"GO."

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8831, 18 January 1907, Page 2

"GO."

A GAME THAT HAS MADE JAPAN. It is no exaggeration to say that the Japanese have invented and perfected the greatest game of strategy in the world, one that beats chess, and bridge, and " skat/ and the varieties of Kriegspiel hollow. In turn, it has made the Japanese the masters of strategy they admittedly are. Captain Brinkley, in hie great work on. Japan, says there are nine orders of proficiency, and the higher are rarely reached by more than one man in a generation. In the Christmas Double Number of the " Pall Mall Magazine " a well-Jinown traveller who has taught engineering science in the JapaneSS universities, explains, -with -many photographs, the majn principles of the game, and gives' such rules ac will help to make it doubtless a favourite recreation in this country in the coining winter evenings. "Go" (says the writer) is a purelyintellectual game; nothing but brains, including the brain-faculty of persistent memory in the midst of distracting dangers, gives any hope of success in playing it. Its high merit is due to its combining the opposite qualities of simplicity and complexity. In this respect it is akin to chess. Its rules are simpler than are those of ." spillikins " ; its results are as complex and difficult as those of European, diplomacy. After explaining the nature of the board and men, the writer goes on to say: — There are two cognate objects in the game. One is to take prisoners ; the other i 6 to surround and protect areas on the board unoccupied by stones. The game continues until neither player can place a stone so that it will not be immediately captured by his opponent. Very seldom are all the 361 stones used in. a game. But sometimes, when there has been much capturing of prisoners and much retaking of occupied spaces, one or both players' supplies of stones run out. The game then continues by exchanges of equal numbers of prisoners. Such exchange does not affect the result, as the win is by the excess of the count of one colour over that of the other. ' There is something eerie in listening in a neighbouring chamber in a Japanese hotel through the long hours of the night to theee dead silences between the epochs of a hard-fought game of " Go," broken only by the sharp click of each stone as it is played down, on the board. But as soon as the last stone is played that brings the epoch to its climax and gives partial victory ,to the one and defeat to the other colour, at that moment the whole company hursts into roars of laughter, loud clapping of hands and noisy, eager discussion. Women seldom play " Go," and are never encouraged to become experts. Perhaps it is considered that" without training and by pure natural genius they are already sufficiently equipped in the arts of ruse and insinuation. But practically all Japanese men play the game, some with much, some with little, skill. They have already begun .when they are boys. There can be no doubt that the game is extremely influ- J ential in sharpening whatever native intellectual faculty may be possessed by the player. Our English Army would become more efficient if " Go" were to become popular in its recreation-rooms.