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Atari Go
Difficulty: Beginner
Keywords: Rules
AtariGo aka the capture game (I used "capturing game" but native English speakers on The capture game has been used for explaining the basic rule "a chain whose last liberty is filled is removed from the board" and is promoted by the EGCC and Yasuda 9p as a teaching method. Many believe however that this makes pupils focus too much on capturing stones, a bad habit which is difficult to throw off later. Atari Go as a teaching method is controversial.
I have implemented AtariGo for Palm. You can download it from
There is also my implementation of an Atari-Go program as a Java applet:
Mindy McAdams? has a pretty nice page on first-capture go here: --dyoo
I first heard of this way to teach go from Bill Camp at the Seattle Go Center. He called it "First Capture" and sometimes "Capture One," because he treated it as the first step in a 4-step process of teaching go slowly but surely. (The next steps are "Capture Five," "Capture Most," and "Territory Go," which is "real" go; often it's fine to skip either Cap-5 or Cap-Most, because the student is ready for real go; individual teaching and learning styles vary.) "The Capture Game" and "The Capturing Game" also work as labels, but i still like "First Capture" best. I did not know it as "Atari Go" until the recent RGG thread / flamewar flared up. BillSpight: capture vs. capturing If the method of play were capturing, then capturing game would be better, I think. But since the object of the game is to capture, capture game is better. For "most capture" since one scores points by capturing, I lean towards capturing game. Besides, capturing game has a better rhythm. ;-) Well, regarding the semantical differences you pointed out, I would prefer "capture" to "capturing", mainly because "capturing game" sounds to me like a game type rather than a game. I just noticed that can't find any game where what you do is only "capture", so maybe "capturing game" would never be used this way. What about Solitaire? MrKoala: I think it would be a "capturing game", you're right... :) Rubyflame: Has anyone considered the possibility that Go evolved from the capture game? I believe that capture 180 with no passing allowed would be strategically equivalent to Go with group tax (although it would have a much longer endgame). KarlKnechtel: When I have seen "capture n" played (for whatever value of n), there was no ko rule - the players would figure out that constant retaking was to one player's disadvantage. Once the teacher observes a situation like this, s/he can then introduce the ko rule, as one of the steps to introducing the "real game". This is a copy of the living page "Atari Go" at Sensei's Library. ![]() |