kevin@cornell.UUCP (Kevin Karplus) (08/28/85)
I have bought Go books by mail from ISHI press (though not for many years). They provided good service at a time when Go books were essentially unavailable in this country. The latest address I have is: The Ishi Press CPO Box 2126 Tokyo, Japan (There is probably now a postal code that I don't know.) More recently, I have bought Go books from Kinokuniya, the Japanese bookstore in San Francisco's Japan Trade Center. I don't have their mailing address, but the price tag on the book lists their phone number as (415)567-7625. In Ithaca, one can buy boards, stones, and beginner's books at Quest's End, the science fiction/fantasy/gaming bookstore on the Commons. I've found most of the available books beyond my meager skills (unrated, but about 17 kyu). Iwamoto's Go for Beginners is the best introduction to the game I've seen. Davies' Tesuji and Kensaku Segoe's Go Proverbs Illustrated are interesting books. I've also gotten some benefit from Kosugi and Davies' 38 Basic Joseki. Many years ago, when I was an undergrad, I worked one semester on a Go program. It was not a good player, but made reasonable moves for the first 20 or 30 moves. All it understood of tactics were ladders, and it couldn't tell whether a group was alive or dead. We also developed some "go theory"--such as a definition of "formally alive" that could be easily checked and was always right. One go "joke" we played once was the world's shortest Go game. It consists of two moves, pass and pass. Kevin Karplus