Go

From Wikiquote

Go is a strategic board game which originated in ancient China.

Contents 1 Go quotations 2 Go proverbs 3 Unsourced 4 Sources

[edit] Go quotations

• "Go is... an ancient board game which takes simple elements -- line and circle, black and white, stone and wood -- combines them with simple rules and generates subtleties which have enthralled players for millennia. Beyond being merely a game, go can take on other meanings to enthusiasts: an analogy with life, an intense meditation, a mirror of one's personality, an exercise in abstract reasoning, or, when played well, a beautiful art in which Black and White dance across the board in delicate balance. But most important for all who play, go is challenging and fun."
  • source: http://www.usgo.org/index.html

• "Go is destined to take the place of Chess as the leading intellectual game of the Occident, just as it has reigned supreme in the Orient for some four thousand years."
  • Edward Lasker, Go and Go-Moku ISBN: 0-486-20613-0

• Rather than being the image of a single struggle as in chess, Go is much more like the panorama of an entire campaign, or complex theatre of war. And so it is more like modern warfare where strategic mass movements are the ultimate determinants of victory. [...] As in modern warfare, direct combat, without supporting tactics, rarely occurs. In fact, to engage too soon in direct combat frequently spells defeat.
  • Oscar Korschelt, The Theory and Practice of GO (1880)
  • Translated from the German Das "Go"-spiel by Samuel P King & George G. Leckie (1965), page 6-7, ISBN 0-8048-0572-5

• "You're striving for harmony, and if you try to take too much, you'll come to grief."
  • Michael Redmond, the only Western go player to reach 9-dan, the highest level of professional play

• From the way of Go, the beauty of Japan and the Orient had fled. Everything had become science and regulation. [...] One conducted the battle only to win, and there was no margin for remembering the dignity and the fragrance of Go as an art.
  • Yasunari Kawabata, The Master of Go (1951)
  • Translated from the Japanese by Edward G. Seidensticker (1972), page 52, ISBN 0-399-50528-8

• That play of black upon white, white upon black, has the intent and takes the form of creative art. It has in it a flow of the spirit and a harmony of music. Everything is lost when suddenly a false note is struck, or one party in a duet suddenly launches forth on an eccentric flight of his own. A masterpiece of a game can be ruined by insensitivity to the feelings of an adversary.
  • Yasunari Kawabata, The Master of Go (1951)
  • Translated from the Japanese by Edward G. Seidensticker (1972), page 164, ISBN 0-399-50528-8

• "The Ancient Japanese considered the Go board to be a microcosm of the universe. Although when it is empty it appears to be simple and ordered, in fact, the possibilities of gameplay are endless. They say that no two Go games have ever been alike. Just like snowflakes. So, the Go board actually represents an extremely complex and chaotic universe."
  • Max Cohen's mentor Sol Robeson, in π (film)

• "If there is intelligent life in space possibly they play chess; most certainly, they play Go."
  • Edward Lasker

• I have heard that Otaké of the Seventh Rank and Wu of the sixth rank once went to a clairvoyant and asked for advice on how to win. The proper method, said the man, was to lose all awareness of self while awaiting an adversary's play. [...] While waiting for a play he [Onoda of the Sixth Rank] would sit quietly with his eyes closed. He explained that he was ridding himself of the desire to win.
  • Yasunari Kawabata, The Master of Go (1951)
  • Translated from the Japanese by Edward G. Seidensticker (1972), page 42, ISBN 0-399-50528-8

• Winning is enjoyable, but losing does not detract from the pleasure of playing.
  • Nakayama Noriyuki, professional player and Go writer

• Studying Go is a wonderful way to develop both the creative as well as the logical abilities of children because to play it both sides of the brain are necessary.
  • Cho Chikun, one of the three great prodigies in Go history.

• I even remember a game in a Go World, where he was agonizing for hours over a basic large nadare variation. He then played the joseki move and was asked afterwards why it took him so long to play it. His answer was (more or less) Oh - that's joseki? I'm not happy with this variation but could not come up with something better.
  • Thomas Schmid about 'cosmic'-Takemiya, a Go Gamer

• The rules of Go are so elegant, organic and rigorously logical that if intelligent lifeforms exist elsewhere in the universe they almost certainly play Go.
  • International Chess Master, Edward Lasker

• Playing Go is like dancing: a bad move and your partner steps all over you.
  • Humour One Liners

• Go players die and learn.
  • Humour One Liners

[edit] Go proverbs

Rather than being quotes about Go as a game, Go proverbs are about specific situations that occur within a game of Go, and are commonly used to aid in evaluating a move in Go.

• "Keep Your Stones Connected" The Way To Go
• "There is death in the hane"
• "Hane at the head of two stones"
• "Ikken tobi is never bad"
• "There are no ko threats in the opening"
• "Strange things happens at the 1-2 point"
• "Do not peep when you can cut"
• "Even a moron connects against a peep"
• "Do not use thickness to make territory"
• "Play away from thickness"

[edit] Unsourced

• One of the many Go quotations is the story about a student who went to a Go master to learn the game. The Go master played one game with the student to see if the student had any merit. When the Go master saw that the student did indeed have merit, the Go master agreed to teach the student in Go. Over the next few months many topics were discussed from mathematics to philosophy, science and religion, but Go was never discussed. Then at the end of the instruction, the Go master played one more game with the student and found that the student had indeed learned how to play Go.^{[citation needed]}

• A few moments to learn, a lifetime to master.
  • A proverb

• Rome could be ruined in a move.
  • Anonymous

• A meijin needs no joseki.
  • Anonymous

• If chess is a battle then Go is War.
  • Anonymous

• Playing atari and then connecting is often bad style. Don't play 1-2-3, just play 3.
  • Anonymous

• Go is more than just a game; it is life and death.
  • Anonymous

• Go isn't everything. Go is the only thing.
  • Anonymous

• One game, they said, and started to play. That was yesterday.
  • Anonymous

• If Go is like war, Chess is a knife fight in a phone booth.
  • Anonymous

[edit] Sources

Notable Quotes

The Way To Go Karl Baker