Genjo-Chitoku now available

[SoDesuNe]

[...] absence of variations is for lazy learners.

Fairbairn makes exactly the counterpoint in his preface: Variations are for lazy learners because they do all the work for you ; ) (my words not his) By omitting variation diagrams and only giving hints and informations in the commentary he hopes to encourage the reader to actively participate in figuring stuff out.

Example:

$$Wc Game 1
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O O . . . . . . . . . X . . . . |
$$ | . O O X O O X . . , . . . 7 . , X . . |
$$ | . . X X O X . X . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . O X X . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , O . . |
$$ | . . X 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . 4 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . 2 1 X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X O O . . . . . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . X , . . X O . , . . . . . , O . . |
$$ | . . X O . X O X . X . X . . X . . . . |
$$ | . . O . O O O X . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ +---------------------------------------+

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wc Game 1
$$ +---------------------------------------+
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O O . . . . . . . . . X . . . . |
$$ | . O O X O O X . . , . . . 7 . , X . . |
$$ | . . X X O X . X . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . O X X . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . O X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X . . |
$$ | . . O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . , O . . |
$$ | . . X 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . 4 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . 2 1 X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . X O O . . . . . . . . . O . . . |
$$ | . . X , . . X O . , . . . . . , O . . |
$$ | . . X O . X O X . X . X . . X . . . . |
$$ | . . O . O O O X . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |
$$ +---------------------------------------+[/go]

It may seem premature to settle but if left till later, Black might answer at and risk turning the corner into a capturing-race ko on the left edge.

There is no variation showing you this capturing-race ko. You have to figure it out yourself.

[RobertJasiek]

I see, like a problems / no answers book. If I wanted such problems, I might as well browse the pure game record and would think about many more problems.

[John Tilley]

My copy arrived last week - it's an excellent book and well printed and produced. The section on "Go Wisdom" is very interesting - you can find example games under the subject of say "karami" ( a splitting attack) - the appendix gives the games and move numbers. You can thus study "karami" and then maybe leaning attack ("motare"). The section on "Go Wisdom" is some 36 pages of very valuable information, some of the terms are new to me (even after 50 years of Go).

I am less worried about the lack of variation diagrams - if I chose a game to study as "Go Wisdom" tells me that it has a three way splitting attack - than that is good.

I would be delighted to see the book on "Honinbo Shuei" in this format. John F's other books of games do contain reference diagrams - in the case of "Power - Honinbo Shusai defends the Nihon Ki=in" 134 reference diagrams - which for this marvellous game is great. I suspect that producing all those reference diagrams was "character building" for Slate and Shell, producing just the actual games from SGF for Genjo-Chotoku was much easier.

The ten games of "Kamakura" occupy 161 pages - so that is 16 pages/game - which would make Genjo-Chitoku some three times larger with a lot of work choosing and creating the reference diagrams from all the Japanese sources.

Looking forward to "Honinbo Shuei".

John Tilley

[Shenoute]

I (finally!) picked my copy today. I second every comment I've read here about the good quality of the binding, of the paper, and of the printing (ordered on amazon.fr, "printed in Germany by Amazon Distribution GmbH, Leipzig").
I've just spent the last hour replaying through game 1 and leafing through the introduction and the index. All I can say right now is that I see long and delightful hours ahead of me. Thank you again John for this superb book!
I might post a slightly more detailed review later, especially about the lack of variation diagrams and how it impacts my studying the games.

[Jujube]

I've jumped in on this too, and look forward to Shuei in the future.

[Ferran]

Are there sample pages from the actual game commentaries available? I would like to get an idea of the level of commentary detail and style before deciding to buy.

At least the Amazon-UK page has a preview that includes a sprinkling of commentary pages. Some other Amazons don't.

Take care.

[cyndane]

I got this book recently and am impressed with the quality. Looking forward to the Shuei book!

[xela]

Sorry to arrive late to the party. I've just placed my order, probably too late to own the first copy in Australia, but in time for my birthday. Looking forward to it.

Sight unseen, I'm still confident it's worth more than one cup of coffee. I'm likely to be in London around the middle of next year (dates to be confirmed). If you'd like me to buy you a second cup of coffee (or something stronger) in person, leave a message for me here :-)

[Jujube]

I'm still happily leafing through this!

I pick it up now and again to play through a game. It broke my music stand the other day

Three months have passed since John sent his Shuei book for proofreading. Let's hope it's nearly ready!

[John Fairbairn]

Three months have passed since John sent his Shuei book for proofreading. Let's hope it's nearly ready!

Proofreading by Tom Koranda took 80 intensive days. That's a sign of how much is in the book (133 commented games). A proof copy is now on its way to me from Amazon. I have to do a final proof-read, but more to do with formatting than text. I hope to be able to announce availability around World Book Day (5 March). Beat the queues - hire a crane now! 538 pages.

[woolpark]

Amazing book Mr. Fairbairn! Love the little symbols before commentary. A joy to read and diagrams are well organized. The Go Wisdom section could be a small book in itself! I would by it as a companion.

Thank you for all your work, have wanted a collection of Chitoku games and this is better than I could imagine. Enjoying Genjo's style as well.