Life In 19x19

What does anyone think of this series of book by Yuan Zhou? I just read through the one about Lee Changho, and really enjoyed it. I'm considering getting others (there are five, I think).

The books are small, and have pretty deep commentary on just a couple games. I liked that. Sort of like Fairbairn's books like Kamakura. Actually, not quite as much commentary. Anyway, I thought it was very accessible for me, at least.

I have not read Yuan Zhou's books on pros, but his two collections of his own games are excellent. I feel like I get more out of them than I do from commented pro games.

How Not To Play Go has good content but is disappointingly short, I think only 30 pages or so.

Definitely among my favorite go books. In fact, this thread reminds me that I should go re-read them all.

I only have his Go Seigen one, but I thoroughly enjoyed that one.

I went over three of them: Lee Changho, Takemiya Masaki and Go Seigen. All three the same format and very enjoyable. I know there are (at least) two more, Kato Masao fighting style and Kitani Minoru-Cho Chikun territorial styles. I will definitely buy and read them when I have time.

I have read the Lee Chang Ho book a couple of times and really enjoyed it. I wish it had more then 2 games though.

Mmm, my attention has been aroused. I shall obtain some copies of these books.

How big are these books? They sound really interesting, but I was curious how much content you get for the price.

Chew Terr wrote:How big are these books? They sound really interesting, but I was curious how much content you get for the price.

Lee Chang Ho: two games, 71 pages

Go Seigen: two games, 83 pages

Kitana Minoro
& Cho Chikun: two games each, 106 pages

Kato Maso &
Seo Bong Soo: two games each, 113 pages

Takemiya Masaki: two games, plus brief appendix of example positions, 72 pages

Not a lot of bang for your buck but the annotations are really good.

This makes me wish he had doubled up the volumes and made 200 page books, each with 2 games from 2 pros, for like 1.5 times the price of these individual books.

dfan wrote:This makes me wish he had doubled up the volumes and made 200 page books, each with 2 games from 2 pros, for like 1.5 times the price of these individual books.

Well, they have been getting bigger. Maybe they'll keep getting bigger now that the series seems to be popular.

Slate & Shell will bring out a Master Play book by Zhou this Fall containing seven famous pros--two games each, well over 200 pages. Price should be no more than $20.00.

xyzer wrote:Slate & Shell will bring out a Master Play book by Zhou this Fall containing seven famous pros--two games each, well over 200 pages. Price should be no more than $20.00.

Cool! Do you know if these are all new, or are some of them repeats from the Master Play books already out?

xyzer wrote:Slate & Shell will bring out a Master Play book by Zhou this Fall containing seven famous pros--two games each, well over 200 pages. Price should be no more than $20.00.

14 games in 200 pages? That's quite the opposite of the rest of these books, where the commentaries are long and detailed. I'm not sure this new approach will be as interesting.

It might contain only 7 games.