GO – intuitively simple, yet strategically complex

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INTUITIVELY SIMPLE, YET STRATEGICALLY COMPLEX

Copypride ! 2015 by Eugene Gushchin.

This book is hypothetical and has been produced only for academic purposes. This publication may not be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the editor.

For permission requests, email me at the address below: egushchin@me.com First printing May, 2015.

INTUITIVELY SIMPLE, YET STRATEGICALLY COMPLEX

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE 06 GO & CHESS 08 00: HISTORY

ORIGINS OF GO 14 GO COMES TO JAPAN 16 GO IN CHINA 22 GO IN KOREA 26 GO AROUND THE WORLD 30

01: INTELLECTUAL

MOST INTELLECTUALLY STIMULATING BOARD GAME 34 COMPLEXIT Y OF THE GAME 38 SIMPLEST RULES IMAGINABLE 40 STRINGS AND CAPTURING THEM 42 LIFE & DEATH AND THE CONCEPT OF EYES 44 KO, SEIKI AND THE END OF THE GAME 46 FEW OTHER THINGS: HANDICAP AND KOMI 48

02: AESTHETIC

4K YEARS OF REFINED AESTETHICS 52 BOARD CONSTRUCTION PRINCIPLES 54 ALL ABOUT STONES 56 WABI-SABI 58 STONE’S SHAPES IN THEIR BEAUT Y AND UGLINESS 62

03: PSYCHOLOGICAL

CO-CREATORS 68 ETIQUET TE & PSYCHOLOGY 70 START: NIGIRI & FUSEKI 72 DEEP PHYLOSOPHY & MODERN RESEARCH 78 ZEN WAY TO JOSEKI 80 PLAY GO & GROW 82 REFERENCES & IMAGE CREDITS 88

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04: PHILOSOPHICAL

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A FEW WORDS FROM THE CREATIVE TEAM

Few people in America know about the oldest strategy board game on Earth that still holds its positions against artificial intelligence. Even fewer can play it.

Well, the game with such a rich history can offer a variety of aspects to enjoy, such as intellectual and emotional competition, refined aesthetics and deep philosophy. There are no entry barriers or requirements, however one can spend a lifetime advancing.

Aside from the pure joy, GO serves as a powerful tool for strategic thinking development. Skill, that is equally important at work and everyday life.

It can be particularly useful for designers, as there are few other tools available to them that combine effectiveness with a necessary visual framework. Designers are getting more and more involved in corporate decision making process and constitute its integral part.

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WHY GO?

PREFACE

This books bridges the gap in the literature related to GO: between those focused on exercises and fictional books.

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GO is the oldest and one of the most

But the similarities end there. GO starts with an empty board, chess with a full one. The objective of GO is to surround more territory than your opponent; the objective of chess—to capture your opponent’s king. GO stones all have equal value; chessmen

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GO is an easy game to learn. You can master the rules in a few minutes, but you can devote a lifetime to exploring its depth and subtleties. GO starts with the simplest elements— line and circle, black and white—but it builds into deep and complex structures. It is a game played on a grand scale, involving not a single battle but a series—an entire war, in fact. In the abstract, GO is in the same category as the West’s most fascinating board game, chess. Both require high-level strategic thinking and provide players with many opportunities to exercise their tactical skills. Both are challenging, intellectually stimulating, and inexhaustibly interesting for millions of people of all ages all over the world.

GO & CHESS

popular strategic board games in the world. It has been played throughout the Orient for thousands of years. In Japan alone, 10,000,000 people play GO and nearly 400 professionals make their living by teaching the game and competing in tournaments that offer millions of dollars in prize money.

have different values. A satisfying game of GO can be played quickly on a board as small as 77 lines, or over the course of a few hours or even days on the standard 19x19-line board; chess requires its standard complement of 32 pieces and a 64-square board. Most, if not all, of the moves of a GO remain on the board until

it ends, providing its players with continuously developing shapes and patterns of black and white stones; the beauty of a chess game’s moves is more ephemeral and kaleidoscopic as its patterns change with each move and capture. Finally, GO has a handicap system that allows players of quite different strengths to compete on an equal basis: the weaker player is given additional stones at the beginning of the game. Chess handicaps the stronger player by forcing him to remove one or more of his pieces at the beginning, which distorts the nature of the game.

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“GO IS TO WESTERN CHESS WHAT PHILOSOPHY IS TO DOUBLE-ENTRY ACCOUNTING.

Which is the better, the more interesting game, is a matter of taste. It is both of interest and significance to note that many professional GO players are also avid and usually strong shogi (Japanese chess) players. Conversely, many professional shogi players are usually strong GO players. It is fair to say that if one likes to practice and sharpen tactical skills and play chess, chances are excellent that one will also like to play go.

For some players GO is a model for living. Its strategic concepts serve them as models for decision making in their everyday lives. Some of the more familiar maxims that are played out and illustrated in nearly every game are: “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” “Don’t burn your bridges behind you,” “Look before you leap,” “Don’t bang your head against a stone wall,” and “Don’t throw good money after bad.”

GO & CHESS

However you choose the way to see GO — as a model for living, as an alternative to chess and other board games you enjoy, or as that elusive bit of variety that has been missing from the spice in your life— it is bound to be a welcome addition to your social and intellectual repertoire.

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—TREVANIAN, SHIBUMI (1983)

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The origins of GO are concealed in the mute and unchronicled past of ancient China. There are a tangle of conflicting popular and scholarly anecdotes attributing its invention to two Chinese emperors, an imperial vassal, and court astrologers.

One story claims that GO was invented by the legendary Emperor Yao (ruled 2357-2256 BC) as an amusement for his idiot son. A second claims that the Emperor Shun (ruled 2255-05 BC) created the game in hopes of improving his weakminded son’s mental prowess. A third one says that One Wu, a vassal of the Emperor Chieh (ruled 1818-1766 BC), invented GO, as well as some card games. Finally, a fourth theory suggests that GO was developed by court astrologers during the Chou Dynasty (1045-255 bc). In any case, it is generally agreed that GO is at least 3,000 and might be as much as 4,000 years old, which makes it the world’s oldest strategic board game.

status as the world’s most challenging and intellectually stimulating board game. In its infancy, GO was said to have been used by astrologers to divine the future. Later, according to Chinese classics, it became “the pastime of gamblers and other idlers.” While there might have been even earlier references to the existence of GO in ancient China, the books that contained them were probably burned during the reign of Ch’n Shih Huang-ti, who, in 221 BC , ordered that all books be burned. Because of this, all of the works and, therefore, references to GO alleged to predate the Han Dynasty (206 BC-221 AD ) are suspicious. If, however, the references in the classics are accurate, then GO seems to have been popular in China in the sixth century BC , so it must have originated and subsequently developed at least a century or two before that time.

Beginning around 200 BC , GO and poetry enjoyed a Golden age in China until about 600 AD. Whatever its sources and early reputation, by this time GO obviously occupied a prestigious position. For example, in the second century AD, the poet Ma Yung is said to have made himself famous by celebrating GO in his verses.

Of the many anecdotes about GO that have survived from ancient China, the two most popular are these.

Sometime during the late third or early fourth century AD, a GO player named Osan gained historical immortality for his ability to replay entire games (consisting of anywhere from 150 to more than 300 moves) from memory, move for move.

Today, of course, all professional GO players and many strong amateurs can do the same. . Nonetheless, this anecdote demonstrates that strength in GO and a powerful memory go together.

The second anecdote illustrates the esteem in which GO was held during its Golden age in China. During the Chin Dynasty (265-420 AD ), Hsieh An was at war with his nephew Hsieh Hsuan. After many bloody but inconclusive battles, these two warlords decided to spare their remaining soldiers and to allow the outcome of their war to be decided on the GO board in a game played just between themselves. Unfortunately, the result of this contest was not recorded.

GO seems to have had two additional Golden age periods in China during the T’ang (618-906) and Sung (960-1126) dynasties. First books about GO were written, and there were many distinguished players who honored with titles such as Ki-Sei, from Ki meaning ‘GO’, Sei meaning ‘saint’. Such titles are still used today in Japan, for example, Kisei, which is the most prestigious one.

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GO has not always enjoyed its current

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.History of GO. .GO COMES

TO JAPAN.

