But, what "go" is, initially ?

-"Easy ! It's a japanese game useful in Crosswords."

Not only...Go is, like chess, a strategic game in which two opponents play one after the other. This game is also called "Art of surrounding". Indeed, the goal of this game is to put stones on an empty surface, in order to dominate the most largest extent, making "territories", a unit of empty intersections controled by the player. These territories are necessary to determinate who is the winner after one of the player put the ultimate stone.)

In japanese, "go" is called "Igo". ^^

-"And in Korean ?"

"Go" is called "Baduk" in Korean (it sounds like a pet's name, isn't it ?)

-"And in Chinese?"

Chinese calls "Go", "Weichi".

-"And in Swahili ?"

Hn....

How to play ?

-"Oyo ! Do you really want to stay here for hours ?"

Indeed, "Go" is a complex game...[NDT : I don't think so...but, i'm just a translator...:p]

To play, you need a goban (go-board).

-"What ?"

oir commence toujours, ce qui, normalement, lui donne l'avantage. Pour que la partie soit équilibrée et que chaque joueur ait la possibilité de remporter la victoire quelque soit la couleur de ses pierres (alors qu'aux échecs, noir recherchera l'égalité car blanc est toujours plus fort), on accorde à blanc ce que l'on appelle le komi, un nombre de points (moku) qui a varié avec le temps mais qui est de 5,5 points dans le manga (avec un demi point pour éviter les égalités). Aujourd'hui, il est de 6,5 points.

Yes, a lot of terms used in "go" is japanese, but don't be afraid about it. So, i said you need a goban, kind of square wood piece with 19 horizontal features and 19 vertical features wich cross themselves 391 times. (theses intersections are where you put your stones) Black is always the one who begin to play. So, he has an advantage. To reduce it, white gets the Komi, some points (moku). these points are 5,5 in the manga (the half point is to avoid the equalites). Nowaday, komi is 6,5 . To determinate who get black, the players make Nigiri, a drawing of lots. One of the players takes a handle of white stones, hidding them in his hand. the other player has to guess if the number of stones are par or odd by putting one or two stones on the goban. If he guess rightly, he takes black.

-"Yeah, easy, I saw this in the manga..."

Some basic but necessary rules :

-"I become afraid right now..."

- The liberties -

The number of liberties measures the possibilities of a stone or a group of stone to live. they are the free intersections close to a group or a stone.
On the next graphs, a,b,c and d are the liberties of the black stone.

If the opponent put a stone on a, for example, he removes a black stone's liberty.

When a stone has only one liberty, we could said "this stone is in atari" : when the last liberty is removed, the stone will be captured.

- The capture -

A player has the possibilty to capture the opponent's stones. To capture a stone, or a group, the liberties of these ones must be filled in. A captured stone is removed from the goban and become a prisoner. On the next figures, if white play on A, he'll catch the black stones.

- The Ko rule -

Ko means "eternity". This rule had been created to avoid frequent situations which, without this rule, blocked the game.

So, look at the graph, the white stone in B is in atari. But, if black catch it, you will see a stone that black just put is in atari. It would seem that white could capture this.
What will happen if whites does it ? It will result in the same board situation of two moves earlier. Thus, both black and white keep capturing one stone forever.
Therefore, the moves which produce the same board position are prohibited. White have to play an other move and then, white will be allowed to captured the black stones on A.

- The eyes -

We called "eyes" the intersections in the middle of a group of stones and which avoid the capture of this group.(such group of stones is said to be alive. )

Example : On the first figure below, the white stones are surrounded completely - nowhere to escape - just waiting to be killed by black's move in the center.

Although black is surrounded, white can't capture black. There are still 2 places to kill black group - they are both surrounded by black where white can't play.

Therefore, once you make 2 separate spaces, or 2 eyes, your stones will never be captured.

<= Without komi, Black win by 32/29.

If Black play in point A, he'll reduce his territory. =>

First, we have to play in the neutral area (called dame in japanese) previously mentioned.

Red circles were empties intersections, but, in the counting, black and white become to put stones, one after an other, on these intersections which don't belong to any territories, in order to make the counting easier.

Then, we have to removed the dead stones from the goban and put them with the captured stones. Indeed, it isn't necessary to captured, by fill in all their liberties, the stones which are not able to live anyway.

On this figure, we removed the 2 dead stones(with a red star inside) from the game.

Third step, the players have to put the captured stones on the goban. the black stones in black territories and white stones in whites territories.(so the territories will be reduced by the prisonners)

The marked stone are the stone which have been captured during the game.

To finish, we move the stone in their own territories to make the counting more easy.

In this game, only the black stones have been moved. Without Komi, Black (15) win against White (11).

Where is the go born ?

- "In Japan, of course !"

Wrong ! The go is a veryyyyyy ancient (one of the most ancient) game. it was born in China around 1300 to 900 before Christ (but, it exists a controversy about this event but i can explain it right now because i don't speak english as well to write down a debate :p) ...The go arrived in Japan around 740 after christ, probably bring back from China by ambassadors.

During the 8th century, the game spread in Japan, but it was limited to the elite, people from the court, samouraïs and religious people.

