Go (board game)
2008/9 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Games
 Go is played on a grid of black painted lines (usually 19 × 19 of them). The playing pieces, called "stones", are played on the intersections of the lines. |
|
| Players | 2 |
|---|---|
| Age range | 4+ |
| Setup time | None |
| Playing time | casual: 20–90 minutes tournament: 2–6 hours* |
| Random chance | None |
| Skills required | Tactics, Strategy, Observation |
|
Footnotes
* Some professional games, especially in Japan, take over 16 hours, and are played in sessions spread over two days.
|
|
Go is a strategic board game for two players. It is known as wéiqí in Chinese ( Traditional: 圍棋; Simplified: 围棋), igo (囲碁 ?) or go (碁 ?) in Japanese, and baduk in Korean ( hangul: 바둑). To differentiate it from the common English verb go, it is sometimes capitalized. An alternate spelling is also used occasionally. Go originated in China, where it has been played for at least two thousand years. It is mostly popular in East Asia but has nowadays gained some popularity in the rest of the world as well. Go is noted for being rich in strategic complexity despite its simple rules.
Go is played by two players alternately placing black and white stones on the vacant intersections of a 19 × 19 grid board. The object of the game is to control a larger part of the board than the opponent. To achieve this, players strive to place their stones in such a way that they cannot be captured, while mapping out territories the opponent cannot invade without being captured. A stone or a group of stones is captured and removed if it has no empty adjacent intersections, the result of being completely surrounded by stones of the opposing colour.
On one hand, placing stones close together helps them support each other and avoid capture. On the other hand, placing stones far apart creates influence across more of the board. Part of the strategic difficulty of the game stems from finding a balance between such conflicting interests. Players strive to serve both defensive and offensive purposes and choose between tactical urgency and strategic plans. The game ends, and the score is counted when both players consecutively pass on a turn, indicating that neither side can increase its territory or reduce its opponent's.
Despite the fact that Go originated in ancient China, it is commonly known in the West by its Japanese name, go. This stems from the fact that early Western players learned of the game from Japanese sources. As a result, many Go concepts for which there is no ready English equivalent have become known elsewhere by their Japanese names. The Japanese name igo is linked to the Japanese reading of its Chinese name weiqi, which roughly translates as "board game of surrounding".
 |
This article contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters. |
 |
This article contains Japanese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of kanji or kana. |
 |
This article contains Korean text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Hangul or hanja. |
History
Origin in China
Some legends trace the origin of the game to legendary Chinese emperor Yao (2337–2258 BC), who had his counselor Shun design it for his son, Danzhu—supposedly an unruly sort—to teach him discipline, concentration, and balance. Other theories suggest that the game was derived from Chinese tribal warlords and generals who used pieces of stone to map out attacking positions or that Go equipment was originally a fortune telling device.
The earliest written reference of the game is usually taken to be the historical annal Zuo Zhuan (c. 4th century BC), referring to a historical event of 548 BC. It is also mentioned in Book XVII of the Analects of Confucius (c. 3rd century BC) and in two of the books of Mencius (c. 3rd century BC). In all of these works, the game is referred to as yì (弈), a name that means "to play (Go)" today.
Go was originally played on a 17 × 17 grid, but a 19 × 19 grid became standard by the Tang Dynasty (618-907).
In China, Go was perceived as the popular game of the aristocracy, while Xiangqi (Chinese chess) was the game of the masses. Go was considered one of the four cultivated arts of the Chinese scholar gentleman, along with calligraphy, painting and playing the musical instrument guqin.
Spread to Japan and Korea
Although Go may have reached Korea as early as the 5th century AD, more solid evidence stems from the 7th century AD. By this time, Go had also reached Japan, where it gained popularity at the imperial court in the 8th century. By the beginning of the 13th century, Go was played among the general public in Japan.
In 1603, Tokugawa Ieyasu re-established Japan's unified national government. In the same year, he assigned the then-best player in Japan, a Buddhist monk named Nikkai (born Kano Yosaburo, 1559), to the post of Godokoro (Minister of Go). Nikkai took on the name of Honinbo Sansa and founded the Honinbo Go school. Several competing schools were founded soon after. These officially recognized and subsidized Go schools greatly developed the level of play and introduced the dan/kyu style system of ranking players. Players from the four schools (Honinbo, Yasui, Inoue, Hayashi) competed in the annual castle games, played in the presence of the shogun.
Go In The West
Despite its widespread popularity in Eastern Asia, Go has been slow to spread to the rest of the world, unlike other games of ancient Asian origin such as chess. Schadler speculates that chess has more widespread appeal because on the one hand culturally congruent game pieces can be created in chess (e.g. Queen and Bishop in Western Chess, but Advisor and Elephant in Chinese Chess), and on the other hand there is no climactic ending in Go (such as checkmate in chess); indeed, new players often have trouble figuring out when a game of Go is over.
The first detailed description of Go in a European language, De Circumveniendi Ludo Chinensium ('About the Chinese encircling game'), was written in Latin by Thomas Hyde, and included in his 1694 treatise on Oriental board games, De Ludis Orientalibus ('About Oriental games'). However, Go did not start to become popular in the West until the end of the 19th century, when German scientist Oskar Korschelt wrote a treatise on the game. By the early 20th century, Go had spread throughout the German and Austro-Hungarian empires. In 1905, Edward Lasker learned the game while in Berlin. When he moved to New York, Lasker founded the New York Go Club together with (amongst others) Arthur Smith, who had learned of the game while touring the East and had published the book The Game of Go in 1908. Lasker's book Go and Go-moku (1934) helped spread the game throughout the US, and in 1935, the American Go Association was formed. Two years later, in 1937, the German Go Association was founded. World War II put a stop to most Go activity, but after the war, Go continued to spread. For most of the 20th century, the Japan Go Association played a leading role in spreading Go outside East Asia, publishing the English-language magazine Go Review in the 1960s, establishing Go centers in the US, Europe and South America, and often sending professional teachers on tour to Western nations. In 1996, NASA astronaut Daniel Barry and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata became the first people to play Go in space. Both astronauts were awarded honorary dan ranks by the Nihon Kiin. As of 2008, the International Go Federation has a total of 71 member countries. It has been claimed that across the world 1 person in every 222 plays Go.
