Back in the early 1950s members of the American Go Association heard about Wei Chi and inquired whether "the game you play in Taiwan is Japanese Go or something else." This misconception is still common. Wei Chi is the original game. Go is the more widely used Japanese name. Folklore suggests that Go is as old as Chinese civilization, but history proves otherwise. The game goes back some 2,000 years. Literature about the game abounds in the Later Han Dynasty (around 150 B.C.). Go was introduced into Japan in Tang Dynasty times (around 755 A.D.) by a Japanese monk.
The Chinese name Wei Chi means the game of envelopment. Black and white markers (buttons with a diameter of slightly more than half an inch) are played on the 361 crossing points provided by the board's 19 horizontal and 19 vertical lines. Markers are usually made of stone, shell or plastic. Boards of wood or plastic measure about 18 inches square. The objective is to assume command of more than half of the board's territory and thereby to win the game. Theoretically, when a "soldier" marker is place in a corner of the board, it has two directions in which to move. From any other position, it can move in anyone of four directions. When a piece or group of pieces is enveloped and the possibility of movement is ended, the individual "soldier" or the 'army' is considered to have been annihilated. Soldiers invading enveloped enemy territory must maintain freedom of movement—called "two eyes" in the rules of Go—in order to survive.
Terms used to denote Go skill are "dan" for the higher grades and "chieh" for the lower grades. The highest is the 9th dan. If a beginner plays a 25-piece handicap game with a 1st dan player, he is 25th chieh. A 1st chieh is next to 1st dan.
Go is both simple and complicated. You can learn the rudiments in five minutes. There are only a few rules. But to master Go may require a lifetime. Acknowledged masters are rarer than in chess. The game is eternally variable. Comparisons with war are common. Go is subtle, exciting, and involves strategy and tactics that will challenge the most venturesome. The player seizes lines and points, and uses envelopment, counter-envelopment, advance and retreat, and the sacrifice of pieces to gain a larger territory.
Analysis Defied
After the Russian defeat in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904, a Russian general attributed his country's defeat to the Go techniques of Japanese forces. In World War II, some American staff officers were required to learn Go to help them better understand Japanese strategy and tactics.
Mathematicians have tried unsuccessfully to reduce Go to a science. They have been forced to conclude that it is more of all intellectualized art than a scientific pursuit. Games are never identical; they are rarely even similar. The skill of play seems to defy analysis; it is strongly intuitive.
Many Chinese champions have been teen-age prodigies. With their conventional thinking and fixed concepts, adults often lack the fresh imagination and daring to play well. As in studying Buddhism, common sense may constitute a barrier to understanding.
Wu Ching-yuan (right) with wife, friends. (File photo)
Wu Ching-yuan, the world's top player, was born in Fukien Province in 1914. His father was a Go fan. At the age of 13, Wu could find no match in China. In 1928, he went to Japan with his family to study at a Go academy. In his first seven games with Shinahara, then a 4-dan player, he won 6 and drew 1. In the fall of 1928, he challenged all Japanese players under the sponsorship of the Yomiuri Shimbun, a newspaper, and beat them all. In 1950, he attained the zenith of 9th dan.
At the invitation of the Chinese Wei Chi Association, Wu Ching-yuan visited Taiwan in August, 1952. In less than three weeks; he played more than 30 handicap games and won them all.
Favored by Kings
As Wu Ching-yuan begins to fade away like an old soldier of the Go battlefield, another brilliant prodigy is taking his place. He is Lin Hai-feng, 22-year-old 7-dan player, who was sent to Japan for training when he was only a child. His 11-year advance to 7-dan is unprecedented in Japanese Go history.
In ancient times, outstanding players sometimes were offered positions at the emperor's court. Wang Chih-hsin was such a royally favored player in the Tang Dynasty. During the Rebellion of An Lu-shan, he accompanied the emperor in flight to Szechuan.
One night he had dropped behind the royal entourage and stayed at a country cottage. He heard an old woman in the next room talking to her daughter-in-law: "How about a game of Go before we go to sleep?" Then they started playing, making their moves in words: "I am here and you are there" and so on. After a few minutes, the old woman said: "You win." Then there was silence. Wang was greatly puzzled. The next morning he asked the old lady how they could play without board and pieces. She smiled and explained the intellectual discipline. Wang's Go skill was greatly advanced.
