| |
From
the Back Cover --
Most Go teachers analyze
positions to death, occasionally laying out sequences that show how the
analysis would change if a stone were shifted, but the functional
dynamics of such changes in position are never really addressed. Mr.
Yang teaches the fundamental meaning of stones so that you can take a
position you have never seen before and
understand what it is you should be trying to accomplish there and the
best way to go about doing it. Mr. Yang has an uncanny ability to make
complex situations seem simple by showing the basic principles involved.
Much of the material in this book is
definitely not available in English language Go literature. In fact, I
doubt that this material can be found anywhere in the world because Mr.
Yang did not formulate these ideas until after he arrived in the United
States in 1986. He once told me that when he taught Go in China, his
students would say, “Yes, Teacher, I believe you.” After arriving in the
US, however, he began encountering students who said, “Yes, Teacher, I
believe you, but why? How is it that a small change—one line up or down,
left or right—can make such a drastic change in the analysis? There must
be something fundamental going on here, but what is it? I don’t
understand.” This forced Mr. Yang himself to think about the meaning of
the moves. The result of those thoughts is the book you now hold in your
hands, a truly Western theory of Go.
To those readers who have never had a
lesson with Mr. Yang: Be prepared. Your approach to the game of Go is
about to be transformed.
Joel Sanet
January 2004
Yilun Yang 7 Dan
|
|