In contrast to the documentary evidence supplied from Chinese historical records, the popular belief in Japan is that GO was brought directly from China in the year 735 by an aristocrat named Kibi no Makibi, known as Grand Minister Kibi. He was sent to the Tang capital of Ch’ang-an with a commission from the Emperor Shomu’s daughter, the future Empress Koken, to bring the best of Tang learning back to Japan. After eighteen years in China, Kibi returned to his native country laden with a cargo of artifacts representing his choice of the best elements

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First mentioning was made by Japanese ambassador who posted to the Sui capital in 607. If it was significant enough for the ambassador to mention, then it is reasonable to conclude that go had arrived in Japan no later than the 6th century, and perhaps even earlier. GO was probably brought to Japan from Korea by artists, scholars, and ex-officials who migrated to Japan in order to escape political turmoil in their own land.

HISTORY

There are no written records verifying the precise date of GO’s introduction into Japan, but according to the Records of the Sui, the chronicle of a Chinese dynasty (597-18 AD), GO was one of the three major pastimes enjoyed by early 7th century Japanese (the other two were backgammon and gambling).

he was responsible for its great prestige there. After its initial introduction into Japan, GO was played mainly at the court by nobles, both male and female, by Buddhist clerics, and by members of the military class, who were reputed to have taken their GO equipment with them to battles in order to play at war after the actual fight was over. However, it did not become a genuinely popular game until the twentieth century.

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of Chinese culture; he also brought back with him the fruits of almost two decades of experience and learning, including a knowledge of GO. In 701, a rule of conduct directed at Buddhist monks and nuns prescribed 100 days of hard labor as punishment for indulging in music and gambling, but koto and GO playing were specifically excluded from this description of licentious and intemperate acts. GO was undoubtedly one of many games enjoyed by the upper classes of early 7th century in Japan before Kibi’s return from Ch’ang-an. It is probably then when he informed those at the imperial court of GO’s popularity at the Tang court, GO was elevated to a special status, resulting in its establishment as a game worth the Japanese nobility. It is safe to say that while Kibi did not introduce GO to Japan,

The oldest GO boards in Japan are preserved as national treasures in the Shoso-in Museum in Nara. They belonged to the Emperor Shomu (ruled 724-48), and their playing surfaces are essentially the same as those in use today, except that one has seventeen star points instead of the nine found on modern GO boards.

The first Japanese book about GO is said to have been written in 913 by a monk named Tachibana Kanren at the request of the Emperor. Although the book is lost, records indicate that its title was GO Shiki (‘A Method of Playing GO’). In The Tale of Genii, written in the early eleventh century by court lady Murasaki Shikibu, there are passages which show that playing GO was a common pastime among both male and female aristocrats. One of the scenes from this early novel, where Prince Genji spies on a game between Lady Utsusemi and another woman, has been a popular subject in Japanese art.

The three Japanese warlords of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, were all devotees of GO. Of the first, Nobunaga, it is said that when he was staying in the Honnoji Temple in Kyoto in 1582, he watched Nikkai, the strongest player in Japan of that time; play what is now a famous

At the beginning of the 17th century, four GO houses were established. They were the Honinbo (of which Nikkai became the head, changing his name to Honinbo Sansa), Inoue, Yasui, and Hayashi houses. These houses competed in the search for the most talented players and devoted great effort to the study and development of GO theory and technique in order to surpass each other. At about the same time, in 1603, Tokugawa Ieyasu united Japan under the Tokugawa Shogunate and moved the seat of government from Kamakura to Edo, now called Tokyo. The same year, the Tokugawa government awarded stipends to the leading GO players, established the office of Godokoro (held by Honinbo

HISTORY

The earliest Japanese GO game on record is dated 1253 and is supposed to have been played by Nichiren, founder of the Nichiren sect of Buddhism, and a nineyear-old disciple named Nisshomaru. This game was played following the traditional Chinese convention of placing two white and two black stones on the corner star points before starting the game. This convention was eventually abandoned by the Japanese in the 14th or 15th century, but it was continued in China until the l0th century, when they too switched over to beginning even games with an empty board.

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THE DEVELOPMENT OF GO IN JAPAN

game with his main rival Kashio Rigen.

During the course of the game, a triple ko arose, which led to the game being declared a draw. The night after the game, Nobunaga’s ally Akechi Mitsuhide rose up in rebellion and succeeded in killing Nobunaga. Thereafter, a triple ko has been regarded as an ill omen, and a game in which it arises is now adjudicated as ‘no result’ and is replayed.

Sansa until 1623), and instituted the annual Oshiro GO (castle games) played in the presence of the Shogun.

The Godokoro was the head of the government GO office, the top post in the Edo period GO world. The holder of this position was the official GO instructor to the Shogun; he also controlled promotions and the issuing of diplomas. In addition, the Godokoro decided pairings for the annual castle games and

Meijin means master player or expert. It is said that sometime in 1578 while Nobunaga was watching Nikkai play, he was so impressed with the latter’s skill that he cried out ‘Meijin!’ This is apparently the origin of the term. In modern Japan it continues as the name of one of the top three professional GO titles. was responsible for all ceremonies connected with GO, such as games played before the Shogun and games with foreigners. Because he was the Shogun’s teacher, he was barred from competitive play unless granted special permission. Only the top player could become Godokoro, which meant that he would also be promoted to Meijin.

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When the Tokugawa Shogunate fell in 1868, government support of GO in Japan came to an end. For the next 12 years the Japanese were preoccupied with the novelty of things Western and interest in GO fell to an all-time low. Around 1880, however, their interest in GO was revived, but this time under private auspices.

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HISTORY

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.History of GO. .GO IN CHINA.

HISTORY

During the ten-year Cultural Revolution (1966-76), GO was out of favor with zealous Red Guards and their government supporters, although the Chinese government did officially support about thirty GO players, classified as “national sportsmen and sportswomen”. It was not until 1981 that the present, well-supported professional system was initiated. Over the past thirty years, however, there has been an active GO exchange between China and Japan consisting of goodwill tours featuring games between Japanese professionals and the top Chinese players. They began in 1960 and, with the exception of a six-year suspension from 1967 through 1972, have continued until the present. The rivalry between Japan and China took on a different character with the introduction in 1984 of the annual Japan—China Super GO knockout team match, which the Chinese have won more often than not. In 1996, Japan’s defeat was apparently humiliating—its entire team was almost wiped out by the 20-yearold Chang Hao—that the series was canceled.

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Despite having been invented there, GO has not always enjoyed a place of honor in modern China.

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Regular professional tournaments and title matches began to be held in the late 1970s. The first two were the All-China Championship and the New Physical Education Cup. Then in the late 1980s, a number of titles were established. The Mingren (equivalent to the Japanese Meijin title), Tianyuan (equivalent to the Japanese Tengen title), the Qiwang ( GO King), the Pawang (Monarch), and the NEC Cup. Besides, there is the CCTV Cup, a large-scale lightning TV tournament.

At present there are more than 100 professionals who compete for these titles.

Nie Weiping was the first Chinese player to seriously challenge Japanese supremacy. He made his first appearance on the international scene by winning the first World Amateur GO Championship in 1976 at the age of 24. After that, he quickly proved that he was more than an amateur with a series of wins against some of the strongest Japanese players. On numerous occasions he anchored the Chinese team in the Japan—China Super Go series

to save China from defeat by beating the best players that Japan could field.

In his prime, Nie dominated the Chinese tournament scene by winning the New Physical Education Cup six times in a row from 1979-83, and he has won the Ten Strongest Players tournament five times. He has also held numerous other Chinese titles.

From the late 1980s, a new player began to dominate the Chinese tournament scene: Ma Xiaochun. He held the Mingren title for 13 terms straight, the Qiwang title for four straight terms and the Tengen title for three straight terms.

However, a new generation of players emerged, the first of whom was Chang Hao. In 1997, he defeated Ma Xiaochun in the Tianyuan title match. He then defeated Ryu Shikun, the holder of the Japanese Tengen title, in a best-of-three match by winning two straight games.

Around this time, two other young professionals, Zhou Heyang and Wang Lei achieved significant successes not only in Chinese tournaments but also in international tournaments. Today the average age of China’s best players is about 26.

GO is certainly a young person’s game.

In spite of the short history of China’s professional GO program, there is hardly any gap between the playing strengths of the top Chinese players and that of the top Japanese and Korean players.

How did the Chinese become so strong so fast? In addition to support from the national and local governments, which sponsor professional and amateur GO in state and city social clubs as well as in public schools, elementary through high school, Chinese professionals say that they have learned a lot from Japanese professionals who acted as tutors during the early years of the Japan—China GO exchange programs. Indeed, because the Japanese developed GO theory to its present high level over the last 400

In order to become a professional GO player in China, one must enter a competition. From among the top players in that competition, future professionals are chosen by high-level players from the state social clubs. Once chosen, lowranked players study go by themselves; high-ranked players, 5-dan and above, study together. This differs from Japan, where low-level players become apprenticed to high-level professionals.

