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The game ends when both players pass or when one player resigns. Players may pass rather than place a stone if they think there are no further opportunities for profitable play. Capturing races and the elements of life or death are the primary challenges of Go. In a capturing race, the group with more liberties will ultimately be able to capture the opponent's stones. Situations where mutually opposing groups must capture each other or die are called capturing races, or semeai. The general strategy is to expand one's territory, attack the opponent's weak groups (groups that can be killed), and always stay mindful of the life status of one's own groups.

Such groups are said to be unconditionally alive. One or more liberties enclosed within a group is called an eye, and a group with two or more eyes cannot be captured, even if surrounded.

White may capture that stone (remove from board) with a play on its last liberty (at D-1).Ī basic principle of Go is that a group of stones must have at least one open point bordering the group, known as a liberty, to remain on the board. When Black has only one liberty left (D), that stone is in atari. The four liberties (adjacent empty points) of a single black stone (A), as White reduces those liberties by one (B, C, and D). Less plausible etymologies include a derivation of Badukdok, referring to the playing pieces of the game, or a derivation from Chinese páizi ( 排子), meaning 'to arrange pieces'. The Korean word baduk derives from the Middle Korean word Badok, the origin of which is controversial the more plausible etymologies include the suffix dok added to Ba to mean 'flat and wide board', or the joining of Bat, meaning 'field', and Dok, meaning 'stone'. In events sponsored by the Ing Chang-ki Foundation, it is spelled goe. In English, the name Go when used for the game is often capitalized to differentiate it from the common word go. 'encirclement board game' or 'board game of surrounding'). The word Go is a short form of the Japanese word igo ( 囲碁いご), which derives from earlier wigo ( ゐご), in turn from Middle Chinese ɦʉi gi ( 圍棋, Mandarin: wéiqí, lit. The number of legal board positions in Go has been calculated to be approximately 2.1 ×10 170, which is vastly greater than the number of atoms in the observable universe, estimated to be of the order of 10 80. Compared to chess, Go has both a larger board with more scope for play and longer games and, on average, many more alternatives to consider per move. ĭespite its relatively simple rules, Go is extremely complex. The earliest written reference to the game is generally recognized as the historical annal Zuo Zhuan (c. Go was considered one of the four essential arts of the cultured aristocratic Chinese scholars in antiquity. However, boards with a 19×19 grid had become standard by the time the game reached Korea in the 5th century CE and Japan in the 7th century CE. Beginners often play on smaller 9×9 and 13×13 boards, and archaeological evidence shows that the game was played in earlier centuries on a board with a 17×17 grid. The standard Go board has a 19×19 grid of lines, containing 361 points. Games may also be terminated by resignation. When a game concludes, the winner is determined by counting each player's surrounded territory along with captured stones and komi (points added to the score of the player with the white stones as compensation for playing second). The game proceeds until neither player wishes to make another move. Once placed on the board, stones may not be moved, but stones are removed from the board if the stone (or group of stones) is surrounded by opposing stones on all orthogonally adjacent points, in which case the stone or group is captured. The players take turns placing the stones on the vacant intersections ( points) of a board. One player uses the white stones and the other, black.

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A 2016 survey by the International Go Federation's 75 member nations found that there are over 46 million people worldwide who know how to play Go and over 20 million current players, the majority of whom live in East Asia. The game was invented in China more than 2,500 years ago and is believed to be the oldest board game continuously played to the present day.

Go is an abstract strategy board game for two players in which the aim is to surround more territory than the opponent.

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Game pieces, called stones, are played on the lines' intersections.Ī Some professional games exceed 16 hours and are played in sessions spread over two days. Go is played on a grid of black lines (usually 19×19).