Lin Hai-feng (left) in Taipei defeats two Go opponents in simultaneous games. (File photo)
For the last 300 years, Go has been the subject of continuous, widespread study in Japan. About 10 per cent of the Japanese people are players. Professionals number about 20,000. The best derive most of their income from prizes in newspaper-sponsored tournaments. After reaching his peak, Wu Ching-yuan was said to have received about US$600 for each game played.
Go academies are unique to Japan. They welcome students under 10 who are already good players. Students reaching the 1st dan are considered to have graduated. If they don't make it by age 20, that is the end of the road.
World Tournament
Among Westerners and especially hustle-bustle Americans who cannot find time to sit still for a lengthy game, Go does not enjoy mass popularity. Still, Go dubs arc found in many large cities of the United States, especially along the West Coast. American Go players total around 5,000. In New York City, the American Go Association publishes a journal that is giving impetus to the game's popularity.
Oriental Go players are generally more than a match for their Occidental counterparts. This may be attributed in large measure to the much heavier volume of Asian play. In October, 1963, an international Go tournament was held in Tokyo. Competing were amateur players from the Republic of China, Korea, United States, Great Britain, West Germany, Australia, Holland, Yugoslavia, and the host country. Japan won the championship; China and Korea were runners-up.
Go is educational. It cultivates wisdom, composure, and good sportsmanship. It presents problems that cannot be solved at first glance, only with calm, calculated study. It provides a school for strategists.
Go is also an affliction for the fair sex. It grabs away many a husband from hours of companionship with his wife. Such is the fascination of the game that players find their own small world in it; everything else is forgotten. Some time ago a young man went to a Go club in Taipei for a couple of games before he met his date. The game got so exciting he forgot the time. It wasn't the first occasion, either, and the girl returned his engagement ring.
Chinese Chess
Another popular Chinese game is Hsian Chi, or Chinese chess, which goes back more than 2,000 years to the time of the Warring States before the Chin Dynasty. Of chess, the Encyclopedia Britannica says: "The origin of chess is lost in obscurity. Its invention has been, variously ascribed to the Greeks, Romans, Babylonians, Scythians, Egyptians, Jew, Persians, Chinese ... " Chess and Hsian Chi have much in common; they at least are cousins.
Chinese chessmen in starting positions. (File photo)
Hsian Chi uses the same number of squares as chess. The men are placed on the cross lines rather than in the squares. There is a "river" in the center of the board to symbolize the front line. Chessmen are a general, two aides, two ministers, two horses, two chariots, two cannons, and five soldiers for each side. The generals and aides cannot move beyond their fortress of four squares. Ministers can never cross the front line. Soldiers, like pawns, can never move backward; they move one step forward or one step sideways after crossing the front line. Horses move like knights from one corner of any rectangle of two squares Lo the opposite corner. Chariots move along straight lines for any distance. Cannons move like chariots but can only capture an opponent by jumping over another piece.
Rules are much like chess. If a player touches a man, he must move it. The fact of attack on a general is announced when the attacking player says "check", which the Chinese call "chiang chun".
The relative value of the pieces will vary with the stage of the game. Generally speaking, a chariot is as effective as a horse and a cannon put together; soldiers are less useful; aides and ministers can only be used defensively.
As a mere pastime, Hsian Chi is easily learned. It requires only moderate study to become a fair player. However, the highly proficient or champion player must know the subtle variations in which the game abounds, and be able to summon originality of both attack and defense.
In China, Hsian Chi is even more popular than Go. People from every walk of life play it. Pedicab drivers squat on a street corner for a couple of games while awaiting passengers. Small businessmen gather in tea houses and talk business over a game or two.
Chinese chess also belongs to the supernatural. In the Tsin Dynasty there lived a woodcutter named Wang Chili. One day he went deep into the high mountains and saw boys playing a game of Hsian Chi. He was watching, engrossed, when one player gave him a sort of date to eat. Then he was no longer hungry. As the game neared an end, the other player said to him: "Your ax handle is rotten." Wang was greatly surprised. He returned to the world below to find everyone a stranger to him. The time was one hundred years later.
Music, chess, calligraphy and painting are ranked together as ancient Chinese arts and symbols of good taste and cultured living. Chinese poets visualize a game of chess played on the top of a high mountain under an old pine tree with a lovely stream bubbling by. Before TV, who could ask for more?