Learn to Play Go, Vol. 4: Battle Strategies [Paperback] [2011] (Author) Janice Kim

Learn to Play Go #4

by Jeong Soo-Hyun

Learn to play Go - the elegant game that has enthralled millions of people around the world for millennia. In Volume 4 of this award-winning series, professional Go player Janice Kim 3 dan teaches you the essential principles and techniques involved with Go fighting that will raise your level of play - from invasions, reductions, running battles, and contact fights, to life and death situations and capturing races.

Genres: Go, Nonfiction, Games, Reference, Gaming

Unknown Binding

First published September 1, 1997

Reviews

[Thibault Busschots · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a beginner, the material covered here is definitely interesting but a lot of it definitely went over my head. Fascinating stuff, just not for beginning go players.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fourth volume in Kim and Hyun's Learn to Play Go series, aimed at lower kyu rank players, was much more helpful than volume three. There are many diagrams of realistic play situations, no longer the simple and obvious ones of previous volumes, but still simple enough for a lower-ranking player like me to grasp. We are not yet into the esoterica of advanced go, or dan-level problems. Most of the problems were challenging for me, but not over my head.

Battle Strategies is a basic tutorial in invasion and reduction, attacking, and making life. Most of the scenarios are middle-game sorts of situations. There is a lot of discussion of ko fighting and capturing races, including an introduction to the more mathematical aspects of go (counting liberties can become more complicated than appears at first glance).

I found this to be a valuable book. I am still not sure how far this series has gotten me; theoretically (according to Many Faces of Go) I am now 14 kyu, but sometimes I still make dumb beginner mistakes. I am starting to see the big picture, a teeny tiny bit, and recognizing patterns and playing blindly less often, but I know a real player will still slaughter me.

I wish this book had covered openings more, which is where I am still playing a bit wildly, and also a little more help with the big picture instead of focusing exclusively on small-scale battles. (This book is really more about tactics than strategy, in my opinion.)

Definitely a worthy investment for a beginning player, but there are certainly some topics for which you'll need to look elsewhere.

[Chris Bumgardner · Rating 5 out of 5]

A significant increase in complexity over book three. Great value.

[Evan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book covers quite a bit of material which, not surprisingly, was difficult to readily absorb and immediately transfer onto the playing board. I think the last three volumes in this series will be reference books to which the reader refers back rather than novels which are read, digested, and not picked up again. Additionally, the material would undoubtedly be interpreted differently by the same reader after they've played X number of games and gained experience. I'll read the last book just to complete the series but it's pretty clear now that one never really finishes learning to play Go.

[Adrian Alvarez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was so ready for this book in the series. Finally, very practical topics such as invasion and reduction, running battles, and capturing races. I can't say I absorbed every nuance of the chapters on ko fighting and killing shapes but the foundations are well laid - I'm essentially ready to drill tsumego until throw ins and pins and vital points are second nature. A theory book can only do so much.

I highly recommend this series and the game of Go. It is quickly becoming one of the most fascinating games I have encountered.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the test at the end but I think the overall strategy is more difficult to read than tsumego type problems (of which there are an abundance) so the more valuable tests would have been more battle strategies. All in all, I feel the battle strategies chamber should be longer since its the hardest to find resources on. Furthermore, it's also the title of the book.

[Jiří Oukropec · Rating 5 out of 5]

Skvělá série knih pro začínající hráče královské hry GO

[Mish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this books compared to part 3. Has a lot more relevant and usable information. It's definitely one I'll have to go over again and again to drill in some key concepts.

[Daniel Laufer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series was a fantastic bringing-up-to-speed for the game of Go.

[Sebastian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice volume, improvement over the previous one.

After a great start to this series, I was somewhat disappointed with volume 3 since I thought it lacked substance. That flaw is completely corrected here. The authors provide us with a manual packed with valuable information for conducting our battles. The material is still at a beginners level, but it will probably be useful even for some single digit kyu players (at least those below 5-7 kyu).

Before jumping into the tactical section of this book, we are presented with an explanation of the important difference between invasion and reduction. This is crucial, since invading when you should reduce provides your opponent not only the opportunity to profit from killing, but also it makes your opponent strong which he can use to help other sectors of the board. Likewise, if you reduce when you should invade, you are going easy on your opponent.

