History TabletopGame / Go

If you want a cursory animated introduction, try watching ''Manga/HikaruNoGo'', which may have inspired many to play Go. For much more information check either Website/TheOtherWiki or visit [[http://senseis.xmp.net/ Sensei's Library,]] a wiki devoted to the game. There is also a [[https://gogameguru.com/ website]] keeping track of most of the professional world of the game. The UsefulNotes/PasoGo is a console that's entirely dedicated to the game, though it sold poorly.

* UsefulNotes/WhyMaoChangedHisName: The Chinese name for the game is 围棋. This used to be romanised as ''wei-chi'', but since the adoption of pinyin romanisation, it is written ''wéiqí''. The correct pronunciation remains (roughly) "way-chee".

** The game played in Hiroshima on [[UsefulNotes/AtomicBombingsOfHiroshimaAndNagasaki August 6, 1945]]. Neither player noticed a nuclear bomb had destroyed part of their city until after they finished the game & went outside.

If you want a cursory animated introduction, try watching ''Manga/HikaruNoGo'', which may have inspired many to play Go. For much more information check either Website/TheOtherWiki or visit [[http://senseis.xmp.net/ Sensei's Library,]] a [[TheWikiRule wiki devoted to the game]]. There is also a [[https://gogameguru.com/ website]] keeping track of most of the professional world of the game. The UsefulNotes/PasoGo is a console that's entirely dedicated to the game, though it sold poorly.

** Le Sedol's one win against [=AlphaGo=] was achieved by playing a particularly unusual sequence of moves that the program had not been trained to deal with. Currently, human players are able to win games against Go-playing programs only by carefully analyzing them with the aid of other programs to identify new strategies that can provoke this trope.

* ArtificialStupidity: For years, the best Go-playing computer programs were roughly on a par with fairly strong amateurs. Really strong professional players were still well beyond their reach. One of the major factors is that the very large board compared to those of similarly competitive board games like chess means there's just way, way, ''way'' too much calculation needed to reliably decide the optimal next move before the heat death of the universe. However, after years of Go programs steadily getting stronger, in 2016 Google's [=AlphaGo=] program [[http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/12/alphago-beats-lee-sedol-in-third-consecutive-go-game defeated Lee Sedol, a top 9 dan human player, 3:0,]] [[ForegoneConclusion winning the 5 game match before it had even finished]]. Some months later, an improved version called [=AlphaGo=] Master won 60 games against top professionals and lost none.

* FirstPlayerAdvantageMitigation: The player with the black stones has an advantage because their going first gives them the initiative. The ''komi'' system was introduced to even things out by giving extra points to the player with the white stones. The exact value varies, but is usually between 5 and 8 points (and usually a half-integer to make draws less likely).

[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(game) Go]] is a board game for two players, noted for being rich in strategic complexity despite its simple rules. It is known in China as 围棋 (''Wéiqí''); in Japan as 碁 or 囲碁 (''Go'' or ''Igo''); and in Korea as 바둑 (''Baduk''). Go reached the West through Japan, which is why it is commonly known internationally by its Japanese name, and much of its technical vocabulary is Japanese, although it originated in China and plays a much larger role in Chinese culture than Japanese.

The origins of Go are ShroudedInMyth. The game was invented in ancient China more than 5,500 years ago, so Go is probably OlderThanDirt and is thus the oldest board game continuously played today. It was considered one of the four essential arts of the cultured aristocratic Chinese scholar caste in antiquity. The earliest written reference to the game is generally recognized as the historical annal Zuo Zhuan. Archaeological evidence indicates that the early game was played on a board with a 17×17 grid, but by the time that the game spread to Korea and Japan in about the 7th century, the 19x19 board had become standard. The game is most popular in East Asia, but spread to other parts of the world. A conservative estimate places the number of Go players worldwide at approximately 27 million.

** When a group has only one eye with four spaces, it is considered "alive" (see CompleteImmortality above) if all four inner spaces are in a straight line (since even if the opponent plays first, no matter where they play, the owner always has a spot to divide the eye into two eyes); if they're T-shaped, it depends on who has the next move ("unsettled"); while if they're in the form of a square... [[YouAreAlreadyDead you have problems]].

** When eyes with four spaces in the middle are involved, the eye is functionally alive if all four inner spaces are in a straight line since even if the opponent plays first to try and disrupt the shape, the owner can simply make two eyes and live; on the other hand, if they're T-shaped or in the form of a square... [[YouAreAlreadyDead you have problems]].

Essays have been written about the differences between Go and TabletopGame/{{Chess}}. Broadly speaking Go has simpler rules and is easier to learn than Chess, but is far more open in its possibilities. We were able to create computers that have mastered Chess by the mid-90s, but until 2016 Go eluded them. Some theorize this is for more than simply the size of the board adding astronomically more possible games of Go. Yet you could probably teach a five year old to play Go in an hour. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaGo_versus_Lee_Sedol This came to an end in March 2016,]] when Korean 9-dan[[note]]basically the top rank of grandmaster, in chess terms[[/note]] Lee Sedol lost 4-1 against Google's [=AlphaGo=] project. Notably, this utilizes a fundamentally different approach to AI than Chess. Chess computers operate in essence by brute force - calculating all possible options and looking for the best ones (in practice, they can speed this up by ignoring obviously bad options), while [=AlphaGo=] uses an approach called "Deep Learning", in which it analyzes tens of millions of games played by humans as well as billions of games played against itself and looks for common factors that differentiate moves that lead to wins from moves that lead to losses.

