1000+ images about iGO !! Japanese Board Game on Pinterest | English, Game of and In china Forward Hyuga Kaya Go Board (Masame) 7.4-sun : Harvest in : Aya National Forest, Miyazaki Prefecture Wood Dried for : More than 15 years Grain Pattern : Masame Estimated Tree Age : Over 800years old Dimensions: Width : 43.5cm / Length : 46.7cm Thickness : 22.5cm. Aya National Forest is widely know as an area to produce the highest quality Hyuga Kaya wood to make Go and Shogi boards, but no Kaya tree to make Masame board has been cut down since 8 years ago. Price = Negotiable 4 Go (board game) - Books - Famous Chinese Shopping City Famous Chinese Shopping City Go Image:Go_board.jpg|300px|center|A traditional goban is wooden, with the lines painted on. The stones are flattened spheroids and fit closely together when placed on adjacent points.

Chinese language|Chinese name Traditional Chinese character|Traditional Chinese 圍棋 Simplified Chinese character|Simplified Chinese 围棋 Revised Romanization of Korean|Revised Romanization Baduk McCune-Reischauer Paduk Go is a strategic, two-player board game originating in ancient China between 2000 BC and 200 BC. Go is a popular game in 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 language|Japanese character 碁 (go). The Chinese language|Chinese name 圍棋 w?iq? roughly translates to the "Board Game of Surrounding (One's Opponent)", or, less literally, the "Enclosing Game". Philosophy According to legend, the game was used as a teaching tool after an ancient Chinese emperor designed it for his son, who he thought needed to learn discipline, concentration, and balance. The son went on to become the first great player, a good emperor, and a balanced human being. 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 perceived as the game of the aristocratic class while xiangqi (Chinese chess) was perceived as the game of the masses. Go is deep, as playing against any stronger player will demonstrate (Go ranks and ratings#Depth of the game|depth of the game as established by Go ranks and ratings#Go rating with ELO|ELO ranking in Go). With each new level (rank) comes a deeper appreciation for the subtlety involved, and for the insight of stronger players. Beginners often start by randomly placing stones on the board, as if it were a game of chance &mdash; and they inevitably lose to experienced players. But soon an understanding of how stones connect to form strength develops, and shortly afterward a few basic go opening theory|common opening sequences may be understood. Learning the ways of life and death helps to develop one's situational judgement. Further experience yields an understanding of the board, the importance of the edges, then the efficiency of developing (in the corners first, then sides, then center).

Soon, the advanced beginner understands that territory and influence are somewhat interchangeable &mdash; but there needs to be a balance. Best is to develop more or less at the same pace as the opponent, in both territory and influence. This intricate struggle of power and control makes the game highly dynamic. <BR clear="all"\> Rules Image:Go_adjacent_stones.png|frame|left|This picture shows one black chain and two white chains. Their respective liberties are shown with dots. Note that liberties can be shared between stones and chains. If white plays where its two chains share a liberty, the chains will be connected into one. Basic rules Image:Go_capturing.png|right|frame|If white plays at A, the black chain loses its last liberty, and is captured and removed from the board. simplegorules image:Go-small.png|right|frame|Game 5 of the 2002 LG Cup final between Choe Myeong-hun (white) and Lee Se-dol (black) at the end of the opening stage; white has developed large moyo (potential territory), while black has strong influence.

Optional rules Optional Go rules may set the following: compensation points, almost always for the second player, see komidashi|komi; compensation stones ("handicap") placed on the board before alternate play, allowing players of different strengths to play interesting games (see handicap go). Also see go rules, game of go#Go rules of play|Go rules of play and game of go#Strategy|strategy. Basic strategic aspects include the following: Connection: Keeping one's own stones connected means that fewer groups need defense. Cut: Keeping opposing stones disconnected means that the opponent needs to defend more groups. Life: This is the ability of stones to avoid their removal. Usually life requires at least two "eyes" for a group of stones. Death: The absence of life, resulting in the removal of a group. Also see details of Go strategy and tactics, game of go#Go rules of play|Go rules of play, and game of go#Optional rules|optional rules. Nature of the game Although rules of Go can be written so that they are very simple, the game strategy is extremely complex.

Go is a Game_theory#Games of complete information|complete-knowledge, Deterministic_system_%28mathematics%29|deterministic, Strategy_game|strategy game: in the same class as chess, checkers (draughts), and reversi. Its depth arguably exceeds even those games. Its large board and lack of restrictions allows great scope in strategy. Decisions in one part of the board may be influenced by an apparently unrelated situation, in a distant part of the board. Plays made early in the game can shape the nature of conflict a hundred moves later. The game emphasises the importance of balance on multiple levels, and has internal tensions. To secure an area of the board, it is good to play moves close together; but to cover the largest area one needs to spread out. To ensure one does not fall behind, expansionist play is required; but playing too broadly leaves weaknesses undefended that can be exploited. Playing too low (close to the edge) secures insufficient territory; yet playing too high (far from the edge) allows the opponent to invade. Many people find the game attractive for its reflection of polarities also found in life.

See Go strategy and tactics for an introductory explanation of how to play well, and the Go demonstration game. It is commonly said that no game has ever been played twice. This may be true: On a 19&times;19 board, there are about 3<sup>361</sup>&times;0.012 = 2.1&times;10<sup>170</sup> possible positions, most of which are the end result of about (120!)<sup>2</sup> = 4.5&times;10<sup>397</sup> different (no-capture) games, for a total of about 9.3&times;10<sup>567</sup> games. Allowing captures gives as many as <math>10^7.49 \times 10^48</math> possible games, most of which last for over 1.6&times;10<sup>49</sup> moves!

