小刀神 — Little Knife God's Go Books

This year, a dear friend of mine, Frédéric Vieira 4d EGF, introduced me to a little-known — in the West — Taiwanese Go books author, 小刀神 or Little Knife God, who's very active on Facebook.

Most of his books are based on key moments in professional games, which makes it very likely even readers of the highest ranks will be able to enjoy them.

Despite not knowing any Chinese, I find it quite ok to follow the diagrams, as what the author would like to convey feels more or less self-evident.

So far, I only own his sabaki book. Here's an example from a professional game between Kato Chie 3p (White) and Yoshihiro Koike 7p (Black), where should Black play?

Dia. 1. Kato Chie 3p (White) vs Yoshihiro Koike 7p (Black). Black to play.

Going for a keima is lukewarm, White's shape will get fixed on the outside, and the cut at 4 will likely be triggered:

Dia. 2. Lukewarm. And White gets to exploit a cut.

As a hint, the correct move is very similar to the solution to this problem on 101weiqi (Q-128242):

Dia. 3. Problem 128242 from 101weiqi.

Here's that problem's solution:

Dia. 4. Black's marked stones have more liberties than it seems. And, with 1, we can contain White while shortening the group's liberties.

The correct move in the game was to apply pressure based on Black's cutting stone in the center. By doing so, we can create cutting many cutting points on White's shape:

Dia. 5. Applying pressure and creating cutting points on White's shape.

If White goes for a capturing race, Black is the one ahead actually.

Dia. 6. Black wins most semeais.

The book shows plenty more diagrams, but I'll leave a link to that game's AI Sensei's analysis on its Dan plan, with 2,500 playouts, if you would like to check everything in detail.

Little Knife God's books are mostly available on Taobao, but I suggest contacting him through Facebook for more details, since he seems friendly and active on social media.

He also seems to have an amusing taste for creating covers with AI. Personally, I find those quite funny and playful, especially for children, which are one of his main targets, since most of his in-person students seem to be of that age.