Yuan Zhou is one of the famous american baduk master who get a professional training in china. He wrote some interesting books. Last year I wrote review about Master Play: The Style of Lee Changho. Now I want to share my thoughts about his another book Understand How to Play Go.

Easy to read

Yuan Zhou style of writing baduk-related books is discuss deep but not complicate variations. Thanks to this and some help from publisher (only few moves per Diagram) Understand How to Play Go become interesting book for everyone who knows rules. Book is divided to 7 chapters. In every chapter author discuss one of his games. You will find huge number of interesting ideas from his games, but in my opinion the best thing about this book are stories behind the games.

What strong player are thinking during the game

Yuan write what he was thinking in the game. He show where strong player are looking in whole game. The hardest part of this book is about how strong player decide which group is strong and which is weak. Of course for this kind of estimation you need to have good reading skill, but this book will give some tips how to do it by intuition.

I think that many mistakes can be founded during the game, only if you calm down a little. This book also show that strong player also made mistake in direction, because they are too greedy. Interesting that if you are stronger you play more solid :)

Conclusion

Book is writen for kyu and dan players. If you are kyu player you find some interesting ideas to implement to your own games. If you’re dan player you will find some interesting tesuji moves and also found that you’re not alone in fighting with your greedy side.

Great book for all baduk players. I think secret of this book is that author is amateur and know a lot about amateurs problems.

Author: Yuan Zhou

Title: Understanding How to Play Go

ISBN: 0-9706193-0-8

Where to buy: Slate&Shell; E-Go.PL (in Poland)

Rating: 9/10