Go (囲碁)

Go (known as “囲碁 (Igo) in Japanese)is an oriental board game that originated in China. Today it’s quite popular in East Asia that has been made more accessible in recent years through internet gaming. The rules of the game are fairly simplistic, but despite this, Go is a game rich with strategy.
Go is played by two players (who use black and white “stones” or pieces respectively) on a board with a 19 x19 line grid. Stones are placed on the points of the board where lines intersect, and black always moves first. The goal of the game is to surround more of the board or control more “territory” on the board then your opponent. Once a stone is placed on the board, it cannot be removed unless it is surrounded on all sides by an opponent’s stone, in which case it is “captured” and taken off the board. To form a group of stones on a board, they must be connected via straight and not diagonal lines.
There are some differences in scoring from country to country, but the differences do not largely impact the strategy of the game. At the end of the game the winner is determined through calculating the amount of territory each player has, which is done by counting the number of empty points a player’s stone’s surround.



Pictured above is an example of how a stone(s) can be captured.

Pictured below is a 碁盤 (goban) on which Go is played.



Professional Go players exist and are for the most part, all of Asian descent, though Professional Go players from other countries do exist. Most professional players begin to study Go seriously as children, and some even turn professional before they’re 11. In Japan student professionals are called insei, and have to play in internal insei competitions to qualify; mostly they are adolescents, and must decide whether to continue based on their chances of a career in Go, or go to university. Insei rarely take part in amateur events, but some of the top amateurs are ex-insei.

The release of the manga and anime Hikaru no Go in 1998 had a huge impact on popularizing Go among young players in Japan and abroad.



Go has, historically been a male dominated game. Special tournaments for women existed, but until recently, men and women did not compete together at the highest levels. Recently however, the creation of new, open tournaments and the rise of strong female players have seen (notably Rui Naiwei, who is the only woman to have won one of the major open go titles) will hopefully open the field up to more woman players in the future.