The 1971 Honinbo Tournament, by Iwamoto Kaoru. Ishi G7/Kiseido K7; 1972.

This book is a report on the 1971 Honinbo Tournament, which was won by Ishida Yoshio. It contains all of the games in the final, all of Ishida's games in the Honinbo League, and Ishida's last game in the preliminary tournament, all commented. The commentaries are extensive, running to as many as 24 pages, so you get much more information than you do from reading games in Go World.

I don't have a lot to say about this book, but I do recommend it. The games are good, the commentaries are good, and some of them are very thorough indeed.

This book was originally published in both hardcover and paperback. It was out of print, but Kiseido has reprinted it.

Tom Rose (BGA 4k) says:

Ishida seems to have a very balanced and straightforward style that is probably a good model to copy. I found it very hard going, and didn't really understand a lot of the commentary, never mind the uncommented stuff. Nevertheless when I started it I was a weak 5kyu. When (exhausted!) I temporarily gave up my slog through it, halfway through the final match, it had taken me every spare moment for a fortnight. I had improved to a solid 4kyu.

cover pic


david carlton <carlton@bactrian.org>

Last modified: Sun Aug 10 20:53:10 PDT 2003