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Juegos de Mesa

Hoy to play Go, Rules, and Tricks to Win!

Today, we decided to bring you one of the oldest board games with its origins in China 4,000 years ago! It is listed as one of the four most important ancient arts of that nation.
It has also become very popular in Western countries. In fact, this game is played very often. Have you guessed which one it is?

That’s right, it’s the board game Go! This strategy game designed for two players focuses on dominating as much territory on the board as possible.

At JuegosMesa.org, we were waiting for this moment to arrive, because we will tell you all the details you need to know to learn how to play Go and to become a professional in this strategy game.

In addition, we assure you that its rules are so easy, that the little ones could learn to play it quickly with the help of an adult.
And believe us when we tell you that the results of playing this game can be quite useful.

Cause every time you play Go, your strategy, concentration, logical reasoning, and creativity skills will increase in a remarkable way. Plus the entertainment and fun you’ll have with every single game.

So, after having told you this, we encourage you to stay until the end of this article, in order to become a master of Go.

Let’s Go! (see what we did there?)

Go, the board game designed for only 2 players

  • This is an ancient game, that uses simple elements: circles, lines, wood, and black and white stones.
  • The game pieces, better known as stones, are used by both players. One takes the black stones and the other takes the white ones.
  • The board is square-shaped and on many occasions, it is foldable, which makes it ideal to travel without any problem. It usually comes with a 19×19 line design
  • Although there are also smaller boards ideal for beginners. There are sizes of 13×13 or 9×9 lines and in that case, you will choose the dimension you feel most comfortable with.
  • On the board, you will find 9 highlighted points that are known as “stars”.
  • There are versions in the game where the stones have a permanent magnet built into them that allows them to stay firmly in place without ruining their ability to move.

Larcele Plegable Magnético Go Juego de Tablero de Estrategia con Piedras and Tablero para Viajar CXWQ-01(Pequeña)
  • Diseño plegable para carring o viaje exterior. Las piedras blancas y negras se almacenan en dos cajas de plástico y se colocan dentro del tablero plegable Go. No es fácil perder las piezas.
  • Magnético: hay un imán en la parte inferior de la pieza de ajedrez que se puede colocar en la superficie del tablero. Por eso no es fácil caerse.
  • Tablero impermeable: plástico resistente al medio ambiente, impermeable y duradero, exquisito y hermoso.
  • Un juego incluye las medidas Go Board 19 x 19 cm / 7.48 x 7.48 pulgadas, 13 x 13 Grid Layout; Piedras de plástico magnético diámetro 1.3 cm / 0.51 pulgadas, total 160 piezas; Cuencos de plástico 2x para almacenamiento.
  • Juego de estrategia clásico: ayuda a desarrollar el interés y el cerebro de los niños. También este es un juego de ocio familiar, diviértete con tus hijos.

How to Play Go?

As we go deeper into the dynamics of Go, you will realize that acquiring skills in the movements of each tile will be easier than you imagine because every level has its fascination, discovery, and experience.

The first thing you have to know to start playing is that the game starts with the board without any stone and your mission will be to take as many points on the board from the opponent as possible.
Now, whoever has the black stones, will be the one to start the battle. After that, each player will have to take turns placing a stone of their color at any intersection of the board that is free. Because in Go, you don’t play inside the squares of the board, but over the intersections of it.

On the other hand, it is very important at this point to know that once you have placed your stone on the board, you cannot move it. However, they can be captured by the other player, if they are completely surrounded by the stones of the opposite color.

Moves in Go

Capture the Stones:

In this strategic game, there are two ways to score points: The first is by surrounding the entire territory and the second is by capturing your opponent’s stones. So, the ways you can catch the opponent’s stones are the following:

In this example, you can see how the player with the black stones can place one of his pieces at the designated intersection to capture the white stone. And after he has captured it, it is removed from the board.

Now, the stones that are connected horizontally or vertically, form one group. Therefore, they must fight each other to death.

