Weiqi is the Chinese name for the classic board game usually known in English as Go. Called “yi” in ancient China, the game has a history of over 3,000 years; it can be regarded as the originator of all ancient chess games.
According to ancient books, weiqi was invented by legendary Chinese emperor Yao and his counselor Shun. In the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476BC), people would use terms in weiqi like “ju qi bu ding” (hesitate about what move to make) to describe vacillation in politics. It's quite clear how popular the game was at that time. Later, numerous talented weiqi players emerged in all dynasties and many emperors in ancient China were weiqi lovers such as Cao Cao, Emperor Taizu of the Song Dynasty (960-1279) and Zhu Yuanzhang. In the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), the famous book named The Classic of the Mystery of the Mysterious was released. It was a glorious example of comprehensive weiqi works in ancient China.
Weiqi is a strategic board game between two players respectively using black and white game pieces. A weiqi game is started with the board empty. Game pieces are placed on the intersections of the board. The player holding black piece plays first and each player place a piece on the board on his turn. Players are free to place their stones at any unoccupied intersections on the board. Once the pieces are placed on the board, they are not to be moved to another location. Also the pieces are not to be removed from the board at will. Besides, players are not allowed to stack a piece on top of another piece on the board.
Weiqi embodies ancient Chinese philosophy and cultural profoundness and at the same time involves lots of flexible strategies. Weiqi reflects the essence of Chinese traditional culture with the following aspects.
