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Go (board game)

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Games

   Go
   The Go board and pieces
   A traditional Go board is wooden, with black painted lines. The stones
   are lenticular and fit closely together when placed on adjacent
   intersections.
   Players 2
   Age range 5+
   Setup time No setup needed
   Playing time 10 minutes to 3 hours
   Rules complexity Low
   Strategy depth Very High
   Random chance None
   Skills required Strategy, Observation

   Go is a board game for two players. It is also called Weiqi in Chinese
   (圍棋,围棋), Igo in Japanese ( Kanji: 囲碁), and Baduk in Korean (
   Hangul:바둑). Go originated in ancient China before 500 BC. It is now
   popular throughout the world, especially in East Asia.

   Go is played by alternately placing black and white stones on the
   vacant intersections of a 19×19 rectilinear grid. A stone or a group of
   stones is captured and removed if it is tightly surrounded by stones of
   the opposing colour. The objective is to control a larger territory
   than the opponent by placing one's stones so they cannot be captured.
   The game ends and the score is counted when both players consecutively
   pass on a turn, indicating that neither side can increase its territory
   or reduce its opponent's; the game can also end by resignation.

Origin of the name

   The game is called Go in many languages; this word originated from the
   Japanese pronunciation "go" of the Chinese characters 棋/碁; in Japanese
   the name is written 碁. The Chinese name Weiqi (圍棋,围棋) roughly
   translates as "encirclement chess", "board game of surrounding", or
   "enclosing game". Its ancient Chinese name is 弈 ( pinyin: yì). The
   writings 棋/碁 are variants, as seen in the Chinese Kangxi dictionary.
   The game is most commonly known as 囲碁 (igo) in Japanese. Because
   Japanese professionals taught the first Western players, the latter
   naturally used the Japanese name in early German-language and then
   English-language books and articles about the game.

Terminology

   The Japan Go Association ( Nihon Ki-in) has long played a leading role
   spreading Go outside East Asia, publishing the English-language
   magazine Go Review in the 1960s, establishing Go Centers in the US and
   Europe, and often sending professional teachers to Western nations for
   extended periods. As a result, many Go concepts for which there is no
   ready English equivalent have become known elsewhere by their Japanese
   names.

   The widespread use of Japanese terminology in the West notwithstanding,
   Chinese and Korean members of the international Go community, including
   professionals, continue to advocate for the primacy of terms from their
   language in common usage. They point out that in recent years, many
   Chinese and Korean players have also taught Western students. There is
   also no exact equivalence of concepts in different Asian languages,
   meaning that Go is still without a standard technical jargon.

   In order to differentiate the game from the common English verb " go",
   the game is sometimes spelt with a capital G; this convention is not
   however followed in most of the technical literature on the game. An
   alternative but uncommon spelling is Goe, proposed by Ing Chang-Ki, the
   late wealthy promoter of Go (particularly in Taiwan and the US), for
   the same reason. This spelling is not widely used outside events
   sponsored by the Ing foundation.

History

   In many East Asian cultures, Go was considered one of the most
   important skills a civilized person could learn. This screen was made
   by Kano Eitoku in the 16th century.
   Enlarge
   In many East Asian cultures, Go was considered one of the most
   important skills a civilized person could learn. This screen was made
   by Kano Eitoku in the 16th century.

   Some legends trace the origin of the game to Chinese emperor Yao 堯
   (2337 - 2258 BC) who designed it for his son, Danzhu, to teach him
   discipline, concentration, and balance. Other theories suggest that the
   game was derived from Chinese warlords and generals who used pieces of
   stone to map out attacking positions, or that Go equipment emerged from
   divination material. The earliest written references of the game come
   from the Zuo Zhuan, which describes a man in 548 BC who likes the game,
   and Book XVII of the Analects of Confucius, compiled sometime after 479
   BC.

   In China, Go was perceived as the popular game of the aristocratic
   class while Xiangqi (Chinese chess) was the game of the masses. Go was
   considered one of the cultivated arts of the Chinese scholar gentleman,
   along with calligraphy, painting and playing the guqin, together known
   as 琴棋書畫 ( 四艺, pinyin: Sìyì), or the Four Arts of the Chinese Scholar.

