Chinese game of go game rules. Game of Go from scratch (rules of the game for first-time visitors). What is important to know
Go game - an intellectual board strategy game, an official sport in Russia since 1984, with exciting gameplay and a powerful educational effect.
Similar to chess and checkers, the game of Go is included in the program of the Olympics in Intellectual Sports (Intelliad). Practicing the game of Go is useful for people with both technical specialties and those with a creative orientation, as it enhances innate talents and abilities in almost any field. For people working in the management field, the game of Go can be considered a must-learn art.
Go is a game for development and for fun! When mastering the game from any age, a sports career path up to the grandmaster of Russia is possible.
At the same time, for many Go is an exciting general developmental hobby, an opportunity to spend interesting and useful evenings with family or just for fun to play with other players on online servers.
This game is a refined spiritual and intellectual struggle with a friendly opponent; it is a dialogue that is conducted not with words, but with stones on the board. Game process eliminates the possibility of dishonest play, prescribes adherence to etiquette and highly cultured polite behavior - all this is the heritage of Go, as the most ancient eastern imperial art.
Go online with real people via the Internet
Our system provides online game Go with classic rules. You can play it absolutely free over the Internet with live players - the real ones, real people from all over the world or with a computer. You will have the opportunity to play without registration; to do this, you need to click the “log in as a guest” button in the game interface, or you can log in to our service through one of the popular social networks. networks: VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, facebook, google+ or twitter, then all the capabilities of the system will become available. There is also a great way to play with your friend, relative or just a loved one; to do this, you need to create a private table in the game and invite your friend, telling him the password.
What is important to know
- to start the game, you need to go to the game interface and wait for the loading for a few seconds and select the game from the list
- in our system you can play Go without registration, to do this you need to click the “log in as a guest” button
- you will have the opportunity to play with real people - real opponents or with a computer
- to play with a friend, relative or acquaintance - create a private table and tell your opponent a special password
Play Go with a computer
Play Go against the computer directly in your browser online, no need to download anything!
Rules of the game Go
The game takes place on boards of several scales: 9x9, 13x13 and 19x19. The first two sizes are training boards.
Two opponents take turns placing stones of their own color at the intersections of the board grid. Stones that are installed do not move, and they can be removed from the board. The player who has the black stones goes first.
Each installed stone must be installed so that there is at least one point of freedom vertically or horizontally that has an unoccupied intersection. Connected by a joint chain of neighboring stones, they create a group and unite the freedoms between them.
Then, when a stone or stones are surrounded by another player's stones and they do not have freedom points, they are determined to be captured and removed.
It is forbidden to make a move in which your group of stones loses the last point of freedom, except in the case in which the opponent’s stones are captured.
The “ko” rule: does not allow moves to be made; as a result, they may repeat positions that were previously encountered in the game.
A player may not make a move by saying the word “pass”. If both players pass in a row, the game is over. Many novice players forget about this rule.
The combination of stones that were not removed from the board at the end of the game and were doomed to death when the game was completed are defined as “captives.” This group of stones is added to the captured stones. It is important that “frozen” groups of stones must be eaten, otherwise when calculating game points, “frozen” stones count towards the opponent’s score, and the area with these stones and yours will be determined as neutral.
Each player receives points, they are equal to the number of empty intersections united by stones of the corresponding color, plus the number of stones that survived at the end of the game (that is, they are not captured). The player with the most points wins. Eaten stones are not counted when calculating the score. Here you will see that eating “frozen” groups of stones does not reduce the amount of points, since the area captured by your stones and which is occupied by your stones is equal.
The player who plays with white stones is given compensation, which is called "komi". Its meaning is that when the game is completed, a certain number of points is added to it. The number of Komi is equal to one area point. Non-integer Komi numbers are used (5.5; 6.5; 7.5 points) so that the result cannot be a draw. The size of the Komi points is set by the players before the game.
Developmental properties of the game
Regular practice of playing Go develops the following skills:
- The ability to make the right decisions in conditions of lack of information and time develops the speed of thinking and intuition.
- Managing your psychological state, resistance to stress, pressure, destructive manipulations.
- The ability to see the whole situation, attention to detail, quick switching from small to large scales and back.
- Harmonious thinking, the desire for productive interaction with others, honest relationships and increasing the effectiveness of one’s actions.
- Systematic planning of activities, increasing forecasting abilities, multivariate analysis of the development of events.
- Ability to handle images and complex concepts and apply them to solve work problems.
- The ability to look at the situation from the outside, take into account the opponent’s position, read his plan, and act in a rapidly changing environment.
If you have friends and acquaintances who play Go, invite them to the game! For this purpose on our website there is special function"to invite a friend". To play Go with friends, you need to create a password-protected Go game table and share this password with your friend. By inviting friends, you expand the Go community, and the games become more interesting and varied.
