Basic Techniques of Go, Isamu Haruyama and Yoshiaki Nagahara, Richard Bozulich (editor)

The most useful book for beginning players ever written. After introducing the basic principles of opening play, the reader is shown practical sure-win strategies that he or she can use in handicap games. A chapter is devoted to tesujis (tactical brilliancies), with 69 examples and 50 problems. The book ends with a chapter on the endgame.

Comments & Reviews

(This is meant as a follow-up to ChiyoDad’s excellent review here)

Recently, I’ve gotten a bit frustrated with some of the go books out there. I feel like many of them are a bit "fluffed up" and don’t ask much of the reader, or they just don’t cover enough ground to justify spending $15 on each one.

That is definitely NOT true about Basic Techniques of Go. It reads like a collection of essential go lessons. I feel like the author sat down and said, "Okay, I’m teaching a 10 kyu. What are the most important things for him to know? What are the most common situations he’ll be in? What are the most common mistakes he will make?"

The "basic techniques" that receive the most attention are tesuji, yose, fuseki, and the most common joseki. The heart of the book is the chapters on handicap games, because the most common opening board positions are used to put proper joseki and fuseki technique into context. These sections are the most "involved" of the book, having pages filled up with variation diagrams; however, I am surprised how often I recognize those variations in the games I play.

As a 5 kyu player (KGS), I am still using Basic Techniques quite a bit. This book, along with Attack and Defense, are the two go books I can’t live without.

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Basic Techniques of Go is now in its Third Edition and Richard Bozulich (translator and editor) made a number of changes since the First Edition. He took out most of the Romanized Japanese expressions to make the book easier to read.

I still, however, preferred the organization of the First Edition as it made more sense; the reader was first taken through tesujis, then principles of even game openings, and handicap games afterwards.

Basic Techniques is not meant to be your first or introductory book. It assumes that you already know the rules and understand basic terms.

This book is less broad in its topic coverage than another choice for a second book, which happens to be entitled The Second Book of Go. What I like about Basic Techniques however is that it goes a bit deeper on the rudiments of tesuji, fuseki, joseki, handicap games, and yose (the endgame). I also like the more aggressive style of play that the reader is taught for handicap games.

In choosing between Basic Techniques and The Second Book of Go, I’m inclined to give the nod to the former although you probably couldn’t go wrong with either book. If you’re on a budget and it might be a while before you can buy intermediate books, like Tesuji or Life and Death from the Elementary Go Series, then opt for Basic Techniques. You’ll find more material for techniques that you would actually use at the beginner’s level.

ChiyoDad’s Interpretation of the Rating Scale 5 = Core library item 4 = Good study supplement 3 = Fair study supplement 2 = Interesting 1 = Buy it if you just collect Go books

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