Copied and adapted from a rec.games.go message by Sidney Yuan

About a year ago, a number of you requested Yutopian
to publish classical Go books (on the net). As a result
of this request, Yutopian began to translate the famous
Japanese Go classic Igo Hatsuyo-ron.  We are proud to
annouce the publication of this work:
 
Igo Hatsuyo-ron

Igo Hatsuyo-ron (Explore the Go World), written in 1713, 
is hailed as the highest authority on life and death problems 
(Tsume Go).  The title of the book came from the perception 
of the ancient Japanese players on go and means to explore 
the concealed technique associated with each go position. 
The book contains 183 problems of which the first 63 
problems will be found in this Volume 1 of Igo Hatsuyo-ron.
 
Igo Hatsuyo-ron was written by the highest authority at the 
time, the fourth generation of the House of Inoue, Dosetsu Inseki.  
It was the most advanced text book devised to nurture the 
successor to the Head of the Inoue School.  After the book was 
written, the House of Inoue established a rigorous security  system 
to prevent the book from being stolen by other Schools.  The 
book was regarded as a great treasure and the content of the 
book was kept confidential, not only from outsiders, but also 
from the general students within the Inoue School.  Only a 
handful of potential candidates had the luxury of studying this 
book under the direct instruction of the Head, tackling one 
problem at a time.  The tradition of keeping the secret within 
the "family" persisted until recently.
 
Among all the life and death problems in the literature, there is 
none that exceeds the level of Igo Hatsuyo-ron.  It sets the 
landmark between amateurs and professional players.
 
In this Chinese edition, in order to accommodate amateur readers 
at the intermediate level, the reader is guided from failure to the 
correct solution with increased complexity.  At the same time, 
the reader can also experience and appreciate the method and 
procedure professionals use to tackle problems.
 
For amateur players, most of the problems in this book look 
hopelessly impossible!  However, do not give up.  Read the 
comments carefully  and patiently go through the illustrations.  
After detailed discussion, all the problems are simplified and 
become easier to comprehend.
 
A short addition by Peter Zandveld:
This book can also be read like an analysis of professional games. Each
problem has a lot of diagrams illustrating how to arrive at the solution.
(a bit like 36 strategems)

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