   Go had reached Japan from China by the 7th century, and gained
   popularity at the imperial court in the 8th century. By the beginning
   of the 13th century, Go was played among the general public in Japan.
   Guan Yu playing Go while having his wounds attended to
   Enlarge
   Guan Yu playing Go while having his wounds attended to

   In 1603, Tokugawa Ieyasu created Japan's first unified national
   government. Almost immediately, he appointed the then-best player in
   Japan, Honinbo Sansa, head of a newly founded Go academy (the Honinbo
   school, the first of several competing schools founded about the same
   time). These officially recognized and subsidized Go schools greatly
   developed the level of play, and introduced the martial arts style
   system of ranking players. Players from the four houses (Honinbo,
   Yasui, Inoue, Hayashi) competed in the annual castle games for status
   and the position of Godokoro, or minister of Go. Players like Honinbo
   Shusaku became national celebrities. The government discontinued its
   support for the Go academies in 1868 as a result of the fall of the
   Tokugawa shogunate.

   Historically, Go has seen unequal gender participation. However, the
   creation of new, open tournaments and the rise of strong female
   players, most notably Rui Naiwei, has in recent years legitimised the
   strength and competitiveness of emerging female players.

   Around 2000, in Japan, the manga (Japanese comic) and anime series
   Hikaru no Go popularized Go among the youth and started a Go boom in
   Japan.

   Scott A. Boorman's The Protracted Game: A Wei-Chi Interpretation of
   Maoist Revolutionary Strategy , likens the game to historical events,
   saying that the Maoists were better at surrounding territory. Mao
   Zedong himself was a Go player.

Nature of the game

   In game theory terms, Go is a zero-sum, perfect information,
   deterministic, strategy game, putting it in the same class as chess,
   checkers (draughts), and reversi (othello) although it is not similar
   in its play to these. Although the game rules are very simple, the
   practical strategy is extremely complex.

   The game emphasizes the importance of balance on multiple levels, and
   has internal tensions. To secure an area of the board, it is good to
   play moves close together; but to cover the largest area one needs to
   spread out, perhaps leaving weaknesses that can be exploited. Playing
   too low (close to the edge) secures insufficient territory and
   influence; yet playing too high (far from the edge) allows the opponent
   to invade. Many people find Go attractive for its reflection of the
   conflicting demands of real life.

   It has been claimed that Go is the most complex game in the world, on
   various measures, such as the spread of identifiable levels of skill.
   Its large board and lack of restrictions allows great scope in strategy
   and expression of players' individuality. Decisions in one part of the
   board may be influenced by an apparently unrelated situation in a
   distant part of the board. Plays made early in the game can shape the
   nature of conflict a hundred moves later.

   The game complexity of Go is such that even an introduction to strategy
   can fill a book, as evidenced in many introductory books. Go strategy
   and tactics gives a very brief introduction to the main concepts of Go
   strategy.

Numerical estimates

   On a 19×19 board, there are about 3^361×0.012 = 2.1×10^170 possible
   positions, most of which are the end result of about (120!)^2 =
   4.5×10^397 different (no-capture) games, for a total of about
   9.3×10^567 games. Allowing captures gives as many as

          10^{7.49 \times 10^{48}}

   possible games, all of which last for over 4.1×10^48 moves. Certainly,
   no Go game has ever been played twice.

   In comparison, the number of legal positions in chess is estimated to
   be between 10^43 and 10^50.

Traditional Japanese equipment

   Round 1 of the 1989 Meijin tournament.
   Enlarge
   Round 1 of the 1989 Meijin tournament.

   Although one could play Go with a piece of cardboard for a board and a
   bag of plastic tokens, the finest equipment costs thousands of dollars.
   Many players derive great aesthetic and sensual satisfaction from
   playing with good equipment.

   The traditional Go board (goban in Japanese) is solid wood, from 10 to
   18 cm thick, and often stands on its own attached legs. It is
   preferably made from the rare golden-tinged Kaya tree (Torreya
   nucifera), with the very best made from Kaya trees up to 700 years old.
   More recently, the California Torreya (Torreya californica) has been
   prized for its light colour and pale rings. Other woods often used to
   make quality table boards include Hiba (Thujopsis dolabrata), Katsura
   (Cercidiphyllum japonicum), and Kauri (Agathis). So-called Shin Kaya is
   a potentially confusing merchant's term: shin means "new" and "shin
   kaya" is best translated "faux kaya" — the woods so described are
   biologically unrelated to Kaya.

