Alabaster Disaster
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2020
Recently got back into playing Go, which I've been doing off-and-on since about 2005. I've unilaterally decided to make a discussion thread on KF despite the fact that I've never seen anyone talk about it and have no reason to think anyone here is interested, because I am stupid. I've also decided to make the OP an effortpost general-introduction to the game for those less familiar, or for those who are looking for a new hobby that's going to piss them off, because I am also a dork. Therefore, welcome to the Kiwi Farms Go Thread
Go is a two player board game originating in ancient China. The players take turns placing their pieces, called stones, onto the intersections of a (usually) empty grid. Stones never move once placed, but can potentially be captured and removed. Players aim to use their stones to surround territory. Every intersection is worth one point to the player that controls it, with the higher score at the end of the game determining the winner. Go stands out from other abstract strategy games for having a relative sparsity of rules, which nevertheless allow for a staggering amount of theoretically legal moves, and deeply complex tactics and strategy.
The earliest history of the game ranges from mythical to speculative, but it's known to have originated in ancient China, and the first written reference appears as early as the 4th century BC. Its introduction to the western world, however, came through Japan, where it's been played mostly unaltered since the Nara period, if not earlier. As such, most of the nomenclature of the game known in the west consists of Japanese loanwords. The name Go itself comes from its Japanese name, 囲碁 (igo) or simply 碁 (go) which in turn comes from a Middle Chinese pronunciation of 围棋 (wéiqí). In both cases the characters mean "encirclement boardgame." The origins of its Korean name, 바둑 (Baduk) are unknown because their whole language is a giant exercise in humility for comparative linguists.
How to Play
A decent interactive tutorial for complete beginners can be found at this link. See also Rules of Go - introductory at Sensei's Library, the most popular Go wiki.
Though some specifics vary according to local custom or governing body, the basic rules, taken from Wikipedia, are as follows:
A number of other rules exist as supplements to the core ones above. Some of the most important are:
Komi: The first move provides a slight advantage to the player taking black. In the past this was treated as an inherent part of the game and it was assumed white needed to be aware of this and play accordingly. The idea of giving white extra points as compensation, called "komi," became a formal rule at the professional level in the 20th century. Though initially controversial, it's since become a nearly universal practice. Most common values are 5.5, 6.5, and 7.5 (the half point exists to prevent tie scores).
Handicap: Players of different skill level can still play a relatively even game through a handicap system that gives extra stones to black. Depending on the ruleset, the positions of the handicap stones can either be proscribed, or they can be freely placed before white's first move. If one player is only slightly weaker, it's also common for the stronger player to take white and a komi of 0.5 (i.e., no compensation but white wins in the case of a tie)
Dead stones: Stones that have liberties but have no hope of escaping eventual capture may be left on the board until the end of the game and removed as prisoners during the scoring phase, without having to fill in their remaining liberties.
The tutorial at https://www.learn-go.net/ also covers some important fundamental tactics, like life and death, ko fighting, and the importance of corners. Familiarity with these ideas is strongly recommended for new players.
Playing Online
There are roughly a couple dozen internet servers that facilitate playing Go online. I'll highlight a few of the most popular starting places here. Please remember opsec when openly associating yourself with any account outside of KF, and avoid cross-pollenating in a way that can be traced back to you in the normiesphere.
Online Go Server (OGS) - Runs on HTML5 and is playable directly in your internet browser. High degree of user friendliness and customizability. Natively supports post-game AI analysis. Arguably the most popular server among western audiences, but active population is a fraction of the biggest Asian alternatives. Still, I can usually find a game either at-will or within a couple of minutes.
FoxWeiqi aka Foxy - Chinese server. Users are required to download a client. Probably the most populous server. For the English language version, follow this link
Tygem - Korean server. Also requires a client but English language support is said to be a bit better than Foxy (haven't confirmed this for myself) and is nearly as well populated. Its userbase is somewhat notorious for having an aggressive playstyle, which is apparently common in S. Korea.
Ranks
The kyu and dan ranking system common to many martial arts has its origins in evaluating skill at Go. Stark beginners usually start around 30kyu to 25kyu, and the number gets lower as strength increases (e.g. a 15kyu is 5 ranks weaker than a 10kyu). After 1kyu the next highest rank is 1dan, denoting an amateur expert. Amateur ranks usually cap out at 7dan. In theory, the difference between ranks should tell you how many handicap stones would make an even game between players. A 1dan playing a 3dan would be expected to require 2 handicap stones. In practice, at weaker ranks this isn't such a hard and fast reality, and a 12kyu and 14kyu might be on even terms just by eliminating komi.