Game history
The game has been played in China for many centuries. The Chinese game has a rich history.
Old Chinese stories say that it was invented by Yao and Shunyu, in the 26th-23rd centuries. BC e. The letters say that Wei invented it. There are versions that claim that the game is connected with various fortune telling of the ancient Chinese. There are historians who suggest that the game was invented by mathematicians from Central Asia in the 3rd millennium BC, and from there it came to China. Poets call this game the game of intellectuals.
In the middle of the 1st millennium AD, the game came from Korea to Japan. In Japan in the 8th century, the game was equated with activities on musical instruments. Later, restrictions were established on its attributes: ordinary people were allowed to play with pebbles and on primitive boards. Then the game was the privilege of the royal court for three centuries. In the Treasure Museum in Nara there is a set made for the sovereign. A magnificent board made of valuable wood, with images of various birds and animals, and stones made of expensive stones.
Since the 12th century, the game has gained popularity, it is played by feudal lords and warriors, workers and church officials, good game then they received a reward or even a title. At the end of the sixteenth century, the master of the game from Japan was Honinbo Sansha. In 1603, the State Game Academy was created and headed by Honinbo. Four schools were created, teachers who improved the game and taught its rules, participated in organizing matches and tournaments, participated in them and taught the game to ordinary fans of the game. The master, the director of the school, made the best student his successor, and the successor received the master's surname.
At the end of that century, Europeans who visited Japan spoke of the game as a curiosity. They called it “raid checkers”, this absolutely does not express the essence of the game. In 1908, a textbook on the game was published in Europe; it was written by the German Korschelt, who previously lived in Japan and studied the game with a Japanese master. IN European history The games are founded by Emmanuel Lasker and Edward Lasker, they created a gaming club in Europe. Later, the Laskers left Germany, but they did not forget their passion. Edward Lasker, who published the book Go and Go-Moku, is considered the father of the American game.
At the end of the Second World War, the game quickly gained popularity in Europe, began to develop rapidly, the number of clubs for the game quickly increased, competitions began to be held, and national associations were created in countries; England, Germany, Austria and Holland. In nineteen fifty-six, the European Federation of the Game was founded, which now unites federations of twenty-two countries; since 1957, the European Championship in this sport has been held annually. exciting game. World championships have been held since 1979, and in 1982 the International Game Federation was created.
Video
Other free games
The game of Go originated more than 3,000 years ago in China. This indicates that it is one of the oldest strategy games which continues to be played in our time. Can such ancient game attract people living in our time, characterized by a fast pace of life? The answer to this question is yes. In fact, the game is becoming more popular thanks to the recent boom in interest in Go among young people in South Korea and China.
They say that Go requires more effort than chess, but the rules of this game are much simpler and can be mastered in half an hour. The complexity of the game arises from the huge number of possible moves at any given moment. Fortunately, we cannot consider all options when choosing our next move. Remember, the more you practice, the better you will become.
Due to the fact that we are starting new series articles, let me take this opportunity to start learning the rules of Go from their Chinese version.
Board and stones for playing Go
Go is usually played on a board measuring 19x19 points of intersection of lines.
On D.1 an empty board is shown. The nine marked points are called hoshi (star), and are used for convenience, as well as the points at which handicap stones are placed when playing a handicap. Unlike most others board games, the game starts with an empty board. To play Go, stones of white and black colors are used, made in the shape of a biconvex lens. Most often they are made of plastic or glass, but in the most expensive sets, the black stones are made from slate, and the white ones from mollusk shells. The complete set consists of 181 black and 180 white stones, a total of 361 stones equal to the number of intersections on a 19x19 board. The stones are stored in bowls, usually made of wood that matches the color of the board they are playing on. Two players take turns, one with black stones and the other with white. The player playing black always goes first. Stones are placed on the board at the intersection of lines and are not moved or removed from the board during the game, except in cases of capture.
Basic rules of Go:
Purpose of the game
In the Chinese rules of Go, the goal of the game is to place more “live” stones on the field than the opponent did. Japanese and Korean rules of Go proclaim the goal of the game to occupy more territory than the opponent. No matter what rules we apply, the result will almost always be the same. Both sets of rules encourage coexistence with your opponent rather than destruction of them. Most textbooks provide Japanese rules Go, and we will start with Chinese, because they are easier to understand the essence of the game. We will demonstrate the rules on a 9x9 board; the game on it is not complicated by strategy, as on a 19x19 board, but the rules and tactics remain the same. I recommend that beginners master the rules on a 9x9 board before playing on a full board.
Typically, at the beginning of the game, players try to establish control over the corners, as shown in D 2. Then they mark their intended territory.