   Players sit on rice-straw mats ( tatami) on the floor to play. The
   pleasantly smooth stones (go-ishi) are kept in matching solid wood
   bowls (go-ke) and are made of clamshell (white) and slate (black). The
   classic slate is nachiguro stone mined in Wakayama prefecture and the
   clamshell from the Hamaguri clam. The natural resources of Japan have
   been unable to keep up with the enormous demand for the native clams
   and slow-growing Kaya trees; both must be of sufficient age to grow to
   the desired size, and they are now extremely rare at the age and
   quality required, raising the price of such equipment tremendously.

   In clubs and at tournaments, where large numbers of sets must be
   maintained (and usually purchased) by one organization, expensive
   traditional sets are not usually used. For these situations, table
   boards (of the same design as floor boards, but only about 2–5 cm thick
   and without legs) are used, and the stones are made of glass rather
   than slate and shell. Bowls are often plastic if wooden bowls are not
   available. Plastic stones could be used, but are considered inferior to
   glass as they are generally too light, and stick to the fingers even
   after being released. Most players find that the lower price does not
   justify this distraction.

   Traditionally, the board's grid is 1.5 shaku long by 1.4 shaku wide
   (455 mm by 424 mm) with space beyond to allow stones to be played on
   the edges and corners of the grid. This often surprises newcomers: it
   is not a perfect square, but is longer than it is wide, in the
   proportion 15:14. Two reasons are frequently given for this. One is
   that when the players sit at the board, the angle at which they view
   the board gives a foreshortening of the grid; the board is slightly
   longer between the players to compensate for this. Another suggested
   reason is that the Japanese aesthetic finds structures with geometric
   symmetry to be in bad taste.

   Traditional stones are made so that black stones are slightly larger in
   diameter than white; this is probably to compensate for the optical
   illusion created by contrasting colours that would make equal-sized
   white stones appear larger on the board than black stones. The
   difference is slight, and since its effect is to make the stones appear
   the same size on the board, it can be surprising to discover they are
   not.

   The bowls for the stones are of a simple shape, like a flattened sphere
   with a level underside. The lid is loose-fitting and is upturned before
   play to receive stones captured during the game. The bowls are usually
   made of turned wood, although small lidded baskets of woven bamboo or
   reeds make an attractive cheaper alternative.

   The traditional way to place a Go stone is to first take a stone from
   the bowl, gripping it between the index and middle fingers, and then
   place it directly on the desired intersection. It is permissible to
   strike the board firmly to produce a sharp click. Many consider the
   acoustic properties of the board to be quite important. The traditional
   goban will usually have its underside carved with a pyramid called a
   heso recessed into the board. Tradition holds that this is to give a
   better resonance to the stone's click, but the more conventional
   explanation is to allow the board to expand and contract without
   splitting the wood. A board is seen as more attractive when it is
   marked with slight dents from decades (or centuries) of stones striking
   the surface.

Rules

   This picture shows one black unit and two white units. Their respective
   liberties are shown with dots. Note that liberties are shared among all
   the stones of a unit. If White plays where his two units share a
   liberty, they will be connected into one.
   This picture shows one black unit and two white units. Their respective
   liberties are shown with dots. Note that liberties are shared among all
   the stones of a unit. If White plays where his two units share a
   liberty, they will be connected into one.

Basic rules

   If white plays at A, the black unit loses its last liberty, and is
   captured and removed from the board.
   If white plays at A, the black unit loses its last liberty, and is
   captured and removed from the board.
     * Two players, Black and White, take turns placing a stone (game
       piece) on a vacant point (intersection) of a 19 by 19 board (grid).
       Black moves first. Other board sizes such as 13x13 and 9x9 may be
       used for teaching or quick games, but 19x19 is the standard size.
       Once played, a stone may not be moved to a different point.
     * A vacant point adjacent to a stone is a liberty for that stone.
     * Adjacent stones of the same colour form a unit that shares its
       liberties in common, cannot subsequently be subdivided, and in
       effect becomes a single larger stone.
     * Units may be expanded by playing additional stones of the same
       color on their liberties, or amalgamated by playing a stone on a
       mutual liberty of two or more units of the same colour.
     * A unit must have at least one liberty to remain on the board. When
       a unit is surrounded by opposing stones so that it has no
       liberties, it is captured and removed from the board.
     * If a stone is played where it has no liberties, but it occupies the
       last liberty of one or more opposing units, then such units are
       captured first, leaving the newly played stone at least one
       liberty.
     * "Ko rule": A stone cannot be played on a particular point if doing
       so would recreate the board position that existed after the same
       player's previous turn.
     * A player may pass instead of placing a stone, indicating that he
       sees no way to increase his territory or reduce his opponent's
       territory. When both players pass consecutively, the game ends and
       is then scored.

