Basic Techniques of Go Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)If you know the basic rules of go and want to improve, how do you move from beginner to intermediate play? One option is to buy a bunch of intermediate books, each covering a different topic (like tesuji or handicap play). Sound expensive? Maybe this is the book for you.
As an intermediate book that covers most major elements of the game, "Basic Techniques of Go" is hard to beat. Where else can you find a Go book that covers so many topics? Overall strategy? Got it. Detailed tactics of common positions? Got it. Tesuji? Yose (endgame)? Fuseki? Joseki? Handicap play? Got them all. That being said, the largest sections of this book cover tesuji, yose (endgame), and 9, 6, and 4-stone handicap play.
Now of course, having all these topics means this book is DENSE. Be prepared to work out positions that seem obvious to the authors. Also, the introduction lets you know which chapters are more difficult, so just save those for later (or just skim them).
I only give this book 4 stars because the layout could be more organized. It's systematic enough to be a reference, but it may be hard to find the specific thing you're looking for. Also, the number of Japanese go terms can be a bit daunting, and there is no glossary (this may have been fixed in recent editions).
Overall, I feel that "Basic Techniques of Go" is an excellent whole-game intermediate book that will last you a long time. I think this book will help players ranked 15-kyu to 1-dan, but I especially recommend it for 10-kyu to 5-kyu players.

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