Teach You How to Play Go. Beginner Level. Volume 1

Author: Wang Yuan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-03-01
Features: The level of Go proficiency is akin to educational attainment, categorized into junior high, high school, and university levels, with additional degrees such as Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctorate. However, to specify the exact level of Go proficiency is not straightforward and requires some explanation. We know that players are divided into professional and amateur categories, with professionals being higher in skill than amateurs. The indicator of a professional player's level is the dan rank, ranging from 1-dan (shodan) to 9-dan, with higher ranks signifying greater prestige. If one does not reach the level of a professional shodan, they cannot be considered a professional player. Amateur players are different; even if they do not reach the level of an amateur shodan, they are still classified as amateurs. The indicators of an amateur player's level are both dan and kyu ranks. High-level amateurs are ranked by dan, while lower-level amateurs are ranked by kyu. Amateur dan ranks typically start from 2-dan and go up to 7-dan. When it comes to amateur kyu ranks, it gets a bit complicated, mainly because there are different grading systems. For example, in Korea, there are twenty kyu ranks, starting from 20-kyu and going up to -kyu, and reaching 1-kyu means one is very close to the amateur shodan level. In China, some say there are twenty kyu ranks, while others say there are ten, but the ranking order is always from 1-kyu to the highest. I prefer the ten-kyu system. I believe that there is already a lack of a unified basis for what level corresponds to what skill level, and if the divisions are too fine, it becomes even harder to clarify. Therefore, when grading Go enthusiasts based on their different skill levels, we adopt the ten-kyu system as a premise. This book primarily introduces foundational knowledge of opening principles, large territories (daichō), splitting investments (bun'in), side-building (hasami), attacking (sente), expansion (shika), defense (fukuro), practical applications of various moves, cutting (setsu) and connecting (ren), emerging (debi) and settling (jiten), life-and-death exercises, star-pressure (hisha) long patterns, star-rely (kake) patterns, star-small-fly (ko) patterns, star-single-head (ita) patterns, star-large-fly (oge) patterns, star-one-space-side (ita) patterns, other star patterns, and eating (sente) techniques review, and handiwork (tenken) exercises.