HISTORY

China also gave birth to the world’s strongest woman player, Rui Naiwei 9-dan. She has consistently beaten strong Japanese players and has won the World Women’s Championship on a number of occasions. She and her husband Jiang Zhujiu, who is also a 9-dan, now play in the Korean Go Association.

In 2000, she won a major Korean title by defeating one of Korea’s top players.

years, Chinese professionals were able to begin their theoretical studies at the top.

Another reason, of course, is that GO is a very popular game in China. One current estimate puts the number of amateur players at somewhere around 10 million, up from a reported one million fifteen years ago. As in Japan, children are often taught to play GO before they are old enough to enter primary school. Talented young players have a chance to compete for local and national titles at the elementary, junior high, and high school levels, as well as at the city and national levels.

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GO is a very popular game in China. One current estimate puts the number of amateur players at somewhere around 10 million people.

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.History of GO. .GO IN KOREA

Although GO (called Baduk in Korea) was played in Korea long before it arrived in Japan, it is only since 1956 that it has been played professionally there. It had been traditionally regarded only as a pastime or a The Korean GO Association (Han Kuk gambling game, but in 1980 it Kiwon) was founded almost singlehandedly in September 1955 by Cho was officially recognized by the Nam-chul 9-dan. As of January 2008 there were about 220 professional players government as an important competing for prizes in open newspaper tournaments and TV tournaments. cultural asset.

As a result of this enthusiasm, a whole new generation of super strong Korean GO players has emerged. Yi Se-tol was, among the most noteworthy and has become Yi Ch’ang-ho’s chief rival.

Interestingly, most of the top ten players are 25 or under, with only two veteran players, Yi Chang-ho and Mok Chin-seok (at the ripe old age of 38) filling in two of the top four slots.

Korean tournaments do not offer as much prize money as the Japanese tournaments. Korean companies seem to be content to place most of their sponsorship in international tournaments where they can gain world-wide publicity.

HISTORY

strong educational benefits, especially in developing concentration, analytical abilities, and abstract thinking. With this huge enthusiasm for GO in Korea and such a large pool of players to draw upon, it is no wonder that the Korean players are indisputably the strongest in the world, almost completely dominating the international tournament scene.

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From the mid-1970s, the player who dominated the Korean titles was Cho Hun-hyeon 9-dan. In his youth, Cho studied in Japan, but instead of building his career there, he returned to Korea with the intention of raising the strength of his compatriots. His efforts have born fruit in his disciple, Yi Ch’ang-ho, who became the strongest player in the world in his early 20’s. He has won 23 international titles; in second place as is his teacher Cho Hun-hyeon with 11 titles.

Because of Yi Ch’ang-ho’s spectacular successes in domestic Korean tournaments, as well as in the international GO arena, he has become a hero in his native land and he has ignited a huge following, somewhat like that of a rock star.

This has caused a surge in the popularity of GO in Korea. Large companies are pouring vast amounts of money into international tournaments and a legion of young prodigies are emerging. In 1998 there were an estimated 100,000 children in about 1,500 GO schools in Korea.

Parents there believe that GO provides

GO IS WAR WITHOUT BATTLE LINES,

WITH NEITHER CONFRONTATION NOR RETREAT,

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WITHOUT BATTLES EVEN:

PURE STRATEGY...

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Deleuze and guattari (1988)

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.History of GO. .GO AROUND

THE WORLD

GO is enjoyed around the world as much as it is in Asia, although its history in the West is much shorter.

Contributing to this growth in recent years has been the Internet. Today a player can log on to up to 50 sites where they can play games online with other players throughout the world. Whatever your strength, it is easy to find an appropriate opponent. Instruction by strong players is also provided.

The yearly culmination of all this international GO activity is the World Amateur GO Championship, held under the auspices of the International GO Federation in Japan every spring. Contestants came from North, Central, and South America, Eastern and Western Europe, Southeast and Southwest Asia, Australia and New Zealand, the Middle East, and Africa, as well as from East Asia.

HISTORY

Today there are GO clubs on every continent in the world, but the main concentration of players outside the orient is in Europe and North America.

The European GO Federation, consisting of all the countries of Western and Eastern Europe, sponsors the European Championship and the European Computer GO Championship. The base of this activity is the large number of GO clubs in every major European city and in many medium-size towns. As in Europe, the number of GO players in the U.S. and Canada has shown explosive

growth. Coupled with the growth of the game in America, a number of professionals from Korea and China have taken up residence in the U.S. and are actively teaching GO. In addition, two native-born Americans have attained professional rankings through their study in Japan, one has attained the highest professional rank of 9-dan and the other has returned home to teach GO.

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Several descriptions of GO were published in Europe during the 17th century—in Italian (1610), Latin (1615), German (1616), English (1617), and Dutch (1665). While these texts described the game, they did not show their readers how to actually play. By the late 19th and early 20th century, however, there appeared texts in German (Korschelt: The Theory and Practice of Go) and in English (Smith: The Game of Go) that gave western readers basic instruction on the game. These books probably provided the spark that has resulted in its current popularity outside of Asia.

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WORLD’S MOST INTELLECTUALLY STIMULATING BOARD GAME 1

6 5

3

7 8

4

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2

9

GO is an extraordinary intellectual challenge. The rules are very simple, yet it resists all attempts to program computers to play GO at the top level.

Even the best programs, that have been developed over years, are still beaten by experienced players.

11

From the first move player builds a unique formation. In fact there is so much room for individual expression that it is believed no game of GO has ever been played in the exact pattern of any previous one.

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10

The whole play is visible on the board, the stones are not removed until they are captured. The action of the game is lively and exciting, jumping from battle front to battle front as each contestant seeks an advantage in position.

INTELLECTUAL

GO is a game of skill and intellectual endeavor that involves no element of chance. The overall level of decision-making quality invariably determines the outcome of the game.

Possibly there are over 10200 different patterns availabale.

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This number is vastly larger than the estimated number of atoms in

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THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE.

COMPLEXITY OF THE GAME It has been claimed that GO is the most complex game in the world due to the vast number of variations in individual games.

Its large board and lack of restrictions allow great scope in strategy and expression of players' individuality. 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 complexity is such that description of even elementary strategy fills many introductory books. In fact, numerical estimates show that the number of possible combinations in GO far exceeds the number of atoms in the observable universe.

Research of GO endgame by John H. Conway led to the invention of the surreal numbers. GO also contributed to the development of combinatorial game theory (with GO Infinitesimals being a specific example of its use in GO).

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Thus, GO poses a daunting challenge to computer programmers. The best GO programs only manage to reach an amateur dan level. On the small 9×9 board, the computer fares better, and some programs

Tianhe-2 would require 4 hours, to assess all possible combinations of the next eight moves in order to make a single play. now win a fraction of their 9×9 games against professional players. Many in the field of artificial intelligence consider GO to require more elements that mimic human thought than chess.

The reasons why computer programs do not play GO at the professional dan level include: The number of spaces on the board is much larger (over five times the number of spaces on a chess board—361 vs. 64).

On most turns there are many more possible moves in GO than in chess. Throughout most of the game, the number of legal moves stays at around 150–250 per turn, and rarely falls below 50 (in chess, the average number of moves is 37).

As an exhaustive computer program for GO must calculate and compare every possible legal move in each ply (player turn), its ability to calculate the best plays is sharply reduced when there are a large number of possible moves. Most computer game algorithms, such as those for chess,

If computer would have to predict this influence, it would be unable to exhaustively analyze the next hundred moves.

In capture-based games (such as chess), a position can often be evaluated relatively easily, such as by calculating who has a material advantage, or more active pieces.

To exhaustively calculate the next eight moves, it would require computing 512 quintillion (5.12Ă—1020) possible combinations. As of March 2014, the most powerful supercomputer in the world, NUDT's "Tianhe-2", can sustain 33.86 petaflops. At this rate, even given an exceedingly low estimate of 10 operations required to assess the value of one play of a stone, it would take Tianhe-2 4 hours to assess all possible combinations of the next eight moves in order to make a single play.

As the placement of a single stone in the initial phase can affect the play of the game a hundred or more moves later.

As an illustration, the greatest handicap normally given to a weaker opponent is 9 stones. It was not until August 2008 that a computer won a game against a professional level player at this handicap.

It was the Mogo program, which scored this first victory in an exhibition game played during the US Go Congress.

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compute several moves in advance.

