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The book market has been fairly quiet lately, so a heads-up on a massive new addition may be of interest to SmartGo users.
Honinbo Tournament - The Early Years should be available in about a fortnight, that is about the end of January 2015, at just $14.99.
The Honinbo Tournament is go's oldest annual tournament. By trial and error it set the standards for every tournament since.
This book describes in detail how it came about, and with full results goes carefully through each of the early years in the 1940s and 1950s, and each year's changes. The games of each title match up to and including Term 6 are given with rich commentaries (32 games), showcasing the most famous players and anecdotes featured in the highest level of go.
You may have seen a previous post of mine in which I argued that the planets lined up auspiciously around 1950 with the result that the best ever commentaries for most amateurs appeared then. This book makes full use of them.
The players featured are Sekiyama Riichi, Kato Shin, Iwamoto Kaoru, Hashimoto Utaro, Kitani Minoru and Sakata Eio. Obviously it includes the Atom Bomb game, but there are many games never treated in English before, and a wide range of colour and anecdotes, including the infamous Jinya Incident. The full results and games of the Honinbos and 8-Dans Tournament are also given, plus a few other noteworthy games.
Looking ahead, the next volume planned is the Age of Takagawa. We are often told that Takagawa had a simple, pure and easily comprehensive style, ideal for study by amateurs. But very, very few of his commented games have appeared in English. This volume will have over 50!
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John Fairbairn
