presented with a bit of "problem/solution" format. At some points of each review, the reader is asked to find the next move, and then in the next page the solution is provided. That makes it more fun than a regular game review book.

[eyecatcher]

I bought the book recently in smartgo-book format, i think all of the main things are already mentioned here...

But i like to ad, that i really like the book, and i think it is a great inspiration for changing ones own game.
The games choosen, are full of very good examples of "kiai" and when you read the commentary, it does not feel like a normal review featuring "all" (ok, better say "some", "all" is impossible ) aspects of the game, it really focuses on "Kiai" ... and i really get the impression that i got exactly what i want: a book about "Kiai" in pro games.

There is a nice introduction to the concept of "kiai" and some info about every featured player.

(Hope my english is ok, to make myself clear.)

[moboy78]

I would also like to point out that the reviews, though fairly detailed, stop for each game after the commentator finishes talking about the section on kiai in the game. I don't think that anyone else has said this before,but I could be wrong.