(For two comparisons: the number of legal positions in chess is estimated to be between 10<sup>43</sup> and 10<sup>50</sup>; and physicists estimate that there are not more than 10<sup>90</sup> protons in the entire visible universe.) Computers and Go Although attempts have been made to program computer|computers to play Go, success in that area has been moderate at best - development in this area has not reached the level of Chess programs. Even the strongest programs are no better than an average club player, and would easily be beaten by a strong player even getting a nine-stone handicap. This is attributed to many qualities of the game, including the "optimization|optimising" nature of the victory condition, the virtually unlimited placement of each stone, the large board size, the nonlocal nature of the Ko rule, and the high degree of pattern recognition involved. For this reason, many in the field of artificial intelligence consider Go to be a better measure of a computer's capacity for thought than chess. See the article on Computer Go for details.

Use of computer networks to allow humans to meet, discuss games, and play one another, although generally considered inferior to face-to-face play, is becoming much more common. There are servers and software to facilitate this; see Additional Resources below for more information. Other board games commonly compared with Go Go appears to stand apart among games in its rules and gameplay; it is difficult to find another board game which could be considered of the same "family" as Go. However, on learning about the game, people will attempt to compare it with other games they may already have experienced. This is a list of some games that are played with similar equipment or come from the same area. Variations of chess * Western chess: This game dominates Western game culture as the pinnacle of strategic game play; its history in the culture stretches back many centuries. By comparison, Go has only been known to Western culture as a challenging strategic game since the 1950s. * Shogi: Early Western literature often made the error of referring to Go as "Japanese Chess". The Japanese do have their own variant of Chess, called Shogi; it is much more similar to the other Chess variants than to Go.

Shogi schools were founded in Japan about the same time as Go schools, but the game never received as much favour as Go. * Xiangqi: This is the Chinese variant of Chess, usually called "Chinese chess" by Westerners. Like most Chess variants, it has great depth of strategy, but bears few similarities to Go in game play. Unlike Western chess, however, xiangqi, like Go, is played on points rather than squares. * Korean chess|Janggi: This is the Korean variant of Chess, usually called "Korean Chess". It is also very different from Go in game play. Go and Janggi are the two main board games played in Korea, but Go is arguably more popular as there are professional Go players and Cable Television channels devoted to Go. Hex (game)|Hex is a connection game. Like Go, it has cutting and connecting tatics, but they are rather different as it is played on a hexagonal lattice. Reversi: Marketed by Mattel as "Othello", Reversi bears superficial similarity to Go, with black and white circular pieces, an undifferentiated grid for a board, simple rules, and a goal of covering more of the board than the opponent.

The game play is quite unlike Go, however, and the depth of strategy in Reversi is not comparable to Go. Gomoku, Renju and Pente: Played with the same equipment as Go (a 19x19 grid, black and white stones), in these games the goal is to create five stones in a row. The rules are thus completely unrelated, and the game style is much shorter and less strategic than Go, rather being similar to a more advanced form of Tic-tac-toe. Alak (board game)|Alak is a Go-like game restricted to a single spatial dimension. Traditional Go game equipment Image:1989meijen1.jpg|thumb|After move 40 of round 1 of the 1989 Meijin tournament, little territory has been claimed. Although one could play Go with a piece of card for a board and a bag of plastic tokens, Go players pride themselves on their game sets. The traditional Go board (called a goban in Japanese) is solid wood, about 15&ndash;20 cm thick, and stands on its own attached legs.

They are preferably made from the rare golden-tinged Kaya tree ( Torreya nucifera), with the very best made from Kaya trees up to 700 years old. Players sit on reed mats (tatami) on the floor to play. The stones (go-ishi) come in matching solid wood pots (go-ke) and are made out of clamshell (white) and slate (black) and are extremely smooth. The natural resources of Japan have been unable to keep up with the enormous demand for the native clams and slow-growing Kaya (tree)|Kaya trees; both must be of sufficient age to grow to the desired size, and they are now extremely rare at the age and quality required, raising the price of such equipment tremendously. In clubs and at tournaments, where large numbers of sets must be maintained (and usually purchased) by one organization, the expensive traditional sets are not usually used. For these situations, table boards (of the same design as floor boards, but only about 2&ndash;5 cm thick and without legs) are used, and the stones are made of glass rather than slate and shell. Bowls will often be plastic if wooden bowls are not available.

Plastic stones could be used, but are considered inferior to glass as they are generally much lighter, and most players find that not even the lower price justifies their unpleasantness. Very high quality table boards can be made of Kaya. Other woods often used to make quality table boards include Hiba (Thujopsis dolabrata), Katsura (Cercidiphyllum japonicum), and Agathis. The dimensions of the board (traditionally the grid is 1.5 shaku long and 1.4 shaku wide (455 mm by 424 mm) with space beyond to allow stones to be played on the edges and corners of the grid) often surprise newcomers: it is not a perfect square, but is longer than it is wide, in the proportion 15:14. Two reasons are frequently given for this. One is that when the players sit at the board, the angle at which they view the board gives a foreshortening of the grid; the board is slightly longer between the players to compensate for this. Another reason is that the Japanese aesthetic finds structures with geometric symmetry to be in bad taste.

Traditional stones are made so that black stones are slightly larger in diameter than white; this is probably to compensate for the optical illusion created by contrasting colors that makes the white stones appear larger on the board than black stones. The difference is slight, and since its effect is to make the stones appear the same size on the board, it can be surprising to discover they are not. The bowls for the stones are of a simple shape, like a flattened sphere with a level underside. The lid is loose-fitting and is upturned before play to place opponent's stones captured during the game. The bowls are usually made of turned wood, although small lidded baskets of woven bamboo or reeds make an attractive cheaper alternative. There is even an art to placing a Go stone, held between the tips of the outstretched index and middle fingers and striking the board firmly to create a sharp click. Many consider the acoustics|acoustic properties of the wood of the board to be quite important. The traditional goban will usually have its underside carved with a pyramid called a Heso recessed into the board.

