Library

Background

Durham Go Club has a reasonably extensive library, owing much to a one-time player, Brian Wilson, and his widow, who passed his equipment and library to the club after his death. We are all very grateful for this. This library has been gradually supplemented with problem books and other purchases, and with "long-term loans" of books from members who have got beyond the level of some of their books. In addition, most members are more than willing to lend any books they have to other club members, and so we include these books here.

Opinions differ hugely on the value of study from books. Consensus is certainly that the best way to improve at Go is to play, and play, and play, particularly if you can play stronger players. However, most people agree that at certain stages, various sorts of study can be valuable. I have heard some of the strongest players I know argue over specifics, so don't worry if you hear a passionate opinion one way or the other. If you feel inclined to read a book, read it! If a stronger player who knows you recommends a book, too, it's probably worthwhile - they are in a good position to gauge your precise situation. And if, of course, like Russell Haswell, you are unable to play anyone - in Russell's case because of the months he spends at sea! - probably reading books and doing problems is better than nothing!

If you have books which you'd like to see included/are willing to lend, please let us know!

Note: where there is currently no comment, don't read this as a reflection on the book - I haven't read all of the books myself and not everyone's given me opinions! Leading on from that, if you have an opinion on any of these books, we're always happy to add it

If you would like to borrow any of these books, please ask the respective owner. Club books are currently held by the Bishop. If you can't get hold of the owner at a meeting, we can provide an email address for you.

