This volume is the first part of an original work, which aims at outlining the progress of Go in Europe. It is the second edition of two books dealing with the history of European Go until 1920 and 1950, respectively. Go journals were used extensively as primary sources. Assistance was received by Theo van Ees, Klaus Heine, and other experts; this allowed a more extended and correct historical reconstruction in several cases.

The author began to publish studies on the history of chess and draughts in the 1980s. In the following years, he enlarged the field to include other games, becoming for the instance honorary fellow of the International Playing-Card Society. Recently, his attention is mainly focused in the history and bibliography of Go, especially from the European point of view.