Tradition holds that this is to give a better resonance to the stone's click, but the more conventional explanation is to allow the board to expand and contract without splitting the wood. A board is seen as more attractive when it is marked with slight dents from decades &ndash; or centuries &ndash; of stones striking the surface. The Go world Ranks Image:Go_pros_and_amateurs.jpg|thumb|250px|Three Japanese professional Go players observe some younger amateurs as they dissect a life and death problem in the corner of the board, at the US Go Congress in Houston, Texas|Houston, 2003. See main article Go ranks and ratings In countries where Go is popular, ranks are employed to indicate playing strength. From about the sixteenth century, the Japanese formalised the teaching and ranking of Go. The system is comparable to that of martial arts schools; and is considered to be derived ultimately from court ranks in China. Beginning players today start at a rank of between 25 and 30 kyu. The kyu ranking then decreases in magnitude as the player becomes stronger, dropping down to 1 kyu or 1k.

Since beginners will commonly progress through elementary concepts quickly, it may be difficult to set a solid kyu ranking for new players. Players who have progressed through the kyu ranks and passed the 1 kyu mark are then ranked at 1 dan or 1d, sometimes called shodan. The player then could advance through the amateur dan ranks up to amateur 7 dan, which only few players achieve. That playing level is roughly equivalent to where the ranks for professionals start with pro 1 dan going up to 9 dan (also sometimes called ping or p as in 9 p to avoid confusion between a 1 dan professional and a weaker amateur 6 dan). The distinction between each amateur rank is, by definition, one handicap stone. Professional ranks are awarded by professional organizations and though they are less well defined, they are closer, so that the difference between an average 1p and a prime 9p may be three handicap stones (however, tournament games are even). In other words, the difference in rank between two players is theoretically equal to the number of handicap stones required for each player to have an even chance of winning.

Beating this handicap consistently is the indicator that a player's strength has improved, and his rank should be adjusted upward by one stone, thus changing the number of handicap stones required. Timing Like many other games, a game of Go may be timed. There are three typical methods of timing a game: Absolute: a specific amount of time is given for the entire game, regardless of how fast or slow each player is. Byo-Yomi (Japanese Timing): a player has a certain number of time periods (typically around 30 seconds). After each move, the number of time periods that the player took (possibly zero) is subtracted. For example, if a player has three 30-second time periods and takes 30 or more (but less than 60) seconds to make a move, he loses one time period. With 60-89 seconds, he loses two time periods, and so on. If, however, he takes less than 30 seconds, the timer simply resets without subtracting any periods. Canadian Byo-Yomi: a player must make a certain number of moves within a certain period of time. For example, 5 moves within 2 minutes.

If 5 moves are made in time, the timer resets to 2 minutes again. ( The Origins of Canadian Byo-Yomi) Japanese Timing is equivalent to Canadian Byo-Yomi when the "certain number of moves" is equal to one. Top players Although the game was developed in China, in recent centuries the strongest players in the world have come from Japan. However, top players from China (since the 1980s) and South Korea (since the 1990s) have reached the same or an even higher level. Nowadays, top players from these three countries are of comparable strength, although top Korean players seem to have an edge, dominating the major international titles. All three countries have a number of professional Go tournaments. The top Japanese tournaments have a prize purse comparable to that of professional golf tournaments in the United States. Tournaments in China and Korea are less lavishly funded. Players from other countries have traditionally been much weaker, except for some players who have taken up professional courses in one of the Asian countries. This is attributable to the fact that details of the game have been unknown outside of Asia for most of the game's history.

A German scientist, Otto Korschelt, is credited with the first systematic description of the game in a Western language in AD 1880; it was not until the 1950s that Western players would take up the game as more than a passing interest. In 1978, Manfred Wimmer became the first Westerner to receive a professional player's certificate from an Asian professional Go association. It was not until 2000 that a Westerner, Michael Redmond, achieved the top rank awarded by an Asian go association. See also Go players History See main article history of Go 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 century|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 role|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 has popularized Go among the youth and started a Go boom in Japan.

In January 2004, the Hikaru no Go manga also began running in the American periodical Weekly Shonen Jump|Shonen Jump. Whether this will lead to a strong following in the US is yet to be seen. Mathematical theory of Go endgames Elwyn Berlekamp and David Wolfe have developed a mathematical theory of the late endgame in Go based on the combinatorial game theory of John Horton Conway. It is outlined in their book, Mathematical Go (ISBN 1568810326). Whilst not of general utility in most play, it greatly aids the analysis of certain classes of positions. It is worth noting that John Conway developed the mathematical concept of surreal numbers while studying Go endgames. Go in popular culture Go has been mentioned in many novels and short stories published in the Orient, and occasionally turns up in Western media as well. The game of Go plays a part in the American TV miniseries, Wild Palms which references a piece of computer technology called a "Go chip." Go figures prominently in the introduction of Nikita to the mysterious character of Jurgen during an important character arc in the television series La Femme Nikita.

The game also appeared, unexpectedly, in an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise entitled "The Cogenitor" in which it was revealed that Charles Tucker plays the game. During season 3 of the television show 24_(television), several scenes took place in an underground chinese go club uncharacteristically populated by beautiful women. The characters even called it a "go club," which was probably too technical a term for most of the show's audience. "Hikaru no Go" was a manga and anime series, in which a boy is taught to play Go by the spirit of an ancient Go player. At the end of each episode in the original anime, there is a short segment of approximately three minutes where a simple concept of Go is taught. Through the first few episodes, a new player can be taught the concepts of the game in a very simple and easy to understand format. This segment appears to be mainly geared towards children. In 1951, Nobel Prize for Literature|Nobel Prize-winning author Yasunari Kawabata published The Master of Go, a novel based upon an epic game that took place over the course of several months in 1938.

An English translation appeared in 1972, around the time of Kawabata's death. Go was depicted in the films Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, A Beautiful Mind, Pi (movie)|Pi, Restless (movie)|Restless and Hero (movie)|Hero. Games played with Go equipment Go concepts List of free Go programs List of Go topics wikiquote Learning Go The Interactive Way To Go is an excellent resource to learn the basics; includes Java applets. British Go Association's introduction to Go The Rules of Go How To Play Go Samarkand is owned by Janice Kim 3p and has a very good beginner introduction. goproblems.com has over 3000 problems for practice in a Java applet. GoBase has a collection of 750 problems used in Korea to help develop players of amateur dan strength. Resources Sensei's Library is a wiki devoted entirely to the game of Go - it even has special markup for displaying Go diagrams. The Usenet newsgroup news:rec.games.go rec.games.go has its own FAQ document, the rec.games.go FAQ. SIMPLEKO offer go tables & go boards to play the Game.

