Go kits. Classic Go Board Sizes DIY Go Board

5 years ago

Since there is a topic about different materials for stones, I will make one more modest contribution. I bought Korean faience stones. thickness 9 mm. I will not dwell on them especially, since they can be played in go clubs. In particular, in the go club "Territory". The only thing I would like to point out is that they are quite durable, although I have heard opposite opinions. When I was going to buy them, one user from the forum said that these stones break easily, that he has a very high percentage of combat. However, I dropped my stones a lot and on a variety of surfaces. The most harmless - on the carpet, the most dangerous - on the tiles. And not a single even minimal chip. I don’t know how and about what the comrade was throwing them, but I didn’t face the problem of the fight.

I have a set of kaya (a board made by hand by a master, one-piece), made to order, black bowls, apparently walnut, covered with a specific varnish and stones made of basalt and original Japanese hamaguri in excellent condition (they were stored in the warehouse for 15 years, and were not used).

In terms of execution, almost everything is canonical. The only thing is that the wood is darker than usually used for bowls, but I really like the dark wood, so black thickets were presented. This is convenient as it does not distract your eyes from the board while playing.

The thickness of the stones according to the Japanese metric is 36. Ideal for me, since I do not like stones that are too thick. I don't like Chinese stones, they are inconvenient and can hardly be removed from the board with the help of "Japanese folding". These are convenient because they do not ride on the board, but they also stand lightly.

On the downside, dents on the board stay longer than they usually do on the board. Perhaps they violated the technology during manufacture. But this is almost imperceptible.

The lids crunch merrily, the stones ring soothingly, the sound is good when set. I thought about making myself a goban on legs, but now I feel that it is not necessary. This kit is pretty much nothing.

Speaking of bowls and about not distracting from the game, I found this beauty in the Chinese segment:


Made from wenge. And the price of all this joy, if you buy in China, is only 3000 wooden rubles. If you give somewhere 3300-3500, they will also add a full set of yunzi of a lentil shape with a thickness of 9 mm. This is such a grace. I don’t know how anyone, but I love such cups with their inlay. These can even be bookshelf deliver as an interior decoration. I wanted to play - I took it off, played. Then he put beauty in place.

Above, I posted photographs of bowls that I already purchased for a friend with exactly the same (in terms of technology of execution) inlaid on the lids. This is definitely not a print. Checked. :) For that kind of money and on such a tree, they would simply not allow themselves to be limited to a print.

Good day to all. I decided to make another small contribution to this topic by preparing an overview of my small go-collection. To begin with, photographs of Chinese go bowls. Then a detailed comparison of the two types of yunzi and Chinese agate stones with well-known faience stones. This is in case someone is interested in yunji, but does not have the opportunity, like me, to go to China. I apologize in advance for the mediocre photo quality. I hope it turns out to be informative enough.
So, for starters, bowls, for there are not many about them. At the moment I have two pairs of locally made bowls.
1) Wenge bowls:


Rosewood bowls:


All bowls are carved from a single piece of wood, without seams. All are varnished. Moreover, quite well done. As expected, all the bowls are fully inlaid, no prints. If you look closely at the drawings, you can find differences between them, which indicates manual work.
This is how the Chinese can do it when they want to. But even on TaoBao, I found such bowls only in one place, and their number is limited.

Now let's move on to the stones. I mentioned that this review will cover two types of yunji. Let me just make a small digression about what yunji are in general. In the Chinese online store TaoBao, I came across 5 types, which can be roughly divided into 2 categories:

1. Types A and B are both continental in shape (flat on one side) and, accordingly, small in thickness. The difference between them is most likely in the shade of the white stones. In their case, I can’t say anything exact, since I didn’t deal with them.
2. Types C, D and E are lenticular. Type C stones are also called "new yunji". The manufacturer claims that they are made by modern technology... White stones are a bit rough. The thickness is within 9 mm. Type D stones are also called "old yunji". They are said to be made using old technology. The difference is that the white stones resemble bone in color. They are smoother to the touch than C. The thickness of stones of this type is within a centimeter. I also did not hold the last type E in my hands. Judging by the photographs, these stones differ from type D mainly in size (up to 1.2 cm).

The prices for the first three types of yunji fall within the 200 yuan range. The price of Yunji D and E jumps to 700 and 1400 yuan per set, respectively.
The main feature of all yunzi is the ability of black stones to shine through in emerald color.

The material for the yunji is supposedly tempered glass. This can be judged by how the black stones show through. And also for chips. One white type C stone broke for me. I post a photo of his gut so that everyone can draw their own conclusions.

Let's start the comparison. From top to bottom: type D yunji, Korean faience, C type yunji, agate.

