New book: Go Fundamentals by Shi Xiangxia
Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2016 6:49 am
The English translation of Yili Zhigui Xubian by go saint Shi Xiangxia of the Qing dynasty is now available under the title Go Fundamentals, and can be purchased on CreateSpace and Amazon.
Shi Xiangxia actually wrote Yili Zhigui before Yili Zhigui Xubian, where Xubian literally means Sequel. His first book was written in plain text without diagrams, taking the form of pithy formulas with inline footnotes of long strings of coordinates. Although the mnemonic device was intended to facilitate learning, it actually hindered comprehension. In his later years, possibly having witnessed the success of his friend and rival Fan Xiping's Go Book of Peach Blossom Spring, Shi wrote the sequel in a much more approachable style. The sequel was published posthumously by one of his students.
Yili Zhigui Xubian contains 6 self-constructed two-stone handicap games, 12 positions in 257 variations, and 3 poems of pithy formulas on go theory, among which the "Guiding Formulas for Important Positions" has the highest literary value.
In this current translation, Go Fundamentals, the "Guiding Formulas" has been enriched with examples taken from all 5 games of the Google DeepMind Challenge Match between Lee Sedol 9 dan and AlphaGo, demonstrating how the profound principles of this great master can be applied even to this day. The cover image shows a popular opening move nowadays. Considered to be a recent invention, it was actually conceived and explored by Shi Xiangxia in this book over 200 years ago.
Please visit the following links for more information. Sample pages are available on Amazon.
http://senseis.xmp.net/?YiliZhigui
https://www.createspace.com/4698365
http://www.amazon.com/Go-Fundamentals-X ... 1496131576
As a word of caution, despite the title, I do not recommend this book for beginners.
For my other translations and related discussion about go in ancient China, you may take a look at the following threads:
Three-Stone Games and Four-Stone Games, both by Guo Bailing http://lifein19x19.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=9948
Games of Wonder by Wu Jun and Wu Jiong and Go Book of Peach Blossom Spring by Fan Xiping http://lifein19x19.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=10127
The Celestial Arsenal by Lu Xuanyu http://lifein19x19.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=12537
Your feedback is most welcome!
Shi Xiangxia actually wrote Yili Zhigui before Yili Zhigui Xubian, where Xubian literally means Sequel. His first book was written in plain text without diagrams, taking the form of pithy formulas with inline footnotes of long strings of coordinates. Although the mnemonic device was intended to facilitate learning, it actually hindered comprehension. In his later years, possibly having witnessed the success of his friend and rival Fan Xiping's Go Book of Peach Blossom Spring, Shi wrote the sequel in a much more approachable style. The sequel was published posthumously by one of his students.
Yili Zhigui Xubian contains 6 self-constructed two-stone handicap games, 12 positions in 257 variations, and 3 poems of pithy formulas on go theory, among which the "Guiding Formulas for Important Positions" has the highest literary value.
In this current translation, Go Fundamentals, the "Guiding Formulas" has been enriched with examples taken from all 5 games of the Google DeepMind Challenge Match between Lee Sedol 9 dan and AlphaGo, demonstrating how the profound principles of this great master can be applied even to this day. The cover image shows a popular opening move nowadays. Considered to be a recent invention, it was actually conceived and explored by Shi Xiangxia in this book over 200 years ago.
Please visit the following links for more information. Sample pages are available on Amazon.
http://senseis.xmp.net/?YiliZhigui
https://www.createspace.com/4698365
http://www.amazon.com/Go-Fundamentals-X ... 1496131576
As a word of caution, despite the title, I do not recommend this book for beginners.
For my other translations and related discussion about go in ancient China, you may take a look at the following threads:
Three-Stone Games and Four-Stone Games, both by Guo Bailing http://lifein19x19.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=9948
Games of Wonder by Wu Jun and Wu Jiong and Go Book of Peach Blossom Spring by Fan Xiping http://lifein19x19.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=10127
The Celestial Arsenal by Lu Xuanyu http://lifein19x19.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=12537
Your feedback is most welcome!