Jungsuk is the Korean word for joseki. This book provides a well-commented treatment of 3-4 joseki in a form that is readable by middle strength and stronger kyus. The book is rich in information and I expect that it will also provide useful information for stronger players. All conference attendees at the recent 1st International Baduk Conference (Baduk is the Korean word for Go) received a copy from Chiyung Nam when they visited the Hankuk Kiwon. Until recently the English-language go literature has been dominated by translations of Japanese works, but recently works of Chinese and Korean authors have become available, a welcome trend that I hope continues.

Jungsuk claims to be the first Korean book on baduk translated into English, but I believe that Jeong Soo-Hyun's and Janice Kim's superb "Learn to Play Go" series lays true claim to that honour.

The book is structured around 113 "Primary Patterns". These represent the major variations of the commonly used 3-4 joseki as practiced in Korea today. Many of these are presented within a 'whole board' context and the emphasis is on current or modern variations. Secondary sequences related to these primary patterns are used to explore well-commented interesting variations. Most variations are extended into 'after joseki' and 'unreasonable play', 'modern play' and 'old variations are mentioned.

The authors encourage their readers to "learn... and then forget" their joseki and to consider joseki choices within the game context. They use korean terms sparingly (sunsoo for sente etc) and provide a glossary at the back for terms that Western readers may not be familiar with. The book is beautifully bound with a high quality cover, it is well printed and well laid out with very readable diagrams and clear explanations.

This is a Korean joseki dictionary. So far, only the first volume, covering 3-4 point joseki, has been published.

The obvious question is: how does it compare to Ishida's dictionary and Rui's Essential Joseki? I haven't done a detailed comparison between the three, and I'm not a good enough player for the relative merits of different joseki dictionaries to have much of an impact on me, but here's what it seems to me:

Ishida's dictionary certainly contains the largest amount of material. Having said that, it's almost two and a half decades old; so certainly if you're a high-dan player, you'll want access to more up-to-date information than that, and even I (currently an AGA 1 kyu) run into lines that aren't in that volume. Jungsuk in Our Time is much more up-to-date, but also significantly shorter: two volumes instead of three may not seem like much of a difference, but the Jungsuk volumes are also less dense (averaging around 3 diagrams per page instead of 6). (But the Jungsuk volumes are longer, too.) Overall, the two complement each other nicely, I would think.

Essential Joseki is much more comparable to Jungsuk. Both are relatively up-to-date and relatively short compared to Ishida. In the one joseki that I spot-checked, it seemed that Essential Joseki gave more different lines but Jungsuk went into some lines into significantly greater depth in lines it did consider. Essential Joseki may be a tad denser than Jungsuk, but Jungsuk has more pages in its first volume than Essential Joseki does (and, judging from the prices for the Korean versions, its second volume will be longer still).

Some other distinctions about Jungsuk: it translates most of the technical terms into English, but, as you may have guessed from the title, what terms it doesn't translate it leaves in Korean. There's a glossary in the back that translates those terms and gives their Japanese variants; it didn't take me at all long to get used to this, and actually I think it's a nice reminder that Japan is no longer the exclusive center of the go world. Also, it presents joseki in whole-board diagrams much more than the other books do. At first, I rather enjoyed this, since the whole-board context is an essential part of selecting the joseki, but as I got further into the book and more complicated joseki were discussed, the whole-board diagrams usually left the other corners empty. Still, it's a nice touch in places.

If you're a kyu-level or low-dan player looking for a reference, I would probably recommend that you buy Essential Joseki instead of this one, but only because it's a single volume and is more widely available; this book's combination of selectivity and depth might actually be more of a recommendation otherwise (at least once the second volume appears). High-dan players will probably want to have all three joseki dictionaries.

It is great to see the advent of Korean go books in English. Besides the Hankuk Kiwon Guide Book, the book Jungsuk in Our Time published by the Korean Go Association and written by Seo Bong-soo 9p and Jung Dong-sik 5p is the first one. The ISBN is 89-7990-123-2, the list price ca. USD 20. It has ca. 350 pages of size ca. A5. The printing quality may be called average for Korean standards, which means slightly worse than your typical Western go book, however, the binding is just barely good enough. The Korean translater excuses for minor language insufficiencies and as a reader one may well accept that; OTOH one wonders why a book is not even carefully proofread for obvious spelling and diagram typos. There are not many but a few more than there should be after proofreading. No, I do not criticize the English in the book (how could I dare?), but you should expect a slightly unusual usage that includes Korean instead of Japanese go terms (which are explained) and the phrase "the Whites" when referring to a group of white stones. Actually, I like that because it is short and clear. Besides it is much less surprising than the pragmatic verb "to tiger" in books by other authors.

Let's come to the contents. The book is a joseki dictionary about 3-4 joseki only. Apparently, another volume will appear later. Ca. 110 major variants of joseki are discussed. For each there are ca. 3 subvariants and each of those is justified by ca. half a dozen diagrams with one or two explanatory sentences each. Major diagrams show the full board, minor diagrams may show the full, a half, or a small part, mostly the latter. This organization of the dictionary means that there are fewer variations than in the Ishida (Dictionary of Basic Joseki) but that the offered choice of diagrams is also less overwhelming. So it is easier to read the book as if it were a text book, provided you would allow such a description for any dictionary. The comparatively few diagrams mean that analysis is by far not exhaustive and some secondary moves are not discussed at all. Contrarily one can concentrate on the discussed moves more easily. For an extensive coverage the Ishida, the Nihon Kiin dictionary, or whatever is still very much needed.

Although Korean joseki can be very large and some of them are included, the presence of some 19x19 diagrams is rather used to show some joseki that are incorporated within a fixed fuseki pattern. While this is a good thing, you should not expect too much from it. Most 19x19 diagrams show nothing but the joseki and maybe one or two almost irrelevant corner stones on an otherwise empty side of the board. I even say that such is a little misleading because additional stones elsewhere are rarely respected in the comments.

So what is special about Jungsuk in Our Time? Most importantly, many old-fashioned joseki found in the Ishida are omitted in favour of quite a respectable number of modern, and here especially Korean, joseki. To some modest extent, this fills the gap that the old Ishida has left for so many years. At the same time Jungsuk includes too few joseki to serve as own's one and only joseki dictionary. So the book is a welcome and useful extension to the Ishida.

Jungsuk is written for dan players. Players that have always wanted to try something modern will find some material, those that will want to defend against such should consider the book as well. They might take any other Korean joseki book, but this is the only one in English and, crucially, it is easily available. Strong kyu players might read the book if they are motivated or curious, however, other kyus should refrain from buying it, not only because it is just a dictionary but particularly because the Ishida has the broader coverage and the useful joseki marks.

The new dictionary is consistent in its selection of variants and styles of comments. The inherent repetition and relation of the move-sequences allows the dan player to learn a little quickly, although it requires some autodidactic skills that are useful for dictionaries anyway.

It cannot be said often enough - the book, as so many about joseki, is just a dictionary. It completely fails to give reasons for positional judgements. It even sometimes tries to hide this with illogical statements. This is not worthy a 9p coauthor and probably we see nothing but a standard marketing trick here. Although one cannot easily doubt the tactics in the diagrams, it remains a little sad to leave the reader alone with his positional skills.

To summarize, Jungsuk in Our Time is a nice modern addition to the Ishida for dan players who are confident enough to judge themselves.