Same order from left to right:

Height and shape. The order is the same:

A pair of agate stones separately:

As mentioned above, sorry for the quality of the photos. There is nothing better to photograph. I will compensate for the rest by summing up the results verbally describing the pros and cons of yunji:
Pros:
1) Matte surface so that no fingerprints remain.
2) An emerald shade of black stones in the light. From a practical point of view, of course, this is not a factor. But aesthetically pleasing.
3) The strength is about the same as that of earthenware stones from Korea, if not more.
Minuses:
1) Black stones get dirty all the time. White streaks appear on them. Example in the photo:

Presumably, they appear from the fact that the stones beat against each other. Easily erased with a finger, appear after the stones are back in the bowls. How to deal with this, I can not imagine.
2) The color of the "white" stones is dirty, which is also not happy with certain lighting.
Another feature that I do not attribute to any pros or cons: yunji is heavier than Korean earthenware stones.

Personally, for my taste, earthenware stones are better and more practical. They do not need to be constantly washed or wiped with your fingers. White Korean stones look very beautiful. Their set is very contrasting. Considering the yuan soaring somewhere in the sky, they are also cheaper than large yunji. However, for a type D yunji collection, they are pretty good. Playing with them is also pleasant in its own way. The number of poorly balanced stones per set is about the same as that of faience stones. Well, or a little more.
All conclusions are purely subjective. If anyone has any questions, ask. I will try to answer.

P.S.: Rosewood bowls in two and a half years will probably be up for sale. However, if anyone wants to purchase them earlier, this is possible in July. Please agree on the purchase in advance.

You're welcome. :) I really hope that I helped someone.

When I was playing in one of the local educational buildings, I had to quickly collect stones. As a result, 8 pieces in turn and in groups fell from a height of one and a half meters onto the tiles. Of the eight stones, one broke. Everyone else is safe and sound. Several faience stones fell from the same height to the same floor at the airport. And also only one crashed.

There was a need to supplement the previous review. I'll start with the bad. After taking a photo of the rosewood bowls, I put them in the closet for a couple of days. When I took it out again, I found that one of the lids was cracked and cracked. The lid did not fall anywhere, did not hit against anything, so mechanical damage is excluded. The wood was simply poorly dried and varnished. Two conclusions:
1) The sale is canceled, because the bowls are likely to go back to the sellers.
2) Here is the main reason why boards and bowls from China are sold in Russia twice as expensive as purchased in China: since a large proportion of boards and bowls come with scratches and other jambs + new problems come out already in place, there are losses compensate by overpricing everything else. Actually, I was told about this in one go-club. Now, the approval of Russian sellers has been verified empirically.

Now again at the expense of earthenware stones. I was able to order some Japanese hamaguri stones here. The stones arrived quickly, outwardly very beautiful, made of the highest quality. I compared them to Korean stones of almost the same size. And I came to the conclusion that the sound when staged is the same and rather depends on the material of the goban, appearance differs only in the presence and absence of stripes. The surface is equally glossy, the color is also almost indistinguishable. Conclusion: for the presence of stripes and "canonicity" there is an overpayment every 6 - 10. Of course, the correspondence of the size and centering of Japanese stones should be better than that of Korean ones. But the difference in price is much higher than the difference in quality. So, personally, I think that Korean stones have the best value for money of all the options considered.
But this is my personal conclusion. :)

P.S. Especially for the heading "incredible, but true" I throw a link to one of the ads on the TaoBao website. A set of Japanese hamaguri and basalt stones is on sale. Japanese metric size 50. Thickness 14.6 mm (that is, almost spherical). The price per set is 45,000 yuan. To understand how much it is in rubles at the current exchange rate, multiply the given figure by 6. :)
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm\u003da230r.1.14.325.TbhplL&id\u003d37639753105

Comrades, help me figure it out. I have already mentioned that on the black stones of the yunji some kind of incomprehensible white bloom... That is, he literally just removed it with his hands, put the stones in a bowl, poured the stones back, the plaque has already appeared again.
Today I received a set of Korean Go stones 1 cm thick. As an experiment, I put 4 black yunzi in a bowl with black faience stones. I played with these stones for some time. And he noticed that there was no longer a raid on those 4 yunzi. I conducted a similar experiment earlier. In the batch of spare type D yunzi, one stone of reduced thickness was found. It fits perfectly into my set of 9mm Korean stones. For about a week, I played almost exclusively with this set. And I noticed that on the Yunji stone, again, there is no plaque. But if you add it with other similar stones, plaque inevitably appears.
So we know that yunji are made of glass. Based on the above observations, we can conclude that with their mutual contact, the same plaque appears and that in other cases it is not. Plaque is removed with a finger movement. The question is: what could it be and how to deal with it?

