Reducing Territorial Frameworks

BGJ 172 Summer 2015, Reviewer: Roger Huyshe

by Shuko Fujisawa (Publisher Kiseido)

There is more to this slim 1980 volume of 200 pages of A5 than meets the eye. The book starts with a section expounding and illustrating principles and side benefits of reduction. The middle half of the book goes systematically through a large number of middle-game joseki for reducing the side, the corner and the Chinese formation.

This may not be exciting reading but for those with the perseverance to examine these formations, it is possibly more useful than studying a similar number of corner joseki. And to be fair, the various formations are examined in the context of the surroundings. There follows examples from professional games and 30 fairly challenging problems, all of which address the choices in a full board context. The beginning is readable from 6 or 8 kyu, but there is also material to interest many dan players.