Professional Go players have dan rankings as a measure of relative strength but the differences between grades are much smaller and they rarely if ever play using handicap. Pro and amateur dan ratings are not equivalent but some high dan amateurs can play at similar strength to pros. Professional grades go up to 9dan, with an honorary 10dan title available as a tournament prize. It's common to abbreviate kyu ranks as k, dan ranks as d, and professional dan ranks as p, which you'll often see on the online accounts of pro players.
AI
Go received some academic attention in 2016 when AlphaGo beat Korean professional Lee Sedol 4-1 in a five game series, since prior to this it was assumed computers could never match top humans in strength. AlphaGo broke through by relying on analysis of countless games to determine positions most likely to win, and sought to maximize odds of victory rather than score, since a half-point W is still a W. The following year, AlphaGo Zero outplayed the "Lee" version 100 games to 0, merely by being taught the rules of go and allowed to play millions of games against itself, and plays at a level that's completely untouchable by any human. Open-source forks of the Zero model are now available for the public to either futilely play against or, more commonly, use as an analysis tool. They can run locally using the power of your CPU or GPU, but it's usually more practical and user-friendly to use online tools such as AI Sensei
Additional Resources
Outside of playing the game, one of the most-recommended ways for amateur players to improve is tsumego, or Go puzzles, usually taking the form of life-and-death problems where you're either attacking an opponent's shape or defending your own. This page at Sensei's Library contains a large list of online Go problems, and searching "tsumego" on your smartphone's app store will turn up a number of relevant results.
A number of pro and amateur players stream their games and produce YouTube videos. One of the most popular high-dan amateurs on Twitch and YouTube who speaks English natively is Dwyrin aka BattsGo. Nick Sibicky has an impressive library of videos but has expressed interest in retiring from his channel after his 500th video to focus on other projects, and at the time of this writing he's on number 479. Sunday Go Lessons features a lot of original content but is perhaps better known for uploading and subtitling games from the yearly NHK televised tournament.
Finally, I leave you with the most powerful move in the history of the game: the tea-stealing tesuji
The earliest history of the game ranges from mythical to speculative, but it's known to have originated in ancient China, and the first written reference appears as early as the 4th century BC. Its introduction to the western world, however, came through Japan, where it's been played mostly unaltered since the Nara period, if not earlier. As such, most of the nomenclature of the game known in the west consists of Japanese loanwords. The name Go itself comes from its Japanese name, 囲碁 (igo) or simply 碁 (go) which in turn comes from a Middle Chinese pronunciation of 围棋 (wéiqí). In both cases the characters mean "encirclement boardgame." The origins of its Korean name, 바둑 (Baduk) are unknown because their whole language is a giant exercise in humility for comparative linguists.
How to Play
A decent interactive tutorial for complete beginners can be found at this link. See also Rules of Go - introductory at Sensei's Library, the most popular Go wiki.
Though some specifics vary according to local custom or governing body, the basic rules, taken from Wikipedia, are as follows:
- The board is empty at the onset of the game (unless players agree to place a handicap).
- Black makes the first move, after which White and Black alternate.
- A move consists of placing one stone of one's own color on an empty intersection on the board.
- A player may pass their turn at any time.
- A stone or solidly connected group of stones of one color is captured and removed from the board when all the intersections directly adjacent to it are occupied by the enemy. (Capture of the enemy takes precedence over self-capture.)
- No stone may be played so as to recreate a former board position.
- Two consecutive passes end the game.
- A player's area consists of all the points the player has either occupied or surrounded.
- The player with more area wins.
A number of other rules exist as supplements to the core ones above. Some of the most important are:
Komi: The first move provides a slight advantage to the player taking black. In the past this was treated as an inherent part of the game and it was assumed white needed to be aware of this and play accordingly. The idea of giving white extra points as compensation, called "komi," became a formal rule at the professional level in the 20th century. Though initially controversial, it's since become a nearly universal practice. Most common values are 5.5, 6.5, and 7.5 (the half point exists to prevent tie scores).
