Magic Go is a website to help beginners learn and get into the wonderful game of Go. We’re paired with the Brisbane Go Club (A Go club in Annerley, Queensland) and Pacifigo (a Go equipment shop).
What is Go?
Go – otherwise known as Igo (囲碁) in Japan, Weiqi (圍棋) in China and Baduk (바둑) in Korea – is a strategy board game played between two players.
Go is believed to be the oldest board game still being played today, with estimates of it being at least 2,500 years old. In fact, Go has over 20 million players worldwide, with most players being in SE Asia.
Go originated in China many thousands of years ago, where it was known as Weiqi (literally “surrounding game”). It later spread to Korea and then later Japan in the 7th century, who made changes to the game which makes the modern version of Go that we see today.
The game is known for being simple to learn while taking a lifetime to master due to it’s unfolding complexity as one’s skills improve.
The Rules
Each player takes turns placing one stone at a time with the goal of capturing the enemey’s stones and/or surrounding as much territory as possible.
At the end of the game – when all territories have been completely surrounded – the player with the most surrounded territory and captured stones wins.
For more details on the rules, see Rules of Go.