Otake Hideo is one of the most respected figures in the Go world today. At the height of his powers, he was second to none in terms of strngth, battling other legendary players such as Sakata Eio, Rin Kaiho and Fujisawa Shuko for supremacy. At the same time, he was a revered elder colleague for other students of the Kitani Dojo, that school that groomed future champions like Cho Chikun, Kobayashi Koichi, Kato Masao and Takemiya Masaki. All of these players looked up to Otake and gained much from his mentoring.

In this work, Otake does the same for amateur go players. He examines amateur games and looks over the players' shoulders to give advice about typical mistakes that regularly appear there. Since the strengths of the players is so close to the average player's, all amateurs will recognize aspects of their own play that Otake strives to point out. That is one of the keys to improvement.

But Otake does not stop there. He ranges far and wide throughout Go history to explain tried and true strategies in the game of Go, demonstrating his erudition at the same time. From ancient China to classical go in Japan to masterpieces Otake himself has played, the reader is treated to the rarest of all material: the kind where one learns effortlessly while finding the experience thoroughly pleasurable.