Given an average of 200 available moves through most of the game, in order to calculate the next move by exhaustively anticipating the next four moves of each possible play (two of its own and two of its opponent's), a computer would have to consider more than 320 billion (3.2Ă—1011) possible combinations.

In Go, there is often no easy way to evaluate a position. However, a 6-kyu human can evaluate a position at a glance, to see which player has more territory, and even beginners can estimate the score within 10 points, given time to count it. The number of stones on the board (material advantage) is only a weak indicator of the strength of a position, and a territorial advantage (more empty points surrounded) for one player might be compensated by the opponent's strong positions and influence all over the board. Normally a 3-dan can easily judge most of these positions.

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1.

2. 4. 3. 5.

On a GO board, 19 vertical and 19 horizontal lines form the playable intersections.

There are 180 black and 180 white stones available for play.

Two players make moves alternating each other.

Black plays first.

The goal is to surround a larger territory than the opponent.

Here counts the number of intersections under control.

6. 7.

8. 9.

10.

The stone is captured when all the adjoining intersections are occupied by opponent’s stones.

It’s forbidden to make a move that leads to a repeating position.

Anytime a player can pass a move, which counts as a regular move.

Two sequential passes result in the end of the game.

At the end of the game, the captured stones are placed on the opponent’s territory, thus diminishing it.

It’s forbidden to make suicidal moves, i.e. placing stones that will diminish group’s points of breath.

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SIMPLEST RULES IMAGINABLE

It is important to remember that only stones which are horizontally or vertically adjacent are solidly connected, like two black groups on the example shown below. However, diagonals do not count as connections, so two white stones cannot be considered as a string.

It is important to remember that only stones which are horizontally or vertically adjacent are solidly connected.

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These two black groups are the examples of solidly connected strings.

Several strings close together, which belong to the same player, are often described as a group.

STRINGS

1

2

15

3

4

14

5

13

6

12

7

11

8

10

9

As far as capturing is concerned, a string of stones is treated as a single unit. As with isolated stones, a string is captured when all of its liberties are occupied by enemy’s stones.

As with the capture of a single stone, the points formerly occupied by the black string have become white territory, and vice versa.

A player may not self-capture, that is put a stone into a position where it would have no liberties or be a part of a string which would thereby have no liberties, unless, as a result, one or more of the surrounding stones can be captured.

To capture a group of 9 black stones, like the one in the example shown, will require 15 white stones, which is obviously a result of a larger number of moves.

That’s why capturing the enemy stones should never be a goal, rather than an outcome of the strategy to gain more control over the territory.

AND CAPTURING THEM...

LIFE AND DEATH

Any string of stones that requires two or more simultaneous moves to be captured is permanently safe and is referred to as a live string or live group.

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X

X

AND THE CONCEPT OF EYES

ETERNAL LIFE The black string here could only be captured if White were able to play at both X-es. Since the first of these plays would be a self-capture, there is no way that White can carry out the capture.

In the course of a real game, players are not obliged to complete the capture of an isolated dead string once it is clear to both players that the string is dead.

We call this a hopeless string. The situation may be left as it is until the end of the game. Then, players either decide to finish this form untill it’ captured or simply remove hopeless strings from the board and counted together with other captured “prisoners”.

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Any string or group of stones which has two or more eyes is permanently safe from capture and is referred to as a live string or a live group. Conversely, a string of stones which is unable to make two eyes, and is cut off and surrounded by live enemy strings, is called a dead string since it is hopeless and unable to avoid eventual capture.

INTELLECTUAL

These two separate spaces within the group are known as eyes.

KO, SEIKI

THE KO RULE White can capture a stone by playing at white X. This results in the situation on the formation below. However, this stone is itself vulnerable to capture by a Black playing at black X. If Black were allowed to recapture immediately, the position would revert to the previous one, and there would be nothing to prevent this capture and recapture continuing indefinitely. This pattern of stones is called ko—a Japanese term meaning eternity. There are might be other possible shapes for a ko, on the first line (edge) of the board and in the corner.

X

If you

X

The ko rule removes this don't like ko, don't play go. possibility of indefinite repetition by forbidding to recapture the ko, until Black has made at least one play elsewhere. Black may then fill the ko, but if White choose not to do so, instead answering Black's intervening turn elsewhere, White is then permitted to retake the ko.

SEKI - A KIND OF LOCAL STALEMATE Usually a string what cannot make two eyes will die unless one of the surrounding enemy strings also lacks two eyes. This often leads to a race to capture, but can also result in a standoff situation, known as seki, in which neither string has two eyes, but neither can capture the other due to a shortage of liberties. The example of seki is shown on the right page. Neither player can afford to play at both X-es, since to do so would enable the other to make a capture of the whole group.

AND THE END OF THE GAME THE END OF THE GAME When you think you can't gain any more territory, reduce your opponent's territory or capture more strings, instead of playing a stone on the board you pass and hand a stone to your opponent as a prisoner. A Black pass followed by a White pass ends the game (since Black played first, White must play last).

Any hopeless strings are removed and become prisoners. If you cannot agree whether a string is dead or not, then continue playing; you can then complete the capture of the disputed strings or confirm they are alive. (Playing after such a continuation does not change the score, as each pass gives up a prisoner.)

X

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X

A great advantage of Go is its very effective handicapping system. This enables players of widely differing strengths to play with each other on equal terms without distorting the character of the game.

Two beginners playing together can experience as much excitement as two veteran players, as well as players of the vastly different skill level.

Players of any skill level can enjoy GO.

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a

b

c

d

e

f

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h

i

A weaker player may be given an advantage of anything up to nine stones. These are placed on the board in lieu of Black's first turn. Once all the handicap stones have been placed in position it is White's turn to play.

Through the grading system, any two players can easily establish the difference in their strength, and, therefore, the number of stones the weaker player should take in order to compensate the difference. Since a player's grade is measured in terms of stones, the number of stones for the handicap is simply the difference in grade between the two players.

2 stones c, and g 3 stones c, g and i 4 stones a, c, g and i 5 stones a, c, e, g and i 6 stones All but b, e and h 7 stones All but b and h 8 stones All but e

FEW OTHER THINGS TO KNOW: HANDICAP AND COMI

So in games between players of the same strength, it is necessary to compensate White for the disadvantage of playing second by adding points to White’s score. These points are called komi. From experience, the value of playing first is about 7 points, so the normal size of komi is 7½ points. The rule was set to avoid draws.

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For handicaps of two or three stones, where the stones cannot be placed symmetrically, the convention says that the far left corner should be left vacant.Black has a natural advantage in playing the first move. This establishes the pattern of the game, where Black make plays and White answer their moves. In professional games this ability to initiate a situation on board is higlhly valued one.

INTELLECTUAL

There is an established pattern for the placing the handicap stones, indicated by the dots on any GO board.

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4K YEARS OF REFINED AESTETHICS

The aesthetics of Go are almost as important as the play in some ways.

The harmonization of the board and pieces, the materials used, etc., represent the aesthetics aspect that roots deep into history. There is an intangible aesthetic harmony in the contrasts of wood and stones, line and circle, black and white.

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The positions of the stones themselves are often judged by an eye in terms of their aesthetic qualities and harmony, that almost always correlate with their efficiency. This very visual aspect of the game is the main distinction between humans playing the game and a computer trying to solve it analytically. GO positions carry almost poetical names, which brings up an additional pleasure for the gameplay and is especially valued by artists and other visual professionals.

AESTHETIC

With a properly matched goban and stone set, it is impossible to lay a straight line of stones across the board, so that it does not bend in some places. This is in line with Japanese aesthetics of imperfection, where for example in pottery to the perfect cup, the artisan will add some imperfection on purpose. This reflects the Wabi-Sabi aesthetics, which is so important to Japanese culture.

BOARD CONSTRUCTION PRINCIPLES

HOSH

I

The grid of a real-life GO board isn't square but rectangular. This compensates for foreshortening when you look at the board.

A go board is a 19x19 grid of lines. The Japanese go term for go board is goban.

Although the term goban is generally recognized and used by Western players, many English speakers avoid it, preferring the native English go board instead, or simply board. Goban is widely used, however, in other languages, including French and Dutch, which may not have such convenient native terms. Some people use goban, incorrectly, to refer specifically to a Japanese go board with legs. (In Japanese the word indicates a go board of any shape or form.)

The grid of a real-life go board isn't square but rectangular (about 8% longer in length than in width. This compensates for foreshortening when you look at the board.

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The go stones are placed on the intersections, including the edge of the board (the outer line), and the corners where two edges meet.

The dots at the nine star points, or hoshi, help the players orient themselves, and mark the location for handicap stones.