Handicap: Players of different skill level can still play a relatively even game through a handicap system that gives extra stones to black. Depending on the ruleset, the positions of the handicap stones can either be proscribed, or they can be freely placed before white's first move. If one player is only slightly weaker, it's also common for the stronger player to take white and a komi of 0.5 (i.e., no compensation but white wins in the case of a tie)
Dead stones: Stones that have liberties but have no hope of escaping eventual capture may be left on the board until the end of the game and removed as prisoners during the scoring phase, without having to fill in their remaining liberties.
The tutorial at https://www.learn-go.net/ also covers some important fundamental tactics, like life and death, ko fighting, and the importance of corners. Familiarity with these ideas is strongly recommended for new players.
Playing Online
There are roughly a couple dozen internet servers that facilitate playing Go online. I'll highlight a few of the most popular starting places here. Please remember opsec when openly associating yourself with any account outside of KF, and avoid cross-pollenating in a way that can be traced back to you in the normiesphere.
Online Go Server (OGS) - Runs on HTML5 and is playable directly in your internet browser. High degree of user friendliness and customizability. Natively supports post-game AI analysis. Arguably the most popular server among western audiences, but active population is a fraction of the biggest Asian alternatives. Still, I can usually find a game either at-will or within a couple of minutes.
FoxWeiqi aka Foxy - Chinese server. Users are required to download a client. Probably the most populous server. For the English language version, follow this link
Tygem - Korean server. Also requires a client but English language support is said to be a bit better than Foxy (haven't confirmed this for myself) and is nearly as well populated. Its userbase is somewhat notorious for having an aggressive playstyle, which is apparently common in S. Korea.
Ranks
The kyu and dan ranking system common to many martial arts has its origins in evaluating skill at Go. Stark beginners usually start around 30kyu to 25kyu, and the number gets lower as strength increases (e.g. a 15kyu is 5 ranks weaker than a 10kyu). After 1kyu the next highest rank is 1dan, denoting an amateur expert. Amateur ranks usually cap out at 7dan. In theory, the difference between ranks should tell you how many handicap stones would make an even game between players. A 1dan playing a 3dan would be expected to require 2 handicap stones. In practice, at weaker ranks this isn't such a hard and fast reality, and a 12kyu and 14kyu might be on even terms just by eliminating komi.
Professional Go players have dan rankings as a measure of relative strength but the differences between grades are much smaller and they rarely if ever play using handicap. Pro and amateur dan ratings are not equivalent but some high dan amateurs can play at similar strength to pros. Professional grades go up to 9dan, with an honorary 10dan title available as a tournament prize. It's common to abbreviate kyu ranks as k, dan ranks as d, and professional dan ranks as p, which you'll often see on the online accounts of pro players.
AI
Go received some academic attention in 2016 when AlphaGo beat Korean professional Lee Sedol 4-1 in a five game series, since prior to this it was assumed computers could never match top humans in strength. AlphaGo broke through by relying on analysis of countless games to determine positions most likely to win, and sought to maximize odds of victory rather than score, since a half-point W is still a W. The following year, AlphaGo Zero outplayed the "Lee" version 100 games to 0, merely by being taught the rules of go and allowed to play millions of games against itself, and plays at a level that's completely untouchable by any human. Open-source forks of the Zero model are now available for the public to either futilely play against or, more commonly, use as an analysis tool. They can run locally using the power of your CPU or GPU, but it's usually more practical and user-friendly to use online tools such as AI Sensei
Additional Resources
Outside of playing the game, one of the most-recommended ways for amateur players to improve is tsumego, or Go puzzles, usually taking the form of life-and-death problems where you're either attacking an opponent's shape or defending your own. This page at Sensei's Library contains a large list of online Go problems, and searching "tsumego" on your smartphone's app store will turn up a number of relevant results.
A number of pro and amateur players stream their games and produce YouTube videos. One of the most popular high-dan amateurs on Twitch and YouTube who speaks English natively is Dwyrin aka BattsGo. Nick Sibicky has an impressive library of videos but has expressed interest in retiring from his channel after his 500th video to focus on other projects, and at the time of this writing he's on number 479. Sunday Go Lessons features a lot of original content but is perhaps better known for uploading and subtitling games from the yearly NHK televised tournament.
Finally, I leave you with the most powerful move in the history of the game: the tea-stealing tesuji
