After more than a year of working on it, I am proud to announce the release of my newest book: Weird and Wonderful - Volume 1: Extraordinary Moves by Professional Go Players. 
I co-wrote it with Peter Brouwer and it was published in December 2021 by the Kiseido Publishing Company.

It is available as a hard copy on the website of Kiseido (click here), on the website of European distributor Schaak & Go winkel Het Paard (click here) and as an e-book in the SmartGo web store (click here). Soon it will also be available in other go shops worldwide.

This is the first volume of what will be a series of three books:

• Volume 1 on extraordinary moves from professional games.
• Volume 2 on unusual joseki, trick plays and techniques.
• Volume 3 on spectacular go problems.
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The cover of Volume 1 is designed by me and features a portrait of legendary go player Cho Chikun and a rare tesuji from one of his games that is analyzed in detail in the chapter "Double Ladder Breakers that Calmed the Gods".

Volume 1 is a collection of creative, bizarre, exquisite, rare and funny moves from professional play. Suitable for players of about 10-kyu to 6-dan level.
The book counts 246 pages and contains the following 18 chapters:

• A Time-Saving Move that Backfired
• Magic on the First Line
• Five Spectacular Invasions
• The Raccoon-Dog Drums its Belly
• Climbing on Broken Ladders
• Triple Ko? I Don't Think So
• Exquisite Attachments on the Second Line
• Golden Rooster Standing on One Leg
• The Dragon that Eats its Tail
• Double Ladder Breakers that Calmed the Gods
• Wonderful Wedges
• Chen Yaoye's Creativity
• Miraculous Escapes
• A Different Angle
• Subterranean Attacks
• Extraordinary Life-and-Death Tesujis
• Endgame Adventures
• Eternal Life in the Void

If you've read it, I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comment section!

In winter 2021, the Chinese Weiqi Association organized an art competition on their social media platform Little Fox Weiqi. For the competition, artists were encouraged to create designs based around the fox in the logo of Little Fox Weiqi, incorporating references to the game of go.
"Little Fox Weiqi" stems from China's nickname for go: 木野狐 (wooden wild fox). In the announcement of the competition, the fox was described as "very clever, cute, lively but also naughty." The organization further wrote: "We hope to use the image of 'little fox' to show the elegance, kindness and wisdom of Chinese weiqi, and its powerful vitality and infinite charm."

​Inspired by the logo of Little Fox Weiqi (above), I made an illustration in the same cute and child-friendly style, using gradients for the red-orange-white fur similar to the original. I played into the classic qualities of naughtiness and shrewdness of the fox: my fox peeks at us from behind a beautiful wooden go board, smiling happily while simultaneously placing a go stone on the board with its tail. I titled my design "Cheeky Little Fox".

I ended up making two versions of my design which I both entered into the competition: one with my usual black outlines (above) and one without (at the beginning of this blog post).
On social media, opinions were divided on which version was better. Personally, I probably prefer the version without the black outlines: it is more in line with the logo of Little Fox Weiqi, and this change from my usual drawing style positively surprised me. 

All participants of the competition will receive prizes or certificates of honour. The winners should be announced in the coming weeks.