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

The simplest ideas are often the most complex. For example: a basic go book in multiple languages to spread the game around the world. That’s the idea behind the Multilingual Go Book Project. “The project came to be due to the difficulties of promoting go in my home country, Greece,” says H. Kapolos. “We didn’t have educational material in our language and there were young people and adults who wanted to learn the game, but could not read English.”

When Kapolos participated in the European Go Championship, he noticed “that some countries around our division and our region didn’t have too many young players in them either,” and it occurred to him that “maybe they need a book in their language as well. Something that could circulate in libraries, schools, universities and game shops. Places where young people with a passion for board games might be found.” So, he thought, “why should we stop at only English and Greek? We should make the book in more languages and have it be free for everyone.”

So far, the project has two books of 192 pages of content — more than 700 diagrams each — in English and Greek, both completely free. Kapolos is now looking for collaborators to translate it into other languages, “especially in Spanish and Portuguese, whose translations have already begun.”

Bill Frezza and his colleague John Gaby have developed an online go variant called GO Without Borders that they say is perhaps the first practical online implementation of Toroidal GO, the concept of removing the edges of a go board by allowing the board to “wrap around” both horizontally and vertically.

“What is most fascinating about playing GO Without Borders is the fresh approach required regarding tactics and strategy because every joseki you ever learned is useless,” Frezza, a 12 kyu player, tells the E-Journal. “There is also a premium on good fighting skills. And yet it is still go with all the same rules.”

Frezza and Gaby are actively recruiting a small circle of beta testers to help debug and fully feature the program before public launch. Email go-without-borders+subscribe@googlegroups.com if interested.

“Attacking and Defending Weak Groups,” a new book by Richard Bozulich, is now available both as paperback and in digital form in the Go Books app. Weak groups are a crucial factor in the middle game of go, and this book covers all the techniques of attacking and defending weak groups. Each of the first nine chapters starts with a few examples of the technique under study, then continues with a few problems showing how that particular technique was used in a professional game. The tenth chapter presents additional problems whose solutions draw upon the techniques studied in the preceding nine chapters. The book is available in paperback from Kiseido and in digital form in the Go Books app for iPad, iPhone, and Mac. Regardless of which version you get, you can download the professional games used for the problems here.

Yuan Zhou’s new book, Playing AlphaGo’s Early 3-3 Invasion, “includes Yuan’s discussion of current pro understanding of this increasingly popular tactic along with a large number of examples of current top pro games using it to show how it works out in practice,” reports Slate and Shell publisher Bill Cobb. “This is one of our books that a lot of dan players should find very useful. It is really amazing to see how often this invasion occurs in top tournaments, including in the finals match for the title.”

Robert Jasiek’s new book “Endgame 2 – Values” is now available. The result of two years of work and research, Jasiek says the book “teaches every relevant, basic aspect of endgame evaluation systematically, clearly and in detail.” It explains modern and traditional endgame theories, the microendgame, and the impact of scoring. “We evaluate positions, follow-up positions and moves so that all their values are consistent and related,” says Jasiek. “The theory is well applicable to every endgame position and move, approximates absolute truth and is supported by many examples.” The 260-page book is available in both  printed (EUR 26.50) and PDF (EUR 13.25) formats. Click here for a sample and here to purchase.