David Carlton's Go Bibliography, Organized by Publisher

This is the version of the go bibliography that's organized by publisher. When a book has been published by more than one publisher, I'm listing it under its first publisher.

I'm putting in a bit of commentary about each publisher; please tell me if you think that I'm saying anything incorrect or misleading or if you have more to add. I'm always eager to hear about historical information.

Ishi Press

The first company to publish a significant number of go books in English, setting a standard which other companies will have a hard time living up to. Without them, the level of go playing in the U.S. would be much lower. Unfortunately, they stopped publishing new books in 1994, their last book being Beyond Forcing Moves. They then largely dropped out of sight for a while, and their books are now mostly available from Kiseido. (Ishi still has some of their old books in stock; Kiseido also has some of those books in stock, and is reprinting some of those that went out of print.) In November 1997, however, Ishi did start mailing out flyers again; they are selling those of their old books that they have in stock as well as some newer books from other small go publishers and other go equipment. I don't know if they have plans to start publishing new books. Their phone number is (800)859-2086. (Update: they, together with Nemesis Enterprises, have just published G46, Cho Hunhyun: Life and Master Games.)

Their books are indexed by a letter (G or H) followed by a number. The G books are ones that Ishi publishes themselves; the H books are ones that other companies publish but that Ishi distributes. (Except, I believe, for H7, which Ishi does publish.) The mere fact that they number their books has helped encourage collectors such as myself: if I see a gap in the numbering of the books on my shelf, I get this urge to buy the missing books to fill in the gap. So I think that it's a (probably inadvertent) brilliant marketing ploy, though those of you with a less strong collector's mania may disagree. Yutopian has just started putting numbers on the spines of their books, too.

G8 is Iwamoto's Go for Beginners, currently published by Pantheon. I'm listing it under Pantheon because the Ishi Press version is long out of print. G9 is a Spanish translation of G8, called Go Para Principiantes.

The next seven books form the Elementary Go Series. I think that these books are Ishi Press's most important contribution to go, other than Ishi Press's mere existence. Go is a very mystifying game when you first start playing it, and reading beginners' books only get you so far. After reading through this series, though, you will at least have a framework to think about every aspect of the game.

Now for more non-Elementary Go Series books.

There is no G20; it was going to be Segoe's Go Proverbs Illustrated, but that didn't work out; it's apparently hopelessly mired in copyright issues.

There is no G38 or G39.

The next few books are published by other companies and distributed by Ishi.

Kiseido Publishing Company

Kiseido was formed to publish Invincible, and was resurrected to replace Ishi Press, reprinting old Ishi Press titles and printing new titles, most notably the Get Strong at Go series. I've listed books that were originally published by Ishi Press that Kiseido is distributing and/or has reprinted under the Ishi section, so look there for more information. (And look on the reviews for individual books to see which ones are actually currently available.) Many of the books that they have reprinted were reprinted in partnership with Schaak en Go winkel Het Paard.

Their phone number is (800)988-6463; their web page is <http://www.kiseido.com/>, and their books can be ordered from there or from IBUKI. They also sell go equipment, go software, and go books in Japanese. Click here for rumors about their forthcoming books.

The next several entries are the Get Strong at Go series, by Richard Bozulich. They're problem books on various aspects of the game.

I've heard that a volume on Ko is planned, but that was a while ago.

This next book is from Power Publications and is distributed by Kiseido.

Yutopian Enterprises

Yutopian Enterprises published their first book, Sakata's Killer of Go, in 1994; more books followed quickly, and they immediately established themselves as one of the two major companies publishing go books in English. Their timing was particularly good for go players, since they arose just as Ishi Press was dwindling, so we go book readers never had to do without. Unlike Ishi and Kiseido, they have strong ties to China and Taiwan, so they publish many go books translated from Chinese, as well as many translated from Japanese; they are also planning to start publishing books translated from Korean.

Their phone number is (800)YUTOGO3, or (800)988-6463. This is the same as Kiseido's; in fact, Sidney Yuan, who runs Yutopian, is also in charge of the US branch of Kiseido. (Kiseido's books are published in Japan, however.) Their web page is <http://www.yutopian.com/go/>; you can order their books from there, and you can also order them from IBUKI. They also sell go software, go equipment, and go books in Chinese.

Slate & Shell

Slate & Shell is a new publisher (founded in 2000) that is publishing books based on series of articles in English-language go magazines (the American Go Journal and Go Review) as well as new books. Their web page is at <http://www.slateandshell.com/>; you can order their books from there. It also gives information about forthcoming books (and books that I don't have yet), which I have listed here.

Good Move Press

Good Move Press publishes the excellent Learn to Play Go series; I highly recommend this series for anybody who is just learning the game. Their phone number is (800)600-4373 and their web page is <http://www.samarkand.net/>. Click here for rumors about their forthcoming books.

Charles E. Tuttle Company

Tuttle is a company that publishes books on Japan. Go! More Than a Game is very good, but their other books aren't realy reading: they're mostly reprints of books a century old that were good for the time but that certainly aren't good now.

The American Go Association

The AGA is the United States' national go association. It doesn't publish books for general consumption by the go playing audience, but some of its publications might be useful, so I've included a few of them here. For more info, check out their web page at <http://www.usgo.org>. Their address is AGA, P.O. Box 397, Old Chelsea Station, New York, NY 10113.

The Nihon Kiin

The Nihon Kiin is the Japanese go association. It mostly publishes books in Japanese, but it has also published books in English, and published some of the first good books available in English. It's web page is at <http://www.joy.or.jp/nihonkiin/>.

The Hankuk Kiwon

The Hankuk Kiwon is also known as the Korean Baduk Association, or KBA. They started publishing books in English in 2000. Their web page is at <http://www.baduk.or.kr/>. You can order their books from Samarkand (which their guide lists as their US branch).

Other Publishers

This section is for books by publishers that have only one go book listed in the bibliography.


david carlton <carlton@bactrian.org>

Last modified: Sun Feb 13 20:10:25 PST 2005