I'll tell you even more, they came to me processed. They treated them with some kind of machine oil. I've seen yunji in their original form as well. Talc is not rubbed off with a finger. Here we are talking about another raid.
When the stones came to me, they smelled of machine oil. If I understood correctly, it was assumed that they should remain in it. But somehow I was not pleased with the prospect of washing my hands for half an hour every time. Therefore, I preferred to wash the stones with a product. The oil performed the function of cleansing talc, so that the stones after a series of manipulations acquired their befitting appearance. But instead the same plaque began to appear.

Wash with a product? As far as I understand, it was better to wipe it thoroughly ... Maybe it is worth repeating the process. As an option, it will hardly be worse. First rinse thoroughly with warm water (in case there is any residual product), and then, according to the instructions, treat with sewing machine oil and wipe dry.

I ran a sheet of paper. I didn't press. The plaque disappeared. So, the hypothesis disappears. However, she initially did not take into account the experiment with faience stones.
In addition, if these were the areas where the oil residues were washed out, then these stains after "rubbing" them with your finger would reappear after a few minutes of lying on the table.

I will add one more thing for clarity. White spots on untreated yunji are talcum powder. If I understand correctly (my experience confirms this) something fatty (whether it be sunflower or machine oil, no difference) removes it. In particular, my first set of yunji (back in the last semester) came in this form. After washing with sunflower oil, and then washing off the oil with the product, the appearance of the stones became completely different. That is, there is no talcum powder left. And periodically appearing whitish traces - this is something completely different.

The opinion of a person with a similar problem on Amazon:

Today I tried to rinse the stones according to the accompanying instructions. Several things I noticed convinced me that the item I received was a returned item.

First, the plastic bag for the black stones is noticeably more worn than the bag for the white stones; then while rinsing the black stones, there was oil from the stones floating on the water, which made believe the stones were oiled once. I also discovered two broken black stones. I didn "t mind all these much until the stones have become dry again. After the stones are dry, I see a lot of residue dirts on the black stones! I believe the previous buyer tried to oil them without rinsing them, so the stones got stained with the original powder!

These stains do not seem easy to go, I doubt there is a way to wash them away without side effects. I wonder if these black stones are eligible for replacement, without requiring me to send back the ruined black stones, I don "t like the trouble to repackage and mail them. Maybe I will try to use hot wash them (the broken stones could be useful for experimentation) to see if it works, probably they will never be as good as new stones.

From the white stones which were not ruined by improper oiling, I can see that these stones were actually very nice stones (a four or five star review should have been very reasonable for this item)! What a pity!

TL: DR - Perhaps the problem is in the initially incorrect processing - immediately with oil, without preliminary washing (or vice versa?). Talc "sticks" to the stones and appears as it dries.
The author believes that the fact that the stones came to him already processed, moreover, is incorrect, is evidence of secondhand.

This is a repost from my magazine. There is a lot of information for those who are not aware of it, so do not scold)

Yesterday IKEA accidentally saw and understood - this is it. I've been nursing a place to make a goban myself for a long time. Goban is a thick board, even a go platform. Strictly speaking, I only want to make a board for playing go, because the goban looks like this, in the Japanese tradition all sizes are completely standardized, they play it while sitting on the floor. The most expensive ones cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, are made from a single piece of a certain type of kaya pine, which has been growing dormouse for years, and all of that kind - a real "Stradivari drum". Moreover, almost literally - one of the most important properties of a high-quality goban - the sound made by hitting a stone on a board. The clubs use simpler boards.

I already have a board made of pressed cardboard or chipboard at home - on the one hand, the standard size is 19x19, on the other, it is smaller than 13x13. Less than 13x13 is only a tiny 9x9 board, which is used by initial training for very beginners. But it needs to be cool, so that there is a pleasant weight of the board, the sound from placing a stone on a tree and other aesthetic subtleties.

In short, a note to home masters of Go. LAMPLIG cutting board is for sale on the 1st floor in Ikea. Instead of the letter A, the letter A is written there with two dots at the top. Judging by the weight, the board is made of glued oak, treated with oil. A 90-degree bend is attached on one side. It costs 600 or 700 rubles.

End view - gluing lines are clearly visible. At home, such a shield cannot be made, they make it in factories, under pressure, with high temperature, etc.

When placing a cardboard board on a cutting board, it can be seen that the sides of the LAMPLIG are wider by only 2-3 mm, in length - 5-6 centimeters are issued:

But its working surface is like cutting board, with a curved handle and a groove for liquid drain:

I'll deal with her soon. I probably won't cut it, the dimensions are practically suitable. I haven't decided what to do with the bend yet. You can carefully cut it off with a circular, or you can put a bar or a block under the opposite side, glue or screw it on - and there will be a board on the counter!

Our friend made himself from MDF, but he made a western one, but ours inserted pictures of him into his blog for demonstration.

Another development of the topic in Russian conditions. Based on the same source, but made from furniture board. I have not found this in stores furniture board, so that it is without features such as large knots, bright drops, etc.