On D.3 it is shown how first black and then white use basic strategies to expand their territory while simultaneously reducing the territory of the enemy.
On D.4 both players strengthen their territories. Move b.28 is the last move in the game. Both players have completed the construction of the boundaries of their territories. Until this point, Japanese and Chinese rules they do not differ. Now, according to Chinese rules, both players must fill their territories with stones of their own color.
On D.5 the board is shown after both players have filled their territories. Black has 41 stones on the board, and White has 40. Black wins one point.
Problem 1. Look at D.4 again. Count the territory of whites and blacks by Japanese rules and calculate the difference. If you count correctly, you will get the same point difference as when counting according to Chinese rules. Next week we will learn how to grab rocks.
The rules of the game Go are very simple. It will take you a few minutes to master them.
Go is played by two partners, one with black stones, the other with white stones. The moves are made alternately, that is, the partners place one stone on any free point. Black makes the first move.
To play Go, white and black stones and a board of 19x19 lines (361 playing points) are used.
The game starts on an empty board, black goes first. A move is considered to be placing a stone at the point where the lines intersect. You can place the stone at any point, without restrictions, including on side and corner points. Placed stones do not move and remain in their place until the end of the game unless eaten. The main task is to surround the territory (empty dots) or stones of a different color.
The main rule of Go
A separate stone or group of stones is considered captured if the partner’s stones occupy all free points vertically and horizontally adjacent to the stone - or group of stones. Captured stones (see diagram below) are immediately removed from the board, after which the partner can make his move. Captured stones are placed in the lid of the bowl and then they do not take part in the game. One point is counted for each captive.
(;ABMAC[A stone that is not on the side or in the corner has 4 points of freedom, which are called "degree" or "dame". As long as the stone has at least one dame, it remains standing on the board, regardless of position.]SZ;AWMAC[In this position, the black stone has 1 dame left. This means that the stone is in atari, i.e. There is 1 move left until he is completely surrounded - to the point X.] ;WC[White places the stone in the place of the last queen of the black stone and removes it from the board.])
The following example shows different situations for removing a stone or group of stones, study them carefully.
(;ABAWCRTRMAC[ X points are marked, making a move at which Black can surround a stone or a group of stones. ABOUT marked points, making a move in which White can surround a stone or group of stones. A triangle marks stones that have one dame, i.e. they can be captured on the next move. ] SZMULTIGOGM ;BCRC[Black 1 - this move of Black completely deprives the white stone of the queen. A stone that does not have a dame is removed from the board.];WCRC[White 2 - a similar situation, two black stones have no dame left, so they are removed from the board.];BCRC[Black 3 - eats one white stone standing on the side. To surround a single stone on the side, three stones of the opposite color are enough.];WCRC[White 4 - completely deprives the lady of two black stones standing on the side.];BCRC[Black 5 - takes away one stone standing in the corner. To surround a single corner stone, two stones are enough.] ;WCR;BCRC[Black 7 - takes away three stones.];WCRC[White 8 - deprives the lady of two stones that stood separately from each other, i.e. who did not form a single group.];BCRC[Black 9 - takes two groups of White, consisting of two and one stone, in one move.];WCRTRC[White 10 - takes a black stone, with the help of which Black could eat one of three white stones marked with triangles. White removes the surrounded stone and provides himself with temporary safety.];BCRC[Black 11 - takes 4 white stones at once in one move.]];WMAC[ X- eaten stones are marked.])
Rules for completing a game of Go
The game of Go is considered over when there are no moves left that would bring one of the players a point or take away a point from a partner. In this case, the player whose move is this moment, says "pass". If his opponent does not see an opportunity to gain or take away a point, then he also passes. If such an opportunity still exists, he has the right to make a move after his partner has passed.
A move inside your territory is minus one point (i.e., you don’t need to make defensive moves inside your territory, unless you are afraid, of course, that your partner might carry out a combination as a result of which he will capture several of your stones). A move in your partner's territory is plus one point for him (i.e. you should not make obviously suicidal, hopeless moves, unless, of course, you see winning combination).
After both players have passed, “dead” stones are removed from the board (i.e., partner’s stones that are on your territory and could not survive the game).
Rules for counting territory
Territory is an area surrounded on all sides that cannot be contested.
Each intersection (point) brings one point, each stone eaten is also one point.
(;ABAWCRMASZMULTIGOGM)
The diagram shows the completed batch.
ABOUT- White territory is marked. X- Black territory is marked.
