Many books from the GoGoD archives have now been published either in paper form or as e-books.
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The Evergreen Game Records (不古编) of 1682 is the second book in the Museum of Go Theory series, but is the first truly mature go commentary manual. It is one of the earliest commentary books anyway, but the comments here are by a genuine Chinese master of the game, Wu Ruizheng, and his comments cover all aspects of the game with a rich technical lexicon, encompassing not just moves but concepts.
We can see from this book that Chinese masters as early as the start of the Qing era were aware not just of concepts that we take for granted now, but of others that stemmed from group tax and so are either not known now or which now have a different slant. Remarkably, these ‘new’ concepts can show the way to tease out the concepts that AI programs apparently use but cannot describe.
Evergreen Game Records was also the book to introduce the genius Huang Longshi to a wider public. But all the 66 games here are by Wu’s contemporaries, the top masters of late Ming and early Qing.
Offered here is a complete translation, also with the original text, and contains extensive additional notes on the vocabulary and thus on the theory of old Chinese go. Biographical notes on the players are also added.
The ethos behind the Museum series is to offer something of a ‘medieval tour’ in which the various masters and their milieu are brought to life, using above all their own words.
Available on Amazon
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Game Records from Evening Fragrance Pavilion (1754).
A translation of the commentaries of 15 games by Cheng Lanru, one of the Four Great Masters of the 18th century in China and much admired by Hayashi Genbi in Japan. With extra games and extensive notes on old Chinese go and its players. The first book in a planned series, “Museum of Go Theory”, designed to show how go theory evolved in China, especially in the period 1600-1900.
Available on Amazon
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The Incident Room: Transgressions on and off the go board
This is a collection of incidents from the game of go, presented as bite-sized accounts suitable for bedtime reading, that relate to rules transgressions, rules disputes, rules etiquette, go diplomacy, and sometimes just plain daftness. For a game that is widely touted as having the simplest of rules, there is a remarkable variety of such incidents. This is not a complete catalogue, but certainly captures the scale and scope of the problems. The main intention, apart from entertainment, has been to try to capture the first or best examples of each oddity, or to point up cases where different interpretations or adjudications are used in the principal countries where professional go is played.
Available on Amazon
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The First Teenage Meijin: At the end of 2019, Shibano Toramaru became the first teenage player to win a major title in the Japanese go world. When he became the new Meijin, it was almost as if the story of the manga Hikaru no Go had come true.
This book tells the story of the title match against Cho U. The first four games are presented with traditional commentaries, but the momentous fifth game – regarded as being of unusually high quality – combines tradition with AI analysis, which confirms the quality.
The coverage of the title match is preceded by a substantial account of the history of the Meijin title. The games themselves are also given with their atmospheric content and biographical details.
An index to topics in the Go Wisdom theory corpus presented in earlier books is also given.
Available on Amazon
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Games of Shuei: with Commentaries – now available as print-on-demand via Kindle Direct Publishing or Amazon. 133 commented games involving the Meijin of Meijins, Honinbo Shuei. This is a paper edition of a book previously issued as an e-book, but now has many more games, is about 50% larger, and (as with Genjo-Chitoku) comes in our new fully indexed Go Wisdom format, a new colour enhaced format designed to encourage, facilitate and improve private study. 538 pages.
Available on Amazon
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The Meijin (or Master) as long been the most prestigious title in Japan for
the best players of the oriental game of go. Only one Meijin at a time was
allowed. Two of the very best players were Honinbo Genjo and Yasui Chitoku.
Neither was Meijin. The reason was that they were at their peak in the same
era, the early 19th century, which is often referred to as the Golden Age of
go in Japan. They were rivals, but were also friends. Many of their games
survive and each one is treasured. A major part of the reason is that both
had contrasting styles – one favouring early territory then digging in, the
other favouring early strength and gaining territory, or reducing the
opponent’s, by later fighting. This, along with the very high standard of
play, has made their games almost a standard text-book for students of the
game. The present book collects all their 80-odd games with each other –
several being recent finds – and gives detailed commentaries based on a
combination of the very many professional commentaries that these games have
attracted over two centuries.
Available on Amazon
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Honinbo Shuei (1852~1907) is the go player that masters of the
calibre even of Go Seigen and Takagawa Kaku professed to admire the most.
Many consider him the Meijin of Meijins, and in his late years no-one could
play without a handicap against him. Yet he achieved his dominance only in
middle age, having several times disappeared from the mainstream go world
for months on end. He lived at a time of enormous upheaval and uncertainty
in the Japanese go world, seeing tragedy strike his father, his brother and
his mentor. His own life was marred by a debilitating disease. But he
compounded his problems by choosing to struggle – with some success – to
uphold the Honinbo name and the game’s traditions in the brave new world
represented by the rival Hoensha organisation. This book is a
ground-breaking, detailed biography of Shuei set within the background of
the tumultuous times he lived through. It is sympathetic but candid.
