Invincible: The Games of Shusaku, John Power

Shusaku was the leading player of the golden age of Go in the mid-19th century. He has become known to later generations as the Saint of Go and is recognized by modern players as one of the great geniuses in the history of the game. His victories over his contemporaries in a number of matches contributed to his reputations, but its main foundation is his perfect record, not even approached by any other player, of nineteen successive wins in the annual castle games played in the presence of the shogun

Shusaku is considered the best model for aspiring professional players to study, especially his games with black. He was unexcelled in his complete mastery of the strategic principles and practical techniques of Go. His games are a treasure house of all the varied elements of the game, from the fuseki to the endgame, but in particular they provide amateur players with ideal material for studying the art of fighting in the middle game.

Comments & Reviews

I would not recommend this book for anyone below 5k, probably dan level is better. I’m 3k, and find half of the variations too difficult, which reduces the usability significantly. Still it is probably the best book for trying to understand how pros think about the game.

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Will this be suitable for me, 13k, I study Shusaku’s games from sgf but they are either incomplete or not commented. Are the commenst well explained?

Please e-mail me at jackdrury@blueyonder.co.uk if you have an answer please

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Before the Go World Archive DVD came out I would recommend this as a good source of commented games. But now I think it’s better to devote your money to the GWA.

Do get this if you value the history of Shusaku enough so that it’s value supercedes the sheer quantity of Go World Archive (I’m not in this camp, but I know many go players are).

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I really love going through this. I have gone through it fully a few times and when ever i feel not up to par I refer back to it. It really is great.

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Yep, this would be my choice for the one Go book to have if stranded on a desert island, because I don’t think there’s an end to what can be learned from these games.

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this is a pretty good book. it may be a little advanced, but, it can be a little confused for novices, like me.

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This is the best go book in English, in my opinion. Besides giving a good collection of commented games played by one of the all time greats, there is a fascinating discussion of the historical context of Shusaku’s life in the Go world of Japan. Yes, weak kyu players won’t get a lot from the commentary, but just playing through the games and watching what happens will teach a lot about good shape, for example. When you play through a game and something strikes you as interesting that’s a sign that you should pay attention to that point. Just ask yourself the question why does this surprise me and you’ll learn something. I learned a lot about attack and defense from this book just watching how Shusaku makes multipurpose moves.

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This book is impressive. Lots of good games, which are fun to play through. In each of the games I played through, I usually ended up thinking: wow, that was impressive, but did I learn anythings? And the answer was generally no, or not a lot. This made the book frustrating, and I went away form the book thinking I had wasted my study time. The level is obviously very high, and watching the players run mental circles arround me, with less explanation that I would like for the heavilly commented game, only increased my frustration (I am about 11k). Laboriously setting position after position up on my 9×9 beside my 19×19 so I could play thorugh tricky areas felt like wasted effort.

I can totally understand why my 15k friend loves this, and why much stronger players would like it. I definitely felt that the volume of learning was light in comparison to the amount of time I spent with the book. And I enjoy books most when I am learning by the boatload.

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