What do you think?
Rate this book
Learn to Play Go #3
Learn to Play Go, Vol. 3: The Dragon Style by Janice Kim
The Dragon Style is the third volume in the popular Learn to Play Go series. Topics include seven deadly Go sins and eight secrets of winning play. Real games - even, high, and low handicap - are analyzed in depth. Includes a self-testing section and an extensive glossary of Go terminology.
Unknown Binding
First published April 1, 1996
7 people are currently reading
107 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
July 26, 2022
Now that we know the basics, this book tries to get into more detail of specific plays and tactics. It’s interesting but maybe not the most helpful book in the series to advance your own game.
June 2, 2012
This third book in the Learn to Play Go series, which is supposed to bring you to about the 10-12 kyu level, I did not find as useful as the first two books. We're now at the level where you need to learn practical strategy and tactics, and much of the book is a recitation of terms and some illustration of basic principles we already know. The most useful parts were probably the example games, but you really need to study a lot of those to get much out of them.
So, am I a 10-12 kyu player yet? Well, no, but you have to play a lot to gain the experience necessary to make use of the teachings of a book. I would say the first two books in this series are excellent, the third is worthwhile. Time to move on to book four and see if it will unleash my inner Hikaru.
So, am I a 10-12 kyu player yet? Well, no, but you have to play a lot to gain the experience necessary to make use of the teachings of a book. I would say the first two books in this series are excellent, the third is worthwhile. Time to move on to book four and see if it will unleash my inner Hikaru.
February 21, 2016
The book starts with a list of "Do's" and a list of "Don'ts". Except for "Drive towards your thickness", most of the items are rather obvious. Yet, the combination of them can be quite confusing for a beginning player: "Hold the fort! (Do#8). But don't waste a move! (Do#6). And don't overplay! (Don't#3). Be sure to stay connected! (Do#4) But do not blunder! (Don't#2). The clue is of course that a beginning player doesn't know which Do or Don't is taking priority in a given situation. My biggest gripe with this section is that it fails to offer a coherent thought process to judge a position on the board, yet this is what is needed most at this stage in the series.
The second part goes over some actual 19x19 games, with and without handicap stones. In itself this is a useful way of teaching, but I often found the commentary of the authors rather shallow. Sure they mention here and there a variation, but more often they simply write down what any reader can see: "White extends at 3, Black blocks at 4, the White plays hane to attack", etc. The beginning player is often left wondering why the player chooses this side of the board to play, or why the position "becomes loosing" if you don't invade there. I did learn from this section, but it could have been better.
The last part is self-test, which I think is an excellent idea to include in the book. Many of the questions where IMO reading (or in Chess terms: calculating) questions, which basically verified whether you can read 6 or 7 plies ahead. Once again, beginners do not have the coherent thought process that allows them to read properly, and this book does not offer any.
Another comment on the entire series up to now (Vol 1-3): the authors claim that by reading the first 3 books, you can improve up to level 14 or even 13 kyu. I think this is misleading, because knowledge does not automatically lead to skill, i.e. the ability to apply knowledge in practice. Although playing many games probably helps, it does not solve this problem entirely (at least not in my case). What would help, though, is to provide many more educational exercises, which seems to be missing in this series.
The second part goes over some actual 19x19 games, with and without handicap stones. In itself this is a useful way of teaching, but I often found the commentary of the authors rather shallow. Sure they mention here and there a variation, but more often they simply write down what any reader can see: "White extends at 3, Black blocks at 4, the White plays hane to attack", etc. The beginning player is often left wondering why the player chooses this side of the board to play, or why the position "becomes loosing" if you don't invade there. I did learn from this section, but it could have been better.
The last part is self-test, which I think is an excellent idea to include in the book. Many of the questions where IMO reading (or in Chess terms: calculating) questions, which basically verified whether you can read 6 or 7 plies ahead. Once again, beginners do not have the coherent thought process that allows them to read properly, and this book does not offer any.
Another comment on the entire series up to now (Vol 1-3): the authors claim that by reading the first 3 books, you can improve up to level 14 or even 13 kyu. I think this is misleading, because knowledge does not automatically lead to skill, i.e. the ability to apply knowledge in practice. Although playing many games probably helps, it does not solve this problem entirely (at least not in my case). What would help, though, is to provide many more educational exercises, which seems to be missing in this series.