Here I found a video of how a man made a goban for himself, long and painful, but interesting and entertaining:

I foresee something similar in the summer at the dacha.

Crafts from stones can be made from a variety of stones: construction, ordinary street, sea.

They go well with shells, pasta and other materials, but even in a pure stone design, the craft will look original and interesting. And you can take stones to create it different sizes and shapes, and most importantly, colors.

By the way, if you have multi-colored stones, you can combine them so that you don't even have to paint the craft.

Bottle of stones

An ordinary wine bottle can be turned into an original decor item if you decorate it with thin pebbles.

However, if you have certain skills and sharp tools, existing stones can be cut into thin plates, and even given a shape.

In addition, you don't even need to paint a multi-colored natural material, but even if you need colors that are not there, you can apply paint to the stones and you will get a beautiful

For example, gouache ...

It will not be waterproof, but if the craft decorates the interior, you can opt for it.

What you need:

• wine bottle;
• gray plasticine;
• thin slabs of stones or bulky stones;
• beads;
• rhinestones.

So, first we take a bottle, clean it well from dirt and dust. Of course, we remove the label in advance and the layer of glue that could remain on the surface.

You can use crafts made of stones both in the interior and in landscape design... After all, such beauty does not require much effort and spending money!

Go is played by two (there is an option for four players - rengo, where allies play one color, a pair for a pair, as well as one-color or "white" Go, where both opponents play only with white stones, relying entirely on their own memory). The game is played on a one-color board lined with vertical and horizontal lines. The game set also includes stone chips (180 white and 181 black) and bowls for storing them. In addition to the large tournament board 19x19, the standards are the "old" board 17x17, "sketch" 13x13 and student 9x9. In an informal setting, players can take a board of any size - 5x5, 7x7, 11x11, etc. up to 37x37 - neither the rules nor the tactics will need to be changed, although the strategy may change dramatically.

Chips in Go are traditionally referred to as "stones" (Japanese "isi"). In ancient China, they were actually carved from precious and ornamental stones, bones, horns, and also made from glass and ceramics. Ancient stones found in burials are almost always green and red or brown, and not white and black, their shape is conical. Bowls for stones were made of ceramics, porcelain, stone, bamboo and expensive woods. The fields were often made of cloth, leather, although wooden and stone boards were also in use everywhere.

Japan is poor in minerals, and local craftsmen have found a replacement for ornamental stones in the form of black basalt slate from Wakayama Prefecture and shells of the bivalve mollusk Hamaguri (Meretrix lusoria) from the Hyuga Shallows (although in the picture above, it seems to me, tridacna - DS)

A massive, very thick board-table, usually made of kai (nut torreya) wood, is also becoming a standard. It is in Japan that the game finds its characteristic recognizable golden-black-white asceticism.

New materials entailed a change in the shape of the chips, and then the entire game set. The stones, which in China were traditionally made with a flat base, in Japan became biconvex, lenticular.



Playing with such raised stones is a special skill that also serves as an indicator of skill. There is a correct set of movements, including taking a stone from a bowl and a special interception of it with the index (bottom) and middle fingers (above), which allows one to put a stone at any point on the board without scattering others - such a grip and movement, as the Japanese believe, resembles sword blow.


In a competent execution, all this looks like one movement (the Japanese tradition generally pays much attention to the correct sequence of actions, be it a tea ceremony, martial arts or Go). A confident, well-practiced blow with a stone forms a small hole on the goban, in which he remains standing (the trick is that the kai wood is elastic, and over time, the hole straightens by itself).

The main cost of an elite set for Go is made up of white stones, bowls and goban (basalt costs practically nothing, except for the work of a stone cutter).
Stones are classified by thickness into 7 types - the thicker, the more expensive. The diameter of black stones is half a millimeter larger than that of white ones, since the black color visually reduces the size of the object, and white stones look a little larger with equal sizes. In addition, white stones are sorted according to the pattern of layers of mother-of-pearl: straight "yuki" are valued the most, then evenly curved "tsuki", and finally, asymmetrical "jitsuyo".On one side of the shell stone, the pattern is usually denser, on the other - sparse. Curiously, this Japanese tradition, in turn, influenced China - among the stones there, opal stones are especially valued, whose striped structure resembles a shell. Elite Chinese kits can be extremely beautiful, although these slippery stones are difficult to play.



However, in China, stones are still made in which one side is convex and the other is flat. The classic material for black stones is viscous glass, like smalt, and for white stones, translucent artificial yunzi marble; such stones are greenish-black and milky white in the light.The material for this composite is mined in Yunnan province, and the recipe is kept secret. The process of making stones, which the locals called "fused dry stone", dates back to the Tang Dynasty in the 1920scentury was lost and rediscovered only in the 60s.

