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The Go Board Game and its History

By: Fredrik Eilertsen

Wei-chi's history is lengthy. The truth is that it is 4000 years lengthy and its popularity has never died out. The origin of go is a little unclear, but the general story is that this board game was created for the Chinese emperor's son, because he wasn't behaving well enough. Go was made to calm him down and to teach him concentration and patience.

Many starting players assume that it is a Japanese board game, when it in fact is Chinese. I think there are three distinct reasons for believing this. The first reason is the Japanese anime Hikaru no Go, that helped spreading wei-chi's reputation, so many gamers got introduced to baduk through this series. Also, the various phrases utilized in English go educational books come from the Japanese language, not the Chinese. Thirdly, it is due to the Honinbo family, which I will discuss shortly. The very fact of the matter is that go didn't become popular in Japan earlier than the year seven hundred, which is way after baduk was created.

It is in Japan nonetheless, this game started to really advance. During the 17th century the Honinbo institution was formed, a school of awesome weiqi professional players. The heads of this school was perhaps some of the best on this planet in all of history. Gamers worthy of mentioning are Honinbo Shusaku, Dosaku, Jowa, Shuwa and Shuei. There were additionally a few players from China and Korea that shined during this era, particularly a man named Huang Longshi from China. Many new moves were invented during the Honinbo times, and the general playing level of wei-chi gamers became better.

Another notable point in this game's history was the start of the current era, with players like Go Seigen, Kitani Minoru and also Takemiya Masaki changing the way in which go was to be played. The new style of play was about center moves rather than greed, so the moves were played further to the center of the goban, instead of further to the edges. This type of play is still very fashionable.

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If you wish to read more about weiqi's historical past and the most notable gamers, or learn how to play baduk, check out this website: learnbaduk.com.

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