September 13, 2013
This volume has its pluses and minuses.
As you can see by my rating, I have mixed emotions about this volume. Let me start with the bad points. The first part of the book goes over Seven Dangers and Eight Secrets, which would be a good idea if the instruction was at the level it should have been. In this section we just get an enumeration of this we should and shouldn't do when playing. The comments are really brief and do not really go much above and beyond what we already received in the previous volumes. I have actually read a book that is much better at conveying this same concepts, especially the misconceptions beginners usually have about the game. If you are interested in that specific topic you should check out "How Not to Play Go" by Yuan Zhou. This book has clear examples as to what to avoid and is very good instruction.
Anyway, back to this book, the parts I liked were the commented games. The second part of the book presents three commented games and these have a pretty high instructional value. Two of them are handicapped games and we get to see a little bit about the strategy to use in these games, which is very useful to the beginner since in many cases she will be playing black with some kind of handicap. The other game is an even game between two professionals. Even though it is a rather complex game, the authors focus on explaining the major aspects to the reader and do a very good job at that.
The book ends with a test similar to the one presented in volume 2. To summarize, the reason why I am giving this book only 3 stars is that I feel that the first part was the result of a lazy effort and was there just as an excuse to say they were giving the beginner more insights. There is not value in that, the games are the meat of this book, and in that part, I would have given a 4 star rating.
As you can see by my rating, I have mixed emotions about this volume. Let me start with the bad points. The first part of the book goes over Seven Dangers and Eight Secrets, which would be a good idea if the instruction was at the level it should have been. In this section we just get an enumeration of this we should and shouldn't do when playing. The comments are really brief and do not really go much above and beyond what we already received in the previous volumes. I have actually read a book that is much better at conveying this same concepts, especially the misconceptions beginners usually have about the game. If you are interested in that specific topic you should check out "How Not to Play Go" by Yuan Zhou. This book has clear examples as to what to avoid and is very good instruction.
Anyway, back to this book, the parts I liked were the commented games. The second part of the book presents three commented games and these have a pretty high instructional value. Two of them are handicapped games and we get to see a little bit about the strategy to use in these games, which is very useful to the beginner since in many cases she will be playing black with some kind of handicap. The other game is an even game between two professionals. Even though it is a rather complex game, the authors focus on explaining the major aspects to the reader and do a very good job at that.
The book ends with a test similar to the one presented in volume 2. To summarize, the reason why I am giving this book only 3 stars is that I feel that the first part was the result of a lazy effort and was there just as an excuse to say they were giving the beginner more insights. There is not value in that, the games are the meat of this book, and in that part, I would have given a 4 star rating.
July 23, 2020
I've now read three books in this series, which I value very much on the whole.
This book has two parts. The first has some very helpful do's and don'ts, the second part discussed some games that were actually played, commenting on the reasons behind the steps taken, why they were good, or where the player made a mistake.
I gave this book only three stars because in the second part it happened quite often that she said something like "it's obvious that this group lives" when it really wasn't obvious to me. She seemed to be referring to rules explained before, but I couldn't find where. I even looked back in the previous books to see if something similar was explained there, but didn't find it. So that was a bit disappointing.
So for me there is quite a gap between the basic outlines the first half of this book, and then the complex details of the real games in the end. I missed something there.
This book has two parts. The first has some very helpful do's and don'ts, the second part discussed some games that were actually played, commenting on the reasons behind the steps taken, why they were good, or where the player made a mistake.
I gave this book only three stars because in the second part it happened quite often that she said something like "it's obvious that this group lives" when it really wasn't obvious to me. She seemed to be referring to rules explained before, but I couldn't find where. I even looked back in the previous books to see if something similar was explained there, but didn't find it. So that was a bit disappointing.
So for me there is quite a gap between the basic outlines the first half of this book, and then the complex details of the real games in the end. I missed something there.
