Baduk (also called Go or Weiqi) is a strategic board game with complete information and high computational complexity.
Baduk or Go is a board game for two players that originated in China more than 2,500 years ago. The game is noted for being rich in strategy despite its relatively simple rules.
The two players alternately place black and white playing pieces, called "stones", on the vacant intersections (called "points") of a grid of 19×19 lines (beginners often play on smaller 9×9 and 13×13 boards). The object of the game is to use one's stones to surround a larger total area of the board than the opponent. Once placed on the board, stones may not be moved, but stones are removed from the board if captured. When a game concludes, the controlled points (territory) are counted along with captured stones to determine who has more points. Games may also be won by resignation.
Rules
Aside from the order of play rules there are essentially only two rules in Go:
- Rule 1 (the rule of liberty) states that every stone remaining on the board must have at least one open "point", or must be part of a connected group that has at least one such open point ("liberty") next to it. Stones or groups of stones which lose their last liberty are removed from the board.
- Rule 2 (the "ko rule") states that the stones on the board must never repeat a previous position of the whole board. Moves which would do so are forbidden, and thus at least one move must be placed elsewhere on the board (changing the board's overall position) before a player can play there again.