You have to play with them more carefully - with a strong impact, the load on the flat base is distributed unevenly (the finger presses on the center, and the impact falls on the edge), and the stone can split. The stones are coated with a special mineral oil that gives the matte surface shine and depth (our people recommend TNK or Johnson's Baby). The stones in the sets can vary slightly in size, which, however, also gives them a certain charm: the aesthetics of Go implies a harmonious balance between the complete similarity of the stones in the set andsubtle differences between each of them separately.
Since the forties of the XX century, Korea invades the Japanese market with stones made of earthenware and viscous glass, so successful that Japan completely curtailed its own production of cheap stones, preferring to buy Korean stones for club needs.

Finally, at the beginning of the 21st century, the Taiwanese standard, the so-called. "Inga stones" made of hard rubber - supervulcanized rubber with a metal core-weighting agent, slightly flattened from the "poles" for better stability, and although they look less chic, convenience, strength and low price more than compensate for the shortcomings. Chinese stones are slightly larger in diameter than Japanese and Korean ones, and those, in turn, are larger than Ing.
The bowls are traditionally made from rare wood species. Ancient Chinese cylindrical bowls with flat lids.

In a later tradition, the bowls become barrel-shaped, in the form of a flattened ball. It is customary to put cut stones into a convex inverted lid.


Japanese bowls are not so steep and slightly tapered: their base is slightly wider than the top.Along with the classic wooden and souvenir stone and lacquer bowls, there are wicker ones - made of straw or bamboo, and more recently plastic ones.

When playing according to Inga's rules, where the total number of stones is important, special bowls are used with a movable measuring mechanism in the lid, which allows you to instantly determine if all the stones are in place or several are missing: they are easy to distinguish by their characteristic hexagonal shape.

The traditional Japanese goban is still lined with a samurai katana - the master makes a series of parallel cuts into which he rubs a very thick paint, after which the surface is polished, so the markings of Japanese gobans are always embossed, "cut-in" (photo on the left), and Korean and Chinese ones - flat, smooth (right).

Old stones and gobans are very much appreciated, since recently kaya and hamaguri have become endangered species, and gobans are increasingly made from wood of other species (spruce, beech, maple), which in Japan is called the collective name "shin kaya" - "new kaya ". However, any goban still remains a piece product that not everyone can afford, so most players are content with thin boards or bamboo consumer goods.


Stones today are made from shells of the same mollusk, only from the coast of Mexico (moreover, here the masters complain that the quality of Mexican shells is much lower than Japanese ones).


All three countries produce portable go kits made of plastic with built-in magnets and a field made of sheet rubber of any size and price range - from pocket ones to large wall-mounted demonstration ones.
Recently, special relief boards have also been produced on which blind players and people with impaired vision can play. At the same time, black stones are smooth, white ones have embossed marks.


To control the time in Go, an ordinary chess clock was previously used. The player is given a certain period of time for the game, after which the so-calledBeyomi: 30 seconds are given for each next move ... The player has 5 such gaps, so he can let the flag fall 4 times (that is, time out), the fifth time expires and the game is lost. As long as the player spends less than 30 seconds on each move and presses the button on time, he can play virtually endlessly. It is customary to press the button with the same hand with which the player places the stone (the clock is on one side of the board, and one player will have an advantage in time if he gets into the habit of placing stones with one hand and hitting the clock with the other).
Today in tournaments they usually use"Speaking" an electronic clock of the Inga system (in the picture, these are similar to a small car), with a voice warning function: when the player has the last 10 seconds, a voice countdown begins: this tradition comes from the control generally accepted in professional Go, when the player records the moves and his assistant switches the clock (he also warns with a voice that the time is running out).

Rules of the game

If the game is not on handicap, black makes the first move in Go. It is a long-standing Eastern tradition, according to which the black color of the attackers symbolizes aggressive, bad intentions. The traditional drawing of the color is called "nigiri" (from the Japanese "kolobok", "lump") and is based on the game of even-odd.

The player who got the bowl with white takes a handful of stones at random and puts them on the board at once, at the same time the player with black places one or two stones next to it. If black guesses the parity of the stones laid out by the opponent, he is given the right to choose a color, if not, this right goes to his partner.

The first move is usually made to the upper right corner of the board (the opponent's left corner) - this "move to the heart" symbolizes the good intentions of the beginner. This is a completely optional old rule, but most players traditionally adhere to it. Then the players take turns placing a stone on any crosshairs of the board, trying to build "walls" and fence off as many empty crossings as possible on the board. You cannot put two stones in one move, but the player can fold at any time - such a pass is also considered a move. The stone placed on the board does not move anymore and can only be cut down and removed from the board if the enemy surrounds it from all four sides with their stones or pushes it against the wall.