April 13, 2018
Three stars shouldn't be seen as a negative rating, this book does just what it sets out to do; build upon the teachings of the first two while introducing more advanced topics like playing style and theory. It's just that as the topics become more advanced, it becomes clear that strictly reading a book on Go is only going to take the reader so far, which is not very. Applying these principles by playing games and working out practice problems is essential, as I'm sure will be the case with the topics covered in books four and five, and any other Go book one might read.
May 9, 2019
Well after taking the quiz I scored at the very top of "Average" which means I must have learned something from this book but the lessons were so subtle and so short (most of this volume is commentary on demonstrative games) that I can't be certain. There are still many tactical concepts mentioned quickly here that I need to either work out for myself or see explained in detail. Overall this book left me feeling less confident about concepts which go beyond basic tactics but it did fill in a poetic aspect to the game, which is part of why I am so enamored.
October 31, 2018
A few principles, rather abstract this time, and three quality games with extensive, beginner-friendly explanation. Again, some may be unimpressed, but this is a very useful step to see how the parts of the game work together, where to get the ideas for the next move, and how to apply the principles in practice. It helped me a lot. The small test in the end shows how many topics were actually covered casually in the context of explaining the games.
February 12, 2023
Very poor compared to the first 2 books in the series. It felt as if it was rushed before a deadline.
The secrets and dangers section could have done with 30 more pages of examples. It seems as if this book was a bare minimum in terms of effort.
The games reviewed in the back of the book are also way beyond the skill level of the people reading the book. By the authors own admission on the "rank" page, volume 2 and 3 will only make you a 13/14 kyu player, so having game reviews of professional and high rank dan players is useless for anyone just learning the game. The moves and thought processes are way too advanced for a mid level DDK player.
For a good book on game reviews, I recommend "Go by example by Neil Moffat" where the author looks at mistakes made by decent DDK players and how to correct them to progress onto SDK. The author also tells you why the move was a mistake, what the correct move is and why other moves you may have thought of won't work... all with examples of each move.
A much better teaching book than this.
Spoiler Alert: Book 4 in this series is much better!! It seems as if Book 3 was so poorly received that the authors had to seriously step their game up for Book 4. Book 4 actually contains explanations for things that are happening and expands more on situations.
If you don't need to have the whole set, then I'd recommend skipping this book and going straight to Book 4.
The secrets and dangers section could have done with 30 more pages of examples. It seems as if this book was a bare minimum in terms of effort.
The games reviewed in the back of the book are also way beyond the skill level of the people reading the book. By the authors own admission on the "rank" page, volume 2 and 3 will only make you a 13/14 kyu player, so having game reviews of professional and high rank dan players is useless for anyone just learning the game. The moves and thought processes are way too advanced for a mid level DDK player.
For a good book on game reviews, I recommend "Go by example by Neil Moffat" where the author looks at mistakes made by decent DDK players and how to correct them to progress onto SDK. The author also tells you why the move was a mistake, what the correct move is and why other moves you may have thought of won't work... all with examples of each move.
A much better teaching book than this.
Spoiler Alert: Book 4 in this series is much better!! It seems as if Book 3 was so poorly received that the authors had to seriously step their game up for Book 4. Book 4 actually contains explanations for things that are happening and expands more on situations.
If you don't need to have the whole set, then I'd recommend skipping this book and going straight to Book 4.
May 28, 2018
A nice variety of things and easy to read. First there are several bits of advice, many of which amount to saying don't underestimate your opponent and remain calm - obvious, but can't really be repeated enough! I'd be several stones stronger if I could do this. Then there are commentaries on three games: even, 3- and 9-stone handicaps. Several pages are then devoted to showing where handicap stones go, which seems a little out of place - this could have even gone in the first volume of the series. Finally, some problems to test your skill. Not a bad go book for someone at my level.
August 1, 2024
g0ow go game for playstation II when they knew hoew to make games on the playstation back in 100 not like now in 204 -- gun for all ages give them out hand them to everyone but no bullets.
oh how i love to play the go
in my house and in the snow
icy stones make grabbing hard
when i play go in the yard
oh how i love to play the go
in my house and in the snow
icy stones make grabbing hard
when i play go in the yard
January 26, 2021
Se trata de un libro muy instructivo, basado en ideas generales apoyadas en numerosos ejemplos que aclaran bien dichas ideas. Incluye partidas reales revisadas, sobre todo partidas con hándicap.
