In volume 1 51 positions are studied by giving the prior game sequence, half a dozen to a dozen variations, and game continuation diagrams. Games are from professional play during the last decade.
Due to the method of teaching and the tiny texts one has to stick to the diagrams, which are at a high level, leave out most of the obvious, and can be understood virtually only by dan players. Reading the book is rather exhausting. This is good because one might learn a lot if only the reader himself does all the work that the author did not. The selection of examples and diagrams provides abundant study material, although volume 2 will be awaited, too. Having said this, you might expect to learn everything necessary about attacking. This is not the case. While some standards (leaning, attacking requires less than two opposing eyes, ...) are treated, the choice of positions appears to be heavily one-sided. The book seems to tell us: Attacking is not a matter of strategy but mainly a question of little else than exhaustive local (or almost local) reading. OC, mistakes in reading could spoil large-scale strategies, but I can't believe that they are not worth being discussed. Is it the nature of Korean play to concentrate on local tactics? Whatever, the book teaches you appreciation of tactical precision as if it were a classical tsumego problem collection with more answer than problem diagrams. Apart from incorporating basic strategic knowledge into tactical reading, clearly it is not a strategy book. Does the KBA realize what it is doing by including a lot of tactical books about strategic topics in its main baduk lecture series? Korea is and will be the country of tactical fighting...
Date: 2001-06-24