   A player's score is the number of empty points enclosed only by his
   stones plus the number of points occupied by his stones. The player
   with the higher score wins. (Note that there are other rulesets that
   count the score differently, yet almost always produce the same
   result.) For a more detailed treatment, see Rules of Go.

   This is the essence of the game of Go. The risk of capture means that
   stones must work together to control territory, which makes the
   gameplay very complex and interesting.

   Go allows one to play not only even games (games between players of
   roughly equal strength) but also handicap games (games between players
   of unequal strength). Without a handicap, even a slight difference in
   strength will generally be decisive.
   Game 5 of the 2002 LG Cup final between Choe Myeong-hun (white) and Lee
   Sedol (black) at the end of the opening stage; white has developed a
   great deal of potential territory, while black has emphasized central
   influence.
   Game 5 of the 2002 LG Cup final between Choe Myeong-hun (white) and Lee
   Sedol (black) at the end of the opening stage; white has developed a
   great deal of potential territory, while black has emphasized central
   influence.

Optional rules

   Optional Go rules may set the following:
     * compensation points, almost always for the second player, see komi;
     * compensation stones placed on the board before alternate play,
       allowing players of different strengths to play competitively (see
       Go handicap for more information);
     * "superko": the ko rule (a move must not recreate the previous
       position) is extended to disallow any previous position. This
       prevents complex repetitive situations ("triple ko", "eternal
       life", etc.) from cycling indefinitely.

Strategy

   Basic strategic aspects include the following:
     * Connection: Keeping one's own stones connected means that fewer
       groups need defense.
     * Cut: Keeping opposing stones disconnected means that the opponent
       needs to defend more groups.
     * Life: This is the ability of stones to permanently avoid capture.
       The simplest way is for the group to surround two "eyes" (separate
       empty areas), so that filling one eye will not kill the group and
       therefore be suicidal.
     * Death: The absence of life coupled with the inability to create it,
       resulting in the eventual removal of a group.
     * Invasion: Setting up a new living position inside an area where the
       opponent has greater influence, as a means of balancing territory.
     * Reduction: Placing a stone far enough into the opponent's area of
       influence to reduce the amount of territory he/she will eventually
       get, but not so far in that it is cut off from friendly stones
       outside.

   The strategy involved can become very abstract and complex. High-level
   players spend years perfecting understanding of strategy.

Concepts and philosophy

   Go is not easy to play well. With each new level (rank) comes a deeper
   appreciation for the subtlety and nuances involved, and for the insight
   of stronger players. The acquisition of major concepts of the game
   comes slowly. Novices often start by randomly placing stones on the
   board, as if it were a game of chance; they inevitably lose to
   experienced players who know how to create effective formations. An
   understanding of how stones connect for greater power develops, and
   then a few basic common opening sequences may be understood. Learning
   the ways of life and death helps in a fundamental way to develop one's
   strategic understanding, of weak groups. It is necessary to play some
   thousands of games before one can get close to one's ultimate potential
   Go skill. A player who plays aggressively, is said to display kiai or
   fighting spirit in the game.

   Familiarity with the board shows first the tactical importance of the
   edges, and then the efficiency of developing in the corners first, then
   sides, then centre. The more advanced beginner understands that
   territory and influence are somewhat interchangeable — but there needs
   to be a balance. It is best to develop more or less at the same pace as
   the opponent in both territory and influence. This intricate struggle
   of power and control makes the game highly dynamic.

   Often, a comparison of Go and chess is used as a parallel to explain
   western versus eastern strategic thinking. Go begins with an empty
   board. It is focused on building from the ground up (nothing to
   something) with multiple, simultaneous battles leading to a point-based
   win. Chess, one can say, is in the end centralised, as the
   predetermined object is to kill one individual piece (the king). Go is
   quite otherwise: individuals are only significant as they join or help
   determine the fate of larger forces, and what those are is worked out
   only as the game proceeds.