Go history History of Go in ancient China, Korea and Japan Go organizations International Go Federation Internet Go Go can be played on the Internet against opponents from around the world on numerous #server Go servers: The Kiseido Go Server is such a server, complete with its own easy-to-use Java programming language|Java client, teaching facilities and introductory material. The Internet Go Server, the "original" server. Several official and 3rd party clients are available. The No Name Go Server, similar to the IGS, but with a smaller community. The Legend Go Server, located in Taiwan, with its own English client. The Dash Go Server, Korean server with an English Windows client. The Tygem Go, located in Korea, with its own client. The Oro Go, located in Korea, with its own client. The Dragon Go Server, a turn-based server run on open source software. The LittleGolem, another turn-based server, this one centred around tournament play. The Playray Go, quite a new browser based Go server, includes many options and a ranking system of its own. Players from various countries. The Kurnik Go, with a Java-based browser client.

Recorded games The popular SGF file format is used to exchange Go lessons and recorded games. Fuseki.Info - Online professional Go games database (more than 35000 games). Contains game records, game lists, fuseki and joseki trees. More than 3000 games for free. Several free reading and authoring programs are listed at Gobase's SGF editors list gobase.org also hosts a database of more than 30000 professional Go games in SGF format (free registration required, which takes 1-2 days to process) ~rongen17/ My Friday Night Files provides more than 2000 professional games, including almost all known games of Cho Chikun A smaller collection of professional games in SGF format is available without registration at ~aeb/go/games/ Andries E. Brouwer's Go Games. Amateur games are reviewed at The Go Teaching Ladder. International Go Links Grupo Shibumi, Brasilian Go page, for begginers players.

Go software GNU Go, free Go-playing engine gGo, SGF editor and client for IGS, in Java programming language|Java; and native variants, qGo and glGo (has a 3D display) CGoban1, Go client (Linux, etc) CGoban2, Go client for KGS in Java. Also functions as an SGF editor. Goban, standalone (against GNU Go) and Internet Go client for Mac OS X HandyGo, J2ME Go client that runs on java-enabled cellphones and PDAs. BiGo Assistant - BiGo Assistant is Go (Baduk, Weiqi) games (professional and amateur) database software. It allows searching by fuseki, joseki, positions and game information fields. #Go WikiTeX Go supports SGF for inserting go directly into Wiki articles. PilotGOne A Go game recorder and SGF viewer/editor for PalmOS. GoSuite A Go game recorder and SGF viewer/editor for PocketPC, also including the Vieka GNUgo port for pocketPC allowing you to play against your PocketPC PDA. Hikarunix, a Linux live CD dedicated to studying and playing Go. Godot, a java applet that plays Go.

ca:Go 56 - Cryptonomicon - Go The Logo Go Go is an ancient strategic board game originating from China at least two thousand years ago. It is highly popular in East Asia, and Internet gaming has served to greatly increase its popularity throughout the rest of the world in recent years. In China it is called w�iq� (way-chee), in Korea its name is baduk, and in Japan igo (ee-go), which gave rise to the English name Go. Simple rules The essential rules of Go are as follows: - Two players, Black and White, sit at a board consisting of 19 horizontal and 19 vertical lines, giving 361 intersections. - Each player has a limitless number of lens-shaped tokens, called stones, of the appropriate color. The game begins with no stones on the board. - The players move alternatingly, with Black moving first. A move consists of a play or a pass. A play consists of placing a new stone of the player's color on an empty intersection of the board. - When both players pass in succession, the game ends.

- After the end of the game, each player's score is the number of intersections that are either occupied by, or completely enclosed by, that player's stones. An empty intersection is completely enclosed by a player's stones only if all paths outward from the intersection along the lines of the grid meet the player's stones before they meet the opponent's stones. - The winner is the player with the greater score. There are a small number of slight variations for these rules. These variations, are subtle, mainly affect the scoring method, and do not much change the character of the game. In a game between players of unequal strength, a handicap is used: the weaker player starts out with a number of stones on the board. Nature of the game Although the rules of Go are very simple, the game itself can be extremely complex. Go is a complete-knowledge, deterministic, strategy game like chess, checkers, and reversi, although its depth exceeds even those games. Its large board and lack of restrictions allows great scope in strategy, as decisions in one part of the board are influenced by a seemingly unrelated situation in distant parts of the board, and moves made early in the game can shape the nature of conflict hundreds of moves later.

The game emphasises the importance and tensions of balance on multiple levels. To secure an area of the board, it is good to play moves close together; but to cover the largest area one needs to spread out. To ensure one does not fall behind, aggressive play is required; but playing too aggressively leaves weaknesses undefended that can be exploited. Playing too low (close to the edge) secures insufficient territory; yet playing too high (far from the edge) allows the opponent to invade. Many people find the game attractive for its reflection of the polarities found in life. There is a theory that says no game has ever been played twice. This may be true: On a 19x19 board, there are about 4.63x10170 possible positions and about 10360 possible games. (By contrast, the number of legal positions in chess is estimated to be between 1043 and 1050, and physicists estimate that there are not more than 1090 protons in the entire universe.) Traditional Go game equipment Although one could play Go with a piece of card for a board and a bag of plastic tokens, Go players pride themselves on their game sets.

