Editing Go (section)

==About the game==
[[Image:Go_Swordfight.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Go is a strategy board game involving two players: One goes first, the other loses.]]
Go is a strategy board game involving two players, Black and White. The players take turns placing stones of their own color on the intersections of a grid; common sizes for this grid are 19x19, 13x13, and 9x9 intersections.

Stones are captured by surrounding them. A stone is surrounded when it is not possible to trace a line along the playing grid from the intersection on which the stone sits to an empty intersection, optionally passing through intersections containing stones of the same color. If, after removing captured stones, the stone just played is itself surrounded, the move is suicide and illegal in most rulesets.

To prevent certain deadlock situations, it is illegal to move such that your opponent's move is undone; otherwise the players could reach a situation in which they endlessly repeat the same two positions. In some rulesets it is illegal to recreate any previous position. A situation in which this rule applies is called ko. A typical game can have multiple of these ko-threats. To circumvent a ko-threat, the player must place a stone somewhere else and after that he may continue the ko-situation on his next turn; or ignore it completely and let his opponent take the ko.


If a player believes they cannot improve their position, they pass instead of placing a stone. Once both players pass, they score the game by counting the intersections surrounded by their stones, and then either adding the number of their stones still on the board, or subtracting the number of their stones captured by their opponent, depending on the ruleset.

To offset Black's advantage of moving first, White receives compensation points, typically 6.5 or 7.5 depending on ruleset. The half point is to prevent draws.

[[Image:Late_Game_Go.jpg|thumb|right|Your late game will look like this. (btw, we shit you not, this is [https://senseis.xmp.net/?NuclearTesuji actually a ''traditional way for a loser to quit a game of Go''])]]If the two players are of unmatched [[Kyu|skill levels]], White can grant Black the use of handicap stones; in effect, Black places 2 or more stones on the board as her first move, then White makes his (it's traditional to refer to the two players using differing pronouns) first move. In this case the compensation points are only 0.5.

As you might have noticed, Go is a game of absolute strategy where luck has no sway on the course of the game. A player of a year's worth of experience will find playing against someone who has played a month after understanding the basics, even with handicap stones on their side, is akin to [[Powergamer|going to the playground with a lead pipe]] and beating up the youngest child with it. There is absolutely no thrill in it ([[That Guy|except for some]]), and you feel bad for poor Timothy.

Also, the entire professional history of the game can be accurately summarized as slowly realizing just ''how good'' it is to go first and giving White more and more pity points to compensate; inevitably no amount has proven quite enough.

===''Gomoku''===
Sometimes hyphenated (''go-moku''), this is a much simpler strategy game played on a go board. Players take turns placing stones and trying to get five in a row. Perfectly fun if you're not in the mood for the more involved game, though calling it go is a misnomer.  White has a much greater advantage in this game than with Go, so after enough practice white always wins, and the game becomes pointless.  People have tried to add rules to the game to balance it, with some degree of success (Renju is one of the better attempts).

Pente, created in the 70's, is gomoku with rules for capturing opponent's stones.  It still favors the first player.  Again, variant rules exist to try and balance the game.