The game of_go

The Game of Go

“Gentlemen should not waste their time on trivial games -- they should play go.”-- Confucius,The Analectsca. 500 B. C. E.

Anton Ninno Roy Laird, [email protected] [email protected]

special thanks to Kiseido Publications

Go has several names. The Chinese call it wei-chi, also spelled weiqi. In Korea it’s baduk. Westerners generally use the Japanese word term i-go, or just go, because Japanese pioneers like Kaoru Iwamoto supported American go in the early days.

JAPAN CHINA KOREA

THE MOST POPULAR GAMEIN THE WORLD TODAY

Millions of fans in Japan, China, KoreaTop players earn millionsInternational tournaments pay up to $400K

THREE CLASSIC GAMESBACKGAMMON: Man vs. fateElement of chanceRisk/gambling (doubling cube)

CHESS: Man vs. manWar paradigm“Perfect information”Attack -- Total victory

GO: Man vs. selfOpen paradigmShare -- victory by one point“Personal best”

THE ULTIMATE MERITOCRACY

“Go is the one game in which . . . everyone starts out equal, everyone begins with an empty board and with no limitations, and what happens thereafter is . . . only the quality of your own mind.”

-- William Pinckard, “Go and the Three Games “in The Go Player’s Almanac

The traditional go board has a 19-line grid. Beginners play on small 9 or 13-line boards.

Go boards are made of wood. The pieces are called stones. The best stones are made of clamshell and slate, but glass stones are less expensive. Goodstones are usually kept in wooden bowls. The lids are used to holdany captured stones.

Players take turns putting stones on the 361 intersections made by the 19-line grid. Black goes first. Nine handicap points are used to balance players of unequal skill. Each intersection is a point of territory, and each captured stone is also worth one point.

Go players hold the stones between their first and middle fingers, like chopsticks. They snap them down on the board with a sharp click.

The goal is to surround more points of territory than your opponent. Players may surround and capture their opponent’s stones.

To be safe from capture, a group of stones must have two eyes, meaning two or more, separate empty intersections inside its walls.

Players stake out the territory they want, and then they fight and build walls to keep it.

The game is over when neither player can find anything else to do. Beginners often find it difficult to know when a game is over. Each player rearranges the opponent’s territory to make counting easy.

GO AND CHESS

A Comparison Larger board, more plays per game (200-300 vs. 50-60)Strategic vs. tacticalSimpler rules; all pieces are equalBecomes more complex as pieces fill the boardBlends competition with other elementsWin by one point, not total destructionUniversal ranks -- any two can play No stalemates or draws -- a winner every time

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

CHESS GO

Opening (Fuseki) Control the center Stake your claim

Middle (Chuban) Gain tactical, material

advantage

Defend, dispute claims

Endgame (Yose) Close in for the kill Finish the details

DEPTH OF COMPLEXITY

Árpád Élo43 levels

COMPUTERS CAN’T PLAY!Go is so complex that the best

programs routinely lose to talented children. Computer programmers call it “the last refuge of human intelligence.”

Because the board is empty at the start of the game, the stronger player can

give his opponent a “head start” to even things out. Nearly any two opponents can play a game that either of them

could win..

HANDICAP: THE GREAT EQUALIZER

COMMERCIAL PROGRAMSStrongest ones are 6-8 kyuBest ones make studying fun -- problems, gamesRecord and study your own games

UNIVERSAL RANKING SYSTEMSimilar to martial arts, golfRank yourself by playing ranked opponentsAll serious players know their rankHonest players will lose half of their gamesUltimately players compete with themselves

GO ETIQUETTEPlay to the opponent’s right hand“Thank you for teaching me”Prisoners in the lidCount the opponent's territoryReturn your stones to the bowl

GO ON THE INTERNETFREE!At least 1000 online any time of day or nightAnonymous playRatings are 3-5 stones lower

FREE SOFTWAREIgowin -- http://www.smart-games.com/igowin.htmlHandtalk -- http://www.yutopian.com/go/GnuGo (open source) -- http://www.gnu.org/software/gnugo/gnugo.htmlGame collections -- www.usgo.org/resources/internet.asp

TIME CONTROLRegular time plus overtime (byo-yomi)Asian style: x periods of y seconds eachCanadian style: x stones in y minutes

INTERNET GO SERVERThe original -- since 1991500+ participants online at all timesMany strong playersSimulcast important tournamentsEveryone sees everyone

KISEIDO GO SERVER400-1000 players of all levels at any timeRoom-based environmentJava-based -- runs on everything

OTHER SERVERSYAHOO! GAMES: 250-500 players at a time, including lots of beginners and others who like to play on a 9x9 board.

ASIAN SERVERS: Some sites in China, Korea and Japan are enabled -- to varying degrees -- in English

TURN-BASED SERVERS: Leave a message with your next move instead of playing in “real time”

Find them all at www.usgo.org/resources/servers.asp

ADVICE FOR BEGINNERS

Play quickly -- “lose 100 games”Play stronger opponentsAsk for commentsAvoid repetitive thinking -- just try somethingKeep your stones connected -- separate WhiteThink before ignoring a stronger player’s move

Go is at least 2000 years old, probably much older. No one knows where it came from. Some people think the board and stones were originally used to foretell the

future, or as a calculator.

