The Game Of Go The National Game Of Japan

Go is a board game of skill and strategy. In this way, it could be likened to Chess but there are no other similarities. It is an extremely difficult game to learn and has not really taken hold much outside Japan.

“THE GAME OF GO” was one of the first books in English to describe the national game of Japan: Go. As a practical guide, anyone reading this book can learn to play the game of Go without an instructor. It also contains an interesting history of the game, the rules of play explained and illustrated, openings, games, ending and problems. Like chess, Go is a strategic board game and is considered by many, to be superior. The board is ruled like that for Go Bang, except that it has nineteen instead of seventeen lines intersecting as many more at right angles; it is said that if there were two more lines the possible combinations of the game would transcend the powers of the human mind. The game consists in two players with black and white stones, or counters, endeavoring to surround territory — and the opponent's men — by placing one man on the board at a time, which is not moved unless captured. The stones are placed at the intersection of lines and are surrounded (captured, killed) when each line from a stone or group leads to a stone of the opposite color upon the next “me;" hence it is often necessary to place some of one's stones within a hollow group in order to effect its capture. Go is probably the oldest of all known games: some authorities say that it was invented by a vassal of a Chinese emperor who reigned from 1718 to 1767 B.C.: others to an emperor reigning from 2357 to 2256 B. C. A game easily recognized as Go is mentioned casually in a Chinese work dated about a thousand years before Christ. The game was introduced into Japan about the year 735 A.D., and for the two hundred years players have been classified with titles. The stones or “Ishi” correspond in number with the “Me” or points of intersection—180 are white and 181 black; the weaker player takes black and first move. In practice the entire number are never used. The author has found that Casino chips are the best substitute for the Japanese stones. The game comes to an end when the frontiers of the opposing groups are in contact. There are but four rules for the game. A careful perusal of the book will incite a desire to add to one's pleasure, skill and resources this old game which is relatively new to our world.

The Game of Go by Arthur Smith (1870-1929), first published in 1908. This book is intended as a practical guide to the game of Go. It is especially designed to assist students of the game who have acquired a smattering of it in some way and who wish to investigate it further at their leisure. Go (Chinese: weiqi, Japanese: igo, Korean: baduk, Vietnamese: cờ vây, common meaning: "encircling game") is a board game for two players that originated in China more than 2,500 years ago. The game is noted for being rich in strategy despite its relatively simple rules. According to chess master Emanuel Lasker: "The rules of Go are so elegant, organic, and rigorously logical that if intelligent life forms exist elsewhere in the universe, they almost certainly play Go."

Excerpt from The Game of Go: The National Game of Japan This book is intended as a practical guide to the game of Go. It is especially designed to assist students of the game who have acquired a smattering of it in some way and who wish to investigate it further at their leisure. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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