* {{Metagame}}: Thousands of pages of analysis have been written over the centuries. The only game with a comparable literature is TabletopGame/{{Chess}}.

** Some books on Go depict on their covers paintings of samurai doing this.

If you want a cursory animated introduction, try watching ''Manga/HikaruNoGo'', which may have inspired many to play Go. For much more information check either Wiki/TheOtherWiki or visit [[http://senseis.xmp.net/ Sensei's Library,]] a [[TheWikiRule wiki devoted to the game]]. There is also a [[https://gogameguru.com/ website]] keeping track of most of the professional world of the game. The UsefulNotes/PasoGo is a console that's entirely dedicated to the game, though it sold poorly.

Go is a board game for two players, noted for being rich in strategic complexity despite its simple rules. It is known in China as 围棋 (''Wéiqí''); in Japan as 碁 or 囲碁 (''Go'' or ''Igo''); and in Korea as 바둑 (''Baduk''). Go reached the West through Japan, which is why it is commonly known internationally by its Japanese name, and much of its technical vocabulary is Japanese, although it originated in China and plays a much larger role in Chinese culture than Japanese.

If you want a cursory animated introduction, try watching ''Manga/HikaruNoGo'', which may have inspired many to play Go. For much more information check either Wiki/TheOtherWiki or visit [[http://senseis.xmp.net/ Sensei's Library,]] a [[TheWikiRule wiki devoted to the game]]. There is also a [[https://gogameguru.com/ website]] keeping track of most of the professional world of the game.

Go is a board game for two players, noted for being rich in strategic complexity despite its simple rules. It is known in China as 围棋 (''Wéiqí''); in Japan as 碁 or 囲碁 (''Go'' or ''Igo''); and in Korea as 바둑 (''Baduk''). Go reached the West through Japan, which is why it is commonly known internationally by its Japanese name, and much of its technical vocabulary is Japanese, although it originated in China.

* ArtificialStupidity: For years, the best Go-playing computer programs were roughly on a par with fairly strong amateurs. Really strong professional players were still well beyond their reach. One of the major factors is that the very large board compared to those of similarly competitive board games like chess means there's just way, way, ''way'' too much calculation needed to reliably decide the optimal next move before the heat death of the universe. However, after years of Go programs steadily getting stronger, in 2016 Google's [=AlphaGo=] program [[http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/12/alphago-beats-lee-sedol-in-third-consecutive-go-game defeated Lee Sedol, a top 9 dan human player, 3:0]], [[ForegoneConclusion winning the 5 game match before it had even finished]]. Some months later, an improved version called [=AlphaGo=] Master won 60 games against top professionals and lost none.

If you want a cursory animated introduction, try watching ''Manga/HikaruNoGo'', which may have inspired many to play Go. For much more information check either Wiki/TheOtherWiki or visit [[http://senseis.xmp.net/ Sensei's Library]], a [[TheWikiRule wiki devoted to the game]]. There is also a [[https://gogameguru.com/ website]] keeping track of most of the professional world of the game.

Essays have been written about the differences between Go and TabletopGame/{{Chess}}. Broadly speaking Go has simpler rules and is easier to learn than Chess, but is far more open in its possibilities. We were able to create computers that have mastered Chess by the mid-90s, but until 2016 Go eluded them. Some theorize this is for more than simply the size of the board adding astronomically more possible games of Go. Yet you could probably teach a five year old to play Go in an hour. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaGo_versus_Lee_Sedol This came to an end in March 2016]], when Korean 9-dan[[note]]basically the top rank of grandmaster, in chess terms[[/note]] Lee Sedol lost 4-1 against Google's [=AlphaGo=] project. Notably, this utilizes a fundamentally different approach to AI than Chess. Chess computers operate in essence by brute force - calculating all possible options and looking for the best ones (in practice, they can speed this up by ignoring obviously bad options), while [=AlphaGo=] uses an approach called "Deep Learning", in which it analyzes tens of millions of games played by humans as well as billions of games played against itself and looks for common factors that differentiate moves that lead to wins from moves that lead to losses.

** Jigoro Kano, founder of UsefulNotes/{{Judo}}, inspired on Go and its Dan and Kyu system to create his own Judo ranking system, and associated it with colored belts (which in turn was inspired in Japanese scholastic swimming). The whole Judo ranking system than inspired various other arts such as Karate and Tae-Kwon-Do and made it a popular concept.

* PlayByPostGames: Nowadays internet Go servers, and e-mail, have largely replaced this.
* PronounTrouble: When writing about Go (in the abstract rather than when referring to specific players), it is customary to refer to one player as "he" and the other as "she". Unfortunately some believe black should be male, and white female, while others appeal to ancient [[{{UsefulNotes/Taoism}} Taoist tradition]] and argue for the opposite.

** In ancient China, ''Go'' was one of the four arts a scholar was required to learn in order to be considered a member of the "gentlemen caste"

** As the board was being cleared after the legendary four-day "Blood-Vomiting Game" of 1835, the defeated player Akaboshi Intetsu, collapsed [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin coughing up blood]], and died ("within a few months" though).