The center start point is called tengen in Japanese, tianyuan in Chinese, and chunweon in Korean.

MATERIALS USED Traditionally, go boards are made of wood. However, this is not a firm requirement. One can find old boards that were highly decorative, and made to resemble a turtle back or similar pattern.

Nowadays, however, the trend seems moved towards simplicity and austerity.

The main requirement to the material used is that it is durable and does not warp. A secondary requirement is that the surface color and texture must be chosen the way grid is clear, and that the sound made when hit by a stone is pleasant.

In practice this means that wood is the best choice. For aesthetic reasons, the grain should be "masame", i.e. running straight, not bent.

“I once played on a board made in Algeria, which was made of leather stretched out over a wooden frame, with engraved camels around the side and inset pieces of mirror.”

AESTHETIC

“Competition” boards, the ones which appear on the photos of “GO World”, are typically made of the Japanese “Kaya” wood. Kaya has the characteristics described above, it is quite soft (nice sound), the color is light (yellowish) and the grain is subtle. However, kaya trees are reasonably rare and they grow very slowly. For this and some other reasons kaya boards are very expensive.

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Good quality plywood is fine for homemade boards, as it is relatively cheap and easy to work with. You can get a thin piece of furniture or cabinet grade plywood and sandwich it to cheaper plywood for a thick, good-looking surface. Finish the edge with thin wood stock. Choose a type of plywood that is not too dark.

ALL ABOUT STONES The pieces used to mark the moves on the go board are known as stones. They are made from a wide variety of materials. Traditionally they are black and white, but any two colors can be used as long as they are easily distinguishable.

THERE ARE TWO MAIN SHAPES: Japanese and Korean stones are biconvex, that is lens shaped, with the same convex appearance on both sides.

Chinese stones are flat on one side. Go/Weiqi stones from Yunnan, a province in the Southwest of China, are called Yunzi.

MATERIAL Today, glass is the most common material for moderately priced stones. Their workmanship varies considerably, with cheaper sets showing high variations in size.

- (Japan) Traditional Japanese stones are made of slate (black) and shell (white).

- (China) Traditional Chinese stones are sintered (powdered and then melted together) jade (black) and sintered quartz (white).

- (Taiwan) Ing stones, common in Taiwan, are plastic with a metal center.

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The cheapest stones are made from plastic. These are lighter, and to sensitive players don't "feel right in the hand". They are also prone to weld lines and other molding defects. Historically, in Asian countries, materials such as bone or wood were also been used.

Gems, especially jade were used in old times, when go boards were decorated. Jade stones were commonly used in China's upper classes and are still used in some Chinese tournament games. Ceramic stones are used in China near the "porcelain capital" Jingdezhen.

Black stones are slightly larger than the white stones to compensate for an optical illusion which would otherwise make the white stones look slightly larger than the black stones.

SLATE AND SHELL STONES

The price of shell stones also varies considerably depending on thickness. Thickness is expressed in units, a traditional Japanese measure of length: 30 is 8.0mm and 35 is 9.8mm. It is quite difficult to find shells large enough to give stones 10 mm and above.

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Shell stones are often identified by "grade". For stones made from shell harvested off the coast of Japan the grades are: Flower (Hana), Moon (Tsuki) and Snow (Yuki), from lowest to highest. Snow grade are the whitest stones with the finest pattern (and thus the most expensive). Moon and flower or "standard" grade have broader lines and may have slight discoloration. For stones made from clams harvested off the coast of Baja California (Mexico) the grades are Standard (or utility) (Jitsuyo), Moon (Tsuki), and Snow (Yuki). Japanese clam stones are several times more expensive than stones made from Mexican clams.

AESTHETIC

Should you want to buy shell and slate stones, be prepared to pay for them. The slate is (relatively) easy to find, but the shell is expensive. Shell stones are also judged to be “better� (and more expensive) if there is a large number of visible lines on them, especially if the lines are straight.

WABI-SABI

Wabi-sabi represents a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic system, it is difficult to explain precisely in western terms. According to Leonard Koren, in his book Wabi-Sabi: For Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers, wabi-sabi is the most conspicuous and characteristic feature of

"Wabi-sabi is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete.

It is the beauty of things modest and humble.

It is the beauty of things unconventional." —Leonard Koren

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what we think of as traditional Japanese beauty and it "occupies roughly the same position in the Japanese pantheon of aesthetic values as do the Greek ideals of beauty and perfection in the West."

The concepts of wabi-sabi correlate with the concepts of Zen Buddhism, as the first Japanese involved with wabi-sabi were tea masters, priests, and monks who practiced Zen. Zen Buddhism was first brought to Japan from China at the end of the 12th century. Zen emphasizes "direct, intuitive insight into transcendental truth beyond all intellectual conception." At the core of wabi-sabi is the importance of transcending ways of looking and thinking about things/existence.

It might be helpful to compare and contrast it with modernism, the dominant aesthetic sensibility of the late 20-th century international industrialized society. We will use “middle modernism� for that comparison, the one that embodied in most of the pieces of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Middle modernism is most of those slick, minimalist appliances, machines, automobiles, and gadgets produced since the Second World War. It also includes concrete, steel, and glass box buildings of the sort that houses the museum itself.

1. Primarily expressed in the private domain 2. Implies an intuitive worldview

1. Primarily expressed in the public domain 2. Implies a logical, rational worldview

3. Relative

WABI-SABI & MODERNISM

5. One-of-a-kind variable 6. There is no progress 7. Present-oriented 8. Uncontrollability of nature 9. Romanticizes nature 10. People adapting to nature 12. The bowl as metaphor (free shape, open at top) 11. Organic organization of form (soft, vague shapes and edges)

13. Natural materials 14. Ostensibly crude 15. Accommodates to degradation and attrition

4. Looks for universal, prototypical solutions

5. Mass-produced / modular 6. Expresses faith in progress

SIMILARITIES • Both apply to all manner of manmade objects, spaces, and designs.

• Both are strong reactions against the dominant, established sensibilities of their time. Modernism was a radical departure from 19-century classicism and eclecticism. Wabi-Sani was a radical departure from the Chinese perfection and gorgeousness of the 16th-century and earlier.

• Both eschew any decoration that is not integral to structure.

• Both are abstract nonrepresentational ideals of beauty.

• Both have readily identifiable surface characteristics. Modernism is seamless, polished, and smooth. Wabi-Sabi is earthy, imperfect, and variegated.

16. Corrosion and contamination make its expression richer

7. Future-oriented 8. Believes in the control of nature 9. Romanticizes technology 10. People adapting to machines 12. The box as a metaphor (rectilinear, precise, contained) 11. Geometric organization of form (sharp, precise, definite shapes and edges) 13. Manmade materials 14. Ostensibly slick 15.Needs to be well-maintained 16. Purity makes its expression richer

17. Solicits the expansion of sensory information

17. Solicits the reduction of sensory information

18. Is comfortable with ambiguity and contradiction

18. Is intolerant of ambiguity and contradiction

19. Warm, generally dark and dim 20. Function and utility are not so important

19. Cool, generally light and bright 20. Function and utility are primary values

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4. Looks for personal idiosyncratic solutions

3. Absolute

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WABI-SABI APPEARS IN THE FOLLOWING ASPECTS OF GO: • natural stone placement • stones won't fit when lined up • wood grain, color palette, and natural degrading of a goban (like kaya) • structure in stones

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• non-rectangular dimensions of the goban

STONES’ SHAPES:

IN THEIR BEAUTY

Shape is the configuration of stones in their flexibility and efficiency at staying connected, forming eyes, and maintaining liberties. Stones are said to have good shape if they are efficient and flexible, or bad shape if they are inefficient.

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Empty triangle is also sometimes called the devil's shape (onigatachi), because it reminds of the long nose of one of the Japanese demons.

Classic examples of good shape are ponnuki (four stones in a diamond) and bamboo joint (a 2x3 pattern of two stones, two spaces and two more stones).

Examples of bad shape are the empty triangle (three adjacent stones forming an ‘L’) and dango (large clump of stones not containing any eyes).

Profeesional players consider ponnuki to be worth 30 points, as the shape is very stable, yet flexible, as well as easy to expand in all four directions and have a high potential to form 2 eyes.

Joseki is, in large part, the study of forming good shapes with stones.

Ponnuki

Bamboo Joint

X

AND UGLINESS

X

X In the game of GO, shape describes the positional qualities of a group of stones.

Descriptions of shapes in go revolve around how well a group creates or removes life and territory.

Good shape can refer to the efficient use of stones in outlining territory, the strength of a group in a prospective fight, or making eye shapes so that a group may live.