Please note: there are 3 black stones in white territory. These are captive stones; in this case, there is no need to spend a turn completely encircling them. But there are situations when playing out is necessary. Over time, you will learn to distinguish between these situations. Three black stones in this case are considered prisoners. When scoring points, they are simply removed from the board. Also, in order to avoid stalemate situations, White receives compensation for the fact that Black makes the first move. This compensation is called " Komi" and is 6.5 points if players are equal in strength. Komi can be more or less, depending on the difference in the strength of the players, but 0.5 points are always added or subtracted so that there is no tie (more details in the section "How build territory").
White points:
Territory = 22 points
Prisoners = 3 points
Komi = 0.5 points
Eaten = 0 points
2+3+0.5+0=25.5 points
Black points:
Territory = 24 points
Prisoners = 0 points
Removed = 1 point (black captured 1 white stone during the game, it was removed from the board)
Komi = no
24+0+1=25 points
Game result: White won 0.5 points (half a point)
The player with the most points wins
For the right to make the first move, the player gives 0.5 points to his partner. The fractional part results in no draw.
Prohibited
Intentionally place stones in complete surroundings.
Repeat the position.
General tips for mastering the rules
When learning the rules, pay attention to the environment rule (atari). It is very important to learn to see which of your stones can get surrounded and which enemy stones you can attack.
Getting the rules right is very important. The school recommends visiting one of the Go clubs where you can learn the rules for free with a Go teacher. Proper training will save time and effort in the future, and most importantly, it will allow you to start enjoying Go from the very first minute.
- goban, stones, bowls.Go is played on a rectangular field called a board or goban, lined with vertical and horizontal lines. The Go board is not square; The sides are in a ratio of 15:14, since in this proportion, from the player’s point of view, the board is in ideal perspective. The elongated side compensates for the inevitable distortion of perspective that prevents players from seeing the position clearly. The standard board has a layout of 19x19 lines; for training and short informal games, boards of smaller sizes can be used: usually 13x13 or 9x9 lines, much less often - 11x11, 15x15, 17x17 lines, but, theoretically, nothing prevents the use of an arbitrary rectangular board. Usually the board is made of wood.
Also, to play Go you need stones - special chips of two contrasting colors, most often black and white. In the Japanese tradition, stones have a lens-shaped (biconvex, lentil) shape (the most common option), in the Chinese - flat-convex. A complete set for the game should contain 361 stones - 180 white and 181 black (real sets often contain 180 stones of each color, there are also sets of 160 stones on sale - this is enough for most games). Stones can be made from plastic, glass, ceramic, shell, regular, semi-precious or precious stones.
Traditionally, the set for the game includes bowls - vessels with lids, most often made of wood. They serve to store stones, and during the game, players put the captured stones of the enemy into the lids removed from the bowls.
Basic Rules
Two players play, one of whom receives black stones, the other - white.
Before the game starts, the board is empty. Blacks go first. Then the moves are made one by one.
When playing with a handicap, the weakest player always plays black, and several black stones are placed on the board before the game begins. In this case, placing handicap stones on the board is formally considered the first move of black, after which white comes into play.
Order of the game.
When making a move, a player places one of his stones on the board at any unoccupied point of intersection of lines (intersections are called points). Stones, once placed on the board, do not move, but can be captured by the enemy and removed from it. A move is considered made if the player places the stone on the board and releases the hand holding it. It is impossible to move a stone that has already been placed, from which the hand has been taken away; the player who does this is automatically given a loss.
Each stone must have at least one dame (freedom point, breathing point) - an unoccupied point adjacent vertically or horizontally (but not diagonally!). Neighboring stones or connected by a continuous chain of neighbors form a group and divide the damage among themselves (that is, any damage of any stone in the group applies simultaneously to all the stones of this group). When a stone or group of stones is surrounded by the opponent's stones so that it has no freedom points left, it is considered captured and is removed from the board.
In most variants of the rules, it is forbidden to make a move as a result of which one’s own group loses the last point of freedom (suicide move). The exception is the case when, as a result of this move, the enemy group is deprived of all dame; in this case, the player captures the enemy's group, and his own remains on the board (it is easy to see that after removing the enemy's group, the player's group will already have at least one lady).
Rule ko: it is prohibited to make a move that leads to a repetition of a position previously encountered in the game. The exact interpretation of this prohibition in different Go rule systems may vary somewhat.
The player can refuse the next move by saying “pass”.
Completion of the game
When both players pass in a row, the game ends. This is usually done when there are no points left on the board whose moves can bring players points. A group of enemy stones that is not removed from the board by the end of the game, but is obviously doomed to death if the game is completed correctly, is considered “captive” (option: “dead”). It is removed from the board at the end of the game and joins the stones captured by the player.
Scoring in Go
At the end of the game, the points scored by the players are calculated. The player receives one point for each of the board points surrounded by stones of only his color, and one point for each captured opponent's stone, or for each of his own stones that remained on the board at the end of the game. In addition, the player playing white can receive several points as compensation for the right of black (komi) to make the first move.
