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Go History
    Keywords: Culture & History, People

Dave Sigaty: Until now the best place for Go History (at least the history in Japan) has been Andrew Grant's pages. These are no longer up (see [1] below) so it seems necessary for the SL community to produce a "Do It Yourself" version of Go History.

I have taken the Names in Go lists plus a few other items (so far) and created "time lines" by country. I have ordered people based on their birthdays. Please add your events and expand on those listed below as you see fit.

  • China [2]
  • Japan [3]
  • Korea [4]
  • Non-Asian Countries [5]
  • Computer Go [6]
  • Sensei's Library [7]
  • Elsewhere [8]

Note that John Fairbairn was gradually publishing a varied and fascinating series of [ext] historical essays and other (often historical) materials on the [ext] features page at Mindzine. The site has become inactive but it and the materials are still there. Most materials on Go history in English are about Japan. John's work is much broader, covering not only the big three (China, Japan, and Korea) but digressing to Tibet and Okinawa as well. Read them while they last. And if you have the opportunity, push John to find a new venue for publishing additional works as well!!


Related Links


[2] Timeline China

  • According to a legend, Emperor Yao (2357-2255 BC) invented Go to enlighten his son Dan Zhu.
  • According to another legend, Shun (2255-2205 BC) invented Go to teach his son Shang Jun.
  • 2306 BC: Go invented (Encyclopedia Britannica)
  • 6th century BC: "Analects?" by Confucius mentioned Go (oldest surviving Go reference)
  • 1st century AD: "Yi Zhi" (Essence of Go) by Ban Gu? (oldest surviving text devoted specifically to Go)
  • around 250 AD: "Wu Diagram" (earliest recorded Go game)
  • Sima Yan, Emperor (reigned 265-290 AD)
  • ...
  • Huang Longshi b. 1651 (1654?) d. ~1695
  • Fan Xiping (also called Fan Shixun) b. 1709 d. ?
  • Shi Ding'an b. 1710 d. 1770
  • Guo Tisheng b.1907 d.1989
  • Chen Zude b.1944
  • Nie Weiping b. 1952
  • Guo Juan b. 1960
  • Rui Naiwei b. 1963
  • Ma Xiaochun b. 1964
  • Chang Hao b. 1976
  • ...

Note: Some claim Go was developed as a game in China perhaps 4000 years before present time, but this date has been questioned by many.

See also: Qing, 17x17 board


[3] Timeline Japan


[4] Timeline Korea


[5] Timeline Non-Asian Countries

  • late 16th through mid-19th century: Some westerners come into contact with Go and mention the game in writings without disclosing all rules. See [ext] Early Mentions of Go in Europe. Of particular interest may be the German philosopher and mathematician Leibniz (1646 to 1716) who published an entire article about go including a picture of a go game; however, Leibniz states that he does not know all the rules.
  • 19th century: Go was brought to America by Asian immigrants
  • 1934: AGA founded
  • 197?: Manfred Wimmer 1944-1995; first western professional (Kansai Kiin).
  • 1978: James Kerwin b. 1946; first western 1-dan at Nihon Ki-in.
  • 2000: Michael Redmond b. 1963; first western 9-dan
  • 2003, Jan 16: Hans Pietsch b. 1968, German Nihon Ki-in 6-dan, murdered while on a go promotion tour in Guatemala.
  • Late 20th Century, early 21st Century:Increasing numbers of westerners qualify as professionals in Japan and Korea (Janice Kim, Catalin Taranu, Alexandre Dinerchtein, Svetlana Shikshina)

[6] Timeline Internet Go

  • December 19, 1976, Taiwan vs U.S. International friendship match, played via Teletype machine (what that?)
  • Sometime in the 1980's, Greg Hale wrote inetgo72. This was the first(?) program to use the internet to play Go. Inetgo72 was one of the foundations for the Internet Go Server (IGS).
  • February 1992, IGS starts. Written mostly by Tim Casey, it is the first server dedicated to Go, based at the University of New Mexico.

[7] Timeline Computer Go


[8] Timeline Sensei's Library

  • 2000, Oct 21: Two "wild and crazy guys" (Arno and Morten) create a WikiWikiWeb to act as the on-line repository of (real soon now) all Go knowledge in the world - Sensei's Library.
  • 2001, Jan 5: Sensei's Library opens to the public with an announcement on rec.games.go. It is soon overrun with noisy but good-natured riff raff :-)
  • ...

More details are at SL History and Wiki News.


[9] Timelines Elsewhere


[1] Discussion

Dave Sigaty: Andrew Grant has written a series of articles on the history of Go. You can find them at [ext] http://www.honinbo.freeserve.co.uk/.

BlueWyvern: This link seems to be broken, does anyone know what is up? I've been trying to go there for a week now...

Morten Pahle: Andrew just (05/09/01) told me that the site has been taken down because he wants to publish the contents as a book.

Andrew Grant: The publication date of my book on the history of Go has come forward by quite a bit since my last posting here. Slate and Shell, my publisher, told me yesterday (22/1/03) that the manuscript has gone to the printer and it should be coming off the presses in "about ten days".

Stefan: Great! I'll definitely order a copy. And welcome to the library.

Andrew Grant: Unfortunately the book will not now be appearing due to copyright problems.

BobMcGuigan: I'd like to know more about go in Japan before the time of Sansa. Presumably it came to Japan from China at the time of the great borrowing from Chinese culture but it would be nice to know more about that. It would also be nice to know more about go (weichi) in China during the centuries following 1700. Same for the history of baduk in Korea before Cho Nam-ch'eol.

HolIgor: As far as I know Genji no monogatari mentions the game several times. As it was written at the beginning of 11th century, one can assume that the game was popular at the court at that time. Of course, Fujiwara no Sai comes from that period as well.

hello: I added an 'Internet Go' timeline, as i discovered some facts about an early international match. Couldn't find any similar chronology elsewhere. Lots of other things could be added.

Björn: I added the part about early mentions of Go to the Non-Asian Country section. Not sure if I should have moved the link to the Timelines Elsewhere section instead.



This is a copy of the living page "Go History" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2003 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.