Igo Hatsuyo-Ron: Classical Life & Death Problems, Inoue Dosetsu Inseki

Igo Hatsuyo-ron was written by the highest authority at the time, the fourth generation of the House of Inoue, Dosetsu Inseki. It was the most advanced text book devised to nurture the successor to the Head of the Inoue School. After the book was written, the House of Inoue established a rigorous security system to prevent the book from being stolen by other Schools. The book was regarded as a great treasure and the content of the book was kept confidential, not only from outsiders, but also from the general students within the Inoue School. Only a handful of potential candidates had the luxury of studying this book under the direct instruction of the Head,tackling one problem at a time. The tradition of keeping the secret within the “family” persisted until recently.

Among all the life and death problems in the literature, there is none that exceeds the level of Igo Hatsuyo-ron. It sets the landmark between amateurs and professional players.

In this Chinese edition, in order to accommodate amateur readers at the intermediate level, the reader is guided from failure to the correct solution with increased complexity. At the same time, the reader can also experience and appreciate the method and procedure professionals use to tackle problems.

For amateur players, most of the problems in this book look hopelessly impossible! However, do not give up. Read the comments carefully and patiently go through the illustrations. After detailed discussion, all the problems are simplified and become easier to comprehend.

Comments & Reviews

I bought this book and a confident, and strong 1dan. About 75% of the problems are too complex for me, but through the detailed explanations, this book is great for most dan players who like to sit down and try to solve problems for a while.

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This is probably the toughest Go book published in English. Don’t even think of using it to learn from unless you are a high dan. Given that is was originally written as primer for professional I don’t feel too bad about my low success rate as a mere 5d.

If you like challenging problems then by all means buy this, but the rest of you can skip it until you are at least 4d.

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