Go gameplay is based on three simple principles:

Since stones in Go are placed not in cells, but at the crosshairs of lines, each stone when placed is bordered by a maximum of four free neighboring intersections (at the edge of the board - with three, in the corner - with two). There are no diagonal connections in Go. As long as a stone or a group of stones has contact with at least one free intersection, a stone or a group "live", as soon as all contacts are blocked by the opponent's stones or the edge of the board, they "die" and are immediately removed from the board. In Japanese, each such free crosshair next to a stone is called "dame" ("breath"). It is forbidden to place a stone at a point that has no "breath". The environment lies at the heart of Go, but in reality it is a tactical technique, a threat, a pressure mechanism, and not at all the goal of the game, although it happens that a large group dies, surrounded by an enemy (as a rule, when playing equal players, this promises a loss).

2) Building a Fortress.

The stone placed on the board no longer moves (it can only be cut down and removed) and the only way to avoid being surrounded is to develop into a large unkillable group. United stones can only be destroyed by surrounding them all at once. Each added ally stone increases such a group, it grows, grows loops, tentacles, takes up defenses, counterattacks and, if the opportunity arises, forms closed voids (so-called "eyes") inside itself, consisting of unoccupied points. An “eye” may have many empty intersections, but if there are no dividing solid walls inside it, it still counts as one “eye”. A group that has two "eyes" or more cannot die: if the enemy tries to occupy one, such a group is left with a second one, and since "suicidal" moves are prohibited, the enemy ultimately cannot attack it at all, even if he surrounds it from everyone sides and snaps to the wall. This "immortal" group of stones is called the Fortress. The picture shows typical structures in the corners of the board: two two-eyed Black Fortresses (left) and one white Fortress (right).

3) Division of the territory.

When so many Fortresses are formed on the board that their walls are in contact, and there is nowhere to build new ones, the opponents actually divide the remaining empty space. This space can be small "eyes" at 2-3 intersections inside the fortresses, winding "corridors" and large "bags" at different ends of the board, as well as huge possessions (Japanese "moyo") with well-placed guard stones, ready to strangle any invasion (the fact is that it is not enough to enclose the territory, you need to defend it, otherwise the enemy will land a troop, build a fortress inside, and the points will go to him).
At the end, the game breaks down into areas that no longer affect each other. There are no large weak groups that are in danger. This is followed by the filling of neutral points, the exchange of captive stones and the scoring, which determines the winner. Each unoccupied point surrounded by a player brings him 1 point, each captured and killed enemy stone also gives 1 point.
There are situations when two or more groups of stones remain "live" in a state where none of the opponents can make a move in this "sector of the front" without fear of being destroyed. This situation in Japanese is called "seki" ("obstacle", in the picture on the left), when counting all stones in this part of the board are considered live, and the points are drawn.

In the game, an entertaining controversial moment may arise in the form of a mutual capture of a stone or a group of stones (in Japanese, "ko" - "eternity"; in the picture below). The rules prohibit such repeated captures, otherwise they will continue until the stones run out. A player in such a situation can cut down an opponent's stone only after one move, which he must make to any other point on the board, or pass. The enemy is obliged to do the same. Co-wrestling is a complex tactical technique, when both players choose statements (co-threats) that are dangerous for the enemy for the "distracting" moves, to which he willy-nilly must respond. In some cases, the life of large groups depends on the outcome of the co-fight, but more often this happens at the end of the game, when there is no big advantage and there is a fight for every point.

Japanese and Chinese Go rules are slightly different from each other, but the differences relate mainly to the scoring and some controversial points. After 1960, several new sets of rules appeared: the AGA (American Go Association) rules, the Ing and simplified Ing rules, New Zealand, and the Tromp-Taylor rules. All of them are based on the Chinese scoring system and are characterized by some game subtleties (for example, Inga's rules allow "suicidal" moves, which can change the situation when playing some groups).

Previously, only digital notation was used to indicate moves (13-8, 2-6, etc.), today "chess", alphanumeric notation is used more often: numbers from 1 to 19 - along the vertical of the board and letters latin alphabet from "a" to "t" horizontally (however, there is no "i" in this row to avoid confusion due to its similarity to "j"). The graphical record of the game (Japanese "kifu") looks like a lined diagram of the board, on which moves are depicted in black and white circles, indicating the number of each.

The circles do not need to be drawn, in this case the players simply write down their moves and the moves of the opponent with ink of different colors. Both in Renju and in Go, end-to-end numbering of moves is accepted, that is, the first move (of black) is marked as # 1, the second move (of white) is marked as # 2, etc. No erasures are allowed; if the stone is placed in the place of the felled one, a mark is made at the bottom of the sheet, say: "123 \u003d 30" (ie move # 123 is made where the stone # 30 appears on the diagram). Masters and connoisseurs read kifu very quickly, but for a beginner player this is a very difficult task, and it is not difficult to figure out the order of moves itself - the system is intuitively simple, it is more difficult to imagine a void in place of the stones placed later.

