When I first attempted to play this game I was so confused about what I was playing that I didn’t even know that I won or even how I won. Even after multiple times playing it, I still feel like an absolute noob and wish I was better.

I highly suggest that you go to this site in order to learn the rules for Weiqi: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~wjh/go/rules/Chinese.html

The game of Go originated in China in ancient times. It was a worthy pastime for a gentleman, as described in the Analects of Confucius. It reached Korea by the 5th century, in the 7th century it had reached Japan. The game was described by Thomas Hyde in 1694, but it did not become popular in the West until the late 19th century. According to legend, the game was created as a teaching tool after the ancient Chinese Emperor Yao designed it for his son, Danzhu, to learn discipline, concentration, and balance. Another suggested genesis for the game is that Chinese warlords and generals used pieces of stone to map attacking positions. Other plausible theories relate Go equipment to divination or flood control.

A game of Go is quite possibly the most stressful 30-45 minutes you will ever experience.

If you ever got frustrated playing chess, then I would steer clear of Go because you will be pulling out your hair. With a game as old and as unchanged as Go, you will question how someone made something so perfect and so unbelievably annoying at the same time.

My opponent and I started off by naming the borders for the game as we preferred to not have a game that could last for hours.

The first few moves of Go are always just a way to set up your future game and how you will end up swarming your opponent in order to make their ability to gain loyalties null-in-void.

The next few phases of gameplay are when you start to really get into the meat of the game, as you are now actively looking for ways in which to steal your opponent’s pieces and take more loyalties for yourself.

As the game continues on, the board quickly fills up with pieces as the territory that each of you are fighting over has officially become very evident.

Our game eventually came to an end. We both took our neutral pieces away and filled in the spots with the pieces that we had taken, so that the loyalties that we each had were now at the final score.

My opponent did end up winning as he was able to pick up the game far quicker than I expected him to be able to do.

As an overall review, I would have to say that it was fun, but it is very difficult to pick up and as far as cost goes it is only
$20 most places.