Although the ancient game of...

By Rob Van Zeijst

Although the ancient game of go originated in China, the inventor of the game is not known. Its creation has variously been attributed to the legendary emperors Yao and Shun, who reigned in the second millennium B.C.; a vassal of Emperor Jie named Wu, who is also said to have invented games of cards, in the first millennium B.C.; and court astrologers during the Zhou dynasty (ca 1100-256 B.C.). Whatever its origins, go is generally agreed to be 3,000-4,000 years old.

Go probably developed from a method of divination practiced by the emperors and astrologers of the early Zhou culture. One method is believed to have involved the casting of black and white pieces on a square board marked with astrological and geomantic symbols. In fact, some go terms used today have astrological meanings.

For example, the central point of the board is called tengen (axis of heaven), while the eight specially marked points near the perimeter are called hoshi (stars). These nine points form the traditional "Nine Lights of Heaven," i.e., the sun, the moon and the seven stars of Ursa Major constellation that forms the center of the Chinese astronomical system.

The four quarters of the go board derive their names from the four directions, correlated to the basic trigrams of the "I-Ching" system. Starting in the upper right and moving clockwise, they are: Southwest (female, earth), Northwest (male, heaven), Northeast (hard, limit), and Southeast (gentle, yielding).

The Analects of Confucius, believed to have been written in the fifth century B.C., contain the earliest known mention of go. A tomb from the Hsi Han dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 25), which was discovered in 1952, revealed the earliest physical evidence in the form of a 17x17-line go board.

Objective of go

Last week, we discussed the Chinese interpretation of the game in which the objective is to end up with more stones on the board than your opponent. Japan and most of the rest of the world maintain that the objective is to control more territory. Ultimately, though, when working out the score, both methods generally lead to the same result. For novices, the Chinese rules are easier to comprehend.

Basic rules

Last week, we learned that the four basic rules are:

1. Moves are played on the intersections.

2. The stones do not move after being played.

3. Black plays first.

4. Black and White move alternatively.

Now we will add a rule for capturing stones.

5. A stone, or a group of connected stones, is captured if it loses all of its liberties.

Liberties

For the purpose of demonstrating how stones are captured, we will use a 9x9 board. There are three white stones in Diagram 1. The center stone has four liberties, the one on the edge has three and the one in the corner had two. In Diagram 2, the four A's, three B's and two C's show the position of these liberties.

Diagram 3 shows Black occupying three liberties of the white stone in the center, two liberties of the stone on the edge and one liberty of the one in the corner. In all cases, the white stones are said to be in "atari" as they only have one liberty left. In each case, the white stone will be captured if Black plays at 1 as shown in Diagram 4. The end result is shown in Diagram 5.

Solution to last week's problem 1

The number of territorial points was 27 for Black against 26 for White.

Problem 1: How many liberties do Black's A stones have? What about Black's B stones? Where should White play to capture the black C stones?

Want to find out more? Come to Ben's Cafe in Takadanobaba, Tokyo, (03) 3202-2445, where the English-speaking go community congregates every Sunday. You can enjoy free lessons, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Ben's Cafe can be accessed at www.benscafe.com.

Van Zeijst is a four-time European go champion and European representative at the Fujitsu World Championship.