Since black moves first, he is considered to have an initial advantage of a few points. This problem became especially acute at the end of the 20th century with the development of Go theory and the appearance of new openings. It got to the point that only blacks began to win in tournaments of strong masters. To even out the balance, in the 19th century, the “komidashi rule” (colloquially “komi”) was introduced, according to which before the start of the game White gets compensation of 2.5 points. Due to the fragmentation of the Komi, there are no draws in Go: one player in any case will have an extra half point; a draw is possible either in a student game, or by mutual agreement of the players. Over time, the rules have been revised several times, and today the Komi size is 5.5 points in Japan, Korea and China, 6.5 in Korea (recently), 7 in New Zealand and 7.5 in Taiwan, where they play according to Inga's rules. “Free Komi” is also practiced, when the players arrange a kind of “trade” before the game, taking turns increasing the size of the Komi until the opponent agrees. The catch is that the player who offered the highest compensation accepted then plays black.

A master and a novice player can easily converge over the board in Go. To equalize their chances and make the game harmonious, the handicap that the strong player gives to the weak is called upon. The simplest one is the rejection of the handicap, when a strong player plays white with a half-point Komi or even with the opposite, minus Komi. The increase in the handicap is reduced to the setting of handicap stones (two or more). There is a classic handicap, when stones are placed in strictly defined "star" points, and a free handicap (in common parlance, "Chinese"), when a strong player gives a weak player several moves forward, and he folds every time. An experienced player usually knows his strength and can calculate how many handicap stones to ask the strong or give the weak to play on equal terms.
With these rules, it's hard to believe that Go is considered the most difficult game in the world. The general principles and tactics of Go are simple and straightforward, but they require constant rethinking during the game. There are no figures in Go, one stone is no different from another, only the place it occupies and the shape that the stones form are important. However, in their collision and interaction, the most complex architecture is revealed. Assessing the individual and cumulative potential of our own and others' constructions, discovering and realizing it and not letting the enemy do it, prioritizing the attack, defense and seizure of new territories are the most difficult tasks in themselves, and, in addition, they also have to be solved simultaneously.

In such conditions, everyone chooses a strategy "according to growth": beginners start chasing individual stones, more experienced players build outposts, make sorties and start local battles, but real masters think in larger categories than a banal fight in a corner or the capture of a separate chip. and already on initial stage start global strategic planning. In fact, Go is a kingdom-founding game where everyone builds castles, draws boundaries, and eventually captures as much “land” as they can hold.

Unlike chess or checkers, in Go there are no “winning scenarios” that allow you to play according to the scheme. The level of high creativity, tactical improvisation, which in chess is available only to real masters, the Go player learns already at the stage of catching his very first pebble. Calculation, of course, is also important, but true understanding of Go lies on the border between conscious and subconscious perception. In the famous anime "Hikaru and Go," there is a scene where the boy wonders, "I won! How did I do it? .. ".

Even in antiquity, during the To dynasty, a high-ranking Chinese official Osekinin formulated the "Ten Commandments of Go", which convey the essence of the teaching. These commandments have not lost their relevance to this day; they are:

1. "Too striving for victory will not win."

2. "If you invaded the enemy's sphere of influence, be more lenient."

3. "Before you attack, look at yourself."

5. "Give small, take large."

6. "If danger threatens, give it back without hesitation."

7. "Refrain, do not scatter."

8. "When the enemy attacks, be sure to answer."

9. "If the enemy has strengthened, strengthen yourself."

10. "If you are hopelessly isolated, choose the peaceful path."

First, the players divide the territory at the corners of the board, then on the sides, and only after that - the center (no one divides the sky without dividing the ground first). It is very important to recognize when one phase of the game replaces another, to catch the moment when the draft section is over and the groups have gained strength, it is very important - such a player intercepts the tempo (in Japanese terminology - “gets sente”) and the first move to the free territory will create new possessions. It is incredibly important to understand to what extent it is possible to yield to the onslaught of an opponent, and when it is necessary to resist: an abandoned, unfinished situation in the corner or on the side is fraught with the loss of a group or even a fortress, or even an entire possession.

I will describe a case from my practice. I taught a ten-year-old girl who could not learn the principles of Go in any way and, instead of redistributing spheres of influence, arranged endless tactical fights. Imagine, I told her, that there is a delicious cake from which you have cut a piece. You ate something and suddenly saw how your opponent climbs into your saucer with a spoon and steals pieces. How to fix the situation? The first answer was, of course, to defend your piece, the second was to eat it off in revenge on a piece of a friend ... But she didn't think of cutting off another big piece from the cake!
The analogy turned out to be a good one. Indeed, to divide, not to be at odds, is the principle of Go. Sooner or later, the player realizes that he is losing because of the desire to take away the apple core from the opponent. Mastery comes with a deep understanding of the general nature of harmonious structures, skills of development, optimization of efforts, planning and arrangement, which ultimately apply to any life situation. And when the players start to divide the "basket of apples", and by the end of the game there are only "apples" on the board, and not the stubs, and the difference is half a gram, this is Go. As a consequence, where chess ultimately produces a kshatriya, an uncompromising fighter and commander, Go brings up a wise ruler and organizer.
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(c) Dmitry Skiryuk

