Preface to "Mathematics of Go Game"

I have been planning to publish a revised edition of "Mathematics of Go Game" which was published in 1943, partly to correct some mistakes I made in the old edition, and partly as I have made some change in the basic idea since. Thanks to the Maki Shobo Publishing Company for this opportunity to publish it. It is a great pleasure to me.

The first part of this book is for discussions on the construction of the Game of Go, and in this part, I introduce the studies made by Mr. Robinson and Mr Olmstead. I respect these two gentlemen for their serious attitude for their many years of study concerning Go, and for their fine results.

In Chapter 6, I make a proposition to formalize rules in Go which has been a pending problem in Japan for so many years. I should like to hear of opinions regarding the proposition from interested people.

In the contents of the first part, I owe much to Muneo Aoki to go back and Hajime Yasunaga for many years and Robinson recently. Thanks to them all.

In Part 2, I interpret, in my own way, the basic phases of Go. I didn't aim at the top professional players in explaining my interpretations. I have put more weight on part 2. The reasons are: I put more illustrations according to the requests of many readers of the old edition; and also I tried to make my explanations easier to follow. If this book will be of any help to the beginners of Go, I would be most happy.

Feb. 1958

Takuyi Shimada


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