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
BIZARRE PROBLEMS
One of the more unusual go books of recent years is the work of two Japanese players very popular in the west. The one whose name is most prominent on the cover is Takemiya Masaki. The one who, I guess did did most of the work, is Nakayama Noriyuki.
The book is titled "Go tesujis that can be learnt from bizarre shapes". Parts 1 and 3 of this work comprise a collection of the sorts of bizarre problems that everyone will recognise as Nakayama's trademark from the "Enigma of Go". He's still at it - a recent problem involved stones making the shape 2001.
Part 1 presents problems by Nakayama, while those in Part 3 are ancient ones. This sort of problem really is ancient. The Japanese word for them is borrowed from the Chinese and refers to the intricately carved openwork screens that, nowadays, are most seen on miniature ivory (or mock ivory) models in various Chinatowns.
Part 2 is a selection of small-scale life-and-death problems, each under a different tesuji heading, so that you broadly know the answer before you do the problem - although there is often a sting in the tail.
Although it is more of a sorbet than a main course, this is essentially a problem book and so can easily be used even by readers who know little Japanese.
There is one rather unusual feature to it, rather daring by status-conscious Japanese standards: you really have to hunt to find a reference to the dan-grades of the players.
We present here a sample problem of each type, full-board and tsume-go.
Problem 1
The title is not specially significant, but refers only to the stones in the centre and centre right.
Problem 2
You are told it's a monkey jump, but....