The traditional Go board (called a goban in Japanese) is solid wood, about 15-20cm thick, preferably from the rare golden-coloured Kaya tree, and stands on its own attached legs. Players sit on reed mats (tatami) on the floor to play. The stones (go-ishi) come in matching solid wood pots (go-ke) and are made out of clamshell (white) and slate (black) and are extremely smooth. The natural resources of Japan have been unable to keep up with the enormous demand for the native clams and slow-growing Kaya trees; both must be of sufficient age to grow to the desired size, and they are now extremely rare at the age and quality required, raising the price of such equipment tremendously. In clubs and at tournaments, where large numbers of sets must be maintained (and usually purchased) by one organisation, the expensive traditional sets are not usually used. For these situations, table boards (of the same design as floor boards, but only about 2-5cm thick and without legs) are used, and the stones are made of glass rather than slate and shell. Bowls will often be plastic if cheap wooden bowls cannot be had.

Plastic stones can be had, but are considered inferior to glass as they are generally much lighter, and most players find them too unpleasant to justify the difference in price. The dimensions of the board (traditionally the grid is 45.45cm long and 42.42cm wide, with space beyond to allow stones to be played on the edges and corners of the grid) often surprise newcomers: it is not a perfect square, but is longer than it is wide, roughly in the proportion 12:11. Two reasons are frequently given for this. One is that when the players sit at the board, the angle at which they view the board gives a foreshortening of the grid; the board is slightly longer between the players to compensate for this. Another reason is that the Japanese aesthetic finds any structure which is perfectly symmetrical to be in bad taste, and the board is not made a perfect square for this reason. Traditional stones are made so that black stones are slightly larger in diameter than white; this is probably to compensate for the optical illusion created by contrasting colours that makes the white stones appear larger on the board than black stones.

The difference is slight, and since its effect is to make the stones appear the same size on the board, it can be surprising to discover they are not. The bowls for the stones are of a simple shape, like a flattened sphere with a level underside. The lid is loose-fitting and is upturned before play to place opponent's stones captured during the game. The bowls are usually made of turned wood, although small lidded baskets of woven bamboo or reeds make an attractive cheaper alternative. There is even an art to placing a Go stone, held between the tips of the outstretched index and middle fingers and striking the board firmly to create a sharp click. Many consider the acoustic properties of the wood of the board to be quite important. The traditional goban will usually have its underside carved with a pyramid called a Heso recessed into the board. Tradition holds that this is to give a better resonance to the stone's click, but the more conventional explanation is to allow the board to expand and contract without splitting the wood. A board is seen as more attractive when it is marked with slight dents from decades -- or centuries -- of stones striking the surface.

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, 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. External links and references Go can be played on the Internet against opponents from around the world on numerous Go servers. Kiseido Go Server is such a server, complete with easy-to-use interfaces/clients and introductory material. goproblems.com has over 1000 problems for practice in a realistic Java applet. Sensei's library is a wiki devoted entirely to the game of Go - it even has special markup for displaying Go patterns. How To Play Go. Samarkand is owned by Janice Kim 1p and has a very good beginner introduction. The Usenet newsgroup rec.games.go has its own FAQ document, The rec.games.go FAQ. For more on the history of Go, see The popular SGF file format is used to exchange Go lessons and recorded games. Several free reading and authoring programs are listed at hosts a database of professional Go games in SGF file format. Amateur games are reviewed at The Go Teaching Ladder. Elwyn Berlekamp, David Wolfe: Mathematical Go.

A K Peters; ISBN 1568810326 Rules FAQ - Google Groups Rules FAQ Last Update: 2009-02-12; First Day: 1999-04-12 Distribution: rec.games.go Copyright: free non-commercial usage for promotion 0 CONTENTS 1 Purpose of this Paper 2 Information for Beginners 1 PURPOSE OF THIS PAPER This paper is a basic reference for important rules terms, rules, and tournament rules. Beginners should read especially chapters 2 and 3, players chapters 3 to 5, tournament players and organizers chapter 6. 2 INFORMATION FOR BEGINNERS 2.1 What Must I Know as a Beginner? The game is played on a grid board. Typically it has 19x19 intersections, but 9x9 are also fine. Two players compete. The first player uses black stones, the other white. The players alternate. A player may play or pass. Playing is putting one's own stone on an empty intersection and removing any surrounded opposing stones. To avoid cycles, a play may not recreate any prior configuration of all stones on the board. Two successive passes end the game.

Then the player with more intersections wins. Intersections are his if only his stones occupy or surround them. 2.2 Which Rules do I Need as a Beginner? You can play with short rules as in 2.1. Other rules may be different, but the game is the same, i. e. strategy, tactics, and the score do not change. Extremely rare exceptions confirm this rule. The winner can be determined by area or by territory. Either includes empty intersections surrounded only by own stones. While area adds intersections occupied by own stones, territory adds opposing prisoners instead. All rules, except short rules, have further phases after alternation and before scoring. Towards a game end it is often clear which stones will be removed. The additional phases allow the players to agree on which stones shall be removed. Thereby final removals do not require alternation. Whether you score by area or by territory or whether you remove by alternation or by agreement should mainly depend on which rules are used by people you play with. 2.3 Which Rules Should I Teach?

One possibility is to use a board with 9x9 intersections, short rules as in 2.1, and count each player's score by using a finger to scan the board for his intersections. 3 IMPORTANT CONCEPTS While strategy and tactics virtually remain the same, concepts vary in different rules. However, the following gives a comprehensive overview on standard terms. 3.1 Stone, String The physical device that colours one intersection in a play is a STONE. Two intersections of the board are ADJACENT if they have a line but no intersection between them. Two intersections with either black, white, or no stones on them are CONNECTED if they are adjacent or if there is a chain of adjacent intersections of their type between them. A REGION consists of an intersection and any intersections connected to it. A black or white region is called a STRING. 3.2 Surrounded An intersection of one colour is SURROUNDED by another colour if each leaving path reaches the other colour first after the one colour. Hereby it can only be surrounded black by white, white by black, empty by black, or empty by white. A region can be surrounded. For strings there is an alternative notion of no liberty (or breath).

