Get Strong at Handicap Go, Get Strong at Go Series, Vol.9, Richard Bozulich

A fundamental technique that every go player must learn is how to use thickness to make territory, and the fastest way to master this technique is to study handicap go. This is because the handicap stones on the star points are influence oriented, so you must play for thickness and central influence instead of immediately going for territory. Moreover, your initial advantage as black in a handicap game makes it easy to build thickness and, since White will have weak stones, you can use your thickness to attack them while making territory.

Get Strong at Handicap Go is the book that will show you how to do this. The problems are taken from actual games and there are two to four problems for each game. In this way you can see where Black went wrong and how White took advantage of Black’s mistakes. For this reason these problems will be useful even for stronger players who want to improve their ability in giving handicaps. All the standard handicaps are covered, from nine to two stones, so whatever your strength, you will find the material in this book invaluable.

Comments & Reviews

I found the problems tough as a European 2Dan. The book seems to aim at encouraging a very vigourous style of handicap play. One thing I noticed is that some conventional handicap sequences that are widely thought of as acceptable for black, are judged here as being too slack.

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I bought this hoping for insight both into how to play as black and white, and you only get the black. The book is well organized, and I like that it gets into real life situations and talks about punishing white’s overplays. I don’t have a whole lot of fun reading this book, I’m not sure that I learn as much as I would like for the time spent, and of course the scope is limited. I my not come back to it later (I read most of my books 3+ times).

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