Games - Go

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	Games - Go

Go, also known as Weiqi or Baduk, is a strategic, two-player board game originating in ancient China between 2000 BC and 200 BC. The game is now popular throughout East Asia. The development of Internet play has increased its popularity throughout the rest of the world. The English name Go originated from the Japanese pronunciation of an old Chinese character 碁 (go), though the game is usually called 囲碁 (igo) in Japanese. The Chinese name 圍棋 (trad.) / 围棋 (simp.) (pinyin: wéiqí) roughly translates to the "board game of surrounding", or, less literally, the "enclosing game". Its ancient Chinese name is 弈 (pinyin: yì), and is also listed under 碁 in the Kangxi Dictionary. It is known as 바둑 (baduk) in Korean.

Overview of the game

The two players, black and white, battle to maximize the territory they control, seeking to surround large areas of the board with their stones, to entrap any opposing stones that invade these areas, and to protect their own stones from capture. The strategy involved can become very subtle and complex. Some high-level players spend years perfecting strategy. Go is considered by some to be the ultimate strategy game, superior in depth of complexity to both chess and shogi.

Go is typically classified as an abstract board game. However, a resemblance between the game of Go and war is often suggested. The Chinese classic The Art of War, for instance, has sometimes been applied to Go strategy as well. On the other hand, general strategies of Go are well described by proverbs and are applied in other contexts such as management.

Real wars end when the participants sign treaties. Likewise, in Go, the players have to agree that the game has ended. Only then are the score and the winner finally determined.

History

The origins of the game are unknown, but the oldest surviving references come from China in the 6th century BC. Except for changes in the board size and starting position, Go has essentially kept the same rules since that time, which quite likely makes it the oldest board game still played today. It had reached Japan by the 7th century, and gained popularity at the imperial court in the 8th. By the beginning of the 13th century, the game was played in the general public in Japan.

Early in the 17th century, the then best player in Japan, Honinbo Sansa, was made head of a newly founded Go academy (the Honinbo school, the first of several competing schools founded about the same time), which developed the level of playing greatly, and introduced the martial-arts style system of ranking players. The government discontinued its support for the Go academies in 1868 as a result of the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate.

In honour of the Honinbo school, whose players consistently dominated the other schools during their history, one of the most prestigious Japanese Go championships is called the "Honinbo" tournament.

Historically, Go has been unequal in terms of gender. However, the opening of new, open tournaments and the rise of strong female players, most notably Rui Naiwei, has in recent years legitimised the strength and competitiveness of emerging female players.

Around 2000, in Japan, the manga (Japanese comic) and anime series Hikaru no Go
popularized Go among the youth and started a Go boom in Japan. In January 2004, the Hikaru no Go manga began running in the US (monthly) edition of Shonen Jump. Whether this will lead to a strong following in the US is yet to be seen.

Scott A. Boorman's The Protracted Game: A Wei-Chi Interpretation of Maoist Revolutionary Strategy likens the game to historical events, saying that the Maoists were better at surrounding territory.

Philosophy

According to legend, the game was used as a teaching tool after the ancient Chinese emperor Yao 堯 (2337 - 2258 BC) designed it for his son, Danzhu, who he thought needed to learn discipline, concentration, and balance. Another suggested genesis for the game states that in ancient times, Chinese warlords and generals would use pieces of stone to map out attacking positions. Further and more plausible theories relate Go equipment to divination or flood control. See also history of Go.

Before the industrial age in China, Go was long perceived as the popular game of the elite aristocratic class while xiangqi (Chinese chess) was perceived as the game of the masses. Go was considered one of the cultivated arts of the Chinese scholar gentleman (junzi), along with Calligraphy, Painting and playing the Guqin, known as 琴棋書畫 (四艺, Pinyin: Sìyì), or the Four Arts of the Chinese Scholar.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Go (board game) ]

Games - Go

Overview of the game

History

Philosophy

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