The player with the most points wins. If the players have the same number of points, a draw may be awarded. In modern tournaments, the komi value is usually chosen as a non-integer, as a result of which white and black cannot have an equal number of points (white is added a non-integer number of komi points, for black the number of points is always an integer, so white and black cannot have an equal number of points in principle), accordingly, there are no draws.
Additional rules for playing Go
There are a number of optional rules that may vary from game to game and are established by agreement between the players or in accordance with the rules of a particular competition.
Komi
The compensation to the white player for going second is “komi”. The right to move first gives black an advantage, to compensate for which at the end of the game white is added a certain number of points. Currently, as a rule, a non-integer Komi value is used (5.5; 6.5; 7.5 points) to exclude the possibility of a draw in the game. Currently, in official tournaments, games (with the exception of handicap games) are not practiced without komi.
Handicap
If there is a significant difference in the strengths of the players, it is possible to play with a handicap. In this case, the weakest player plays with black without komi or with “reverse komi” (a few extra points are given not to white, but to black). If the difference is great strength, a handicap is given in the form of handicap stones - several black stones are placed on the board before White's first move. Handicap stones give black a serious advantage: one handicap stone is equivalent to approximately 10-15 additional points.
In series of several games, the so-called “tournament handicap” can be used: they play without komi and the weaker player plays more games with black than with white. With a “black-white-black” handicap, the weakest player plays black in two out of every three games; with a “black-black-black” handicap, he plays only with black.
Notation
A traditional Go board does not have rank and rank markings like those used on chess boards. If you need to verbally indicate a specific point on the board, its coordinates can be indicated as a pair of numbers from 1 to 19. For example, point 2-4 is located at the intersection of the second vertical and the fourth horizontal, counting from the upper left corner. Since Go stones do not move around the board, the most convenient and most visual way to record the progress of the game is graphically - a game board is drawn on a sheet of paper, and move numbers are placed at the points where moves were made. Separately, moves to points where a move has already been made are recorded (moves to the territory from which the stones of one of the players were removed). For example, an entry next to a diagram like 45 - 32 means that the 45th move was made to a point that is already marked by the 32nd move on the diagram. When recording manually, players' moves can be written in ink of different colors. In printed publications of games, stones of the corresponding color are depicted in the places where moves are made, and move numbers are placed on the stones. In books, games are often depicted on several sequential diagrams: the first one shows the initial moves, the next shows the continuation, and only those moves that relate to a given diagram are marked with numbers (see, for example, the diagrams given in the previous section). This method of representation makes it easier to understand the course of the game without repeating it on the real board. In games for the highest titles, the recording is carried out specifically for this purpose by the assistants present, and not only the moves themselves are recorded, but also time stamps by which it is possible to determine how long each move took.
Game options
Atari-go
A simplified version of the game for beginners, it is often used to teach young children Go. They play on a small board (9?9 lines), the one who is the first to take at least one opponent’s stone wins.
It can also be ironically called a game of beginners who, instead of fighting for territory, are engaged in “killing” stones (constantly putting the enemy’s stones in the atari position).
Rango
Rango - team game at one board. Several players play on each side of the same board, making moves in turns. Players of the same team are not allowed to talk during the game. One of the varieties of rengo is doubles go, when teams consist of two people.
One color game
Both players play with stones of the same color, keeping in mind which stones belong to whom.
Playing blind
One or both players play without looking at the board (from memory). Playing Go blind is much more difficult than playing chess.
Remember I once told you the news that for the first time in history
But computers have long been beating humans at chess, checkers and any other games where there is no element of chance and everything is based on mathematical calculation. Why did Go turn out to be a tough nut to crack? No matter how hard the programmers fought, the masters beat any program for many years. Because Go is an art, they say on popmech.ru
Let's find out more about this...
When people find out that someone is playing Go, they react in the same way: “What are these pebbles? It’s either chess or checkers!” Few people understand the essence of the patterns that players make from stones - from the outside, the game system looks terribly confusing. At the same time, Go is one of the most common board games in the world. It is also gaining its place in Russia - more than 150 participants came to the last Moscow tournament. Go is much older than chess and also originated in Asia, but where exactly is unclear: over four thousand years, dozens of civilizations have changed, powerful empires have flourished and collapsed, enormous migrations of peoples have occurred, and the trace is lost on the borders of China, India and Tibet. Nevertheless, chess is much more popular, and this raises the question - why? What attracts and repels Go?
