Learn to Play Go, Vol. 3: The Dragon Style

Janice really could explore more the phillosophy of Go applied in Life. Game for game to me is not so utile, I perceived she changed the previous concepts for new ones for the sake of the game itself. My interest is not to be a well rounded player of Go but to transfer this wisdom to my day. The book is well written I'm a lower level player but I liked a lot the book, for a serious player is highly reccomended. The Authors are very clever and experienced, the analogies are bright,but again I repeat, the focus of the series is to build up your game, so don't expect phillosophy either.

Perfect. Arrived on time and was as described by merchant.

Janice Kim is the master of GO walkthrough. Her book series is a must for those who, like me, have no teacher and play through internet mostly. Great source for improving your skills.

Very good course!!!

I've been playing Go for two years, and I used to have weekly lessons from a high-ranking amateur. I read the first two books of Janice Kim's series when I was just beginning, and that was the right time. I should've read this one at that time too. It's very basic. I agree with the reviewer who complained that the content was pretty slim. That's the point of view of a player with a bit of experience. If you're a beginner with a few extra bucks, this should be helpful for you. But if you're clever, or if you have some experience on the 19x19 board, I recommend skipping this one and moving on to "Basic Techniques of Go" or "The Second Book of Go." Those two books cover the same information, plus a lot more. I read this book in one day, without a board, and there are only about two things I want to review later. Tonight I'll start volume four...

great communication! highly recommend.

Its rather surprising that the authors were able to condense so many useful proverbs into a single volume. The explanations are carefully thought out and explained, and they aren't based off impossible or labyrinthian setups, but positions than can and, as I have seen myself, arise in actual games. The self-testing section at the end of the book is precise and helps to reinforce the lessons presented, and yet simple enough that you don't require a board of your own to lay the problems out on. And even upper level players(10-8 kyus) would find this book useful as refresher. It was quite surprising how many knee-jerk reactions even I had that were brought up at some point. The only problem I had with this book were the games they chose to review to illustrate the points made earlier in the book. While the games were simple and straightforward, thats all they were. Quite honestly, if the author did not say at the beginning that these were professional level games, I would not have believed that they were. But as far as criticisms go, that pales in comparison to how much good this book can do for players.

As you can see by my rating, I have mixed emotions about this volume. Let me start with the bad points. The first part of the book goes over Seven Dangers and Eight Secrets, which would be a good idea if the instruction was at the level it should have been. In this section we just get an enumeration of this we should and shouldn't do when playing. The comments are really brief and do not really go much above and beyond what we already received in the previous volumes. I have actually read a book that is much better at conveying this same concepts, especially the misconceptions beginners usually have about the game. If you are interested in that specific topic you should check out "How Not to Play Go" by Yuan Zhou. This book has clear examples as to what to avoid and is very good instruction. Anyway, back to this book, the parts I liked were the commented games. The second part of the book presents three commented games and these have a pretty high instructional value. Two of them are handicapped games and we get to see a little bit about the strategy to use in these games, which is very useful to the beginner since in many cases she will be playing black with some kind of handicap. The other game is an even game between two professionals. Even though it is a rather complex game, the authors focus on explaining the major aspects to the reader and do a very good job at that. The book ends with a test similar to the one presented in volume 2. To summarize, the reason why I am giving this book only 3 stars is that I feel that the first part was the result of a lazy effort and was there just as an excuse to say they were giving the beginner more insights. There is not value in that, the games are the meat of this book, and in that part, I would have given a 4 star rating.

Slowly collecting the full set, great guides to the game, certainly the best currently available for beginners or the "expert". I have been playing Go for many years, and can always use the advice of other players,you never stop learning!

This is the third book in a series of five, starting with the basics of the game in Volume 1, followed by a development of the game in Volume 2, on to more advanced playing styles in this volume. This book, more than the other two, gets into the meat of the game and reveals some of the approaches with which to play a thoughtful, strategic game of Go. There's a ton of illustrations and examples, as well as self-tests to ensure you grasped what's being discussed, as well as quite a few tricks and tips for various situations. This isn't one of those "memorize these plays and you'll do well" books; it's more about the approach and strategy of the game, and how to manipulate it to your advantage. The writing style throughout is readable, and it keeps the analysis of the game interesting. This book teaches you how to develop your game, not how to play the one or two trick plays that crop up once in a blue moon. Like the first two books, I learned a lot from this volume, especially since I'm a relative newcomer to Go and want to not look like it! A great addition to my Go library and a logical third volume in a great series.

I haven't finished reading yet so I will take my time and enjoy it.