Most go teachers analyze positions to death, occasionally laying out sequences that show how the analysis would change if a stone were shifted, but the functional dynamics of such changes in position are never really addressed. Mr. Yang teaches the fundamental meaning of stones so that you can take a position you have never seen before and understand what it is you should be trying to accomplish there and the best way to go about doing it. My. Yang has an uncanny ability to make complex situations seem simple by showing the basic principles involved.

Much of the material in this book is definitely not available in English language Go literature. In fact, I doubt that this material can be found anywhere in the world, because Mr. Yang did not formulate these ideas until after he arrived in the United States in 1986. He once told me that when he taught Go in China, his students would say,Yes, teacher, I believe you, but why? How is it that such a small change - one line up or down, left or right - can make such a drastic change in the analysis? There must be something fundamental going on here, but what is it? I don't understand.This forced Mr. Yang himself to think about the meaning of the moves. The result of those thoughts is the book you now hold in your hands, a truly Western theory of Go.

To those readers who have never had a lesson with Mr. Yang: Be prepared. Your approach to the game of Go is about to be transformed.