The Books

Owner Title Author/Editor Comments
Rich BentleyAttack and DefenseIshida Akira and James Davies
Club (x2)Oriental GamesR.C. Bell
Club and Rich BentleyThe Protracted Game: A Wei-ch'i Interpretation of Maoist Revolutionary StrategyScott A. BoormanCompletely ridiculous.
Club (x2) and Rich BentleyMastering the Basics: One Thousand and One Life-and-Death ProblemsRichard Bozulich
Rich BentleyMastering the Basics: Five Hundred and One Tesuji ProblemsRichard Bozulich
Club and Rich BentleyMastering the Basics: The Basics of Go StrategyRichard Bozulich
ClubThe Go Player's Almanac 2001Richard BozulichThis is a rich tome containing many fascinating facts and beautiful photographs. It discusses Go's history, including the legends surrounding its invention, Go equipment, Go rules, Go in Art and various other topics.
Club and Rich BentleyGet Strong at InvadingRichard BozulichVolume 5 in the "Get Strong at Go" Series
Rich BentleyGet Strong at the OpeningRichard Bozulich
Rich BentleyGet Strong at Joseki IRichard Bozulich
Rich BentleyGet Strong at Joseki IIRichard Bozulich
Rich BentleyGet Strong at Joseki IIIRichard Bozulich
Club and Rich BentleyGet Strong at TesujiRichard Bozulich
Rich BentleyGet Strong at the EndgameRichard Bozulich
Rich BentleyGet Strong at Life and DeathRichard Bozulich
Rich BentleyGet Strong at AttackingRichard Bozulich
Rich BentleyPositional JudgementCho Chikun'High speed game analysis'
Club The Magic of Go Cho Chikun Cho Chikun is one of the most famous Go pros of all time; in this book, he teaches Go within a framework of its cultural and historical interest as well as its simplicity and strategic and tactical interests. It's probably not an ideal book to actually learn from, but it is extremely interesting to read. (Paul Callaghan)
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Cho Chikun is an extremely famous Go professional of recent years - born in Korea and trained in Japan from the age of 6. (Jenny Radcliffe)
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A beginner's book but suffers from the rather odd assumption that the reader knows the rules before the author actually teaches the rules. Each chapter begins with a couple of notes about Go history and culture. These are rather good but I would recommend it only for interest. Too much Japanese lingo for me. (Russell Haswell)
Club Go Problems for Kyu Level Players: Volume 2: Uplifting Exercises William S Cobb  
Rich BentleyThe Official British Go Association Song BookCompilationDoes what it says on the tin. Great for long car journeys.
Rich BentleyWeiqi Rapid Drill 800 ProblemsCompilationBig book of go problems. Chinese, but easy to follow (essential characters annotated)
Rich BentleyHeading for Shodan - Fundamental Problem Collection 1-3CompilationVolumes 1-3 include tesuji, fuseki and joseki problems respectively. Chinese, but easy to follow (essential characters annotated)
ClubThe World of WeiqiCompilation?(Non-English)
Club and Paul CallaghanAn Introduction to GoJames Davies and Richard BozulichA simple introduction to the game, for beginners.
Club and Rich BentleyTesujiJames DaviesVolume 3 in the "Elementary Go Series", suitable for double-figure kyu players who wish to improve their short-range tactical fighting skills, and indeed for anyone up to 5 kyu to practice, since it contains a lot of interesting problems.
Club and Rich BentleyLife and DeathJames DaviesVolume 4 in the 'Elementary Go Series'.
ClubThe Middle Game of GoSakata EioA dense book with detailed analysis of many different variations of simple middle game positions.
ClubModern Joseki and Fuseki: Volume 1 - Parallel FusekiSakata Eio
ClubModern Joseki and Fuseki: Volume 2 - The Opening Theory of GoSakata Eio
Club (x2)The Hitachi 36th European Go Congress, Canterbury 1992 - Compendium of GamesEuroGo News
Rich Bentley400 Years of Go in JapanAndrew GrantAccount of the development of modern go in Japan.
ClubOpening Theory Made EasyOtake HideoTwenty Strategic Principles to Improve your Opening Game. Called "Elementary" by the BGA Bookshop, it's probably suitable for 15 kyu to 5 kyu players.
Rich BentleyFirst KyuSung-Hwa HongAllegedly 'a compelling, insightful and haunting tale of love, sacrifice, the search for excellence, and Go -- the world's oldest game'
Rich BentleyHikaru No Go 1-8Yumi Hotta and Takeshi ObataGo manga
Rich BentleyKey Concepts in Life and Death - Inside Moves and Under the Stones TechniquesRichard Hunter
Rich BentleyCounting Liberties and Winning Capturing RacesRichard Hunter
Club and Rich BentleyDictionary of Basic Joseki: Volumes 1-3Yoshio Ishida
Club and Rich BentleyIn The BeginningIkuro IshigureVolume 1 in the 'Elementary Go Series'
Rich BentleyGo for BeginnersKaoru Iwamoto
ClubThe 1971 Honinbo TournamentKaoru Iwamoto
ClubGo: Step by StepFrank Janssen
ClubPair GoJapanese Pair Go AssociationPair Go is, as implied by the name, where two players play as a team. Formally, one should be male and the other female.
Rich BentleyFighting KoJin Jiang
ClubKage's Secret Chronicles of Handicap GoKageyamaThis book is immensely fun to read and provides an useful guide to a kyu player of any level on how to attack stronger players. Kageyama's writing style is engaging and inspiring.