Legend of Go
Other names for the game, zain (“sitting hermit”) and ran-ka (“rotten axe”), go back to an ancient legend. One day, woodcutter Wang Zhi met elders in the mountains who were indulging in an incomprehensible game, he came up and began to observe. When the game ended, the players melted into thin air, Wang Zhi discovered that he had turned gray, his clothes had decayed, and his ax had rotted. In his native village he was met by strangers, no one recognized him, and only the decrepit old woman remembered how in childhood she was told that a hundred years ago a certain woodcutter went into the forest and disappeared.
Tactics and strategy
Go is a game of capture. Players divide the board using stones, and the main value is territory, empty points (cross lines on the board), which the player has fenced off for himself. During a turn, a player either places one stone at any unoccupied point, or passes. Black makes the first move, this gives an advantage, and in order to equalize the balance, in the 19th century the “comi” rule was introduced: before the start of the game, White receives compensation of 6.5 points. Therefore, there are no draws in Go - only a whole number of points are given for all actions in the game, and 0.5 points will always serve as a means of advantage.
The techniques of the game are relatively simple: surround, build fortresses, divide the space. The stones are placed on the crosshairs, each in turn bordered by four free crossroads (on the edge of the board - three, in the corner - two), which are called “dame” (breath). As long as a stone or group has contact with at least one dame, they “live”, but if everything is blocked by the enemy’s stones, they are removed from the board. Placing a stone at a point that does not have a Dame is prohibited; such a move is allowed only if the placed stone takes the last Dame from the enemy group and captures it. The environment is the basis of Go, but not the goal, although it happens that the death of a large group brings victory. Do you remember how many people played “dots” at school? So, this game basically developed from simplified Go.
The placed stone remains motionless and can “survive” only by uniting into a group with stones in the neighborhood: in order to “kill” such a group, it is necessary to surround it from the outside and from the inside. Every new stone enlarges the group, it captures space and forms closed voids (“eyes”) inside itself. A group that has more than one “eye” is called a fortress. She is not in danger of death, since it is impossible to close both “eyes” in one move. When there are so many fortresses that their walls are touching, and there is no room to build new ones, the players divide the remaining space. Where chess game ends with the defeat of the enemy army, a truce comes in Go: players pass, exchange prisoners (stones taken from the board) and count points. Each surrounded point or captured stone is worth one point, and whoever scores more wins.
Go is considered peaceful game, but when analyzing the game the words “cutting”, “strangulation”, “captivity”, “death” are heard. Who's on the other side of the board? A novice player will answer “enemy”, because you need to win, which means fight! An experienced person will say “friend,” because his goal is correct interaction, but how to interact with the enemy? For the master of the game, there is no one there: on the other side of the board is you.
If the white player places his stone on the crosshair A, the black group will lose the last degree of freedom (dame), go into the “captured” status and be removed from the board.
Go in Russia
In the fall, the Japanese Ambassador's Cup in the game of Go, the largest Russian tournament, which was attended by world-class masters, was played in Moscow. Last year, the tournament was visited by meijin Tetsuya Mitani and the vice-president of the European Go Federation, Mrs. Li Ting - they conducted master classes, analysis of games and simultaneous play sessions. The “Japanese Autumn” festival, within which the tournament took place, is organized with the goal of introducing Russians to the cultural traditions of the Land of the Rising Sun. In Russia, Go is an official sport; the European Go Congress will be held in St. Petersburg in the summer of 2016, but despite this, the popularity of the game is growing rather slowly. This is partly due to the fact that there are no teachers willing to work with beginners, and there is also a lack of commercial conditions in which teaching Go will become a worthy endeavor (at least self-sustaining). But there are more and more enthusiasts of white and black stones, and enthusiasts, as you know, are a terrible force.
Nuclear Go and other stories
Emperor Yao of the Han Dynasty (2356−2234 BC) is mentioned as the inventor of go. Allegedly, his son had a quarrelsome disposition, and for his instruction they came up with a game that taught rational thinking. Playing Go was mandatory for an aristocrat and was one of the “four virtues” (Go, music, calligraphy and painting).
But the principles of the game are far from entertainment. Most likely, her cradle is a monastery or a hermit's cave. Buddhists saw on the board the unity of form and emptiness, astrologers saw the starry sky and the battle of earth and water. Strategic planning itself with the harmonious distribution of resources goes back to the ancient Taoist principle: “achieve a lot with little effort.” Apparently, initially go was not a game, but something else - fortune-telling, a ritual, a psychological practice, or a means of communication (one of the names is go-tsudan, “talking with stones”).
In the 8th century, Go entered Japan, where it became a court entertainment. In the 12th century, a period of internecine wars began, the shogun took power, and go was equated with martial arts. A story that happened 500 years ago is indicative. Two sword masters, Miyamoto Musashi and Yagyu Jubei Mitsuyoshi, were famous for their skill, and the aristocrats argued over who would have the upper hand. One day their paths crossed. They had never met, but they recognized each other by their manner of behavior, description of swords and appearance. The situation was a dead end: to disperse without a duel meant losing face, and the duel could end in the death of both fighters. Legend has it that they went to a tea house to think about what had happened and decided to play Go. Seeing that neither was inferior to the other, the masters interrupted the game and dispersed, full of respect for each other.
