Book Review Part Two

Today I will review Learn to Play Go Volume II: The Way of the Moving Horse by Janice Kim (3 dan) and Jeong Soo-hyun (9 dan). This is the second book in her Learn to Play Go series. This game picks up where the last leaves off. It begins to teach you to think about Go strategically. The book takes its title from the Korean word haengma. Haengma refers to "[t]he way stones 'run' or 'move' ... A group of stones is called ma or 'horse' in Korean, so haengma is something like the Way of the Moving Horse."

The book is divided into two parts and fourteen chapters.

Part I Principles

Chapter 1 Process of Go
Chapter 2 The Knack of the Opening
Chapter 3 Enclosures and Approaches
Chapter 4 Answering the Approach
Chapter 5 Bases and Extensions
Chapter 6 The Way of the Moving Horse
Chapter 7 Invasion and Reduction

Part II Skills

Chapter 8 How to Attack
Chapter 9 How to Defend
Chapter 10 The Art of the Capturing Race
Chapter 11 Ko Fighting and Ko Threats
Chapter 12 Life and Death
Chapter 13 The Art of Contact Fighting
Chapter 14 Ending the Game

Part I deals with traditional relationships between stones. It compares the relative advantages and disadvantages of connecting and attacking stones using different spatial relationships of placement. Part two uses your knowledge of these moves and the technique from the first book of the series to teach you to win tactics and maintain control of and overall strategy. These two books must be read in conjunction with one another to achieve a fuller knowledge of the game.

This book also comes with an interesting and useful list of Internet sources for Go players. I have linked the more useful ones on this website. I highly recommend this book for anyone who would like to learn to play Go.