A LIBERTY of a string is an empty intersection adjacent to it. Thus a string is surrounded if and only if it has no liberty. 3.3 Removal, Suicide A removal empties the intersections of surrounded stones if there are any. Hereby removal of opposing stones is executed first, if necessary. Rules may either require or forbid removal of own stones. This is called suicide or no suicide. In practice, suicide might be used for so called ko fights or in capturing races. 3.4 Capture, Prisoner Rules that score territory call a removal a capture because all removed stones are seriously kept as prisoners. 3.5 Move, Play, Pass The players have alternate turns. On each turn a player makes a move that is either a play or a pass. A play places one's own stone on an empty intersection. It can then include removal of surrounded stones, if any. A pass merely continues alternation by giving the opponent the next turn. 3.6 Compensation The first move advantage by black can be compensated by compensation points (komi) that are added to the white score after the game end. Komi can be adjusted by 0.5 to avoid ties.

Today integer values for komi for 19x19 boards typically range between 5 and 7. For 13x13 boards one should use 8, for 9x9 boards 6; however, there is no real consensus for small board komi values yet. - A weaker player (black) can get the right to place an agreed number of compensation stones (handicap) before white's first play. Rules may allow free or fixed handicap. Free handicap does not apply any restriction. Fixed handicap requires traditional placement on set intersections. 3.7 Phases Normally, a game consists of the phases alternation, agreement, scoring. A game stop is between alternation and agreement, the game end is between agreement and scoring, and after scoring both players accept the counted score as the result. The main part of the game is the alternation phase. Special rules are invoked after it. Typically, two successive passes in alternation are the game stop and start the agreement phase. In it the players may agree on strings to be removed. If they agree, then they remove those strings from the board; this ends the game.

Sometimes they might disagree, then no strings are removed but alternation is resumed as if the last game stop did not occur. 3.8 Recreation The position is the pattern of black and white stones on the board. Without extra rule a position might be repeated infinitely. The easiest rule to prohibit this says: A play may not recreate a position. This refers to positions after completion of plays, i.e. after possible removals. The rule is called "superko". - Some rules use concepts different from superko. They combine a "2-play rule" with a "long cycle rule". The first says: Two successive plays may not recreate a position. The second says: If a position is recreated after more than two moves, then the game ends either immediately or, as a variant, as soon as the players agree, with the result "without result". In practice the 2-play rule is sufficient for almost all cases. It handles the relevant standard pattern of two adjacent intersections. For superko this is just a special application. The score is the result after the game end as defined by the rules. There are two different scoring methods: area scoring and territory scoring. Rules use one of them.

Both give the same result in almost all cases and both evaluate the difference of the black and the white scores. A player's AREA score is the sum of intersections with own stones and of empty intersections surrounded only by own stones. Simply speaking, a player's TERRITORY score is the sum of empty intersections surrounded only by own stones and of prisoners of opposing colour. With both scoring methods empty intersections that are not surrounded by either black or white are neutral. A score must be determined by some mechanical procedure in practice; this is called counting. There are various methods. Some rules prescribe one. A possible method is to use one's finger to count point by point. Other methods rearrange a lot of stones on the board. 4 PARTICULAR RULES Rules vary extremely. However, in practice they often give the same result. Examples of short rules are the Simple Rules or the Tromp-Taylor rules. They have no game stop and no agreement. Both are superfluous since necessary removals may already be performed in the alternation. Two successive passes end the game that is scored then. Short rules use area scoring, superko, and suicide. Further settings are left for tournament rules. These are used by the American Go Association.

They use situational superko, no suicide, and 7.5 komi. They permit free or fixed handicap. Their most remarkable feature is to allow one of area scoring or territory scoring. Herefore pass stones (one prisoner compensates each pass) and white moving last always ensure the same result, regardless of the applied scoring method. These are used in continental China and sometimes in other countries. Area scoring and no suicide are used. 4.3.1 Official Chinese Rules In practice, ko rules roughly amount to a 2-play rule and a long cycle rule. The mentioned superko is overridden. The counting is a sophisticated half counting, where empty intersections and then after rearrangements stones of one colour are added to be compared with half the non-neutral intersections. The komi as a half komi is 3.75. In full counting, counts and komi would be twice as big. 4.3.2 Simplified Chinese Rules Positional superko is used. A counting method is not prescribed. The full komi should be 7.5. 4.4 Japanese Rules The differences mainly affect handling of late game phases but often do not alter scores. Japanese rules use some traditional territory scoring that attempts to exclude so called sekis.

No suicide applies. The core of the ko rules is a 2-play rule and a long cycle rule. Typically, komi is 6.5. Fixed handicap should be used. The counting is a sophisticated rearrangement of empty intersections and filling-in of prisoners. A game finishes with the following process: 1) So called dame (neutral points) and defensive moves (necessary connections etc. due to occupied dame) are filled. 2) The hypothetical analysis, which presumes perfect play, determines so called life or death of each string and the scoring intersections. 3) Without making any approach moves, dead stones are removed from scoring intersections and added to the prisoners. 4) The score is counted. (2) and (3) do not allow to play out life and death since actually filling intersections costs points in Japanese rules. 4.4.2 Official Japanese Rules There are the Japanese 1989 Rules, which are used in Japan and elsewhere, and the World Amateur Go Championships Rules, which are used in some particular tournaments. Korean rules are similar to Japanese rules but have a very different text and differ in rare positions. Official Japanese rules are very incomplete and have messy late game phases.

E.g., the Japanese 1989 Rules allow filling of dame during alternation, after it, or both and have a so called ko-pass-rule for the hypothetical analysis. Now professional Japanese rules are explained precisely by a rules expert's interpretation called "the Japanese 2003 Rules". As a recent invention, they are not used yet. They are complete and have clear late game phases. Filling of dame is done during alternation. They are used for informal games in many countries and undefined, except that the game finishing process is used. In a tournament without any official rules of play, disputes are not solved due to the rules but with a referee. 4.5 Ing Rules Ing rules use area scoring, suicide, 8 komi with black winning ties, and free handicap. 4.5.1 Official Ing Rules The ko rules are a mess but somehow resemble superko. Details could fill books. The late game phases are specified insufficiently. The peculiar counting method requires 180 stones of each colour throughout the game, fills any stones on the board after the game end, and leaves exactly one empty intersection, which determines the winner. The official rules are used in professional Taiwanese and some sponsored tournaments.