In other words, if your opponent captures your stones and they are connected vertically or horizontally, automatically all the stones that have been locked up will leave the game board because the opponent has captured them.

Ko’s Rule

This rule tells players that they cannot make a move that will return the game to the previous position. Thanks to this rule, infinite repetition is avoided.
So, in such cases, the player who has his stone captured, instead of placing another of his pieces in the same place where they captured his previous stone, will have to place it in another part of the board.

Suicide

Taking away the last chance of freedom from your own stones is not allowed in the game Go, as this would be suicide.
However, there is one very important exception to this rule that you need to know about: If during the game you have the chance to catch one or more of your opponent’s stones, then in that case the suicide move is allowed.

The following pictures show this to make it clearer.

Freedoms

In the game of Go, intersections that are empty and next to a group of stones are called freedom.
As an example, here you can see how the group of white stones has 3 options of freedom in A, B, and C.
You must also take into account that a group of stones is captured when it has no freedom to escape.

Life and Death

During the game of Go, you will notice that there will be times when your stones are alive or dead.
But when are they alive and when are they dead?
We’ll explain it to you: When a group of stones could not avoid being captured, the stones will be dead and will have to leave the game board.
Meanwhile, if the set of stones has two free intersections that are surrounded by one player; it will not be possible to get caught by your opponent.
Therefore, that set of stones will remain alive.

This is shown in the following picture:

However, it is important for you to know that there are fake eyes. A fake eye is when the stones that are placed around that so-called eye are in danger of being caught. In this example, the black stones that have the triangles would be a false eye:

Seki” or Mutual Life

This situation occurs when during the different moves, circumstances can lead them to a position where no player wants to move his stones.
Because the player who does would be giving the opportunity to the opponent to capture his pieces.
In that situation, both players’ stones will remain on the board or, to use the original language, they will remain in the “Seki” mode.

Now it’s important to remark that the Seki Mode can happen in many ways. This two are the most commonly known:

  • When the player pieces have no eyes and also shares two freedoms.
  • When both players have an eye between its pieces and also share one freedom.

How to Score in Go

After so many moves, captures, and strategies made in the game; it’s obvious that someone has to be victorious, right? There are two ways to get the final result of the game of Go.

Calculating the territory: Here you must count the intersections that are totally surrounded, plus the stones that have been captured by each player. And the player who gets the highest score will be the winner.

Calculating the area: If you and your partner decide to use this method, you will have to count the occupied intersections, plus the empty ones, which are the ones completely surrounded by one player. Likewise, the one with the highest score wins.

Finally, we think it would be a tragedy to leave you out of the tricks and strategies that will make you the final winner. So here’s the part where we tell you the best strategies to make you invincible at this game!

  • It is very common that a beginner player in the Go board starts by placing his stones anywhere on the board, because he may think that it is a game of luck. So the first thing you need to understand, is that this is a game of strategy, lots and lots of tactics and concentration.
  • Keeping your stones connected is very important. If you keep your pieces connected as much as you can, you’re going to have fewer groups to defend and so you can be more focused on attacking.
  • No matter what, always try to stay alive. When you create a foothold in a corner along the sides, it will make it easier to stay alive. But remember that a group must have two eyes open (from the moves in Go section) so that your opponent cannot attack you due to the rule of The Suicide.
  • Attack the area where your opponent has the most influence. If you create a new group, which is within the area where the player has the most pieces, you can lower your opponent’s score, because your pieces will occupy part of his area.
  • Living together is much better than dying. If you are both in a position, where the slightest move could allow your opponent to capture your stones, it is better to stay that way, rather than lose that game.

With all already said, we hope that this fun and entertaining board game Go, can be used for great mental training, which will help you develop your reasoning skills, and in turn make you live unforgettable moments of relaxation, in which two minds are challenged through two colors that are willing to invade the entire board to take the victory.

So, if you want to test another mind as clever as yours with this challenging and strategic board game, you can find it very easy on Amazon.

Para que no te pierdas ninguna diversión, te recomendamos los siguientes artículos:

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Gabriel Rodríguez
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