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 Post subject: Review: The Games of Fujisawa Shuko
Post #1 Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:34 am 
Dies in gote

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Title: The Games of Fujisawa Shuko
Author: John Power
Publisher: Kiseido
Format: SmartGo Books ebook
Reader apps: GoBooks for Apple iOS and Apple mac; Android in future
Description: at https://gobooks.com

I recently finished reading this SmartGo Book, which is included in the list of Underappreciated Go Books https://www.smartgo.com/blog/20140118.html. The best selling books are, unsurprisingly, ones for beginners. This excellent book is one that I think many people would enjoy. It is suitable for players of a wide range of strength.

The book presents all 40 of Fujisawa Shuko's games in the Kisei Title matches. That's seven matches each ranging from four to seven games. The format and content are similar to Go World. Indeed, most of the games are taken straight from Go World (spread across issues 1 to 31). However, Go World never covered a couple of them, and this book fills in the gaps with new commentaries, making it into a complete historical record and gripping saga. The book has a beautiful cover and includes the images from Go World. The text reads smoothly and unobtrusively without stylistic distractions or typos. John Power is one of the top translators, as well as being an excellent English writer and editor. Even people who have read this book before should take another look because it has recently been enhanced with inline diagrams to illustrate sequences previously described only using letters in the diagrams.

I read the original Go World articles while I was in Japan, though I did not see these games on TV, as I did later Kisei title matches. At that time, I played out the moves on a physical board after each new magazine was published. Since I still have the Go World articles, why did I buy the ebook? These days, I prefer playing through games with the aid of a computer or ipad. Being able to replay the moves in interactive diagrams is a valuable feature for me.

This book vividly brings the matches back to life. The game in the free sample chapter is one of the new additions. Go World #1 started with game 3 of the first title match and never backtracked. For me, the best matches are the riveting battles with Kato and Cho.

With iOS 9 split-screen multitasking, I can run GoBooks and Kifu side by side if I want, allowing easy access to Kifu's pro game database and its joseki and fuseki analysis features.

Will this book make you stronger? I couldn't say. I no longer study go in order to get stronger. I read and study for pleasure; if I get stronger, that's a bonus. Take a look at the free sample chapter; that will give you a good idea of what to look forward to in the rest of the book.

Conflict of interest statement: I bought this book in 2013, before becoming a GoBooks author, coder, and app tester.


This post by Richard Hunter was liked by 4 people: Bonobo, Darrell, gowan, imabuddha
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 Post subject: Re: Review: The Games of Fujisawa Shuko
Post #2 Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2017 10:40 pm 
Lives with ko

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Thank you for your review of this book. I haven't been active in this forum for a few years now, which is why I'm so late in seeing it.

I've converted many (> 40) go books into the SmartGo Go Books format, and The Games of Fujisawa Shuko is one of my favorites. Shuko was quite a character, and he contributed a lot to the go world, especially after his retirement. It was a pleasure to learn about his domination of the Kisei title, an achievement made even more remarkable by his lifestyle at the time.

I'm also gratified to see that you like the cover. I've only designed a few book covers, but this one is my favorite. It was intended to be the first of a series of books on Kisei title holders if there was enough interest.

I'd also like to recommend another SmartGo book from the page you linked, The Life, Games and Commentaries of Honinbo Shuei by John Fairbairn. It's a great book, one I rank together with Invincible at the very top of English language go books.

Conflict of interest/full disclosure statement: I converted both of these books into SmartGo format and designed both covers.


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