American Go E-Journal » Tools: books, software & hardware

Kiseido is having a sale of all English-language go books and magazines listed on its book page. Get 10% off the listed price with free shipping when you order five books or more; the sale runs through July 25. Dozens of books are available, including the Graded Go Problems for Beginners series, the Get Strong at Go Series and more. You can also check out Kiseido’s Go World Online website, which presents recent games played by some of the top players in the world. There you’ll find detailed commentaries on the first five games of the ongoing ten-game match between Lee Sedol and Gu Li, who are billed as the two strongest players in the world. Also featured on this site – which is currently free of charge — is Iyama Yuta’s defense of his Kisei title against Yamashita Keigo.

“About 300 years after the Japanese poet Basho wrote his famous book ‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North‘ a woman named Lesley Downer wrote an account of her own 1989 journey following in Basho’s footsteps,” writes None Redmond. “It was called ‘On the Narrow Road‘ and halfway through she is as far north as Basho went and watching the river Mogami.  She writes ‘At Goten the river narrowed and frothed. With the help of a little imagination the rocks could have been flat and evenly spaced enough to be Go-ten, the counters you use for playing Go.’”

“It’s a good book,” Redmond adds. “I am fascinated by her travels and envy her her knowledge of the Japanese language.”

Yahoo go fans will have to search elsewhere for their online gaming: Yahoo has shut down their “classic” games after 15 years. “The go, chess, Checkers and the rest of what they call ‘parlor games’ are shut down with no definite return,” reports Robert DeLisle. Check out where to play go online on the AGA’s online go page.
– Greg Smith, AGA website team

SmartGo Books now lets you add your own notes in books, reports SmartGo’s Anders Kierulf, who’s now in Paris for the 42nd International Paris Go Tournament which runs through April 21.

“Four new books and several translations have been added to SmartGo Books,” Kierulf adds. The new offerings include two from John Fairbairn: “Wonders of Life & Death: Honinbo Shusai’s tsumego classic Shikatsu Myoki” and “Today We Have a Splendid Feast: The Meijin Inseki’s Yoshin Teiki,” while “Fight Like a Pro – The Secrets of Kiai”, a much-requested book by Rob van Zeijst and Richard Bozulich, is also now available.

Gunnar Dickfeld has added Volume 3 of “Black to Play! Train the Basics of Go (20-15 Kyu)”, in English and German, and volumes 1 and 2 are available in English, German, Spanish, and French, while “The Basics of Go Strategy” is now available is Spanish as well as German.

Click here for details on all the SmartGo Books books now available.

“I have the Guanzi Pu pdf (‘New on the AGA Website: Classic Chinese Problem Collection‘ 3/16 EJ) in other formats already, but this one is very nicely done,” writes Michael Redmond 9P. “That collection is one of the best of what I call classic tsumego collections, but on the other hand, it wasn’t all problems that would now be called tsumego. It includes many endgame sequences, and some positions in which there is more than one feasible way to play. That is typical of the ancient Chinese collections, which were published before the modern definition of tsumego was established. From the professional viewpoint, those indefinite problems actually add value, although they could confuse weaker players.”

Guo Juan Go Class Starts New Term: The new term for Guo Juan’s Online Go Class starts up on April 12th. “You are welcome to join us,” says Guo Juan 5P. “Meet new friends, have fun and improve your go!”

Mingjiu Jiang Workshop Coming Up in Portland: Mingjiu Jiang 7P will do a two-day workshop in Portland, OR., April 26-27. Anyone interested in attending should contact Peter Freedman at peter.freedman@comcast.net.