Banri Ikku

Ohashi Hirofumi was ten years old when he first got hands on Hatsuyoron, Dosetsu Inseki Inoue's famous problem collection. When he looked at the problems inside, it was as if a current of electricity ran through him; the originality of the shapes and the vividness of the move sequences born from them felt like an explosion of art. From that day, composing go problems has been an integral part of Ohashi's life.



In the collection 'Banri Ikku', Ohashi-sensei has gathered some of the most interesting go problems he has composed over the years. The difficulty level of the problems seems to be aimed at strong amateur players; in fact, about half of the problems in the book are difficult enough to give even an active professional player pause.