November 22, 2022
I like the full game reviews and the whole board problems, but I wish there was a little more theory to tie it together.
June 23, 2023
This series was a fantastic bringing-up-to-speed for the game of Go.
November 4, 2023
Felt about the same level is Volume II? Hopefully, the next couple of books step it up.
February 28, 2011
This book begins with the seven dangers and eight secrets of Go. The idea, of course, is to avoid the first group and practice the second. The problems is that the dangers are either vague or obvious, and the secrets are all very obvious if you have read any other book on Go. The eight secrets hardly warrant the use of the word "secret".
Much like the second volume in this series, there are plenty of diagram with explanation for each. Unfortunately, the explanations often leave the less experienced player wanting. It would be easy to counter that less experienced players should not read this volume yet. On the other side, however, many of the problems are rudimentary, but then for other problems, the solutions offered by the authors are far from obvious or cryptic in their explanation. I felt this book was very uneven in the level the authors were attempt to hit.
In the final section of this book, the authors go through three games, move by move. In most instances, the explanations are valuable, and the authors even show how other moves would have worked out better or worse than the actual gameplay. Unfortunately, too often, the critique from above occurs in these game explanations. The authors might write something like, "this move threatens to cut" without an explanation of where the cut would take place (sometimes there is more than one option to the less experienced eye - like mine). My response was, "really? in which direction? I don't know. That's why I'm reading your book."
Overall, despite the lovely format of the books in this series, I'm somewhat disappointed with what I've read in these two books (I read volumes 2 & 3). The second volume received a more favorable response from me, but after this third volume, I'm disinclined to continue this series.
Much like the second volume in this series, there are plenty of diagram with explanation for each. Unfortunately, the explanations often leave the less experienced player wanting. It would be easy to counter that less experienced players should not read this volume yet. On the other side, however, many of the problems are rudimentary, but then for other problems, the solutions offered by the authors are far from obvious or cryptic in their explanation. I felt this book was very uneven in the level the authors were attempt to hit.
In the final section of this book, the authors go through three games, move by move. In most instances, the explanations are valuable, and the authors even show how other moves would have worked out better or worse than the actual gameplay. Unfortunately, too often, the critique from above occurs in these game explanations. The authors might write something like, "this move threatens to cut" without an explanation of where the cut would take place (sometimes there is more than one option to the less experienced eye - like mine). My response was, "really? in which direction? I don't know. That's why I'm reading your book."
Overall, despite the lovely format of the books in this series, I'm somewhat disappointed with what I've read in these two books (I read volumes 2 & 3). The second volume received a more favorable response from me, but after this third volume, I'm disinclined to continue this series.
February 25, 2013
It just didn't feel like as strong of a book compared to volumes 1 & 2.
The lessons (what to do and what not to do) are only briefly touched upon and don't find their way into any of the game commentaries.
It seemed weird to have an explantation of the handicap and ranking system in the third volume. It feels like it belongs as you are first being introduced to the game.
This book also includes some "For the experts" sidebars, which doesn't make a lot of sense because well, the book is called "How to play go" Adding to that there are a few sections where the book asks the reader "Can you see why..." "What should black do..." that expect the reader to know the answer which I found annoying.
There are also "fun facts" about Go which while interesting, only make an appearance twice in the book. If you are going to do a "fun facts" thing, I want more than only two of them.
I did "Average" on the problems sets found at the back of the book. So I sort of feel like now's the point where I have to take some time to review before moving onto Vol. 4.
The lessons (what to do and what not to do) are only briefly touched upon and don't find their way into any of the game commentaries.
It seemed weird to have an explantation of the handicap and ranking system in the third volume. It feels like it belongs as you are first being introduced to the game.
This book also includes some "For the experts" sidebars, which doesn't make a lot of sense because well, the book is called "How to play go" Adding to that there are a few sections where the book asks the reader "Can you see why..." "What should black do..." that expect the reader to know the answer which I found annoying.