Bad shapes are inefficient in outlining territory and are heavy. Heavy groups cannot easily make eye shapes and are, therefore, good targets for an attack. Understanding and recognizing the difference between good and bad shape is an essential step in becoming a stronger player.

The shape in the top right corner is called an empty triangle, where empty refers to the circled unoccupied point.

Typically, the empty triangle is bad, being inefficient and prone to shortage of liberties. The shape has 7 liberties, which is in comparisson to the simple string below, one liberty less, making the stones to be less efficient as a group.

X

X X 7 VS 8 LIBERTIES

X X

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EMPTY TRIANGLE

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EXAMPLES OF GOOD SHAPES

One Space Jump (Ikken tobi), especially from the middle of three stones, is often the vital point in making a good shape. An old Go proverb says, "Don't try to cut the one space jump." This is for good reason, as it is difficult to disconnect without a kikashi.

It can also be the vital point for destroying the enemy's shape. The proverb, "my opponent's vital point is my vital point," often applies in regards to this shape. That is, if you can play there first, then you can destroy their shape.

Double Turn (Ni-dan bane), or twostep Hane is two Turns played in a succession. It can be an aggressive and appropriate move, but it generally exposes the group of stones to cutting.

Large Knight’s Move (Geima) is a more aggressive version of the Small Knight’s Move, and can be cut even more easily. It extends one square further, and is usually used in conjunction with stones already in the area that provide support for this move.

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X

Pole Connection (B tsugi) is a connection that renders solid series of previously free-standing stones, into a line, which allows for solidarity and more influence.

Here Black have Mouth Shape (Kou). A fundamental shape, good for forming an eye. It is half of a square, 2 stones by 2 stones in an “L”. Its vital point is across the square, on the far “corner”.

The Tiger’s Mouth (Tora no kou), or Hanging Connection, is a one stone short of a Diamond shape. It is called so because an attacking stone would be immediately under atari if played directly in the “mouth” of the group.

Bamboo Joint (Takefu) is safe and can only be cut if short of liberties. Whereas the one-space jump is good shape for outlining territory but can be cut by de-giri (to push through then cut and capture the weak side). The Bamboo Joint is the essence of flexibility. It has the beauty of an either-or choice, so that even if the opponent attacks first, you have a safe response.

Knight’s Move (Keima) is more fast-paced than either the diagonal move or the one-space jump. It is named after the resemblance to the movement of the Knight in Chess. It also makes a flexible and light shape and is useful in sabaki. Near the edge of the board the small knight’s move is used to secure a base or to link up stones. However this shape can easily be cut. Hence, you must consider the surrounding stones and be prepared to sacrifice one of your own stones to make a good shape. It is sometimes called the Small Knight’s Move in order to differentiate it from the Large Knight’s Move.

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AESTHETIC

Diamond (Ponnuki) is a shape that has high defensive capabilities, in that, in order to cut any point of the shape, the opponent must either build up support around the shape or risk an atari when the invading stone is played without any support. It also exerts influence and support in every direction, and can be used to stage further attacks. This shape can be the result of playing with or without capturing an enemy stone if an enemy stone was captured in the process, it is known as ponnuki; the resulting shape is a Diamond.

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YOU ARE CO-CREATORS

GO is more than a game. It is a reflection of the self that helps in character development. As with other sports such as Martial Arts, there are manners and etiquette that are generally followed.

It takes two to play the game and everyone starts out equal. What happens thereafter is not fate or social position but only the quality of your own mind and spirit. Japanese say that the best way to know your business partner is to play a round of GO. Your opponent or partner who makes all this wonder happen deserves special treatment and respect. All of this starts when you open the bowls and engage in Nigiri, a ritual of deciding the color to play with.

Then the game starts at natural pace with Fuseki or opening positions. Learning some of the core principles of game openings is crucial to set up a solid basis for further development.

ETIQUETTE AND PSYCHOLOGY OF THE GAME With 4,000 years of history, go has had more chance than any other game to develop customs and practices conducive to good play. The oriental and in particular the Japanese overlay given to the game is very significant. In some ways this distinctive cultural influence appears as ritual observances which stem from the profound philosophical approach to such disciplines as games, sports and martial arts found in the East.

Your opponent or partner who makes all this wonder to happen deserves special treatment and respect.

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Go is a game for two players. Though in competition, each needs the other in order to play. This makes them partners in the exercise. If one accepts the notion that go is a beneficial pastime, a potential voyage of self-discovery and enlightenment.

The game meets the basic needs of the human spirit. Everywhere we are preoccupied with social structures, position and status; and everyone capable of reflection must sometimes speculate on his private

relationship to fortune and fate. But Go is the one game which turns all preoccupations and speculations back on their source.

It says, in effect, that everyone starts out equal and that what happens thereafter is not fate or social position but only the quality of your own mind and spirit.

Your opponent or partner who makes all this wonder to happen and deserves special treatment and respect. You show this in a variety of ways.

Firstly there is etiquette, the code of behavior at the go board. This is where ritual plays the greatest part. The Japanese bow to each other, inquire politely if the other would instruct them and ask if the other would please commence play - all done using phrases reserved for these special occasions when only the highest form of politeness and greatest deference is shown. Of course we don’t need to go to such lengths but at least a friendly, courteous approach to the opponent is right.

During play sit quietly and do nothing to upset him. If you must leave the table apologize politely before doing so. Remember that the other player expects as much from you as he does from himself.

There is more ritual at the end of the game. This comes when both players agree that there are no more points to be gained or lost for either side. Then the dame (neutral points) are filled, preferably alternately although in the Japanese method of counting this is not essential. What is important to remember is that the game has ended before the dame are filled. So you do not capture stones left in Atari when the dame are taken. Instead you point this out to your opponent and allow him to connect.

The connection is a dame. Western tournament rules which were devised to avoid ambiguity at the end of the game insist that the game ends after the dame are all

filled. On this technicality dame rip-offs are possible but are totally contrary to the basic nature of go. Such play undermines the spirit in which the game should be played and speaks poorly of players who perpetrate it.

Having filled the dame, each player then takes up their own captured stones which added to the prisoners in the lid they then place in their opponent’s area before counting territory. Each player arranges and counts his opponent’s territory announcing their score. Only then the stones are cleared away with each player putting away his own stones. This ensures there are no accidents as hands clash in mid-air en route to the same bowl. Of course you can help each other sort out the stones still on the board and push the opponent’s stones towards him. Afterwards it is right and proper that players thank each other for the game.

Apart from good manners, there is another way to show proper respect for the other player and that is by playing the best game possible. Playing rubbish is an insult to the

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At the beginning of a game certain conventions apply. For example, in an even game it is customary to play the first move in the upper right corner of the board.

Should, this be a komoku, then the right hand one is expected. In placing a handicap, which incidentally Black does for himself, the recommended order of moves is as shown in the diagram (upper right, bottom left, bottom right, top left, right center, left center, top center, bottom center, center). Note that in the only asymmetric position of three stones, Black leaves White’s lower right corner open for him to play in. With equally matched players, first move is chosen by nigiri. One player takes a handful of white stones from a bowl. The other will then guess odd or even and the stones are counted out in pairs. The player on the correct end of this little guessing game then automatically plays Black.

opponent. Every player has his limitations but there are ways to enhance your play without further study.

This takes us back to sitting quietly at the go board. Your mind performs well with the minimum of distraction and this includes the self-induced as well as any from your opponent or the surrounding area. It is best to promote a calm frame of mind, allowing the mind to think about the game with great clarity and in

Play the position not the opponent. a detached way. Remember that you play into an existing position on the board there for all to see. What you do is up to you and you alone. All that matters is the position at that point and how you intend to play. In this respect you opponent may as well not exist. What I mean is of course that you should try not to play the person sitting opposite. Play the position, not the opponent.

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The go board is large in comparison to other similar board games and an overall board vision is essential. You can’t get this by hunching over part of the board.

Sit up straight in a relaxed way. Your eyes should be about one yard from the tengen point in the middle of the board.

You need to be able to scan the entire board without effort. Poor pasture not only interferes with your view it also may constrict your bloodflow and have same

effect on your ability to think. Tension and stress in your body will have the same effect as discomfort in disturbing the smooth flow of ideas. It is similarly important to play your move after due consideration. Decide where you wish to play before picking up your stone. Then play it with confidence.

Don’t rattle stones in the bowl as that is annoying. Don’t play a move before you are certain where it should go. That way you aren’t tempted to take the move back - a cardinal sin. Don’t hover. By this I mean don’t hold a stone in your hand and hover it over the board while still making up your mind. Notice how much of the board surface is obscured by your own hand. You must have a clear view of the board at all times.

