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Go is a board game for two players. It is also called Weiqi in Chinese (圍棋,围棋), Igo in Japanese (Kanji: 囲碁), and Baduk in Korean (Hangul:바둑). Go originated in ancient China before 2000 BC, and is now popular throughout the world, especially in East Asia.
Go is played by alternately placing black and white stones on the vacant intersections of a 19×19 rectilinear grid. A stone is captured and removed if it is tightly surrounded by stones of the opposing color. The objective is to control a larger territory than the opponent by placing one's stones so they cannot be captured, but can capture any opposing stones played in one's territory. 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; the game can also end by resignation.

Origin Of The Name

The game is called Go in many languages; this word originated from the Japanese pronunciation "go" of the Chinese characters 棋/碁; in Japanese the name is written 碁. The Chinese name Weiqi (圍棋,围棋) roughly translates as "encirclement chess", "board game of surrounding", or "enclosing game". Its ancient Chinese name is 弈 (pinyin: yì). The writings 棋/碁 are variants, as seen in the Chinese Kangxi dictionary. The game is most commonly known as 囲碁 (igo) in Japanese. Because Japanese professionals taught the first Western players, the latter naturally used the Japanese name in early German-language and then English-language books and articles about the game. The Japan Go Association (Nihon Ki-in) has long played a leading role spreading Go outside East Asia, publishing the English-language magazine Go Review in the 1960's, establishing Go Centers in the US and Europe, and often sending professional teachers to Western nations for extended periods. As a result, many Go concepts for which there is no ready English equivalent have become known elsewhere by their Japanese names.
The widespread use of Japanese terminology in the West notwithstanding, Chinese and Korean members of the international Go community, including professionals, continue to advocate for the primacy of terms from their language in common usage. They point out that in recent years, many Chinese and Korean players have also taught Western students. There is also no exact equivalence of concepts in different Asian languages, meaning that Go is still without a standard technical jargon.
In order to differentiate the game from the common English verb "go", the game is sometimes spelt with a capital G; this convention is not however followed in most of the technical literature on the game. An alternative but uncommon spelling is Goe, proposed by Ing Chang-Ki , the late wealthy promoter of Go (particularly in Taiwan and the US), for the same reason. This spelling is not widely used, outside events sponsored by the Ing foundation.

Rules

This picture shows one black unit and two white units. Their respective liberties are shown with dots. Note that liberties are shared among all the st If white plays at A, the black unit loses its last liberty, and is captured and removed from the board.

Basic Rules

  • Two players, Black and White, take turns placing a stone (game piece) on a vacant point (intersection) of a 19 by 19 board (grid). Black moves first. Other board sizes such as 13x13 and 9x9 may be used for teaching or quick games, but 19x19 is the standard size. Once played, a stone may not be moved to a different point.
  • A vacant point adjacent to a stone is a liberty for that stone.
  • Adjacent stones of the same color form a unit that shares its liberties in common, cannot subsequently be subdivided, and in effect becomes a single larger stone.
  • Units may be expanded by playing additional stones of the same color on their liberties, or amalgamated by playing a stone on a mutual liberty of two or more units of the same color.
  • A unit must have at least one liberty to remain on the board. When a unit is surrounded by opposing stones so that it has no liberties, it is captured and removed from the board.
  • If a stone is played where it has no liberties, but it occupies the last liberty of one or more opposing units, then such units are captured first, leaving the newly played stone at least one liberty.
  • "Ko rule": A stone cannot be played on a particular point if doing so would recreate the board position that existed after the same player's previous turn.
  • A player may pass instead of placing a stone, 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.
A player's score is the number of empty points enclosed only by his stones plus the number of points occupied by his stones. The player with the higher score wins. (Note that there are other rulesets that count the score differently, yet almost always produce the same result.) For a more detailed treatment, see Rules of Go.
This is the essence of the game of Go. The risk of capture means that stones must work together to control territory, which makes the gameplay very complex and interesting. (Also see strategy.)
Go allows one to play not only even games (games between players of roughly equal strength) but also handicap games (games between players of unequal strength); see optional rules. Without a handicap, even a slight difference in strength will generally be decisive.




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Tagasaki 		Latest page update: made by Tagasaki , Nov 16 2006, 8:55 AM EST (about this update About This Update Tagasaki Edited by Tagasaki

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