Club (x2) and Rich BentleyLessons in the Fundamentals of GoKageyamaEssential reading.
Rich BentleyDictionary of Basic Fuseki: Volumes 1-2Rin Kaiho
Rich BentleyThe Direction of PlayTakeo Kajiwara
Rich BentleyThe Master of GoYasunari KawabataChronicles the last game of Shusai's (one time Honinbo) career.
Rich BentleyGo - The World's most Fascinating Game, Volumes 1 and 2Nihon Ki'inNot really very good, according to Rich.
Rich BentleyNihon Ki'in Small Encyclopedia Volume 1: ProverbsNihon Ki'inThe Nihon Ki'in is one of the Japanese professional Go associations. This book is probably most useful to players between 15 kyu - 5 kyu. It assesses a small number of Go proverbs and discusses where they do and do not apply.
Rich BentleyNihon Ki'in Small Encyclopedia Volume 2: FusekiNihon Ki'in
Club (x2) and Rich Bentley38 Basic JosekiKiyoshi Kosugi and James DaviesVolume 2 in the "Elementary Go Series", Gerry Mills (the BGA Bookseller) considers it as "elementary" and Edwin says it makes an interesting introduction to the sort of shapes that appear in the opening, but should not be memorised.
Club and Rich BentleyThe Game of GoMatthew MacFadyenMatthew MacFadyen has been British Go Champion for 20 (non-consecutive) years and this book has interest for that alone. It is intended for complete beginners, being the book that accompanies a simple card board and plastic stones.
Stuart WatsonTeach Yourself GoCharles MatthewsCharles is a regular contributor to Jan van der Steen's Go Base, the newsgroup rec.games.go and the Wiki Sensei's Library. Although this book is for beginners, there is plenty of information crammed into it and players up to 10 kyu should benefit from reading it, especially the later chapters.
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Russell's notes to me on his books say only "superb"!
ClubBe a Master at GoCharles Matthews
ClubWhat's Your Rating?Naoki MiyamotoThis book presents exercises and from your (multiple-choice) answers assign you a grade between 6 kyu and 7 dan. Edwin, currently 3 kyu, was assigned 2 dan in the opening; Leigh Callaghan, who doesn't play, got 4 dan ... taking this book seriously may cause mockery at tournaments, but the problems are interesting and your ultimate score may amuse.
ClubStrategic Concepts of GoNagahara
Rich BentleyThe Treasure Chest EnigmaNakayama NoriyukiEssays, game commentaries, some problems
Club and Rich BentleyAppreciating Famous GamesShuzo Ohira
Club and Rich BentleyThe EndgameTomoko Ogawa and James DaviesVolume 6 in the "Elementary Go Series", Gerry Mills (the BGA Bookseller) considers it "elementary" level, and Edwin says that while he found it tedious he also got stronger at the endgame as a result of reading it. It would probably be challenging but worthwhile reading for a double-figure player.
ClubThe Art of Go Series: Vol. 1 - Connecting StonesWu Piao and Yu XingThis book consists of a series of plausible problems - the sort which can occur in any game - and their solutions, along with discussion of why the solutions given are correct. The problems range from very simple to so complex that I don't fully understand them even if I read the explanations! It is aimed at approximately 7k and a little higher, I believe, and is well worth looking at.
Rich BentleyThe Power of the Star Point John PowerTranslation from Takagawa's book 'Sanrensei no Iryoku'
Rich BentleyInvincibleJohn PowerA collection of the games of Shusaku
Rich BentleyCatching Scent of VictoryO RisseiVolume 2 in the (currently incomplete) 'The Heart of Go Discovery Series'. Translated by Robert J. Terry
Club??? 2008Igo Ryozanpaku(Non-English)
Club??? 2009Igo Ryozanpaku(Non-English)
Club, Paul Callaghan and Rich BentleyThe Girl Who Played GoShan SaA novel based around Go; opinions vary on how much the author actually knows about the game.
Club and Rich BentleyA Way of Play for the 21st CenturyGo Seigen
Rich BentleyDictionary of Basic Tesuji: Volumes 1-3Fusjisawa Shuko
Rich BentleyChanging One's Conceptions - Awaji's AphorismsAwaji ShuzoVoume 4 in the (currently incomplete) 'The Heart of Go Discovery Series'
ClubGo: International Handbook and DictionaryJohn S Tilley
Rich BentleyYang's Workshop Lectures 1-3Yilun Yang
Rich BentleyFundamental Principles of GoYilun Yang
Club (x2) and Rich BentleyGraded Go Problems for Beginners Volume 2Kano YoshinoriThe club has (at least) two copies of this volume, which is aimed at 20k to 25k players according to the cover but is generally recognised as being useful up to at least 15k and probably higher.
Paul Callaghan and Rich BentleyGraded Go Problems for Beginners Volume 3Kano YoshinoriAimed at 15k to 20k players according to the book itself, but with most people finding it useful in the 5k to 15k range.
ClubGraded Go Problems for Beginners Volume 4Kano YoshinoriAdvanced problems
Rich BentleyMastering the Basics: Five Hundred and One Opening ProblemsRob bon Zeijst and Richard Bozulich
Rich BentleyMastering the Basics: Making Good ShapeRob bon Zeijst and Richard Bozulich
Rich BentleyMastering the Basics: All About KoRob bon Zeijst and Richard Bozulich

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