Go 囲碁

My history playing the board game called Go is pretty short. I studied the theory of Go in a university level computer science course some years ago, but started playing actual games around the time I moved to Japan in 2008.

When I started playing, I quickly found it to be interesting, with rules that seemed easy to grasp. But it did not take long to realize that playing Go is not as simple as it may look — in fact, it can be quite a challenge. Reviewing and understanding other peoples’ games can be just as difficult, or more so, than playing one’s own game.

However, difficult as it may be, I enjoy playing Go as well as trying to solve the “life and death” problems that arise in the game. It’s beautiful in its simplicity, but, at the same time, Go is also breathtaking in its complexity.

As of this writing (Spring 2010), I participate in a weekly “Go circle” run by a 7-dan professional player at the Japanese Go Association (the Nihon Ki-in) and also in a weekly kyu-grade players’ class that is held under the tutelage of a 2-dan professional at a Go salon near my home. So many people have written so much about Go that I don’t feel I could possibly contribute much — if anything — that hasn’t already been said. After all, the game has been played under roughly the same rules for about 4,000 years. My hope is to merely to share, through these web pages, some of my experiences playing Go as well as to learn about others’ experiences along the way.

Legends of Go

 
Honinbo Dosaku (1645-1702), 4th head of the Honinbo house (1677-1702), is regarded by many as the greatest player of all time. Dosaku’s most famous game is known as “Dosaku’s masterpiece,” a game against Yasui Shunchi, who was a very strong player. Dosaku gave Shunchi 2 handicap stones, but even though Shunchi played well in this castle game, Dosaku only lost by a single point.

The Doasku masterpiece game (played on 1683-11-19) can be seen below.