Rules
Although there are some minor differences between rulesets used in different countries, most notably in Chinese and Japanese scoring rules, these differences do not seriously affect the tactics and strategy of the game. The basic rules presented here are valid independent of the scoring rules used. The scoring rules are explained separately.
Basic rules
Two players, Black and White, take turns placing a stone (game piece) of their own colour on a vacant point (intersection) of the grid on a Go board. Black moves first (If there is a large difference in playing level between the players, black is sometimes allowed to place two or more stones on the board for his first move, see Go handicaps for details). The official grid comprises 19×19 lines, though the rules can be applied to any grid size, 13×13 and 9×9 are popular choices to teach beginners. Once played, a stone may not be moved to a different point.
Orthogonally adjacent stones of the same colour form a chain (also called a group) that shares its liberties (see below) in common, cannot subsequently be subdivided, and in effect becomes a single larger stone. Only stones connected to one another by the lines on the board create a chain; stones that are diagonally adjacent are not connected. Chains may be expanded by playing additional stones on adjacent intersections or connected together by playing a stone on an intersection that is adjacent to two or more chains of the same colour.
A vacant point adjacent to a stone is called a liberty for that stone. Chains of stones share their liberties. A chain of stones must have at least one liberty to remain on the board. When a chain is surrounded by opposing stones so that it has no liberties, it is captured and removed from the board.
Generally, it is not allowed to play a stone in such a way that one of your own chains is left without liberties. Such a move is dubbed suicide. An exception to this rule occurs if doing so captures one or more of the opponent's stones. In this case, the opponent's stones are captured first, leaving the newly played stone at least one liberty.
 |
 |
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
 |
An example of a situation in which the ko rule applies
Players are not allowed to make a move that returns the game to the position before the opponent's last move. This rule, called the ko rule (from the Japanese 劫 kō "eon"), prevents unending repetition. See the example to the right: Black has just played the stone marked 1, capturing a white stone at the intersection marked with a circle. If White were now allowed to play on the marked intersection, that move would capture the black stone marked 1 and recreate the situation before Black made the move marked 1. Allowing this would result in an unending cycle of captures by both players. The ko rule therefore prohibits White from playing at the marked intersection. Instead White must play elsewhere; Black can then end the ko by filling at the marked intersection, creating a five-stone Black chain. If White wants to continue the ko, White will try to find a play that Black must answer; if Black answers, then White can retake the ko. A repetition of such exchanges is called a ko fight.
Instead of placing a stone, a player may pass, indicating that he sees no way to increase his territory or reduce his opponent's territory. When both players pass consecutively, the game ends and is then scored.
Scoring rules
There are two basic ways to count the score at the end of a game. The oldest scoring method is territory scoring which is used in Japan, Korea and most Western countries. The other scoring rules —invented in 15th-century China— are called area scoring and are used in China and some other countries. The USA, France and the UK use a scoring system that is a hybrid of these two systems.
With territory scoring, the score is the number of empty points enclosed by each player's stones (after dead stones have been removed), plus the number of prisoners. Prisoners are opponent's stones captured during the game, as well as those still on the board but unable to avoid capture (so-called dead stones).
With area scoring, the score is the number of stones each player has on the board, plus the number of surrounded empty intersections. Dead stones are removed at the end, as under "territory" scoring, but prisoners do not count toward the score under these rules.
Given the fact that the number of stones a player has on the board is directly related to the number of prisoners the opponent has taken, the resulting net score under both rules is often identical and is rarely more than one point different.
Each of these scoring methods has advantages and disadvantages. There have been some efforts to agree on a standardized set of international rules.
Important consequences
Although not actually part of the rules, there are some consequences of the basic go rules that are so important that they might be considered as derived rules.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Examples of eyes.
The most important of these consequences of the rules are the concepts of life and death. When a group of stones is mostly surrounded and has no options to connect with friendly stones elsewhere, we can describe the status of the group as either alive or dead. A group of stones is said to be alive if it cannot be captured even if the opponent is allowed to move first. Conversely, a group of stones is said to be dead if it cannot avoid capture, even if the owner of the group is allowed the first move. If the status of a group depends on whether the owner or his opponent moves first, the group is said to be unsettled. In such a situation, the player that moves first may either make it alive if he is the owner, or kill it if it is the opponent's group.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Example of seki (mutual life).
For a group to be alive, it needs to create at least two eyes. An eye is an empty point that is surrounded by friendly stones and where the opponent can never play due to the suicide rule. If two such eyes exist, the opponent can never capture a group of stones, because it will always have at least two liberties. One eye is not enough for life, because a point that would normally be suicide may be played upon if doing so fills the last liberty of opposing stones, thereby capturing those stones. Refer to the diagram labeled "Examples of eyes". All the circled points are eyes. The two black groups in the upper corners are alive, as they both have at least two eyes. The groups in the lower corners are dead, as they both have only one eye. The group in the lower left may seem to have two eyes, but the surrounded empty point without a circle is not actually an eye. White can play there and take a black stone. Such a point is often called a false eye.
There is a rare exception to the requirement that a group must have two e