   A similar comparison has been drawn among Go, chess and backgammon,
   perhaps the three oldest games that still enjoy worldwide popularity.
   Backgammon is a "man vs. fate" contest, with chance playing a strong
   role in determining the outcome. Chess, with rows of soldiers marching
   forward to capture each other, embodies the conflict of "man vs. man."
   Because the handicap system tells each Go player where he/she stands
   relative to other players, an honestly ranked player can expect to lose
   about half of his/her games; therefore, Go can be seen as embodying the
   quest for self-improvement — "man vs. self."

Computer software

Software players

   Go poses a significant challenge to computer programmers. While there
   may be only a handful of masters in the world who can beat the best
   computer chess software, there are millions of people who can beat the
   best computer Go software. The best computer Go software manages to
   reach consistently only the range 8–10 kyu, the level a human beginner
   can hope to reach by studying and playing regularly for some months.
   Programs for Go are not yet much helped by fast computation. On the
   other hand, a chess-playing computer, Deep Blue, beat the world
   champion in 1997. For this reason, many in the field of artificial
   intelligence consider Go to be a better measure of a computer's
   capacity for thought than chess.

   The reasons why computers are not good at playing Go are attributed to
   many qualities of the game, including:
     * Although there are usually less than 50 playable (meaning
       acceptable) moves (and not uncommonly even fewer than 10) the area
       of the board is very large (five times the size of a chess board)
       and the number of legal moves rarely go below 50. Throughout most
       of the game the number of legal moves stay at around 150–250, but
       computers have a hard time distinguishing between good and bad
       moves.
     * Whereas in most games based on capture (e.g. chess, checkers) the
       game becomes simpler over time as pieces disappear, in Go, a new
       piece appears every move, and the game becomes progressively more
       complex, at least for the first 100 ply.
     * Unlike other games, a material advantage in Go does not mean a
       simple way to victory, and may just mean that short-term gain has
       been given priority.
     * The non-local nature of the ko rule has to be kept in mind in
       advanced play.
     * There is a very high degree of pattern recognition involved in
       human capacity to play well.

Software assistance

   Computers become useful when they are used as tools to support Go
   learners and players in the following ways:
     * Internet-based Go servers allow people all over the world to play
       one another. Online Go playing is becoming popular, with many
       strong amateur players and pros taking part.
     * There are numerous go websites, and a specialist go wiki, Sensei's
       Library.
     * Game records can be stored in files and kept in a database. One can
       then search the database for a particular opening strategy, or for
       games by a particular player. Electronic databases now provide a
       convenient, efficient way to study joseki, fuseki, life and death
       situations and other problems. This development has had a major
       impact on the information on high-level play that is generally
       available.
     * Computers make it easy to review and study game records. Many
       comments and annotated variations can be included in one file.
       Teachers can review a player's game records and attach variations
       and comments. Many teachers now use this method online, instructing
       students they may have never met.

Variants

   There are many variations on the basic game of Go. Many of the modern
   variants are purely for fun, but some were invented with a specific
   purpose in mind. For example, capture Go is used for introducing the
   game to beginners, whilst rengo (paired Go) aims at the promotion of
   the game amongst women. There are also historical regional variations
   that have now fallen out of fashion, such as Sunjang Baduk and Tibetan
   Go.

In popular culture

   Go played using humans wearing hats (black or white) in place of stones
   (black or white) on a grid laid out in the grass.
   Enlarge
   Go played using humans wearing hats (black or white) in place of stones
   (black or white) on a grid laid out in the grass.

   There are some instances in modern culture where Go and its strategies
   have been used as a literary concept, such as theme. For example, the
   1979 novel Shibumi by Trevanian, centers around the game and uses Go
   metaphors. Go symbolism is used in the Chung Kuo series of novels, and
   Rick Cook's Limbo System. Other novels that have centered around the
   game include the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens and Kiriyama Prize winner
   The Girl Who Played Go by Shan Sa, Nobel prize-winner Yasunari
   Kawabata's The Master of Go, Sung-Hwa Hong's First Kyu, Scarlett
   Thomas's PopCo, and Jean-Jacques Pelletier' s Blunt: Les Treize
   Derniers Jours.

   In television, Go appeared in:
     * a Nikita story arc with the character "Jurgen".
     * the Star Trek: Enterprise episode titled "The Cogenitor", in which
       Charles Tucker plays Go.
     * Andromeda, in which Dylan Hunt and Gaheris Rhade both play a
       futuristic version of Go.
     * in episode 15 of season 3 of 24, with several scenes in an
       underground Chinese Go club.
     * a 1980s TV series called Chessgame with Terence Stamp as a spy
       master who would spend long periods studying a Go board.

