The game of go / igo / weiqi / baduk

[Trevoke]

A game with four names? Huh?
The western name is "go". It's a three- to four-thousand-year-old game that originated in China. It is played on a 19x19 square board* with black and white stones (placed on the intersections, not inside the squares).

The goal is to control more territory than the opponent at the end of the game, which is decided by both players agreeing that the game is over.

If you're interested, here are a few links :
http://trevoke.ath.cx/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=4 ---> A go gallery, so you can see what it can look like
http://playgo.to/interactive/ ---> This is the best introduction to the game that I've seen so far. It's interactive and very well done.
http://trevoke.ath.cx/go/ ---> I've set up a small turn-based server on my website, taking http://www.dragongoserver.net/ 's source code from sourceforge; you can start there if you want..
http://kgs.kiseido.com/ ---> The current biggest online go server where you can play in real time against other players from all over the world.

What is so cool about it? There are maybe four or five rules, very simple to understand (six-year-olds are easily taught how to play the game), and yet it takes a lifetime to master, such is its depth. It is much, much more involved and fascinating than chess.. And I feel that people who congregate in such communities as AO may well have the right kind of intelligence to appreciate it.

I hope I've picked your curiosity!
By the way..
http://www.gocongress06.org/ iin August (12-20) for any who suddenly become very interested, or live in the area (Black Mountain, North Carolina).
I'll be there

http://www.usgo.org/ is the American Go Association's (AGA) website. For other countries, they can be found easily online.

_______________
*It is in fact not perfectly square, but slightly rectangular, to help with parallax.

[omin]

It is much, much more involved and fascinating than chess..

Not sure I agree with this but in any case go is a great game.

I still havn't got the edge plays down yet so I am hoping there is some info on them in your links.


Thanks!


omin

[nihil]

Tsiang Chi and Shogi

[Trevoke]

Omin, I give you that 'fascinating' is very subjective, however go is more complex than chess.
Two pieces of evidence : a chess AI (however brute-force it may be) exists and can beat the best human chess player while the current best AI cannot beat a serious human who has been playing go for a year. Other piece of evidence : chess geniuses exist who can beat champions at the age of 13, and go geniuses can't beat go champions at the age of 13 ;-)

What do you mean by edge plays? The monkey jumps? The endgame?

nihil : I know shogi but not tsiang chi; and I know the rules of neither. Got links to the rules? websites where they can be played? Tutorials? Anything? ;-)