Go was the basis of Japanese military doctrine in the 20th century: an analysis of the Pacific theater of military operations showed that the principles of Japanese generals were similar. By marking the bases and the direction of the main attacks on the map, one can see that strategic superiority was on the side of Japan, but a lack of resources did not allow the “stones” to strengthen.
An example of a “seki” (deadlock) situation. Neither black nor white can place a stone on the highlighted points without placing their own stone in the “atari” situation (that is, a position in which the stone has one last dame left).
They also played during the war. The match for the Honimbo title in 1945 turned out to be incredibly tragic: on August 6, the game was interrupted by a blinding flash and a terrible explosion, the shock wave broke glass, scattered stones, and threw people to the floor. Everyone was confused, stunned, could not understand what had happened, but they restored their position and finished the game - this was in Itsukaichi, a suburb of Hiroshima. “Nuclear Go” has gone down in history as an example of truly Japanese fortitude.
Since the 16th century, many Japanese institutions have maintained a tradition of taking into account the ability to play Go when selecting for a position. Go in Japan is considered a respected profession, and sponsors willingly invest in its advertising. There are about 500 professional players in the country, they fight for titles, write books, commentate games, referee tournaments, participate in festivals and give lessons. Four schools formed two go academies: Nihon Ki-in in the eastern part of the country and Kansai Ki-in in the western part. By the way, in Japan the game is called “i-go”, in China - “weiqi”, in Korea - “baduk”.
Go does not stand still: new openings and rules appeared already in the 20th century, first in Japan, then in Korea, and in our time China has taken the lead: Go was previously persecuted in the Celestial Empire, but the call of the Party to be the first in everything also affected the ancient game. This is how the game becomes the property of humanity: China forged the blade, Japan tempered it, Korea sharpened it to shine, and now everyone has the right to find their own path.
Ladder
Black cannot “escape” until the edge of the board breaks the sequence of moves.
Mathematics plus philosophy
It is surprising that the Go algorithm has not yet been revealed and even the most powerful program plays weaker than a human (one victory can be considered an accident, and it is too early to talk about the victory of artificial intelligence over human intelligence). The board is large, initially there are no winning openings, and it is impossible to achieve harmonious development by simply trying out options - there are more of them than there are atoms in the Universe. The stones are the same, the only thing that matters is where they stand and the shape they form. Assess the potential of constructions, choose priorities - complex tasks, related to such branches of mathematics as graph theory and pattern recognition. Optimality of actions is important here, and the computer is not yet capable of this. Perhaps go is the key to artificial intelligence, and when the machine learns to regularly defeat a person, it will reach out and say: “Listen, maybe that’s enough? I am a rational being, let’s discuss my rights.”
In addition, Go has many psychological, non-mathematical subtleties that a computer cannot predict. For example, there is a “cut” situation, when groups freeze on the line of attack, because the beginner is guaranteed to die. A mutual capture of a stone occurs - “ko”: the player can take it only through a move, which he must make to any other point on the board, otherwise there will be no end to the captures.
Finally, the game of Go also has a philosophical subtext - it also affects the style of play and decision making. Go teaches the understanding that it is impossible to achieve everything - you have to take as much as you can hold and share the rest. Sooner or later, the player realizes that he is losing strength in the fight for cores (individual stones). Mastery comes with an understanding of the principles of harmony, development skills, optimization of efforts, planning and arrangement. And if chess educates a fighter, then go - a ruler, an organizer.
The Art of the Game
Nowadays there is a rise in interest in Go around the world, however best players are still born in Asia. On the one hand, Go is a counting game, with severe pressure, delicate changes of tempo, requiring an accurate analysis of the operational situation; Europeans are strong in this: Western culture develops the left, analytical hemisphere of the brain, responsible for logic, speech, and counting. But in the game we must first understand all the parts of the whole, and only then put them together, and here the Asians, for whom the particular is only part of the general, are stronger. Hieroglyphics, tonal languages, calligraphy, meditation - all this develops the right, “mute” hemisphere, which is responsible for intuition, artistic, musical and other non-logical abilities. As a result, where a European begins to rush around and make confused decisions, an Asian sees fragments of an unfinished picture and calmly corrects the shortcomings.
