Board, Traditional Games

Go, also known as Weiqi in Mandarin Chinese (Traditional Chinese: 圍棋; Simplified Chinese: 围棋), and Baduk in Korean (Hangul:바둑), is a strategic, deterministic two-player board game originating in ancient China, before 200 BC. more...

The game is now popular throughout East Asia and on the Internet. The object of the game is to place stones so they control a larger board territory than one's opponent, while preventing them from being surrounded and captured by the opponent.

The English name Go originated from the Japanese pronunciation "go" of the Chinese characters 棋/碁; in Japanese the name is written 碁. The Chinese name Wéiqí roughly translates as "encirclement chess", the "board game of surrounding", or the "enclosing game". Its ancient Chinese name is 弈 (Pinyin: yì). The writings 棋/碁 are variants, as seen in the Chinese Kangxi Dictionary. The game most commonly known as 囲碁 (igo) in Japanese.

Overview of the game

The game of Go is played by alternately placing stones on a grid. The two players, black and white, engage to maximize the territory they control, seeking to surround large areas of the board with their stones, to entrap any opposing stones that invade these areas, and to protect their own stones from capture.

The strategy involved can become very subtle and complex. Some high-level players spend years perfecting strategy. Go is considered by some to be the ultimate strategy game, superior in depth of complexity to Chess, Xiangqi, and Shogi.

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