Editing Go (game) (section)

{{short description|Abstract strategy board game for two players}}
{{About|the board game||Go (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox game
| title = Go
| italic title = no
| image_link = FloorGoban.JPG
| image_size = 300px
| image_caption = Go is played on a grid (usually 19×19). Game pieces (''stones'') are placed on the grid line intersections.
| years = 548 BCE (earliest record) to present
| genre = {{ubl|[[Board game]]|[[Abstract strategy game]]|[[Mind sport]]}}
| players = 2
| setup_time = Minimal
| playing_time = {{ubl|Casual: 20–90 minutes|Professional: 1–6 hours or more{{ref label|note1|a}}}}
| random_chance = None
| skills = [[Strategy]], [[Tactic (method)|tactics]], [[Arithmetic#Arithmetic operations|elementary arithmetic]]
| AKA = {{ubl|{{audio|Zh-wéiqí.ogg|Weiqi|help=no}}|{{transliteration|ja|Igo}}|{{transliteration|ko|Paduk}} / {{transliteration|ko|Baduk}}}}
| footnotes = {{note label|note1|a}}Some professional games exceed 16 hours and are played in sessions spread over two days.
}}
{{Infobox Chinese
| t = {{linktext|圍棋}}
| s = {{linktext|围棋}}
| l = 'encirclement board game'
| p = wéiqí
| w = {{tone superscript|wei2-ch}}{{wg-apos}}{{tone superscript|i2}}
| mi = {{IPAc-cmn|AUD|Zh-wéiqí.ogg|wei|2|.|q|i|2}}
| suz = wé-jí
| j = wai4 kei4
| y = wàih-kèih
| ci = {{IPAc-yue|w|ai|4|-|k|ei|4}}
| poj = uî-kî
| mc = hwigi
| oc-bs = *{{IPA|[ɢ]ʷə[j] [ɡ](r)ə}}
| oc-zz = *{{IPA|ɢʷɯl ɡɯ}}
| kanji = {{linktext|囲碁}} or {{linktext|碁}}
| hiragana = いご or ご
| romaji = igo or go
| hangul = 바둑
| rr = baduk
| mr = paduk
| tib = མིག་མངས
| wylie = mig mangs
| qn = cờ vây
| hn = 碁圍
| tp = wéi-cí
| bpmf = ㄨㄟˊ ㄑㄧˊ
| katakana = イゴ or ゴ
}}

# <!--Please do not add names in other languages or more kanji/hanzi/hangul or transliterations in the opening paragraph as the name of the game in Chinese, Japanese and Korean is given in the box on the side, beneath the info box.-->

'''Go''' is an [[abstract strategy game|abstract strategy]] [[board game]] for two players in which the aim is to fence off more territory than the opponent. The game was invented in [[China]] more than 2,500 years ago and is believed to be the oldest board game continuously played to the present day.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.usgo-archive.org/brief-history-go|title=A Brief History of Go|publisher=American Go Association|access-date=March 23, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|first=Peter|last=Shotwell|title=The Game of Go: Speculations on its Origins and Symbolism in Ancient China|year=2008|publisher=American Go Association|url=http://www.usgo-archive.org/files/bh_library/originsofgo.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130516100351/http://www.usgo.org/files/bh_library/originsofgo.pdf|archive-date=May 16, 2013|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://gobase.org/reading/history/china/?sec=part-2|title=The Legends of the Sage Kings and Divination|publisher=GoBase.org|access-date=May 12, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=A Brief History of Go {{!}} British Go Association |url=https://www.britgo.org/intro/history |access-date=2023-12-16 |website=www.britgo.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Ancient Chinese Game of Go |url=http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/Archaeology/131298.htm |access-date=2023-12-16 |website=www.china.org.cn}}</ref> A 2016 survey by the [[International Go Federation]]'s 75 member nations found that there are over 46 million people worldwide who know how to play Go, and over 20 million current players, the majority of whom live in [[East Asia]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.intergofed.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2016_Go_population_report.pdf|title=Go Population Survey|last=The International Go Federation|date=February 2016|website=intergofed.org|access-date=28 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170517013354/http://www.intergofed.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2016_Go_population_report.pdf|archive-date=17 May 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[Game piece (board game)|playing pieces]] are called ''[[Go equipment#Stones|stones]]''. One player uses the white stones and the other black stones. The players take turns placing their stones on the vacant intersections (''points'') on the [[#Boards|board]]. Once placed, stones may not be moved, but ''captured stones'' are immediately removed from the board. A single stone (or connected group of stones) is ''captured'' when surrounded by the opponent's stones on all [[Orthogonality#Gaming|orthogonally]] adjacent points.{{sfn|Iwamoto|1977|p=22}} The game proceeds until neither player wishes to make another move.

