This book starts out with a 30-page biographical introduction, then has chapters on The Opening, Positional Judgment, Timeliness in Initiating Battles, Finesse and Trade-off Decisions, Forcing Moves, Utilizing Thickness, Defense of Weak Stones, and Applications Shown in Fully Annotated Games.
I quite enjoyed reading the biographical introduction, but it is written in stilted language that sounds a lot like propaganda most of the time. As to the rest of the contents, it's fascinating to see the way that Nie analyzes positions, and the kinds of things that he thinks about before deciding where to play. On the other hand, there's so much high-level analysis behind his judgments that is often only hinted at in the book that most of the time I have to take his word for it that it's better to play in one area of the board instead of another area of the board. Still, even though this book may be lacking in concrete specifics, it really gives you a lot to think about; I think that it's well worth reading, and I expect that as I get better I'll get more out of it.
Paul Brennan (BGA 5k) says:
Strangely this is a book that I would not have bought myself but that I received as a gift from my partner (non go playing). Because of that I felt I had to at least try and read it. I surprised my how interesting it was. I found the biography of Nie inspiring if a little bit like propaganda. But mostly it told me to do something I rarely in games: positional analysis and counting. It mentions the famous proverb "lots of calculation wins, while little calculation loses, not to mention no calculation at all"! Unfortunately I only seem to remember this after I've won or lost my games - "oh yes I never calculated what was going on" I think to myself after I've lost by 20 points!! I found what is basically 150 pages of looking into a go professional mind both instructive and inspiring!
Click here to see Yutopian's blurb about the book.
Last modified: Sun Aug 10 21:00:21 PDT 2003