Transcript The Game of Go - American Go Association
The Game of Go
“Gentlemen should not waste their time on trivial games -- they should play go.”
-- Confucius, The Analects ca. 500 B. C. E.
Anton Ninno Roy Laird, Ph.D.
special thanks to Kiseido Publications
JAPAN CHINA KOREA
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.
THE MOST POPULAR GAME IN THE WORLD TODAY
Millions of fans in Japan, China, Korea Top players earn millions International tournaments pay up to $400K
THREE CLASSIC GAMES BACKGAMMON: Man vs. fate
Element of chance Risk/gambling (doubling cube)
CHESS: Man vs. man
War paradigm “Perfect information” Attack -- Total victory
GO: Man vs. self
Open paradigm Share -- 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. Good stones are usually kept in wooden bowls. The lids are used to hold any 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. tactical Simpler rules; all pieces are equal Becomes more complex as pieces fill the board Blends competition with other elements Win by one point, not total destruction Universal ranks -- any two can play No stalemates or draws -- a winner every time
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
Opening (Fuseki) Control the center Middle (Chuban) CHESS Gain tactical, material advantage Endgame (Yose) Close in for the kill GO Stake your claim Defend, dispute claims Finish the details
DEPTH OF COMPLEXITY Árpád Élo 43 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.”
HANDICAP: THE GREAT EQUALIZER
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..
COMMERCIAL PROGRAMS
Strongest ones are 6-8
kyu
Best ones make studying fun -- problems, games Record and study your own games
UNIVERSAL RANKING SYSTEM
Similar to martial arts, golf Rank yourself by playing ranked opponents All serious players know their rank Honest players will lose half of their games Ultimately players compete with themselves
GO ETIQUETTE
Play to the opponent’s right hand “Thank you for teaching me” Prisoners in the lid Count the opponent's territory Return your stones to the bowl
GO ON THE INTERNET
FREE!
At least 1000 online any time of day or night Anonymous play Ratings are 3-5 stones lower
FREE SOFTWARE
Igowin - http://www.smart-games.com/igowin.html
Handtalk - http://www.yutopian.com/go/ GnuGo (open source) - http://www.gnu.org/software/gnugo/gnugo.html
Game collections - www.usgo.org/resources/internet.asp
TIME CONTROL
Regular time plus overtime
(byo yomi)
Asian style:
x
each periods of
y
seconds Canadian style:
x
minutes stones in
y
INTERNET GO SERVER
The original -- since 1991 500+ participants online at all times Many strong players Simulcast important tournaments Everyone sees everyone
KISEIDO GO SERVER
400-1000 players of all levels at any time Room-based environment Java-based -- runs on everything
OTHER SERVERS
YAHOO! 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 opponents Ask for comments Avoid repetitive thinking -- just try something Keep your stones connected -- separate White Think 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 board ca. 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.
attributed to Kano Shoei (1519 - 1592)
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.
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 FRIENDS
This 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
CITICORP CEO JOHN REED ON GO “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, Citicorp Harvard Business Review December 1990
THE WAY OF GO
Troy 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 GAME Russell 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 GO
In 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 AMERICA
Chinese 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 CHALLENGE
The number of possible go games has been estimated at 10 761 (
OMNI
,
June 1991
), far more than the number of subatomic particles in the known universe.
RATINGS
Estimate based on current performance To get a rating? Play in a rated tournament Online ratings -- 3-5 ranks lower
HOW DO YOU KNOW YOUR RANK?
Beginners start at +/- 30-35
kyu
Kadoban
-- 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 others Pro 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 Black Black 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