The history of weiqi, or go, Chinese board game dating back over 2,000 years
More popularly known as go – its Japanese name – weiqi has for centuries been embraced as a mark of cultivation and refinement
I recently discovered that the Singapore Weiqi Association is located within walking distance of my home. For the uninitiated, weiqi is the Chinese – and original – name of the board game better known in the West by its Japanese name, go.
I have long been fascinated by weiqi, a game that is deceptively simple yet astonishingly complex, but I have never got around to learning it.
At first glance, the rules appear remarkably straightforward. The game is played by two opponents on a board marked with a 19-by-19 grid, creating 361 intersections. The player using the black stones moves first, followed by the player using the white stones. The two then take turns placing stones on the intersections.
The objective is to control more territory than one’s opponent. Players achieve this by surrounding areas with their stones and by trapping opposing stones – hence its name weiqi, which literally means “encirclement game”.
A stone remains on the board as long as it has at least one unoccupied intersection directly adjacent to it. These adjacent points are known as “liberties”. When a stone, or a connected group of stones, is completely surrounded and no liberties remain, it is captured and removed from the board.
When neither player believes there is anything more to gain by making additional moves, the game ends. The winner is determined by counting the amount of territory controlled, which is the number of empty intersections enclosed by a player’s stones, together with any opposing stones captured during the game.
Despite its simple rules, weiqi generates almost limitless permutations of positions, which gives the game immense strategic depth and endless tactical possibilities.