Wu Qingyuan, legendary player of the game weiqi, died last month in Japan, aged 100. Known in Japan as Go Seigen, Wu was a native of Fujian province who was discovered to be a child prodigy of the game by a Japanese teacher. Wu was taken to compete in Japan, where he became a grandmaster of weiqi and, eventually, a citizen of the country.

Weiqi is a two-player chess-type game. To win, a player must capture more “territory” than their opponent on the board, which is a grid of black lines (usually 19x19).

The origin of weiqi is obscured in antiquity but it was first mentioned in a 4th century BC text referring to an event in 548BC. Despite its simple rules, weiqi is one of the most complex games in the world and mastery of it was a hallmark of a cultivated gentleman in ancient China.

Weiqi later spread to Tibet, Korea and Japan, where it flourished, in contrast with the game’s decline in its native country. By the early 20th century, it was seen by the rest of the world as a Japanese chess game. Today it is known internationally not as weiqi but by its Japanese name, “go”.