Hello
i am for now currently only learning by playing but i think i hit or will hit i will with this technic.
Does someone know prefferable a printed book about playing with infuence or boxing style, best with focus on the beginnign and middle game?
Thans for answering
Not specifically about influence but “attack and defense” covers many basic middle game principles.
There are very few books in english on middle game and the one @jlt mentioned is surely a must to study.
You can look at “lessons in the fundamentals” too.
There is “all about thickness”.
For opening you have “sanrensai” and “chinese opening”, two books written before the AI came in, so they don’t take in account the new theory and josekis.
Several books come to mind, though nearly all of them predate AI and the theory advances that AI brought.
Enclosure Josekis: Attacking and Defending the Corner
Takemiya Masaki
—You may as well start with the master of influence himself. Takemiya gained popularity for his natural (cosmic) style of play, emphasizing big spheres of influence and gaining territory through attacking invading stones. This book shows you how to do that in the most common patterns of his day. These are not necessarily the most common corner patterns of today, but it’s still a useful resource given your interest in the subject. B+
Takemiya also published some articles in the British Go Journal. Read them for free here: this-is-go-the-natural-way-part7-takemiya-masaki-britishgojournal-1990-edition-no-81
Opening Theory Made Easy
Otake Hideo
—Don’t bother with this one. It’s too easy for you, if you ask me. It’s best suited for DDKs and teaches basic principles, like 4-4, 5-4, and pincers being good for building influence, along with some example sequences. B-
The Middle Game of Go
Sakata Eio
—Sakata reviews the middle game from a few of his matches here. Chapter one explores White invading a giant sphere of influence. The commentary is sublime and covers some of yesteryear’s common middlegame sequences and shapes to help you really understand. But Sakata’s opponents were typically the ones with the influence. This book is mostly about how to wreck it. B+
Attack and Defense (Elementary go Series, Vol. 5)
Akira Ishida
—A must-read classic. Reread it daily, and place it under your pillow at night to learn by osmosis. A+
Saying your style is boxing style is kinda an insult so you don’t want to develop that!
Also I would still recommend opening theory made easy for an OGS 9k as OGS ranks are quite weak now so such a player is still DDK level in EGF which is how I mentally think of ranks for book levels. In fact I saw a 3d friend of mine rereading it at a tournament some years ago to focus on the basics.
A bit off topic, I thought after OGS and EGF both updated their rankings that their kyu and low dan ranks were very similar and only the high dan ranks diverged significantly in strength?
OK, nevermind the ranks and I’ll say it directly: reviewing OP’s games from last thread I saw mistakes of a level that reading and applying Opening Theory Made Easy will help rectify.
One could also look at some opening theory books like Pattens of the Sanrensei by Michael Redmond.
https://senseis.xmp.net/?PatternsOfTheSanrensei
One can find a digital version at https://gobooks.com/ for instance, or find a physical copy somewhere.
The Sanrensei opening being known to lead to moyos and fights from an invasion.
One could also try to read about some strategies for handicap go. There’s a couple of books like “Handicap Go and the Sanrensei opening” by Rob van Zeijst and Richard Bozulich, or Handicap Go by Nagahara Yoshiaki and Richard Bozulich. The idea being that traditional handicap on the star points, one tries to use them for influence. Give up the corners and then attack with the outside influence.
Or there’s some videos about these things also.
When I was 8k EGF, another 8k told me he found the book “opening theory made easy” very useful.
I like a lot the other classic book “in the beginning” but i would like a rewriting with the AI new perspectives.
There’s a book that came out recently called “Fuseki Revolution: How AI Has Changed Go” by Shibano Toramaru 9-dan, which could be interesting.
My impression is that OGS succeeded in bringing low dan ranks somewhere between AGA and EGF ranks. I dont know about 7d+, but 4-5d OGS seem similar to EGF, as far as I can tell. But I think OGS ranks below about mid SDK become progressively softer than EGF ranks as you go further down from low dan, like ~9-10k OGS might be 12-13k EGF.
It’s still possible that their OGS ratings are better in terms of actual handicap, because EGF ratings may be lagging.
ok thats an good list for me
I feel like I get more from playing games where I try the Moyo style and then reviewing my games in Katago trainer afterwards.
But I do think you have to be 4k+ to really get a lot out of it though.
That could be true (i still don’t have/use AI) but i guess some theory and guidelines won’t hurt at first.