There are also "fun facts" about Go which while interesting, only make an appearance twice in the book. If you are going to do a "fun facts" thing, I want more than only two of them.
I did "Average" on the problems sets found at the back of the book. So I sort of feel like now's the point where I have to take some time to review before moving onto Vol. 4.
January 5, 2011
This book is a step down from the compendium of practical knowledge that was Book 2.
Many of the points made by the first section are trivial pieces of advice, or vague aphorisms and the information is not as directly applicable. I really enjoyed the sections on "vulgar" moves (plays that force an opponent to strengthen his structures but don't actually gain you anything), dual-life (also known as "seki"), driving opponents into your "thickness" (strong inward-facing walls)
The majority of the book is given over to a variety of games at different handicaps; the style of commentary is very appropriate to my level - directed investigations of major tactical choices, but it's more difficult to draw out general lessons. I feel like I'm not keeping up with the level of thought involved here.
Many of the points made by the first section are trivial pieces of advice, or vague aphorisms and the information is not as directly applicable. I really enjoyed the sections on "vulgar" moves (plays that force an opponent to strengthen his structures but don't actually gain you anything), dual-life (also known as "seki"), driving opponents into your "thickness" (strong inward-facing walls)
The majority of the book is given over to a variety of games at different handicaps; the style of commentary is very appropriate to my level - directed investigations of major tactical choices, but it's more difficult to draw out general lessons. I feel like I'm not keeping up with the level of thought involved here.
October 12, 2013
The third volume of Janice Kim's series on learning how to play Go was a bit of a disappointment. After two volumes of excellent instruction, this one lacked the level of instruction that was prevalent in the previous volumes. The first half of the book was clearly the weaker section - not terrible, but it fell short of expectations. The second half was much better, as it featured annotated games, with top-notch commentary! One even game and two handicap games were analyzed. Despite its shortcomings, I look forward to the next book in the series.
September 19, 2007
Third book in Janice Kim and Jeong Soo-hyun's "Learn to Play Go" series. While I've found the series to be a good intro, I am beginning to feel the lack of strategy development in the series at this point. I suspect they discuss strategy more in the next volumes, but I'm of the opinion that a more indepth discussion of, say, the opening strategies would have been appropriate by now. In short, not bad, but best supplemented by the Elementary Go series.
January 17, 2009
Volumn three of Janice Kim's series on learning Go, covers actual game play and stratagies. She goes over bad habits that beginners have and what they need to do to eliminate them. She also covers the good habits of professional or high level players and how to emulate them. She provides several game examples, in which she explains good and bad moves in even games, small handicap games and large handicap games.
July 9, 2012
This volume of the series started to include longer lines of play with less explanation and some of the positions arrived at we're opaque to me. The author would discuss how one position was obviously stronger than another at various points but it was difficult for me as a novice to understand why she felt that way. It almost felt like some stage of the instruction was skipped. Perhaps I'm just thick when it comes to go though.
March 1, 2013
I thought the seven dangers/eight secrets section of the book was okay, but could have been meatier. The sample games in the second part of the book and well-commented and show how useful a commented game can be to a beginning player.
That being said, there are many useful sites to download commented games from and I think this book is less practical than her first two. If you could borrow it versus buying it, I'd say you would be better off.
That being said, there are many useful sites to download commented games from and I think this book is less practical than her first two. If you could borrow it versus buying it, I'd say you would be better off.
April 22, 2009
Not as good as the last one, but still very helpful. Replaying pro games, particularly with such ample commentary, is a good way to learn how strong players react to adversity. Definitely refined my understanding of invasion and extension and the rest.
February 21, 2011
A clear book, good as a refresher on what's most important, but too little material for the price. "Better than thinking about winning is to think about playing well. You can play good go, get stronger, and win more easily this way".
June 15, 2013
I happened to be the target level and have to say that for me this was excellent reading. There's few simple dos and don'ts (simple to explain, atleast) and three surprisingly interesting walkthroughs on actual games. Great book!
February 5, 2015
The Dragon Style (Learn to Play Go, Volume III) (Learn to Play Go Service) by Janice Kim (1996)
January 13, 2018
Skvělá série knih pro začínající hráče královské hry GO
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews