These books present the openings of fourteen different go games. These openings are presented in depth, with alternate sequences frequently considered, often in some depth, so we can see what was the thinking behind the moves that were actually chosen. These openings are also used as an excuse to present many different joseki, so these books can also be used as a joseki reference albeit with some difficulty.

I find these books to be a lot of work to read, and have never gotten very far with them. There's a lot of data thrown at you, and I'm not very good at absorbing and internalizing it. So if you like conceptual books, these aren't the ones for you. On the other hand, I suspect that for some people these could be quite valuable, because of the depth to which they analyse their examples.

These books have a sequel, The Middle Game of Go.

These were originally printed by Ishi Press in both paperback and hardcover; they were later reprinted by Dietmar Hartung in paperback. They have recently been reprinted by Ishi Press.