Go History

PageType: Path     Keywords: Culture & History, People, Index page

Dave Sigaty: 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.

Table of contents

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!!

John now publishes all the material he wants to on the GoGoD CD Encyclopaedia and Database. (T Mark Hall, 16/12/2003)

See also : The game of go the national game of Japan/history of the game.


1. 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) (why, where, who?)
  • 6th century BC: "Analects" by Confucius mentioned Go (oldest surviving Go reference)
  • 1st century AD: "Yi Zhi" (Essence of Go) by Ban Gu? (班固 奕旨) (oldest surviving text devoted specifically to Go)
  • around 250 AD: "Wu Diagram" (孫策召呂範奕棋局面)(earliest recorded Go game)
  • Sima Yan, Emperor (reigned 265-290 AD)
  • around 1100 AD: 忘憂清樂集(literally "Forget Worry Pure Happy") by Li Yi Min (李逸民) The oldest surviving Go book. This book collected famous essays like Qijing Shisanpian,...,several ancient records of games including Wu Diagram,Ranka,...,some old josekis, 34 tsumego problems (the oldest tsumego book), and more.
  • 1349 AD: 玄玄棋經Xuan Xuan Qijing by 嚴德甫Yan Defu and 晏天章Yan Tianzhang. This classic consists of six volumes. It collected nice essays, valuable game records, and 376 ingenious problems. These problems demonstrate tesuji(double snapback, big-headed ghost, under the stone, to name a few), patterns often seen in the corner(shapes similar to L groups and so on), life and death situations, and more. This classic has great historical importance mostly because it has inspired all other tsumego books around the world.
  • During the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) Chinese rules changed. The rule was effectively territory scoring before Ming dynasty. Later it was effectively area scoring.
  • Guo Bailing 過百齡 He edited the famous book GuanZi Pu (官子譜). He also edited another two books 三子譜 and 四子譜
  • Qing Dynasty (1644-1911): There were many active players in Qing China. A scholar 鄧元鏸 (Deng Yun Huei) in late Qing (1881 AD) edited a book 奕潛齋集譜( Game Collection of Yi Chien Jai ) in which he listed 169 go players and gave a short commentary on 14 among them. Huang Longshi (黃龍士), Fan Xiping (范西屏), and Shi Ding'an (施定庵) were the most famous among best players. Many of their game records can be found in books like The Records of Six Go Players?.
  • Huang Longshi b. 1651 (1654?) d. ~1695 : Many Chinese players think Huang has changed the Chinese style of play. Some of Huang's games can be found online at [ext] TOM's
  • Fan Xiping (also called Fan Shixun) b. 1709 d. ? : The famous "Ten Games of DangHu(當湖十局)" (Fan Xiping vs Shi Ding'an) can be found online at [ext] TOM's together with commentary by Chen Zude. Fan also wrote a book Game Records of Peach Blossom Spring? (桃花泉弈譜) to expound his joseki and theory....
  • Shi Ding'an b. 1710 d. 1770:
  • Guo Tisheng b.1907 d.1989
  • Chen Zude b.1944
  • Yang Yilun b. 1951
  • 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


2. Timeline Japan


3. Timeline Korea

Read John Fairbairn's essay on the [ext] Origins of Go in Korea

  • 1923: Cho Nam-cheol born
  • 1943: Kim In born
  • 03.11.1937 Cho Nam-cheol went to Japan and entered Kitani Minoru’s Go club
  • 04.1941 Cho Nam-cheol passed professional exams in Nihon Ki-in
  • 1944 Cho Nam-cheol returned to Seoul
  • 11.1945 Hansung Kiwon formed
  • 28.01.1954 Hankuk Kiwon formed
  • 20.06.1954 The first professional examination tournament
  • 01.03.1955 The first Korea vs China Friendship match
  • 21.10.1955 The first game record appeared in newspaper (Donga Ilbo)
  • 15.04.1956 The first professional tournament started (Kuksu Cup)
  • 10.1957 The first radio translation of Kuksu titlematch
  • 25.01.1958 Go on TV for the first time
  • 09.03.1962 Kim In went to Japan to study Go
  • 26.03.1962 Cho Sangyoon? went to Japan
  • 31.07.1962 Cho Chikun went to Japan
  • 06.01.1963 The first international telephone game Cho Chikun vs Ishida Yoshio
  • 26.10.1963 Cho Hun-hyeon went to Japan
  • 30.12.1963 Ha Chansok? went to Japan

4. 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
  • 1937: AGA founded
  • 1978: Manfred Wimmer 1944-1995; first western professional (Kansai Kiin). 1-dan January 1978, 2-dan November, 1978
  • 1978: James Kerwin b. 1946; first western 1-dan at Nihon Ki-in.
  • 1996: American Professional Go Association founded.
  • 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)

5. 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.
  • 1994, Mar 25: First review on the Go Teaching Ladder: rabbit (7d) commented a game between Jan van der Steen (3d) and jon (1d).

6. Timeline Computer Go


7. 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 :-)
  • 2004, Jan 11: Public release of French SL version (EncyGoPedie)
  • ...

More details are at SL History and Wiki News.


8. Timelines Elsewhere


9. Related Links


This is a copy of the living page "Go History" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2005 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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