Then we jump right into the battle strategies. There are a broad selection of key ideas and elements presented to the reader. These are helpful and are illustrated with nice examples. It is true, the treatment of the topics is not very deep, but it does provide a very good basis to help the beginner with getting stronger. Players stronger 5 kyu will not find any beneficial information here. I am currently 7 kyu and even though I knew most of the concepts I found some sections that helped with my understanding.

Attacking, defending and life and death are some of the key chapters here. All have clearly presented information that is valuable to the reader. I did like the chapter on ko, since it gives us clear guidance on how to approach these fights. At my level I have been guilty of avoiding ko when I am ahead in a game and ended up losing as a result. After reading this book I have ingrained in my mind that in most cases you should fight the ko. The chapter on capturing races is probably the weakest part of this book, since the explanation could have been so much more clear and precise. If you really want to understand how to evaluate capturing races, even extremely complex ones, read The Second Book of Go (Beginner and Elementary Go Books) by Bozulich.

Overall, there is enough helpful material here to make this book a purchase worth your while. Especially if you are in the range 15k to 7k.

[Towerwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

This 4th part of Janice Kim's series "Learn to play Go" is clearly a level higher than the previous volumes. It discusses the middle game in part I, and Life and Death problems in part II. The good news is that it contains a lot of useful knowledge. The bad news is that this knowledge is not easily converted to skill. The reason is that Kim presents about 50 different battle strategies, some of them closely related, but most of them not so related (at least so it seems). The book does not contain a synthesis or a coherent framework where all the strategies fit nicely in, which makes it more difficult to remember them, or to choose between them when several strategies seem to apply. I therefore score this book 3 stars as its impact on my games is currently not that high. Perhaps in the future, when I'm a bit more advanced, and look at it again, this may change.

I did very much appreciate the section about Ko fighting. Before this book I found Ko fighting a bit of an exotic topic, which only seemed to be useful very occasionally. After reading this book, I now realise that Ko's are actually essential to Go.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not a strong go player, but I have read a lot of beginner and elementary go books, and the Learn to Play Go series is my favorite. I have not seen another elementary go book which is clearer and easier to understand. Nothing else comes close in conveying the necessary concepts of go and illustrating them at a beginner's level, it's as simple as that. Especially helpful is the very copious use of diagrams. You're never asked to dissect half a game of numbered stones at a glance, rather, Janice Kim spreads all of her examples out over numerous diagrams, making her examples extremely easy to grasp. This same approach is used throughout the series, which takes you from the most basic rules up to a pretty sophisticated level.

[Damon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fourth volumn of Janice Kim's series on learning Go, covers attack and defence, creating life for a group of stones, killing a group, and basic middle game stratagies and manouvers. However, the middle game is the most chaotic time of the game and it is very difficult to explain clearly many of the concepts needed to play a good middle game. So where Janice is strong in explaining basic concepts, she is weaker at explaining the complex.

[Serge Pierro · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the third book in the series was a bit of a disappointment, (when compared to the first two volumes) Kim returns to her original form with the fourth volume. This one concentrates on the middle game - covering various attacking and defensive concepts. Topics include invasion, reduction, making groups live, Ko fights, etc.

Lots of good information for a beginner looking to learn how to attack. Worth reading more than once!

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Janice Kim returns to the form of the second book, with plenty of tips on fighting in Go. There are some repeats, but she goes into greater depth here, choosing where to cut, how to count liberties inside of eyes, how to choose between reduction and invasion, and so on.

At this stage the advice provided here isn't able to give me the massive improvements of book two, but it's still welcome.

[William Herbst · Rating 2 out of 5]

The problems and board situations in this book were more than a bit beyond my ability to solve in many instances. After the first two volumes the complexity of the oars situations in this series seems to have ramped up exponentially.

[Onda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book covering wide range of topics. Lot's of examples on how this-or-that technique might come up as a variation. Read, play or be a wanker!

[Recle · Rating 5 out of 5]

https://browngostone.wordpress.com/20...

[Valentyn Danylchuk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another nice incremental update. Getting more advanced, staying accessible.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of specific examples, but many of them felt half-finished - I didn't see the outcome I was supposed to.