When a game concludes, the winner is determined by counting each player's surrounded territory along with captured stones and [[komidashi|komi]] (points added to the [[Score (game)|score]] of the player with the white stones as compensation for playing second).{{sfn|Iwamoto|1977|p=18}} Games may also end by resignation.<ref name=":0" />

The standard Go board has a 19×19 [[grid graph|grid]] of lines, containing 361 points. Beginners often play on smaller 9×9 or 13×13 boards,{{sfn|Matthews|2004|p=1}} and archaeological evidence shows that the game was played in earlier centuries on a board with a 17×17 grid. Boards with a 19×19 grid had become standard, however, by the time the game reached [[Korea]] in the 5th century [[Common Era|CE]] and [[Japan]] in the 7th century CE.{{sfn|Cho Chikun|1997|p=18}}

Go was considered one of the [[four arts|four essential arts]] of the cultured [[aristocratic]] Chinese scholars in antiquity. The earliest written reference to the game is generally recognized as the historical annal ''[[Zuo Zhuan]]''<ref name="The Tso Chuan book">{{cite book|last=Burton|first=Watson|title=The Tso Chuan|date=April 15, 1992|publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-06715-7}}</ref>{{sfn|Fairbairn|1995|p={{page needed|date=May 2014}}}} ({{circa|4th century}} BCE).<ref name=chronology2>{{cite web|title=Warring States Project Chronology #2|publisher=University of Massachusetts Amherst|url=http://www.umass.edu/wsp/project/introductions/chronology2.html|access-date=2007-11-30|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071219225436/http://www.umass.edu/wsp/project/introductions/chronology2.html|archive-date=2007-12-19}}</ref>

Despite its relatively [[#Rules|simple rules]], Go is extremely complex. Compared to [[chess]], Go has both a larger board with more scope for play and longer games and, on average, many more alternatives to consider per move. The number of legal board positions in Go has been calculated to be approximately {{val|2.1e170}},<ref>{{cite web|url=https://tromp.github.io/go/gostate.pdf|last1=Tromp|first1=John|last2=Farnebäck|first2=Gunnar|title=Combinatorics of Go|website=tromp.github.io|date=January 31, 2016|access-date=June 17, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160125182938/https://tromp.github.io/go/gostate.pdf|archive-date=January 25, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>{{efn|1=Game complexity can be difficult to estimate. The number of legal positions ([[state-space complexity]]) for chess has been estimated at anywhere between 10<sup>43</sup> and 10<sup>50</sup>; in 2016 the number of legal positions for 19x19 Go was calculated by Tromp and Farneback at ~{{val|2.08e170}}. Alternately, a measure of all the alternatives to be considered at each stage of the game ([[game-tree complexity]]) can be estimated with ''b<sup>d</sup>'', where ''b'' is the game's breadth (number of legal moves per position) and ''d'' is its depth (number of moves or ''[[ply (game theory)|plies]]'' per game). For chess and Go the comparison is very rough, ~35<sup>80</sup> ≪ ~250<sup>150</sup>, or ~10<sup>123</sup> ≪ ~10<sup>360</sup>{{sfn|Allis|1994|pp=158–161, 171, 174|ps=, §§6.2.4, 6.3.9, 6.3.12}}}} which is far greater than the [[Observable Universe#Matter content—number of atoms|number of atoms in the observable universe]], which is estimated to be on the order of 10<sup>80</sup>.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lee|first=Kai-Fu|author-link=Kai-Fu Lee|title=AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order|date=September 25, 2018|publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]]|isbn=9781328546395|access-date=June 17, 2020|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xb9wDwAAQBAJ}}</ref>

{{GoBoardGame}}