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Human Go Development History

Go is one of humanity's oldest and most profound board games. From legendary origins in ancient China, through thousands of years of development, Go has become not just a game but an important part of East Asian culture, carrying philosophical, artistic, and competitive meanings.

Development Overview​

Ancient Period (~2000 BCE - 1600 CE)​

Go was born in China, legend says created by Emperor Yao to teach his son Danzhu. The earliest written records appear during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. Thereafter, Go gradually spread to the Korean Peninsula and Japan, becoming a shared cultural heritage of the three East Asian nations.

During this long period, Go developed from a pastime for royalty and nobility into a tool for scholars and literati to cultivate character, and systematic game record documentation and theoretical works began to appear.

Early Modern Period (1600 - 1950)​

Japan established a unique Go house system during the Edo period. Competition among the Four Houses (Hon'inbo, Inoue, Yasui, Hayashi) drove rapid development of Go theory and technique. During this period, Japan became the center of world Go and produced many legendary players.

Chinese-born Wu Qingyuan went to Japan for development and created the "New Fuseki" era, dominating Japanese Go for decades with his transcendent skills.

Modern Period (1950 - 2015)​

After World War II, the Japanese Go world saw the "Six Super Players Plus One" golden era. However, from the 1980s, Korean Go rose dramatically, with players like Cho Hunhyun, Lee Chang-ho, and Lee Sedol successively dominating world Go.

Entering the 21st century, Chinese Go began its revival, with new generation players like Ke Jie rising to form intense competition with Korea.

Chapter Contents​

  • Ancient Go - From Chinese origins to transmission to Japan and Korea
  • Modern Go - Japan's House era, Korea's rise, and China's revival

"Go is the most complex of all games. Its variations exceed the atoms in the universe."

— What Archimedes might have said, if he knew about Go