Hane Naoki: Understanding How to Play Honte
Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2011 10:30 pm
Hane Naoki: 本手の打ち方が分かるほん (Understanding How to Play Honte) [Literally: The Book to Understand The Way of Playing Honte]
Publisher: MyCom (Mainichi Communications), 2007
ISBN: 978-4-8399-2546-8
Without doubt, this is one of the very best books about go I have ever read. This explains in very easy-to-understand terms both what honte is and what it is not, and illustrates through many examples and carefully chosen problems when and how to play honte.
Basically, according to Hane, "honte" means making necessary moves that have a follow-up (狙い - "nerai" or "aim"). Of course, this is well known. Where this book excels is in helping you to understand what "necessary" really means. For instance, necessity is not only about life and death, but it is also about avoiding a move that destroys your shape, and it also means making your shape truly strong before you go to lay waste a moyo. But, late in the book, you also learn that "necessary" does not mean only defensive moves; it can also mean moves that have to be made before you go on the offensive.
Hane will help you to avoid making "counterfeit honte", which are, for instance, moves that leave behind defects, even though they do keep sente or keep a group alive, or moves that indeed repair a weakness and take aim, but are also not actually essential (remember, if it is not a necessary move, it is not honte!).
If you cannot read Japanese, maybe this one is a "zannen nagara" ("it's too bad") situation. The meaning of the text comes to life (and vividly I might add), only when you read through the examples and study the problems; but you need to know what the text is saying for them to make proper sense. If I can bring my Japanese to a suitable level, I would be willing to undertake the job of translating this, because I truly believe this book would be a classic if made available in English, and would correct a lot of misconceptions.
Here are two samples from the problem section.
In this situation, White has played a common sequence in response to the squared Black stone. It is an indirect defence against the marked invasion, and it has the added value of creating a moyo on the lower side.
Black would like to do something about the moyo, but first he has to play the honte move. What did Hane do here? Remember, honte is a necessary move that also takes aim. Therefore, the key to this problem is to ask what Black would like to do, and what he needs to do, and how he can bring these two tasks together.
SOLUTION
The next problem might be rather hard.
The eagle-eyed among you will doubtless notice that the pattern in the lower right is the same as in the previous example. It is, after all, a joseki. Hane states early in the book that joseki are a "treasure trove" of honte plays.
Anyway, Black has just taken the 3-3 point, and White has responded by taking position on the outside. Now, there are two things Black would like to do in this position, but if he were to do either of them right away, White would be able to deal with it easily. Therefore, Black needs to find a move...
Another good feature of this book is that sometimes there is no honte move per-se in a few problems. The point is that the "honte" move you might chose turns out to be only a counterfeit upon inspection, and that it would be better to get on with something more urgent.
I have spent the last two months suffering because I have misunderstood honte, and have been playing too defensively for much of the time. I am confident that this book will help me to overcome that weakness, and to start playing properly honte moves in my games. Any book that can help you to make fundamental changes in your thinking is worth reading, and at only 1400 Yen it would be cheap at twice the price. As usual with MyCom go books, it is printed on decently thick paper, has sturdy binding and a high-quality paper dustjacket.
My rating of this book: A+
Summary: Concise, clear, particularly well chosen illustrative examples and problems. Helps you to distinguish what is and what is not honte.
Publisher: MyCom (Mainichi Communications), 2007
ISBN: 978-4-8399-2546-8
Without doubt, this is one of the very best books about go I have ever read. This explains in very easy-to-understand terms both what honte is and what it is not, and illustrates through many examples and carefully chosen problems when and how to play honte.
Basically, according to Hane, "honte" means making necessary moves that have a follow-up (狙い - "nerai" or "aim"). Of course, this is well known. Where this book excels is in helping you to understand what "necessary" really means. For instance, necessity is not only about life and death, but it is also about avoiding a move that destroys your shape, and it also means making your shape truly strong before you go to lay waste a moyo. But, late in the book, you also learn that "necessary" does not mean only defensive moves; it can also mean moves that have to be made before you go on the offensive.
Hane will help you to avoid making "counterfeit honte", which are, for instance, moves that leave behind defects, even though they do keep sente or keep a group alive, or moves that indeed repair a weakness and take aim, but are also not actually essential (remember, if it is not a necessary move, it is not honte!).
If you cannot read Japanese, maybe this one is a "zannen nagara" ("it's too bad") situation. The meaning of the text comes to life (and vividly I might add), only when you read through the examples and study the problems; but you need to know what the text is saying for them to make proper sense. If I can bring my Japanese to a suitable level, I would be willing to undertake the job of translating this, because I truly believe this book would be a classic if made available in English, and would correct a lot of misconceptions.
Here are two samples from the problem section.
In this situation, White has played a common sequence in response to the squared Black stone. It is an indirect defence against the marked invasion, and it has the added value of creating a moyo on the lower side.
Black would like to do something about the moyo, but first he has to play the honte move. What did Hane do here? Remember, honte is a necessary move that also takes aim. Therefore, the key to this problem is to ask what Black would like to do, and what he needs to do, and how he can bring these two tasks together.
SOLUTION
The next problem might be rather hard.
The eagle-eyed among you will doubtless notice that the pattern in the lower right is the same as in the previous example. It is, after all, a joseki. Hane states early in the book that joseki are a "treasure trove" of honte plays.
Anyway, Black has just taken the 3-3 point, and White has responded by taking position on the outside. Now, there are two things Black would like to do in this position, but if he were to do either of them right away, White would be able to deal with it easily. Therefore, Black needs to find a move...
Another good feature of this book is that sometimes there is no honte move per-se in a few problems. The point is that the "honte" move you might chose turns out to be only a counterfeit upon inspection, and that it would be better to get on with something more urgent.
I have spent the last two months suffering because I have misunderstood honte, and have been playing too defensively for much of the time. I am confident that this book will help me to overcome that weakness, and to start playing properly honte moves in my games. Any book that can help you to make fundamental changes in your thinking is worth reading, and at only 1400 Yen it would be cheap at twice the price. As usual with MyCom go books, it is printed on decently thick paper, has sturdy binding and a high-quality paper dustjacket.
My rating of this book: A+
Summary: Concise, clear, particularly well chosen illustrative examples and problems. Helps you to distinguish what is and what is not honte.