Available on Amazon
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The Honinbo Tournament is go’s oldest annual tournament. By trial
and error it set the standards for every tournament since. This book
describes in detail how it came about, and goes carefully through each of
the early years in the 1940s and 1950s, and each year’s changes. The games
of each title match up to and including Term 6 are given with rich
commentaries (32 games), showcasing also the most famous players and
anecdotes featured in the highest level of go.
Published as an e-book by SmartGo
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Today We Have a Splendid Feast The great Inoue Inseki Meijin, the
17th century author of the famously hard-to-impossible problems of the Igo
Hatsuyoron, produced other, easier tsume-go works. One was the Yoshin Teiki,
most of which is now lost. But the portion that survives gives a fascinating
insight into how he worked on his problems and (presumably) taught his
pupils. The surviving sections, given here in full, are eminently suitable
for beginners, but even strong players can learn amply from the way the
Meijin used his mind, and be severely challenged by the hardest problems.
Published as an e-book by SmartGo
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New Ways in Go is a complete translation of Honinbo Shuho’s 1882
classic, covering handicap openings, even-game openings and commentaries on
his games with Shuwa and Shusaku.
Published as an e-book by SmartGo
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Unfinished Symphony gives extensive commentaries on the shortened
ten-game match between Go Seigen and Karigane Junichi, with comprehensive
historical background. This continues the series of Go Seigen’s matches that
was begun in paper form by Slate & Shell.
Published as an e-book by SmartGo
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The original version of
The Life, Games and Commentaries of Honinbo Shuei was
published as a Kindle book
over six separate volumes, but is now available as a SmartGo book with
interactive game replay.
Published as an e-book by SmartGo
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The 1347 Chinese go classic Xuanxuan Qijing, or
Gengen Gokyo by its Japanese name, is the most significant go book
ever produced. It has become the foundation for virtually every problem book
since. Gateway to All Marvels brings together every problem and
every variant from perhaps every subsequent edition, and discusses how the
almost 500 problems and their solutions have evolved and varied.
Published as an e-book by SmartGo
and
Amazon Kindle
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Inoue Genan Inseki is a short biography of Honinbo Jowa’s main
rival and one of the most interesting characters in the go world.
Published as an e-book by Amazon Kindle
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This is a flip book – two books in one. The first is
Jowa’s Three Brilliances: Honinbo Jowa Plays Akaboshi Intetsu. This
game is commonly known as the ‘blood vomiting’ game, but it is Jowa’s three
brilliant moves that make it famous. The second is
The Insha Game: Honinbo Shusai versus Karigane Junichi. It is the
first game of the pivotal match between the newly established Nihon Ki-in
and the rival professional organization the Kiseisha. Not currently in print
owing to Slate & Shell’s decision to end paper production of books. -
Old Fuseki vs. New Fuseki describes both the evolution of New
Fuseki and also the 1933 game between Honinbo Shusai and Go Seigen.
Published as an e-book by SmartGo
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The start of a series on famous games, intended also as a way of filling in
gaps in the history of 20th century go.
The Meijin’s Retirement Game covers in depth the famous game
between Honinbo Shusai and Kitani Minoru. Not currently in print owing to
Slate & Shell’s decision to end paper production of books. -
A massive book, 9-dan Showdown covers no fewer than three ten-game
matches between Go Seigen and Fujisawa Kuranosuke, the first two 9-dans in
history. A book of excerpts was also published by SmartGo as an e-book.
Complete book not currently in print owing to Slate & Shell’s decision
to end paper production of books. -
Final Summit was the second in the series on all Go Seigen’s
ten-game matches, of which Kamakura was the first volume. It
features his last match, against Takagawa Kaku. Not currently in print owing
to Slate & Shell’s decision to end paper production of books. -
A detailed account of the famous ten-game match between Go Seigen and
Kitani Minoru which took place mostly in Kamakura in 1939-41. Extensive
biographies of both players and the go, social and political background to
the match are followed by complete analysis of all ten games.
Kamakura is based on over 60 years of pro commentaries we have
collected. Not currently in print owing to Slate & Shell’s decision to
end paper production of books. -
The Go Consultants describes one of the famous consulation games
of the 1930s in which Go Seigen and Kitani Minoru, stars of New Fuseki, took
on the top players of the old order, their teachers Suzuki Tamejiro and
Segoe Kensaku in a consultation game. The discussions of the two teams were
recorded and provide a unique insight into how professionals think.
Published as an e-book by SmartGo
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The first book to appear under the strapline “From the GoGoD Archives”,
The Go Companion is a selection of popular material from our New In
Go column combined with newly written material (about 60%) in similar vein,
to present a 300-page wide-ranging survey of go culture and history. Not
currently in print owing to Slate & Shell’s decision to end paper
production of books.
