The Great Joseki Debates, Honda Kunihisa

Learning Joseki is an important step on the road to mastering go. However, learning how to choose the winning joseki is even more important. This excellent book bridges the gap between fuseki, the opening moves of the game, and joseki. Joseki are sequences of plays in the corners that give a local result that is equal in value to both white and black. By playing a joseki you ensure that you avoid mistakes. But the corner interacts with the rest of the board and the biggest mistake of all may have been the joseki you chose. Here a master of the game presents 24 typical opening situations. In each situation the author proposes 3 different strategies for play in one of the corners and then analyzes the whole board situation. Although locally all three moves are plausible, that is to say they are josekis, from the whole board point only one of the strategies is superior. The preferred and inferior moves are then analyzed in great detail. From these examples you will gain an insight into when and why one joseki is better than another. Cover: An ukiyoe print by Kuniyoshi (1847-50). This print shows a quarrel between Kudo Suketsune (drawing his sword) and Sasaki Nobutsuna. Mt. Fuji rises in the background. The date is the 1180’s. In 1193, Suketsune died in one of the most famous vendettas in Japanese history. From the collection of John Power.