You wouldn’t think that a strategy game would be created to improve moral character, but according to Chinese legends, that is how Weiqi, more commonly known to the West by its Japanese name Go, came to be.
There are many tales about the origin of Go. One version says the board game was originally used by the legendary Emperor Yao to teach his son Danzhu moral principles.
The object of Go, the Chinese name of which means “encirclement chess,” is to take and fill in space on the 19 by 19 board in a way that preserves the integrity of one’s own formations while encircling the other player’s pieces.
The game has only one kind of piece, called stones, which are divided into white and black to distinguish between the two players. This deceptive simplicity belies the virtually endless number of possible Go matches, as well as the subtle machinations which can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in even the most unlikely of situations.
