First Kyu: A Novel

Before We Begin Let me tell you a story.An old story, a really old story. Do you know how to play baduk?You do? First kyu, a player of the first rank? Really? Have you ever competed in a professional qualifying tournament? No? Then you are not, I repeat, NOT first kyu!
I know, I know. Nowadays all kinds of bad players call them- selves first kyu.This story is, however, not about those fake first kyus. It’s a story of the real first kyus.
There is a guy who runs a smoke shop near Niagara Falls. His name is Shin. On rainy days he keeps staring at the falls and mumbles something like “I’m sure they must all be playing for bangneki stakes happily somewhere… ”
Can you even guess what he is talking about? If not, just hold on and listen to what I’m going to tell you. Only about a handful of people know this story. So listen up.

So our fictional narrator–a first kyu from the Korea in the 1960s–starts his tale of what it takes to win one of the most challenging games.

Translated from the original Korean book by the author Dr. Sung-Hwa Hong, with original illustrations by Du-Ri Han, with an expanded section of Go diagrams by pro baduk player Janice Kim, following the famous ‘Blood-Coughing Game’ that links the story to the history of the game of baduk, known as wei-chi in Chinese and go in Japanese, over centuries of the struggle to be first.

Expanded from the original English translation first published in 1999. 285 pages with black and white original artwork.