奇速英语

Weiqi, commonly known as Go in English, is a board game that originated in ancient China. The game is considered one of the Four Arts that Chinese literators (文人) were required to master. Besides Weiqi, they had to learn Chinese calligraphy (shu), painting (hua) and guqin playing (qin).

Weiqi has a history of over 4,000 years, even older than Chinese chess. According to some historical records, the game, known as Yi in its early years, is said to have been invented by Yao (尧). Seeing that his son had a bad temper (脾气), Yao was rather worried. So he decided to find something that could help educate his son, and a simple board game came to him.

The rules of Weiqi are simple: using black and white stones (棋子), two players take turns placing their stones on empty cross points of the board. The goal is to surround (包围) a larger total area on the board while preventing one’s own stones from being taken by the opponent (对手). Stones do not move and are only taken off the board if they are completely surrounded.

The scene of two people playing Weiqi appears in many traditional Chinese paintings. The image of a player holding a stone over the board, looking for a place to put it, was later turned into a popular Chinese idiom (成语), which means “unsure about making a move”. The expression is still widely used today.

With its development, Weiqi grew in popularity. Later, it spread to Japan, South and North Korea and Western countries. Today, it has become an international board game.