Get used to following these recommendations during play and improve both the quality of your game and the enjoyment and pleasure that go guarantees.

HOW TO START THE GAME: NIGIRI & FUSEKI NIGIRI Nigiri is a Japanese go term (from the Japanese, lit. "grab", "grasp", "squeeze") adopted into English, referring to the procedure common in Japan at the beginning of an even game to decide who will play the black stones; the equivalent of flipping a coin to determine who kicks off a game of football.

The steps are: 1. The first player grabs (hence the name) a handful of white stones without showing them to the other player 2. The second player states his guess as to whether the number of stones is "odd" or "even" by placing one or two black stones on the go board. (In Japanese, or kisuu-sen for odd, or, guusuu-sen for even).

3. The first player then places the white stones in his hand on the go board, arranging them in pairs to make it easy to see whether the number is odd or even.

At the beginning of a series of games, such as a seven-game championship series, or even just a series of games between friends in a club, nigiri will be used to determine who plays black in the first game; in succeeding games, the colors will alternate. After reaching a 3-3 tie in a championship series the players will re-nigiri to determine who takes what color in the last game.

Is there a similar procedure In Korea and Japan, for private games? According to John Fairbairn, in at least some pro tournaments in China, colors will likely be decided by a public drawing of lots, since professional go is more of a spectator sport there.

Note that in Ing rules, the player who won the nigiri doesn't take black but chooses his color; due to the 8-point komi, most players choose white.

Here's the relevant Ing rule: Choosing colors: In an even game, colors are chosen as follows. The older player takes a handful of white stones and his opponent guesses even or odd.

If he guesses correctly, he can choose black or white. Otherwise, the older player chooses black or white.

The senior player (a stronger or older one) is normally the one who performs the nigiri (takes the handful of stones); if neither player has obvious seniority, such as in a friendly club game, then the player sitting nearer the white stones does so.

VS

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4. If the second player has guessed correctly, he takes Black.

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GAME OPENINGS: FUSEKI

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BACKED UP WITH DEEP PHILOSOPHY AND MODERN RESEARCH

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Although the game is much older than Buddhism, it was quickly recognized by Buddhists as a useful tool for Buddhist practice. Until the end of the 19 th century, the strongest players in Japan were generally Buddhist monks. The game was popular as a means of instilling the virtues of overcoming fear, greed, and anger among the samurai whose instructors in GO were Buddhist monks. GO capacity for making its players better people is one of the reasons why GO is still widely popular in Japan, Korea, and China, where millions of people play it regularly. The increasing popularity of GO in Europe and America also reflects its tendency to foster humane attitudes.

PHILOSOPHICAL

A number of traditional practices in Japan have been used as aids in the search for enlightenment. In addition to serving as paths to enlightenment, they can illuminate the Buddhist perspective.

However, one major traditional practice in Japan associated with Buddhism for centuries and traditionally referred to as a “way” or do, (pronounced “dao” in Chinese), has been neglected by those seeking to explicate Buddhism. This is the game Westerners call “GO,” known in Japan as igo or kido, “the way of GO.” It provides a useful way of depicting and experiencing the fundamental aspects of life as Buddhists understand it.

STORY: Once upon a time, a great Zen Master was asked to share his experience on the path to enlightenment. He said: "When I was young and I didn't know what Zen was, the mountains were mountains, rivers were rivers and clouds were clouds. Then I started to practice Zen, and after some time of studying the mountains weren't mountains any more, rivers were not rivers, and the clouds were not clouds."

"Now that I am enlightened mountains are mountains, rivers are rivers and clouds—clouds."

So it goes with Joseki. When you start to play Go you have no idea of what a Joseki is. You play freely in the corners. Not knowing anything, you play moves that you like, relying on the little you know, on your still limited ability to read ahead, on what you want to do and how to reach your goal. Very often you get crushed.

Disappointed, you start studying, and discover that there are set corner sequences called Joseki which are said to give equal result. Set sequences? If they are set, they can be studied and memorized! Such an approach appeals very much to the rational western mind: categorize, memorize and fish the right one out when you need a specific solution.

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So you go and seek the ultimate Joseki repository, hoping to find a way to have a perfect Joseki for all seasons.

Pity that: • Joseki are not set. They are a living organism, they change, they adapt, they are improved, they become obsolete.

A pro finds a new move that gives an advantage: no Joseki anymore. Another pro finds a countermeasure: new Joseki!

• Very often a certain move is not considered Joseki just because it entails a loss of, say, two points. That's enormous for pro standards, but should we, weak amateurs, be bothered, when a few moves later we are likely to play a strategic mistake (for instance a wrong direction of play) that could costs us some thirty points?

• Your opponent won't play as you expect him. Amateurs more often than not deviate from the so-called set sequence. Pros do the same but for a very different reason, and with very different results. As we have read somewhere that a deviation from Joseki should be punished, we look for a way to kill our opponent's groups and then maybe we do not realize that the possible punishment is just the infliction of a two-point loss.

If you think that Go is about fighting power and tactical combat, think twice, or else move to chess (no offence intended, chess is a thoroughly enjoyable intellectual game). Of course fighting power is important, and what happens in internet Go and in the fashionable styles prevailing in the international pro arena stand there to demonstrate it, but I happen to believe that Go is more than mere tactics and more than an intellectual game.

In the end you may realize that we should play having a strategic goal in mind and that we should play freely in the corners to reach that goal, relying on our ability to read ahead. I believe that we should play moves that we like, a style we enjoy. I also believe that we shouldn't mind losing a lot, provided we learn something. The circle has been closed, but we are more aware.

• Study the strategic concepts, the Direction Of Play, Positional Judgment, how to use Thickness, How to Set the Pace in a Game? In this respect, I find that Fuseki and Side Patterns are more interesting.

Go is about strategy!

• Play along pro games.

• Study Tesuji and Life And Death to improve your reading ability.

• Deviate from Joseki as much as possible, but do that with awareness: try to reach your strategic goal regardless, or to stop your opponent from reaching his/her goal. Read ahead!

• Play simple Joseki with weaker players and difficult ones with stronger players. Enjoy the latter, such as the Nadare, Taisha, Muramasa's Magic Sword, but not for the sake of mastering variations: do that for the sake of entering deep, unknown and dark waters and learn to swim better and better.

• Meanwhile, study the Endgame: it is an invaluable source of Tesuji, and it teaches you the patience of counting...

PHILOSOPHICAL

So hopefully after some struggle you will understand that Joseki are not that important after all, at least until you reach, say, 3 dan amateur (see below).

IF YOU'D LIKE TO HEAR SOME ADVICE FROM A 50-YEAR OLD PLAYER, DO THE FOLLOWING:

If you do that proficiently, you may find yourself a 3 dan. Only then is it about time to start a serious study of Joseki: now you may have the needed tools to understand what it is that pros call Joseki.

Again, not to memorize a thousand variations, but to be able to adapt your corner play to your strategic plan!

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ZEN WAY TO JOSEKI

PLAY GO AND GROW INTRODUCTION Competitive games stimulate cognitive and social development in many ways.

Game-based teaching strategies can be an effective complement to traditional educational methods for several reasons: Intrinsic Motivation: Traditional methods rely on the student's wish to please teacher and parents, while game-based strategies add a new level of engagement.

Relevant Practice: Serious players study the game closely, knowing that their work will pay off when they play.

Timely Feedback: The less time passes between stimulus and response, the stronger the reinforcement. In game play, feedback on the benefits or deficits of each move is immediate.

Timely Recall: The ability to recall relevant knowledge and experience at the proper time is an important function that is strengthened during game play.

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Interpersonal Context: Introducing games and puzzles to the school environment engages students and teachers in a "logic-based social environment�, which inspires and models rational thinking and problem solving.

COMPETITIVE PLAY As children learn to cooperate with one another in social groups, it becomes possible to play out aggressive themes and drives in a socially acceptable way, and the ability to engage in competitive play emerges. Most parents support and encourage their children's interest in sports such as soccer, even if they are not sports fans.

Mind sports also offer many opportunities for growth and development. A different skill set from physical sports is required; children who may not be athletically gifted can discover a realm where they excel. Skills that mind sport players need, and develop, include: Attention-concentration: Players must maintain focus throughout the game to succeed.

Locus of control/agency: Players control what happens, rather than simply count on luck or fate to decide the outcome.

Sportsmanship: As in physical sports, players learn to play by the rules, and to be be modest in victory, gracious in defeat and honest in dealing with opponents.

