WHOA! Big book

I received a Visa gift card for participating in a bank promotional offer and bought myself copies of Invincible: The Games of Shusaku and Opening Theory Made Easy for my library. The former is probably still too advanced for me but I felt it was an acceptable indulgence with the gift card. I wanted it for leisure reading.

Invincible is big

Kiseido sells Invinciblefor $40. I first thought it was rather pricey but I can now see why. This is probably their largest book; weighing in at a hefty 1 pound and 15 ounces whereas their typical book tips the scale at only 7 ounces. It has 420 pages with its text in the same size of typeface as all the smaller Kiseido books (there's a lot of commentary). It measures 10 x 7 x 0.9 inches compared to 7.25 x 5 x 0.38 inches for Opening Theory which was priced at $15. The whole package shipped from Japan - ¥4,200 and ¥1,800 charged for the books respectively - and arrived seven days after I had put in the order.

If you'd like access to online SGF files of Shusaku's games, I had mentioned one link in a previous post. You can also find some on GoBase.org's archive.

My current work-related projects don't give me enough solid time to play a focused 19x19 game right now. Thus far, I've only been playing free games on KGS; mostly 13x13s and at odd hours. In the photo above, you can see dust beginning to settle on my desk; there's little time for cleaning. I'm still hoping to see you all online soon (even if it might be in the wee hours of the California morning).