How it Began!
Like it was mentioned in the homepage, go is over 4,000 years old! It originated in China as a battle planning device for war. It was then discovered how complex a game based off of it would be. In its early years it was played on a roughly drawn or carved grid and different shaded stones were used as pieces. There is a lot of art depicting this such as the following:
In Japan, Korea, China, and Taiwan, it is far more popular than chess is in the West, and professional players compete for large cash prizes. Its popularity in this country continues to grow, more than fifty years after the founding of the American Go Association. There are millions of players through out the world and many of them attend the Go Congresses. At the Go Congress many of the top ameteurs and some pros meet for tournaments and fun games. There are oftern lectures that are put on youtube by attendees of the Congress. Pictures of the past and future Congress will be on this site for everyone to enjoy!
Along with the Go Congress, there are many other tournaments. Some of these are for fun, others are for prizes, but none of them compare to the Title Matches held to determine the best pros. The major Japanesetitles are as follows:
- Kisei is a title sponsored by the Yomiuri Shimbun Newspaper. The winner's
purse is 42,000,000 Yen/$365,000.
- Meijin is a title sponsored by the Asahi Newspaper. The winner's purse is 36,000,000 Yen/$330,000.
- Honinbo is a title sponsored by the Mainichi Shimbun Newspaper. The winner's purse is 32,000,000 Yen/$280,000.
- Judan is a title sponsored by the Sankei Newspaper. The winner's purse is 14,500,000 Yen/$126,000.
- Tengen is a title sponsored by the Three Newspaper Companies Newspaper. The
winner's purse is 14,000,000 Yen/$122,000.
- Oza is a
title sponsored by the Nihon Keizai Newspaper. The winner's purse is
13,500,000 Yen/$118,000.
- Gosei is a title sponsored by the Regional Newspapers League. The winner's
purse is 7,700,000 Yen/$67,000.
