What's All This Fuss About
The Surrounding Game? The Game of Go (Igo/Baduk/Weiqi)?
What is This Game?
It is an ancient abstract-strategy board game for two players.
The game from its forgotten origins in China, spread first to the rest of East Asia, and then to the entire world.
It’s the most infinite board game we know of, which has made conquering it the holy grail of AI research. In fact, human professional players used to be considered unbeatable by computers because they played on intuition, which computers just couldn’t do until in 2016, when Google’s DeepMind created AlphaGo.
How ancient? Historians aren’t sure; it has a definite history of over 3000 years, but according to tradition Go was invented more than 4000 years ago and is believed to be the oldest board game continuously played to the present day without fundamental changes to the main rules/concepts.
Also check this short history video by GoMagic.
- Here’s their article on the same topic.
Many Names for the Game:
The English name comes from the Japanese name Igo, which means “Surrounding Board Game”. Baduk in Korean and Weiqi (pronounced: Wei-Chi) in Chinese.
In this game, each player tries to use threats of death, capture, or isolation to assert control over more of the board than their opponent - an abstract strategy game at heart.
Go has nonetheless been interpreted as a stylized representation of fighting a war, settling a frontier, cornering a market, thrashing out an argument, or even of fortune-telling and prophecy.
The number of legal board positions in Go has been calculated to be approximately 2.1×10^170, which is far greater than the number of atoms in the observable universe.
Benefits of Playing?
How the ancient game of Go is a guide to modern life Ted Talk by Silvia Lozeva
Playing Go boosts your memory and helps you focus better, and it also makes you a great problem solver.
Plus, it’s great for keeping your emotions in check and keeping your mind sharp and flexible.
Here’s some great related articles/videos from the internet:
- GoMagic.org - Articles Related to Self Developement & Psychology
- Check the “Proof” in their Left And Right Brain Unite to Play Go Section
- GoPsychology
- Coming from Chess? Check this article on Go Magic: Chess vs GO
- Weiqi-to-Go.net
- GameOfGo.app
- Here We GO
Also check out this Awesome Post on Why We Play Go by Devin Fraze, the creator of Baduk.Club
Go in Popular Media
The manga (Japanese comic book) and anime series Hikaru no Go, released in Japan in 1998(Manga) / 2001(Anime), had a large contribution in popularizing Go among young players, both in Japan and internationally as translations were published abroad.
Synopsys: One day a Japanese sixth grader named Shindo Hikaru discovers an old Go board in his grandfather’s attic. Inside that old board there lives a ghost that only he can see.
Honestly I think most of us amateur players got interested in the game because of this series.
- The final hurdle for Artificial Intelligence to becoming an integral part of our lives today.
The following documentary is about AlphaGo, developed by Google’s DeepMind, the first AI that won 4 out of 5 games in an official match back in 2016 against the 18 times World Champion Lee Sedol , who was the #1 Player back then.
The Wiki Article Related to AlphaGo vs Lee Sedol Event.
- Similarly, Go has been used as an element or plot device in film/series, such as:
- A Beautiful Mind,
- Tron: Legacy,
- The Glory (TV Series),
- Knives Out,
- Go Into Your Heart, a romance Chinese Drama where the main male lead is a Go Genius.
- The Divine Move 1 & 2,
- The Go Master, a biopic of Go professional Go Seigen.
- The Surrounding Game Documentary,
- In King Hu’s wuxia film The Valiant Ones, the characters are color-coded as Go stones (black or other dark shades for the Chinese, white for the Japanese invaders), Go boards and stones are used by the characters to keep track of soldiers prior to battle, and the battles themselves are structured like a game of Go.
- I’ve also seen Weiqi/Baduk References in a lot of Manhuas/Manhwas I’ve read.
- Here’s some complete lists:
- On Senseis site: Movies, TV Shows, Animation & Comics
- On BritGo’s Site: Filmography, Manga/Anime, Novels
- List of Movies on Go Magic.
You might know a bunch amongst these Celebrity Players!!!
Wiki?
- Special Wiki for the Game : Sensei’s Library
- Weirdly Wikipedia has 2 pages:
- Page 1
- Page 2
Excited to Learn?
Teach The Go Game To Your Kids
- Check My First Book of Go Exercises by Leandro Soriano Marcolino