Probably, many wondered how to make a goban at home with minimal effort, money, and time. There are a lot of options, in fact, an impromptu goban can be made from anything, for example, from a piece of old linoleum, plywood, cardboard. But,
such gobans do not look very aesthetically pleasing, in addition, they are short-lived. Despite the fact that I am the proud owner of a board purchased back in the days of the USSR, which, by the way, has been perfectly preserved, the obsession with making a goban does not leave me. Unfortunately, I do not know when I will have enough time to implement this idea, but I have already decided on the technology of making a goban for myself and I am bringing it to your attention.

So, first, let's make a list necessary tools and materials. I advise you to prepare everything in advance so that you do not run around the apartment in search of the most elementary tools and do not come up with new uses for everyday things.

Materials and tools required for work:

1. Fiberboard MDF.

Dry fiberboards: MDF (medium density fiberboard) is a material with a uniform internal structure that allows milling without chipping, hairiness, opening of internal pores and grinding with sufficient surface quality of the product. MDF boards are widely used for the manufacture of furniture parts, especially furniture embossed facades..

2. Good quality clear varnish. You shouldn't skimp on varnish, it is better to buy a small jar of expensive varnish containing polyurethane.
3. Foam brushes or a small foam roller.
4. Flickering "zero" skin.
5. Sharp construction knife.
6. Long metal ruler. The second T-ruler will also help a lot.
7. Pencil, elastic band.
8. High quality permanent black marker pen with 0.5mm nib thickness.
9. Hair dryer.

Work production project (PPR)

1. Cut a board of the required size from our MDF board. I recommend cutting with a circular saw - then the cuts will be even and smooth. If you plan to cut with a jigsaw, then I must disappoint you - no matter how hard you try, the edges of the board will be uneven. Some craftsmen advise temporarily attaching a guide bar to stop the jigsaw, but this option is not suitable for us for two reasons: firstly, we do not want to spoil the board with the bar's fasteners (traces of screws will remain), and secondly, even if we fix the bar - the place of the saw cut will still turn out to be uneven, since the course of the jigsaw file is several millimeters, and on a thin board such an error will be striking.

2. The cut out blank for our goban must be carefully sanded. For sanding we use the finest "zero" sandpaper. To avoid too strong removal of fibers in places of pressure with your fingers - fix the skin on a small flat block, or on a special sanding block. I like it when the edges of the board are sharp, so we will not process them with a file, for the same reason we only sand the end sides of the workpiece with a bar!

3. Prime the workpiece with the first layer of varnish. Again, we do not save on varnish, we make sure that the varnish is with polyurethane. For a layer of primer, it is advisable to add a little white spirit to the varnish - this will make the varnish more liquid and it will saturate the board better. You need to apply the varnish with a foam brush or roller. If you use a regular brush, hairs will inevitably hit the surface of the board. If, when applying varnish, small bubbles form on the surface of the board, this should not scare you, the bubbles, theoretically, should disappear on their own, but I recommend that you dry the board a little after painting with an ordinary hair dryer.

4. Apply the mesh to the goban blank. To do this, draw the first line around the entire perimeter of the board with a sharpened pencil (we get a square). Be sure to check the angles - they must be strictly 90 degrees! The formulas proposed by Filin on the forum will help us to correctly determine the size of the sides of the square.Kido:

Horizontal size: 18 cells wide (d + 1mm), plus (0.7d) on each side

Final formula:
L horiz. \u003d 18 (d + 1) +0.7 (d + 1) +0.7 (d + 1) \u003d 19.4 (d + 1)

Vertical size: the same as horizontally, but add 3 mm (the goban should be slightly elongated to create the visual effect of an even square)

Final formula:
Lvert. \u003d 18 (d + 3) +0.7 (d + 3) +0.7 (d + 3) \u003d 19.4 (d + 3)

d - stone diameter (measure with a caliper)

After drawing the first line, apply all the rest, carefully following the dimensions. When all the lines are drawn with a pencil, we need to circle them with a black marker (pen thickness 0.5mm). Inaccuracies, errors of lines drawn with a marker wipe with a sharp construction knife... After drawing the lines, do not forget to mark the star points, for this it is best to use a stencil ruler. The dot diameter should be within 2-3 mm, otherwise it will look too large.

5. After applying the grid and star points with a marker, you must repeat the procedure
applying varnish 2-3 more times, each layer of varnish must be thoroughly dried. Dry the workpiece in a dry, dust-free place.

6. These are roughly the gobans obtained by following the instructions above: