Drew wrote:Does this book have published reviews anywhere?
Uhm, we are just reading it... In short: good (but also too generous) layout, good printing, many games, endgame game sequence diagrams too dense to enjoy, opening / middle game game sequence diagrams acceptable, only a very few commenting diagrams per game, only a few short text comments per game, a bit background information. Basically it condenses to the question whether you want to study AlphaGo Games on the computer or in book format. Do not buy the book for its commentaries, to see the author's first book or learn AlphaGo playing style / strategy / tactics; for these purposes, the book disappoints and pales to video commentaries on selected AlphaGo games. The book lives from the hype of being the first AlphaGo book in English. There are as many games in the book as could be packed into it at the cost of having as little space as possible for commentaries as you would fear. Although the very few commentary diagrams are well selected, necessarily most questions are left unanswered and most skillful strategic / tactical decisions treated as understatements or remain hidden to the reader. Any editor of AlphaGo games could have compiled some such book. It is more remarkable for Hebsacker Verlag showing good softcover printing than it would be for Antti Törmänen showing skill as a go book author. This is an editor's book rather than a go book author's book. As an editor, he did a good job. As a go book author, we should rather wait for his real skill in later books. He writes that writing the book made himself stronger significantly but he does not convey to the reader how to learn + improve much from studying AlphaGo. Learning from its games remains first of all browsing their moves. (Yes, with the exception of a few josekis and sample openings. However, there could be so very much more to learn from the games if there were the space for detailed commentaries.)