   In films Go has appeared in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, A Beautiful
   Mind, Pi, Restless, After the Sunset and Hero among many others. The
   game is featured in the manga and anime series Hikaru no Go and Naruto.
   At the end of each episode of the Japanese anime version of Hikaru no
   Go, a three minute segment teaches a concept of Go.

Competitive play

Ranks

   Three Japanese professional Go players observe some younger amateurs as
   they dissect a life and death problem in the corner of the board, at
   the US Go Congress in Houston, 2003.
   Enlarge
   Three Japanese professional Go players observe some younger amateurs as
   they dissect a life and death problem in the corner of the board, at
   the US Go Congress in Houston, 2003.

   In Go, ranks are employed to indicate playing strength. The difference
   between the amateur ranks is one handicap stone while for professional
   ranks the difference is roughly 1 stone for every three ranks. For
   example, if a 5k played a game with a 1k where the 1k gave four
   handicap stones, the game would be about even whereas if a 9p played a
   3p, he would give two handicap stones for a game where both have equal
   chances.

   The rank system is comprised of, from the lowest to highest ranks:
   Rank Type Range Stage
   double-digit kyu (級,급) (gup in Korean) 30–10k Introductory
   single-digit kyu 9–1k Elementary to Intermediate
   amateur dan (段,단) 1–7d (where 8d is special title) Advanced
   professional dan (段,단) 1–9p (where 10p is special title) Expert

Time control

   Like many other games, a game of Go may be timed using a game clock.
   Game clocks are often used in tournaments so that all players finish in
   a timely way and the next round can be paired on time. Players may also
   use game clocks for casual play, for instance if playing an opponent
   who is known to play slowly. There are two widely used methods that are
   associated with Go .

   Standard Byo-Yomi: After the main time is depleted, a player has a
   certain number of time periods (typically around thirty seconds). After
   each move, the number of time periods that the player took (possibly
   zero) is subtracted. For example, if a player has three thirty-second
   time periods and takes thirty or more (but less than sixty) seconds to
   make a move, he loses one time period. With 60-89 seconds, he loses two
   time periods, and so on. If, however, he takes less than thirty
   seconds, the timer simply resets without subtracting any periods. Using
   up the last period means that the player has lost on time.

   Canadian Byo-Yomi: After using all of his/her main time, a player must
   make a certain number of moves within a certain period of time — for
   example, twenty moves within five minutes. Typically, players stop the
   clock, and the player in overtime sets his/her clock for the desired
   interval, counts out the required number of stones and sets the
   remaining stones out of reach, so as not to become confused. If twenty
   moves are made in time, the timer is reset to five minutes again. If
   the time period expires without the required number of stones having
   been played, then the player has lost on time.

   Further details on this subject can be found at time control.

Top players

   Although the game was developed in China, Japan-based players dominated
   the international Go scene for most of the twentieth century. However,
   professional players from China such as Nie Weiping (from the 1980s)
   and South Korea (since the 1990s) have reached even higher levels.
   Nowadays, top players from China and Korea are of similar strength, but
   Japan is increasingly lagging behind. Professionals from these three
   countries regularly compete in a number of national and international
   Go tournaments. The top Japanese tournaments have a prize purse
   comparable to that of professional golf tournaments in the United
   States, while tournaments in China and Korea are less lavishly funded.

   Korean players have had an edge in the major international titles,
   winning 23 tournaments in a row between 2000 and 2002. In the last few
   years, Korean dominance in international competitions have been
   increasingly challenged by their Chinese counterparts. Several big name
   players in South Korea are Lee Chang-ho, Cho Hunhyun, Lee Sedol, Choi
   Cheol-han, Park Young-Hoon.

   The level in other countries has traditionally been much lower (apart
   from Taiwan), except for some players who had preparatory professional
   training in Asia. Knowledge of the game has been scanty elsewhere, for
   most of the game's history. It was not until 2000 that a Westerner,
   Michael Redmond, achieved the top rank awarded by an Asian Go
   association, 9th dan. A German scientist, Oscar Korschelt, is credited
   with the first systematic description of the game in a Western language
   in 1880; it was not until the 1950s that Western players would take up
   the game as more than a passing interest. In 1978, Manfred Wimmer
   became the first Westerner to receive a professional player's
   certificate from an Asian professional Go association.

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