CHINESE TRADITIONAL GAMES

 WEIQI (ENCIRCLEMENT CHESS)

     Go is a kind of chess that originated in China. Born of war, it was probably the creation of a strategist of antiquity. In Chinese it is known as "weiqi" ("encirclement chess"), as players try to conquer territory on a square wooden board by completely enclosing vacant points with boundaries made of their own stones. Go has a history of more than 4,000 years in China, where it became fashionable as early as the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476B.C.). It found its way into Japan during the Sui and Tang dynasties (581-907A.D.). With the steady expansion of international cultural exchanges, go has spread to Europe and North America during the last few decades and is becoming a global game. The chessboard of go in its early days was checkered by 11, 15 or 17 vertical lines until it finally settled at 19 vertical lines and 19 horizontal lines to form 361 intersections. It is played between two persons, one with 181 black go-shi (flat, round pieces called stones) and the other 180 white ones. The person holding black stones makes the first move if it is a game between two opponents of equal calibre, and the person holding white stones makes the first move according to special handicap rules if the game takes place between two opponents of unequal skills. A player's final score is his number of walled-in points less the number of his stones lost by capture, and the player with more points is declared the winner. The 19-line chessboard can be seen in traditional Chinese paintings dating back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907A.D.).