Taiwanese amateurs have their own rules. Positional superko is used. A counting method is not prescribed. The late game phases are specified clearly. The simplified rules are used in EGF tournaments that are said to use Ing rules. Area scoring, suicide, situational superko, 7 komi, and free handicap are used. Every go server has its own and often complicated rules, if any, so they cannot be given in detail here. Concerning "IGS rules", territory scoring, no suicide, a 2-play rule, fixed handicap, three game stopping passes, and captures in an agreement phase are used. Details about agreements and long cycles are not specified and lead to adjourned games in case of doubt. Komi is suggested but may be altered. Counting is automatic. "Yahoo" has territory scoring, no suicide, a 2-play rule, two game stopping passes; long cycles and disagreements are not handled properly. On "email servers" players must agree on any rules. - Typically territory scoring on a go server means that neither points in any sekis are excluded nor pass stones are used. Thus while the Japanese seki exception is abandoned, disagreements about removals may lead to games without result since playing out can cost points.

4.8 International Rules The international mailing list go-rules has proposed international rules, however, none are adopted yet. The core rules of play shall be clear, complete, and correct. Currently alternative texts are offered for suicide, recreation, and scoring. Especially unification of scoring methods is advocated. The EGF uses the Simplified Ing Rules with 8 komi (black wins ties) in Ing sponsored tournaments and the Nihon Kiin 1989 Rules with 6.5 komi in Japanese/Korean sponsored tournaments. If significantly the European Go Championship has both kinds of sponsors, then boards 1-16 use the Nihon Kiin 1989 Rules and boards 17+ the Simplified Ing Rules. However, time settings depend on ranks. 5 TROUBLESOME DETAILS In even games typically the colours are randomly chosen. In handicap games black receives the handicap stones. - A manual method for randomly choosing colours is called nigiri. The older player hides a number of white stones taken from the bowl, the opponent takes one or two black stones to guess the parity, and the parity of the number of white stones is revealed.

If the opponent guesses right, then he takes black, else he takes white. 5.2 Pass Stones Some rules use pass stones. A passing player adds one own stone to the prisoners. As a consequence, captures before the game end can be resolved in alternation without any loss because any not answered approach move is compensated by one pass stone. With traditional territory scoring that uses no pass stones definition problems arise due to this missing option. Modern territory scoring or equivalence scoring use pass stones. Area scoring and territory scoring are close because either intersections occupied by own stones or opposing prisoners are used. Essentially, every prisoner is a stone removed from some intersection. For area it scores one point less for the stone's player while for territory it scores one point more for his opponent. This is equal. Exact equality for the entire game must also consider passes by using pass stones and an equal number of moves by requiring white to pass last. This is done by equivalence scoring. 5.4 Meaning of Agreement Removals Removals in an agreement phase under area scoring are fair because they may as well occur in alternation. Removing a stone due to agreement includes its then empty intersection and all adjacent empty intersections in the score.

Removing a stone by means of alternation includes its then empty intersection and all adjacent newly occupied intersections in the score. - With traditional territory scoring this is not possible since stones on the board do not score. Thus final captures must occur after the game end due to attempted definitions in the rules. Since area scoring and modern territory scoring using pass stones are equal, correct play is the same for both. Apart from Japanese rules exceptions like not scoring empty intersections especially in asymmetrical coexistences or like a pass-for-ko-rule, traditional territory scoring can make a different winner in practically ca. every 10000th even game. This is so rare because of a parity feature combined with a scarcely odd number of intersections that are in coexistences but do not score for area at the game end. With area scoring a komi change from 1.5, 3.5, 5.5, ... to 2.5, 4.5, 6.5, ... almost always would not change the winner. So altough occupying the last empty intersections that would otherwise not score just before a game stop gains one point each, alternately doing so leaves a total advantage of at most one point.

Due to the parity feature the player to get it is predetermined when this occupation starts. More importantly, one final ko is worth 1 point under traditional territory scoring but 2 or rarely 4 points under area scoring. Rare one-sided points in coexistences provide only area. Other practical differences are even rarer. Cute players include the stones in their endgame value counts during the middle of an area scoring game. 5.6 Stone Scoring In ancient times stone scoring was popular. Only stones on the board are scored. Thus empty intersections surrounded by own stones are filled until necessary so called eyes remain. Disconnected stones require more eyes in total, the so called group tax. Old Ing rules allowed fractional scores by assigning points to neutral empty regions due to the percentage of black and white stones surrounding every region. 5.8 Primitive Rules They do not have passes. Alternation ends when a player loses due to no legal play. Games can be extremely long and include special strategies, so called pass fights. Primitive rules (also called no pass rules or Conway rules) can be useful in mathematics. Historically, exceptions arose, which some like as such especially together with Japanese style rules. So called sekis are excluded from the score.

Special positions, termed precedents, have special rules. Modern Japanese rules have generalized a lot of them by a pass-for-ko-rule. After the game stop or after the game end and particularly in hypothetical play a stone captured in a possible 2-play cycle may not be recaptured unless before a pass is made that specifies the particular 2-play cycle. 5.10 Positional / Situational Superko Positional superko prohibits a play that recreates a position. Situational superko refers to the situation, i.e. to the position together with the right to move. So a play is prohibited if it recreates a position while the same player has the right to move. In practice the differences are extremely rare. With area scoring handicap stones beyond the first provide a potential extra area of one point per handicap stone. Komi for white may consider this. Recompensation, H-1 points for H handicap stones, is virtually only used together with American rules. Go is a complete information game, i.e. at every move each player knows the entire game situation. Hence theoretically an algorithm could determine perfect play.

