Attack and Defence

Akira Ishida was born in 1949 in Tokyo, second son to a 2-dan professional go player. He became a professional pupil at the age of nine, made professional shodan eight years later, and has been earning rapid promotions ever since, becoming shodan in 1966 and 9-dan in 1982 He has made his mark on the tournament scene as well, having finished first or second in five events through 1979. He was awarded the Kido prize for outstanding technique in 1978. James Davies was born in 1945 in Philadelphia. He studied mathematics at Oberlin College and the University of Washington, but in 1970 the game of go drew him to Japan, where he has lived since. An amateur (5-dan) player but a semi-professional writer, he has turned out numerous books and countless magazine articles on go.

James Davies graduated from the University of Oxford in 2006, with a DPhil in social and medical anthropology. He is a reader in social anthropology and mental health at the University of Roehampton and a qualified psychotherapist. His books include The Making of Psychotherapists: An Anthropological Analysis and Cracked: Why Psychiatry Is Doing More Harm Than Good. He edited Emotions in the Field: The Psychology and Anthropology of Fieldwork Experience and The Sedated Society: The Causes and Harms of Our Psychiatric Drug Epidemic. He cofounded the Council for Evidence-based Psychiatry, which is now secretariat to the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Prescribed Drug Dependence.