I was wondering what is the general opinion of his books? I'm having trouble finding reviews of them. Is his master play series popular? Why? What about his other books? What about the level for his books? All of this is shameless research in light of the sale on slate and shell :I

Hi highly recommend his books if you really like detailed game analysis. He has a way of breaking down a pro game so you can actually follow what's going on with every move.

I really enjoyed the books.

He makes good analysis and hi constantly makes emphasis in:
1. don't follow the opponent,
2. right joseki choice
3. playing where the big points are available

among several concepts, but for me that's the 3 that he keeps smashing in your head (or may be the 3 that dig mine) and shows with examples why, following that principles, the pros choose one or another move.

Specially in the fuseki his analysis are broad, and in the emphasis of transition from there to middlegame.

Don't hesitate to buy it.

I have the Master Play of Kitani and Chikun. I highly recommend it for kyu players. I got it when I was about 10 kyu and jumped a couple stones just from reading it. Most moves have some explanation, sometimes along with reasons that other moves were not chosen, including valid choices of a different style and reasons why some moves don't work or are not a good idea.

In addition, the low number of stones per diagram makes it easy to follow without setting the game up on a board.

EDIT:
I have seen some dan players who are less appreciative of them, but I don't think that is the target audience.

Yuan Zhou: excellent!! well recommended for comprehensive and clear writing, while your at it get some Yilun Yang from Slate as well.....

Yilun's workshop series is brilliant (Im not on any type of commission! just highly recommend these books).

Good luck with whatever purchases you chose.

Best regards

Mark

I don't know how his books rate for strong players, but as a kyu player I have found his Master Play series to be wonderful. Nice commentary, quite detailed and not difficult to follow! Plus the emphasis on 'style' gives each game a narrative flavor that makes them engaging.

As a 5d potential reader, his books are uninteresting. I would say that they are written for about 10 to 5 kyu (EGF).

In my opinion, general information is missing or buried in the text; I prefer books that state principles and other general knowledge prominently, so that they can be indentified at all and found again very easily and so that the reader need not perform that (very difficult!) task by himself.

Unfortunately, most game commentary style books by various authors share this burying of interesting information. So, in this regard, Zhou's books are representative. However, they are indeed different with respect to the apparently intended readership. Usually, I can learn at least something new from any game commentary, but Zhou's commentaries are so focussed on being written for kyu players that they are as uninteresting for dan players as they might be interesting for such kyu readers seeking writing specifically only for their level and current needs.

His "style of player XY" books are, in principle, a nice idea and start to fill a related partial gap in Western literature. I would like to see also more such books - but written (also) for dan readers:)

Before Zhou's books, the usual advice on studying pro games was: "Don't start before 3 kyu, or exceptionally 5 kyu!" As uninteresting I (or presumably other dan players) might find his books, they nevertheless have the advantage of making pro games (more) accessible for players to 6 kyu or weaker at all. (Earlier Western books (such as The Treasure Chest Enigma or Die Mitte des Himmels) suitable for such kyu levels were more of an "entertaining tournament story" style, but did not explain go theory as exemplified in the games well to them. If we believe such readers of Zhou's books, he appears to have changed that.)

Rather than quibble over things that have been said, I will just give my view of Yuan's style.

Maybe seven or eight years ago I attended a workshop of his. His books have the feel of his workshops. If he is showing a joseki, he will explain why it may have evolved over time. He will do this with examples from players games, describing why the joseki was thought to be ok in the past, and what has been learned in the years since. Often the personalities of the players are touched on. So with Yuan, you not only get the mechanics, but you get a bit of a Go history lesson as well. Maybe this style is not for everyone, but I feel the learning is richer this way.

His books typically follow the thinking of the players from the beginning to the endgame. They provide a nice contrast to problem books, which only look to find the optimal move at a particular snapshot in time. Such books provides context and continuity of thought.

While I like some of his books better than others, I highly recommend all of them.

Thanks for all of the responses guys :O. I don't know how confident I feel about buying them. I'm sure there good books, and I would still like to own them one day. But my level is around weak 1d/strong 1k on kgs. I don't know if they would benefit me much, besides good entertainment. Not to say they are bad books, because I would still like to get them one day. :I

I can only talk about his book: "How not to Play Go"

AVOID. AT. ALL. COSTS.

I bought it on SmartGo Books and it is awful. The entire book consists of three game reviews: 8 kyu v. 8 kyu, 4 kyu v. 4 kyu and 1 kyu v. 2 kyu. These game reviews are unbelievably shallow. Often, he says things like "black should play the big move at A" and that's all very well, you can see that A is a big move. Sometimes, he says things like "black should make a base by playing at A" but gives no variation at all, showing how that would go.

I don't think I would buy another one of his books after this bad experience.

Similar experience. I bought it as help for my older son and ended explaining commentaries meaning to him during replaying.

But i think his other books are better and good if you are around 1k/1d

I'm a fan, though I haven't read the book the two prior posts discuss.

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- Brady
Want to see videos of low-dan mistakes and what to learn from them? Brady's Blunders

I've read "How Not to Play Go" and the 2 volumes analysing games by SDK players. As a DDK the books were invaluabe, at least for inculcating in my mind the "Don't follow the opponent" and the "Playing where the big points are available" principles all the time.

But they probably would sound silly for a 1 kyu player or higher.

I bought "Understanding Pro games" of Yuan Zhou. I'm still a kyu player and I found this book a good addition to my library. Almost every move given in detail makes these commented pro games very approachable for me. So I can recommend it. But I can imagine any high dan player could be bored to death reading this book.

I must say that I missed that important point you've been talking about:

this books are specially focused for people between 12k to 5K (KGS)

I must say that Master Plays may be useful still up to 1k probably if you are not used to see pro games because it gives you light of how to approach based on style.

Once you got his method you can get more profit from the pro games.... and even choose your pro to read based in this list:



http://senseis.xmp.net/?ProfessionalPlayersGoStyles

As a 1K/1D KGS, I really enjoyed Yuan Zhou books. I'm not sure those books (master's styles) are written to make people get stronger but they are interesting and fun because you can get a grasp of how pro are thinking and discover very different effective styles of play. You can even try to guess their next move based on their style and the information provided by Yuan Zhou. At my level I can only guess a few moves of Takemiya or Lee and Go Seigen is beyond my scope of understanding. I was often amazed about their next move and the explanations given, the accuracy of their judgment, reading ability, etc.

I must admit I never study pro games so that might be the reason I really enjoyed those book.

I think that his first 2 books were his best

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North Lecale

At some point I realized he didn't quite understand the professionals' styles he was describing, but it was enough to inspire the interest of kyu level players.

Have several of his books but so far have only got round to reading Understanding How to Play Go: An AGA 7 Dan Explains Some of His Games. This was my first book of annotated games and made a happy start as the matches were very interesting and could follow what was happening in them fairly well with the comments which seemed to perpetually focus on the global picture resulting overall. I think this, from slate and Shell, gives some helpful insight "Zhou went over the games with his opponents, as well as with a professional player, and discusses what both players are trying to do at each step of the game."

Thanks for the heads up on How Not to Play Go, that is one of the few books of his I don't have.

By the way, would be cool to see more reviews of Single Digit Kyu Game Commentaries, have been looking forward to reading this book more than any other I can recall in recent memory but just haven't seem to be able to get to it. May have to dispose old YMI set to a travel kit.

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"Tsumegos are for reading power and Tesujis for knowing which moves to read"