However, due to the complexity of the game with N intersections, for which it is provably impossible to devise a polynomial time solution, perfect play or ideal komi are unknown. What one does know is that in a game without komi the first player wins or ties and that perfect play is independent of set komi. Many other propositions have been discovered, some of which describe the relation between area and territory scoring, solve tiny endgame positions or cyclical behaviour. - Go is a very complex game! L(N) := 2.9757342**N is an upper bound of the number of legal positions. (The sign ** is a text file notation for "to the power".) For positional superko, no passes, and no resignation, the number of possible games is smaller than N**L(N) because L(N) also restricts the maximal number of moves per game and there are at most N possible intersections per move. - Extremely modest estimates look like 10**N, which is based on an assumption of 10 reasonable intersections per move.

A popular estimate for 19x19 go is 10**761, which must have originated from a typo and should be 10**361, if at all... These types of estimates are so popular because humans cannot even imagine the suggested number of atoms in the universe, 10**80. For comparison, 3**361 is ca. 10**172. 6 TOURNAMENT RULES If the score considering the komi is zero, then the game is a tie and should be treated as 0.5 won games for each. Special rules or undue behaviour like sincere lateness might result in a referee declaring a win by forfeit, 0:0, or 1:1, whichever is most appropriate. A tournament might consist of several stages, of which each has a seed and a system. A seed appropriately restricts participation, e.g. due to qualification. The most important systems are match, league, knockout, Swiss, McMahon. There are many others and hybrids. A system must fit the aims of a tournament. A sufficient number of rounds, a proper seed, and colour variation ensure a fair determination of the best player.

- A match takes place between two players that either play a set number of games to see who wins more or a maximal number of games to see who wins a predetermined number of games first. In a league a small, usually even number of players performs a round-robin tournament, so that in each round all players play and every two players play against each other, one game e.g. A knockout preferably starts with a number of players that is a power of two. Losing players are eliminated, winning players continue until the winner remains. - In a Swiss system before each round each player's achieved number of wins is used to pair players with equal numbers as far as possible. So all players play all rounds and some time the best player will emerge. However, with greatly varying strengths too many rounds would be needed. So Swiss is only useful for particular events or handicap tournaments. McMahon is the refinement of Swiss. Before the start of the tournament all players are classified in rank groups, with ranks R from 0 to T. This means that one assumes a preceding Swiss tournament where every player has already won R games. Then in the McMahon tournament the strongest players, who deserve the rank T, compete for the top places.

In practice, one uses a bar B, that is 1 or 2 ranks below T, so that all ranks above B are contracted to B and also players slightly weaker than the top players get their chance. All players in a McMahon play roughly equal opponents; if they win or lose, then the opponents will be stronger or weaker. 6.3 Tie Breakers Tie breakers can refine pairings or results. Typically the first criterion is the number of wins (or McMahon points); all further criteria, if any, are tie breakers. They attempt a refinement where a low number of rounds and a tournament system do not guarantee sufficient distinction between players' achievements. However, they must be applied with care since they are only marginally better than coin tossing. Examples of tie breakers are direct comparison, which acknowledges the winner of a game between two players in question, and SOS, which is the Sum of Opponents' Scores. - The possible degree of quality of tie breakers is subject to discussion. It depends on tournament system, whether only the top or all players shall be distinguished, and other factors.

An alternative to the usage of tie breakers for the final results ordering is issuing shared places for all players with the same number of wins (or McMahon points). - One must fairly assign tie breaker points for opponents missing in some round; enforcing participation is preferable especially for top players. Pairings must be fair, precise, and consider prior achievements during a tournament. One should consider colour balance and no pair twice, one might also aim at avoiding a pair of players from the same club or country, depending on a tournament's intentions. Pairings might be done manually in small tournaments; for most tournaments pairing programs should be used. These can create fair pairings convincingly, some even watch global balance. 6.5 Thinking Times The age of killing each other by greater endurance has gone. Clocks are used to count each player's remaining thinking time. Typically, every game has a basic time and overtime periods. Exceeding a time limit loses a game. Basic time might be 9 hours for a professional top game, 10 minutes for a lightning game, or something in between that fits a tournament's intentions. An overtime period requires a fixed number of moves within a predetermined period, e.g. 1 move within 60 seconds.

A move is finished by pressing the clock. - Many variants or other time systems exist, e.g., increasing numbers of moves in further overtime periods, penalty points for entering further periods, full usage of every overtime period, thinking time working like an hour glass, etc. 6.6 Tournament Rules Every tournament uses an announced set of tournament rules. They especially specify the used set for the core rules of play, the tournament system, tie breakers, the pairing method, the winning criteria, compensation methods, thinking times, direction, jurisdiction, adjournment methods, penalities for being late, etc. Tournament rules often deal with details. Not everything can be predicted, so a sportsmanlike spirit is mentioned. Finally, it should be clear which of several rule sets takes precedence. 6.7 Tournament Organization A regional tournament can be organized by a club. Big events can be held at the request of an association or federation, who also supervise. A tournament organization is responsible for providing a venue and playing material. It must be distinguished from the tournament director and his assistant directors, who perform the particular tasks of pairing, collecting results, and ensuring smooth running. Shared power furthermore demands independent referees.

6.8 Jurisdiction Before the start of a tournament valid instances of a jurisdiction as well as the persons to be referees must be clear. Typically, for a tournament itself there is one referee as the first instance and a body of three referees as the second instance. For very peculiar cases a federation could have a third and final instance. Some tournament rules replace the second instance by a single person, called chief referee; to avoid confusion he ought not to judge as the first instance. Players should respect the referees' tough job of mediation or decision; referees should seriously enforce the rules. The first places of a tournament invoke major prizes. E.g. the first, second, third places might get 3/6, 2/6, 1/6 of the available money. In a tournament with many weaker players it is a good idea to provide some prizes for all other players that win most rounds as well. While prizes can be money, books, trophies, etc., one should remember that money is most universally accepted and trophies serve the media better than the winners. - On a related topic, a side event lottery must give equal chances to all participants. This is only achieved by using one lot for each.

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Question: Which board game for two players originating in China and popular in Japan uses black/white stones on a 19x19 grid.
Answer: Go