GO
Traditional
How to set-up
1. Go is played on a 19-by-19 grid with 361 points. Smaller grids can be used for quicker or simpler play.
2. Each player selects 181 BEADs. All BEADs start off the board.
3. Players decide who will start.
How to play
1. In turns, each player places 1 BEAD on to an empty intersection on the board.
2. Once played, BEADs do not move.
3. Players can capture their opponent’s BEAD by surrounding it on four sides.
4. Players can capture multiple BEADs by surrounding an entire cluster of BEADs.
5. Players can use the edges and corners of the board to aid in a capture.
6. Captured BEADs are removed from the board and are not played again.
7. Players continue placing BEADs to take as many of the intersections of the board as possible by either capturing opponents or by expanding up against their opponent's BEADs.
How to win
To win the game, a player needs to control more intersections of the board than their opponent.
History
1. Go originated and was invented in ancient China more than 5,500 years ago, and it is still the oldest board game continuously played today. It was considered to be one of the four essential arts of the cultured aristocratic Chinese scholar caste in antiquity.
2. Despite its relatively simple rules, Go is highly complex, much more complex than chess, and it possesses more total possibilities than the number of atoms in the universe.
3. By the early 20th century, Go had spread throughout the German and Austro-Hungarian empires. World War II put a stop to most Go activity, because it was a game coming from Japan, but after the war, Go again continued to spread.
4. In 1996, NASA astronaut Daniel Barry and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata were the first people to play Go in space.
1. In this variation both players play with the same color of game pieces.
2. This variation is regarded as a useful tool for developing a player's reading and memory skills.
1. Each player begins the game with any decided amount of time.
2. At the end of the game, when the score is counted, the number of seconds remaining on each player's clock is added to their respective score.
1. Tibetan Go is played on a 17x17 board, and starts with six stones (the stones are called Bo) from each color placed on the third line as seen in the picture.
2. There is a unique ko rule: A stone may not be played at an intersection where the opponent has just removed a stone.
3. This ko rule is so different from other major variations that it alone majorly changes the character of the game.
4. For example, snapbacks must be delayed by at least one move, allowing an opponent the chance to create life.
5. White makes the first move.
6. A player who occupies or surrounds all four corner points (the 1-1 points) receives a bonus of 40 points, plus another 10 if the player also controls the center point.
1. Sunjang baduk is a variation of Go that evolved in Korea.
2. It has been known since at least the 7th century. Its most distinctive feature is the prescribed opening.
3. The starting position dictates the placement of 16 stones (8 black, 8 white), and black makes the first move at the center of the board.
4. At the end of the game, stones inside friendly territory, which are not relavent to boundary definition, are removed before counting territory.
1. This is another variation from Korea. The players wager on the outcome of the game. A fixed stake called a bang is paid for every ten points on the board by which the loser is beaten.
1. In Multi-player Go, each player has a different color of stone so that three or more players can play together.
2. All other rules are the same, but this version is not so balanced because the players who move first have a tactical advantage.
1. In this variation the first player forced to capture one or more stones or to make a suicide move loses.
