Go (game)

Go (traditional Chinese: 圍棋; simplified Chinese: 围棋; pinyin:  wéiqí; Japanese: 囲碁; rōmaji: igo; Korean: 바둑; romaja: baduk; literally: "encircling game") is an abstract board game for two players, in which the aim is to surround more territory than the opponent.

The game originated in ancient China more than 2,500 years ago, and is one of the oldest board games played today. It was considered one of the four essential arts of a cultured Chinese scholar in antiquity. The earliest written reference to the game is generally recognized as the historical annal Zuo Zhuan (c. 4th century BC).

There is significant strategy involved in the game, and the number of possible games is vast (10⁷⁶¹ compared, for example, to the estimated 10¹²⁰ possible in chess), displaying its complexity despite relatively simple rules.

The two players alternately place black and white playing pieces, called "stones", on the vacant intersections ("points") of a board with a 19×19 grid of lines. Beginners often play on smaller 9×9 and 13×13 boards, and archaeological evidence shows that game was played in earlier centuries on a board with a 17×17 grid. By the time the game had spread to Korea and Japan in about the 5th and 7th centuries CE respectively, however, boards with a 19×19 grid had become standard.