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← Go Through the Ages

Go Through the Ages

Four short lessons on the oldest board game still played: what keeps a stone alive, why a group needs two eyes, a famous quiet move from 1846, and the opening that changed the game in 1933 — with a board to try it on.

Spark & Whetstone · sparkwhetstone.org/learn/go-through-the-ages · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Answers are at the end, so you can try each question first.

Lesson 1. A game of surrounding

Go was played in China at least two and a half thousand years ago, and spread to Korea and Japan, where it is called baduk and igo. It is still played by millions of people today, with almost the same rules.

Those rules are few. Players take turns placing a stone on an empty point. A stone stays on the board as long as at least one point next to it is empty — those empty points are its liberties. Stones of the same colour that touch share their liberties and live or die together.

When the last liberty of a stone or group is filled by the other player, it is captured and taken off the board. Everything else in the game — and there is a great deal of it — grows from that one idea.

Question. What does a stone, or a group of touching stones, need to stay on the board?

  1. To be next to a stone of the other colour.
  2. At least one empty point next to it.
  3. To be in a corner or along an edge.

Say it back. In your own words: what is a liberty, and how does a capture happen?

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Lesson 2. Two eyes to live

If a group can be surrounded, why does anything survive? The answer is the most important shape in Go: a group with two separate holes inside it, called eyes.

The other player can only fill one point per turn, and placing a stone inside an eye with no liberties of its own is not allowed — unless it captures. With one eye, the attacker can eventually fill the outside and then the eye itself, capturing everything. With two separate eyes, the attacker would need to fill both at once, which no single move can do. The group can never be taken.

Strong players spend much of a game asking one quiet question about each group on the board: can it make two eyes? A big group that cannot is weaker than a small one that can.

Question. Why can a group with two separate eyes never be captured?

  1. Because it is too big to surround.
  2. Because the other player would have to fill both eyes in one move, which is impossible.
  3. Because eyes count as extra points.

Say it back. Say it back: why does a group need two eyes rather than one, and what question do good players keep asking?

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Lesson 3. The ear-reddening move

In 1846 a seventeen-year-old named Shusaku, playing Black, faced Inoue Gennan Inseki, one of the strongest players in Japan. For much of the game Black seemed to be behind.

Then Shusaku played a quiet stone near the centre of the board. It captured nothing and threatened nothing on its own. But it helped his groups on several sides at once and quietly reduced White's area. A doctor watching the game is said to have noticed Gennan's ears turn red — a sign he knew the game had turned. Shusaku won, and the game is still called the ear-reddening game.

The lesson is not about a trick. The best move is often the one that does a little work in many places, rather than a lot of work in one.

Question. What made Shusaku's famous move so strong?

  1. It captured a large group at once.
  2. It did useful work in several directions at the same time.
  3. It was played in the corner, where stones are safest.

Say it back. In your own words: what kind of move does the ear-reddening game teach you to look for?

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Lesson 4. A new opening

For centuries, players followed an old saying: corners first, then the sides, then the centre. A corner is the easiest place to make a living group, because two edges of the board do part of the surrounding for you.

In 1933 two young players, Go Seigen and Kitani Minoru, began playing openings that moved faster and reached further towards the centre, trading some certain territory for influence over the whole board. In one celebrated game that year, Go Seigen even placed one of his first stones on the very centre point, against the reigning champion, Honinbo Shusai. Their new opening ideas spread quickly and changed how the game is played.

Around the same time, professionals began giving White a few points of compensation for moving second, called komi. Both changes came from the same habit: questioning what everyone took for granted.

Question. Why has the corner traditionally been the first place to play?

  1. Corner points are worth double.
  2. The two edges of the board help you surround an area there.
  3. The rules require the first move to be in a corner.

Say it back. Say it back: what is the old saying about where to play, and what did the 1933 openings change about it?

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At the table: The small-board table

Players: 2, any ages. You'll need: A 9 × 9 board (a drawn grid and coins work), or the Go page on one device.

  1. Open the Go page and choose the 9 × 9 board. If one player is new, give them a head start of a few stones.
  2. Play a whole game slowly. Before each move, say out loud which group you are worried about.
  3. When you both pass, count together and agree which groups could not have escaped.
  4. Name one group that lived because it had two eyes, and one move that did work in more than one place.

Answers

  1. At least one empty point next to it. — A stone or group lives while it has at least one liberty: an empty point beside it. Fill the last one and it is captured.
  2. Because the other player would have to fill both eyes in one move, which is impossible. — Each turn allows one stone. A stone in either eye alone would have no liberties and capture nothing, so it cannot be played — the group lives for good.
  3. It did useful work in several directions at the same time. — One stone that strengthens several groups and trims the opponent's area is worth more than a move that only does one job.
  4. The two edges of the board help you surround an area there. — In a corner the board's two edges already close off two sides, so it takes fewer stones to surround an area than on a side or in the centre.