Sequential thinking: Players must anticipate future developments, and use methods such as heuristics, formulas,

WHY EVERY SCHOOL SHOULD TEACH GO

by Roy Laird, Ph.D.

decision trees, and intuition to look ahead, understand the opponent's plan and respond effectively.

Strategic and tactical thinking: Players must manage immediate concerns while bearing long-term goals in mind.

Memory: Players apply their knowledge and experience to the move selection process.

Skill development: When the master player's opponent moves, several possible responses immediately come to the master's mind, just like any “wood pusher."

The master player's brain intuitively delivers better moves and is more skilled at selecting the best of the options that spring to mind, based on pattern recognition.

Motivation: Players are motivated learners; they receive immediate real-world feedback on their efforts, and they see improved results as a natural consequence of sustained effort. For some students who struggle with physical

Thalamic engagement: In contrast to free forms of play such as fantasy or imaginative play, a game provides a highly structured, goal-directed format.

Each act by one player calls for a specific response from the other player. Both forms are important. Free play emphasizes right-brain thinking, where as most game call for more left-brain activity. Go seems to uniquely activate both hemispheres.

Educators and parents are becoming more and more aware of the value of games as a learning tool.

PHILOSOPHICAL

Planning: Players must develop a victory plan and coordinate their actions to fulfill that plan.

sports, classroom skills, or social interaction, mental competition can become an area to excel.

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Flexibility: Players must remain alert to the possibility that a better plan is possible, or a different plan is necessary.

GO: THE PERFECT TOOL Let's look at the unique cognitive, social and developmental benefits of Go in more detail: Simplicity: Go is supremely simple, uncluttered by artificial or arbitrary rules.

Everything evolves naturally and elegantly from the central principle of surround and capture, even special cases like ko and seki.

Noted go historian William Pinckard called it "a nearly ideal mirror for reflecting the basic processes of mentation."

Complexity: The full size board is more than five times as large as a chessboard, (361 intersections vs. 64 squares). leading to an exponential explosion of possibilities. The number of possible games of Go has been estimated at 10 followed by >170 zeroes. By comparison, the number of subatomic particles in the known universe contains fewer than 30 zeroes.

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Progressive Complexity: Most strategy games begin by setting up the board.

Pieces are then captured and removed from the board as the game progresses.

Each such capture simplifies the game to some degree. Go games, on the other hand, become increasingly complex, as stones continue to appear all over the board. German-style board games such as Carcassone also start from scratch and build as the game progresses, but few other board games share this characteristic.

Scalable: Educators who have discovered how games can aid the learning process speak of "short form" games—those fit within a classroom period—and longer forms that are actually more "sticky" and "gobble up time," leading players to immerse themselves in a world that

stimulates learning. Go is unique in that it is "scalable" and fits comfortably in both categories. While games on the full size board can take an hour or more, smaller boards are widely available in standard sizes, especially 9x9 and 13x13. A 9x9 game can take as little as ten minutes, so in-class exposure can attract students to clubs and special program where they can delve into the full depths of the game.

Wider Scope of Play: Go players may place a stone anywhere at any time (except for suicide in some rule sets). At the start of a chess game, only 20 moves are possible. Most chess games last 50 or 60 moves.

By contrast, nearly all Go games last for at least 100 moves—and at that point, each players still has more than 200 possible next moves to consider at each turn.

A Level Playing Field: The natural handicapping system makes it possible to compensate for the difference in strength between nearly any two players. The weaker player simply begins by placing on a board a number of stones equal to the difference in rank.

Historical and Cultural Aspects: A student's interest in Go can inspire a wider interest in Asian culture and history. Longestablished customs of respect, discipline and sportsmanship, similar to those found in Asian martial arts, bring a certain decorum to the Go community.

Seeking Balance, Not Triumph: Chess is a game of all or nothing: Go is a game of balance, embodying the Asian concept of yin/yang. For instance, consider a row of stones. The closer together, the more solid and immune to attack; the farther apart, the more area they can capture

While Go remains largely unknown in the West, chess, with its obvious basis in Western history, is deeply woven into Western culture. Although several chess variants are widely popular in Asia (shogi, xiangqi, janggi) no Go-like game has ever appeared in the West. In some ineffable way, it seems the Asian mindset was needed to in a sense "discover" Go, which arises naturally from the central premise of "surrounding" like corollaries from an axiom. Why does Go remain so little known in the West, and how can understanding this help us to move toward a sustainable Western Go culture?

Cultural Compatibility: With its all-out struggle for the heart of the opponent, chess seems to echo the categorical, "allor-nothing" nature of Western thought.

Asian thought, in contrast, seems more concerned with the balance of opposing forces (yin and yang). In addition, individual pieces in Go have no meaning, only as part of a group, while chess pieces have arbitrarily assigned powers.

History: Chess-like game are more popular today than Go throughout Asia, and always have been. Throughout most of its history, Go was played mainly by the upper classes.

So it seems that chess-like games may have spread because they express a universal

Flexibility: Ulrich Schadler, in his essay " Some Games Travel Some Don't" for the 2003 International Conference On Baduk, notes that "Games resemble parasites—they need human beings to survive and spread."

(Perhaps the relationship is more symbiotic than parasitic.) He suggests that “chess has changed and been adopted to different cultural traditions. . .once the idea of naming the pieces differently was established, local variations appeared; the game was transformed according to the regional situation: the Indian minister became a vizier in certain Indian regions and finally a queen in Europe; the chariot was replaced by a boat in certain Indian regions and finally became a fortification tower in Europe; the English thought that a king and queen might need a bishop more than an elephant, while the Germans preferred a herald." So perhaps the anonymous nature of the stones in Go is a problem.

Are we there yet?: Chess (usually) has a climactic, clear-cut ending—checkmate.

When the last move of a close Go game is played, in contrast. the winner may not be evident; in fact it may not even be clear that the game is over. Go is ephemeral, actually known throughout the world by several different names. The world community of players is unable to agree on the basic rules—there are at least six separate rule sets—and yet everyone knows to how to play. Perhaps that is the beauty of Go—it only reveals its wonders to the persistent student.

PHILOSOPHICAL

WHY ISN'T GO MORE POPULAR IN THE WEST? AND WHAT CAN BE DONE?

theme—"to-the-death" clash between forces where some are kings and some are pawns. The subtle, abstract essence of Go is harder to grasp.

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or influence. The wise player always seeks balance between aggression and defense, territory and influence. a famous Go proverb says, "Rich men shouldn't fight."

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PLAY GO AND GROW...

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IN ALL AND EVERY ASPECT!

REFERENCES & IMAGE CREDITS 1. Sensei Library http://senseis.xmp.net Largest collaborative web site about and around the game of Go. 2. Games of Go on Disk (GoGoD)

by T Mark Hall and John Fairbairn Both a database and an encyclopedia of general Go related knowledge— historical information in particular, with the encyclopedia part increasingly emphasized.

3. The Way to GO

by Karl Baker 4. GO syllabus & study pack

by Malaysia Weiqi Association 5. Fall in love with GO http://go-game.ru/start-go-rf Online video lectures by Alexey Kozhunkov Most of the pictures featured in the book were shoot, processed and manipulated by the editor, with an exception of:

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02:36-02:37 Universe illustration

by Hakki Arslan Used under the existing license.

04:83 Little girl playing GO

by Alexey Kozhunkov.

Used by permission of the author.

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GO: INTUITIVELY SIMPLE, YET STRATEGICALLY COMPLEX Typefaces: Body: Rotis Semi Serif Headings: Rotis Semi Sans Printer: Eugene Publishing&Co. © 2015 Eugene Publishing&Co. 901 Jefferson st, Oakland, CA Paper: Inside: 32lb RedRiver Matte Cover: 235 gsm Moab Lasal Printed on 4th May 2015

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Designed, Illustrated and edited by Eugene Gushchin, student at Academy of Art University, San Francisco.

Guided by Zack Shubkagel, Type systems class, Spring 2015

“THE LAST HUMANE GAME ON EARTH”—A GO ENTHUSIAST For some players GO is a model for living.

Its strategic concepts serve them as models for decision making in their everyday lives.

Some of the more familiar maxims that are played out and illustrated in nearly every game are: “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” “Don’t burn your bridges behind you,” “Look before you leap,” “Don’t bang your head against a stone wall,” and “Don’t throw good money after bad.”

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However you choose the way to see GO —as a model for living, as an alternative to chess and other board games you enjoy, or as that elusive bit of variety that has been missing from the spice in your life—it is bound to be a welcome addition to your social and intellectual repertoire.