This is a series of translated snapshots intended to shed fresh light on some familiar facets of professional go, in the same way that old black-and-white photos of modern scenes can open windows in the mind.
Selection here is also meant as a personal recommendation and implict review of the books from which the excerpts are taken, although I cannot guarantee they are readily available. - JF
GO SUPER BOOK 2
The book described here elicited a strong frisson of interest when I mentioned it on the news group rec.games.go - having only seen the title! 'How to Improve on a 5x5 board' is so seductively suggestive of easy learning...
I have just received a copy and now offer a taster. Unlike most of the books reviewed in this series so far, it is especially suitable for players who do not read the original language, although it is a problem book, and as with all problem books it is useful to know a few characters covering "right answer", "Black to play" and so on.
It is split into three parts: Hop, Step and Jump. Each part is a set of endgame problems, though with life-and-death, semeais and kos implicit in the variations.
The "Hop" part is the easy section, but not too easy - the whole book, by Fukui Masaaki 8-dan, is rated low kyu to high dan, but a nice touch is that the individual problems within each section are not rated, so that you have to assume that each could be be a dan problem.
Super Book of 5x5 Go
The "Step" part is a notch harder. You have to learn to cope with the sorts of replies that catch you by surprise.
The "Jump" part, harder still (or maybe just more satisfying) is where your moves bite the other guy in the bum.
An example from each section is given here. The full book has 44, 40 and 36 problems in the respective sections. Highly recommended.