- So boring.... ^o^

Briefly, the game spread, the rules changed with the time, and in the 16th century, the first professionals go players appeared : they got a grant from the government. Four great schools (including the famous Honinbo school) were created and they compete with themselves ; the strongest player received the Meïjin title (master).

- "What ? All these things haven't been created for Hikaru No Go !"

No, Yumi Hotta have just used, logically, the name of the titles and the tournaments.

And, what's about the go nowadays ?

-"It's true, we see almost only the japan in the manga..."

The Go have been introduced in the western countries for less than 50 years, so, our players are not about to compete whith the asian pro. (for example, the french professional can be count with your fingers) Today, the Japan has got the biggest number of pro (about 300 japanese pro)
But, as the manga say, the japanese supremacy is not what it used to be. Contrary to South Corea, which has the biggest number of amateur ( but only a thousand of pro) and China (with a thousand of pro too). We can found also some pro in Taiwan.

-"I wonder..it's odd this pro story..Are they really paid for play ?"

The professionals received a wage from the national association (which gets money from sponsors (often media) and from the sell of books, mags,etc..). And to make life a little more comfortable , professionals give lessons (from 45 to 140 dollars) and you can add the gain from the tournaments.
If the majority of the pro live comfortably, only the best players live like tennismen.

And about computers ?

- "Great ! I haven't to buy a goban !"

Yes, if you want to learn to play go, it's useless to go to buy a goban right now. You can find one, anyway.You have to find a specialized store (in strategical game, for example) which proposes goban and stones rather expensive.

So, searching around computer seem to be a good solution, but, contrary to chess,othello or mah-jong, go software are not numerous.

You can find on internet some softwares like : Igowin (to begin with a 9x9 goban), it is a freeware and downloadable; Turbo-go, more elaborate but only available on shareware; Dariush, a strong software, available on shareware too; and finally, GNU Go, probably the best go sofware, downloadable but a bit complicated to install. Some games of Hikaru No Go exist on Game Boy and Gamecube.

You can find the majority of these softwares on this page.

-"Great ! Go will supplant Solitaire in my favorites activities on my computer !"

Anyway, You can become very strong just by playing against your computer.

-"Whaaat !? But why ?"

Contrary to the chess, in wich Gary Gasparov was defeated by Deep Blue and his successors these last years, i am proud to announce that none of the computer software is able to compete with human intelligence, in the domain of the Go.

-"Gary Gasp...?!? O_O Who is he ? An other character of manga ?"

At the present time, even if a lot of computer scientists try to create the computer which is able to play the god's hand, the most powerful computer with the most complex of the programming will be ridiculous in a game against a pro. In fact, contrary to the chess the possibilties given by this game is almost boundless. Moreover, the computer scientists have troubles with the territories formed by the stones. The recognition of the structure in computer domain is, nowadays, at the beginning.

The human brain which is the most capable of resolve Tsumegos and it will take a long time before the machines show their superiority. Yees ! We're too strong ! And three cheers for the Go !

-"But, I never win against my computer ! T_T Why ? Sai ! Go out from my computer !!"

However, like in the manga, computers are great tools to find opponents by internet servers.

-"Yeepee ! I will be able to leave my sisters alone, and play as i wish !"

Like we are very kind (for the first and last time) we give you some links !

* Yahoo

* Kiseido go server (KGS)

* Internet go server (IGS)

And Shusaku ? Did he really exist ??

-"Yeah, we were a little anxious.."

Shusaku had really existed, he doesn't come from the mind of the scriptwriters.
He was born in 1829 next to the current Hiroshima. His birth name was Torajiro and he become a Go addict very young. When he is 6, Lord Asano, the daimyo of the region became his patron after playing a game with him, and allowed him to study with the priest Hoshin, a player of professional level. at age 8, he joined the Honinbo school. At age 12, he received his shodan diploma and take the name of "shusaku".He became stronger and stronger quickly until he became the best player of his period, he was also famous for his innovative style. He compete with strong player but he defeated them. it is said that he never lose when he get black (the komi didn't exist yet). His nickname was "Invicible Shusaku".
In 1862, a cholera epidemic swept through Japan. Shusaku tended the patients within the Hon'inbo house, and fell ill himself, dying of it on August 10.
His games are still studied, nowadays.

-"All the things Sai explain in the manga was true ! And Fujiwara no sai ? Did he exist ?"

Well, no, Hikaru have searched, but he found nothing....

Hikaru No Go realistic ?

-"So, hikaru no Go, all is wrong ?"

If Akira Toya and Shindou Hikaru are obviously imaginary characters, Yumi Hotta shows in her manga, the real japanese system.

All the games in Hikaru no Go are real games, played during tournaments !

The fist games played by Sai are games which were played by Shusaku.
For example, the game between Waya and Hikaru during the pro exam were played by Otake et Cho during the final of the Mejin tournament in 1980.
Likewise, the famous game between Koyo Toya and Sai were a game between Rin and Yoda, in 1997, for the Meijin title too.
And the game between Hikaru and Suyon were played between two corean female players (Yun Yeong-seon and Yi Cheong-weon) in 1995.

Other questions ?

-"Who have made this rubbish page full of stupid jokes and with many mistakes of translating ?"

I won't tell you but the one who wrote the page and the one who translate weren't the same. Translate it takes a long time and weren't easy, so, please forgive me for my mistakes ;-)