We carefully build islands of stability around ourselves, as if we intend to live forever. A student of Go needs to constantly change, because only with change does growth and development occur. Overcoming fear and resentment at the first stage, greed and anger at the second, inertia and skepticism at the third, boredom and fatigue at the fourth - these are the stages of learning Go. Over time, the player begins to be disturbed technical problems games, and character flaws - absent-mindedness, ardor, uncertainty, greed, adventurism. Sooner or later, every student hits this “ceiling” (there are several of them). Go is not like other games where you can get away with memorizing standard positions and techniques, which is why it is a tool, not a goal.
Go titles
One of the strongest players of the past, Nikkai (1559−1623) became the first meijin (master) and headed the house of Honimbo, the first Japanese school of Go. Two players from this school, Honimbo Dosaku and Honimbo Shusaku, remained in history under the nickname "kisei" ("saint"). Today, meijin, honimbo and kisei are challenging titles that are fought over professional players.
It is impossible to say what Go is - a game, a sport, a philosophy, a meditation or a combat simulator. Sometimes it seems that it is the game that selects people, rather than them choosing it. And perhaps in the future it will unite the West and the East, the right hemisphere of the brain with the left, reconcile physicists and lyricists and bring together all religious and philosophical movements. So is it any wonder that this game is so significant for Japan? Let's stop and listen. For our world is vain, and life is swift.
Dmitry Skiryuk is a specialist in the history of board games, the author of a number of reconstructions of lost rules, designs of game boards and figures of various disciplines
A little interesting facts about the game Go:
- Go is the oldest game in the world, the rules of which have been preserved in their original form. The age of the game is 2500-3000 years, although some estimate it to be as much as 4000 years.
- Go is the second most popular game in the world, second only to the Chinese chess Xianzi.
- Go in Japan is called I-go (囲碁), in Korea - Baduk (바둑), in China - Weichi (围棋).
- Top professional players earn around a million dollars a year. In 2004, the best was Cho U, 9th Dan professional from Japan, who won $1.04 million.
- The rules of Go are so simple that a four-year-old can understand them, but at the same time complex enough for computer programs couldn't beat the best players.
- It is believed that there are more possible positions in the game than there are atoms in the visible universe.
- In Japan, China and Korea there are television channels entirely dedicated to the game of Go.
- Players take Go very seriously. They can buy what is essentially a 42cm x 45cm x 18cm rectangular piece of wood for $127,000.
- The most big game Go was held in the Japanese city of Oita on a field measuring 40 x 40 m. Each stone had a diameter of 1.8 m and weighed about one kilogram.
- Go is considered one of the main challenges to artificial intelligence.
- The immortality and constant reverence of the game of Go over thousands of years is evidenced by the fact that the two strongest players of all times often called Huang Longshi (1651? – 1691?) from China and Honinbo Dosaku (1645 – 1702) from Japan.
- There is a historical story that in the 17th century, the laws of Tibet were decided by three parties of Guo.
- Go is believed to stop or even prevent the common occurrence of senile dementia. In addition, Guo may reduce the likelihood of Alzheimer's disease.
- Go has a huge impact on mental development children, especially in the area of reasoning.
- Chess is primarily a left-brain game. When playing Go, both hemispheres are actively involved.
And a little more about the game:
1. Go supposedly appeared in China, even before our era, and was one of the 4 virtues there, along with calligraphy, painting and playing the lute.
2 . Many years later, Go came to Japan and was right. The Japanese eventually became the greatest masters of the game. Therefore, they are mistakenly considered the creators of Go.
3. The Japanese loved Go so much that even during the Second World War they held major tournaments. During the fall of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the second game of the championship match was being played in the city. This game in Go textbooks is called “ Atomic bomb batch»
4. Surprisingly, it started in Korea in the late 80s mass Go madness. The population of the country was half that of Japan, and at the same time there were more players in Korea. In the last 54 major international tournaments The Koreans celebrated their 41st victory.
5. In Go there is a very interesting system for equalizing the chances of white and black winning - Komi. Black has an advantage due to the first move and therefore White initially plays with a small handicap - now this value ranges from 5.5 to 7.5 points. Basically, a fractional number of points is used in Komi to eliminate the possibility of a draw. In my opinion, it is a wonderful rule that excludes fixed games.
6. Go has its own etiquette traditions. According to Go etiquette, the strongest rated player must play with white and, if necessary, give the weaker a head start - komi. There are two ways to give up when defeated, either simply saying “I give up” or placing more than one stone on the board at the same time. You can always ask the player who won you to analyze the game and point out the moves that he thought were wrong - the opponent should not refuse.
7. There is very an interesting version of the game Go- playing with stones of the same color. Both opponents must remember in their minds what color the stones are, and all the stones on the board are laid out in the same color.
8. For a computer, Go is considered one of the most the most difficult games. Until now, the strongest programs cannot play at least at the first dan level (in the previous article I briefly described the Kyu-Dan system).