Painting with 17x17 boardca. 690 A.C.E.

“When you and I discuss philosophy, it is as if we play go. If you do not answer, I will swallow you up.”

-- Zen Master Hongzhi ca. 700 A.C.E.

THE FOUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS

During China’s “golden age” (the Tang and Song dynasties ca. 700-1400 A.D.) the cultured person mastered four skills: painting, calligraphy, lute-playing and go.

attributed to Kano Shoei (1519 - 1592)

THE “MINISTER OF GO”Tokugawa Ieyesu, the first shogun, established four “houses” to study go and compete in annual “Castle Games” of great national importance. Each year’s winner became the go-doroko (“Minister of go”), occupying a cabinet-level position in the government.

This fan from ca. 1800 shows two Chinese men playing go while a young man looks on.

Go became a common theme in 19th century ukiyo-e prints. Here, Tadanobu, a famous samurai, fights off his enemies with a go board.

In this scene from The Tale of Genji, two women reminisce about the brief relationships with the Prince while playing go, and find peace.

General Kuan Yu, the hero of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, plays go while a surgeon attends his battle wounds. This ukiyo-e is by Katsushika Oi, daughter of the great Japanese master Hokusai,

Repelling demons while playing go. (1861)

Playing go with a demon (ca. 1835)

WITH GO MAKE FRIENDSThis scroll, commissioned by an American traveler in Beijing’s Tian’anmen Square, uses the traditional Chinese four-character proverb format to say that when friends play go, their playing strengths and their friendship both get stronger.

CHAIRMAN MAO ON GO“[War is] like a game of weiqi . . . Strongholds built by the enemy and bases by us resemble moves to dominate spaces on the board.”

-- Selected Military Writings

HENRY KISSINGER ON GO

“Chess has only two outcomes: draw and checkmate. The objective of the game . . . is total victory or defeat – and the battle is conducted head-on, in the center of the board. The aim of go is relative advantage; the game is played all over the board, and the objective is to increase one's options and reduce those of the adversary. The goal is less victory than persistent strategic progress.”

-- Newsweek, 11/8/04

“Competition . . . [is] about positioning yourself wisely over time, not wiping the other guy out on specific products. I approach competition like the Chinese board game go. You see where the other players have put their chips, and decide where to put your chips.”

-- John Reed, Chairman, CiticorpHarvard Business Review December 1990

CITICORP CEO JOHN REED ON GO

THE WAY OF GOTroy Andersen

• Global Local

• Owe Save

• Slack Taut

• Reverse Forward

• Us Them

• Lead Follow

• Expand Focus

The Master of Go, Yasunari Kawabata’s poignant chronicle of this historic 1938 game between the last honinbo and a brilliant young upstart, won the Nobel Prize for literature.

A BEAUTIFUL GAMERussell Crowe plays brilliant, unstable mathematician John Nash in A Beautiful Mind, Oscar-winner for Best Picture of 2001. In real life, Nash is a charter member of The American Go Association.

Trevanian’s 1979 best-seller chronicles the life of Nicholai Hel, orphaned during WW I and raised by a Japanese go master to become the world’s most accomplished assassin.

The Go Masters, an epic tale of an enduring friendship between two great players -- one Chinese, the other Japanese -- during World War II , brought Japanese and Chinese film teams together for the first time. It achieved wide popularity but is not currently available.

In Pi, a cult classic, a demented mathematician tries to find a formula for the universe, using a go board.

HIKARU NO GOIn this popular “coming-of-age” story, the ghost of a famous player guides our hero to the pinnacle of the go world -- or does he?

GO IN AMERICAChinese immigrants probably played the first games in North America among themselves here in the 1800’s.

Japanese professionals such as Kaoru Iwamoto 9-dan helped early US players, and The American Go Association was formed in 1937. Most major US cities have go clubs.

THE IWAMOTO CENTER

Mr. Iwamoto was in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. After seeing the results of first atomic bomb, he vowed to spread international peace and understanding through go. He established Go Centers in New York, Seattle, Amsterdam and Rio de Janeiro.

IT’S A BIG CHALLENGEThe number of possible go games has been estimated at 10761 (OMNI, June 1991), far more than the number of subatomic particles in the known universe.

Estimate based on current performanceTo get a rating? Play in a rated tournamentOnline ratings -- 3-5 ranks lower

RATINGS

HOW DO YOU KNOW YOUR RANK?

Beginners start at +/- 30-35 kyuKadoban -- win three in a row = -1 rank>1 kyu = shodan (black belt, “new master”)7-dan is the highest official amateur rank, but some 7-dans are stronger than othersPro ranks (Japan, China, Korea): 1-9 dan

WHAT ABOUT EVEN GAMES?

Evenly matched players choose for color -- one takes a handful of stones, the other guesses “odd” or “even” by placing one or two stones on the board: the winner takes BlackBlack pays White 6.5 points komi for the privilege of making the first move

GO IN THE WESTERN WORLD

Did not transfer to Western culture

“Outside the box” -- non-Western thought

Lacks a decisive ending

No culture-specific spinoffs

Many books and websites want to help you learn about go. American Go Association - www.usgo.org