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| author | Franklin Schmidt <fschmidt@gmail.com> |
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| date | Sun, 02 Apr 2023 10:30:03 -0600 |
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--- /dev/null Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000 +++ b/src/GoHist.html Sun Apr 02 10:30:03 2023 -0600 @@ -0,0 +1,88 @@ +<html> + +<!-- Mirrored from users.eniinternet.com/bradleym/GoHist.html by HTTrack Website Copier/3.x [XR&CO'2014], Sun, 06 Nov 2022 07:03:34 GMT --> +<head> +<title></title> +</head> +<body text="#000000" link="#0000ff" vlink="#551a8b" alink="#ff0000" bgcolor="#c0c0c0"> +<a name="The Nature And History Of Go"> +<p><hr> + +<br wp="br1"><br wp="br2"> +<p><strong>The Nature And History Of Go</strong> + +<p><strong>© 2002 Milton N. Bradley</a></strong> + +<p>Go is one of the supreme accidents of human creation! Now universally recognized as the +premiere strategic board game of all time, it originated in China during the Bronze Age about +4000 years ago. As might logically be expected of a game of such incredible antiquity, Go play is +governed by a surprisingly few simple rules which can be learned in only a few minutes even by +young children. But don't be deceived by this! While one might reasonably expect that a +strategic board game with such an astonishingly simple structure would lack the depth and +challenge of more modern and superficially complex games like chess, in reality exactly the +opposite is true! + +<p>In this regard (only) Go resembles mathematics, because from its few elegant rules there derives +an almost unbelievably complex structure of tactics and strategy which not only challenges all +that the best human minds can offer, but which also remains far beyond what even the fastest and +most powerful supercomputers can handle. + +<p>But trying to explain the almost unbelievable beauty and fascination of Go to someone +unfamiliar with it is an essentially impossible task! In a very real sense, it's much like that of a +music critic describing a concert, but with a serious complication. If the reader of the criticism is +familiar with the music, then the critic's analysis of the performance exists in a context which +gives it meaning. But just suppose that the reader not just unfamiliar with the music, but has also +been deaf since birth! In that context, attempting to describe the eloquence and beauty of the +composer's conception and the skill with which the orchestra and soloist rendered it can have +little or no meaning. One can admire the skill with which the critic expresses himself and his +obvious knowledge of the subject, but any visceral, emotional connection with the concert he +describes must necessarily be absent. + +<p>So it is with Go and what I'm trying to do here.. Until one gets beyond the stage of rudimentary +knowledge of its elegant concepts even the slightest inkling of the immense attractiveness and +fascination of its incisive tactics and profound strategy and the pleasure which playing it gives its +devotees is hard to imagine for all but an exceptional few. One of those exceptional individuals +who could instantly grasp why Go is the most fascinating purely intellectual pastime ever created +was former World Chess Champion Emanuel Lasker, and his introduction to Go is described +below in the section of this web page entitled How Go Came To America. + +<p>What follows in the remainder of this web page emphasizes the value of Go in the development +of children's transcendently valuable Reasoning skills rather than its fascination and the pure +intellectual challenge and pleasure derived from playing it, but this should not confuse the reader. +This emphasis was deliberately chosen because it provides a practical justification for skeptical +parents and school teachers and administrators to encourage children to learn and practice Go. +This has regrettably proved necessary because in the intense competition for children's already +scarce "free time" perceiving Go as just another pleasurable leisure time pursuit won't "cut it" in +today's highly competitive school environment. But be assured, once learned Go will provide a +lifetime of the greatest purely intellectual pleasure conceivable, and after 48+ years of Go +experience I can personally attest to that! + +<p>For those who would like to find out a bit more about the background of Go and its place in +history, the following web references are suggested: +<a href="http://www.usgo.org/resources/whatisgo.html"> +<p>The AGA's "What Is The Game Of Go?"</a> +<a href="http://www.well.com/user/mmcadams/gointro.html"> +<p>Mindy McAdams "What is Go?"</a> +<a href="http://ltiwww.epfl.ch/~warkent/go/index.html"> +<p>Ken Warkentine's Go Page (includes the fabulous Go Pages Index)</a> +<a href="http://www.cwi.nl/~jansteen/go/history/china.html"> +<p>"Go in Ancient China" by John Fairbairn</a> +<a href="http://www.honinbo.freeserve.co.uk/"> +<p>Andrew Grant's Go History Pages</a> +<a href="http://www.goban.demon.co.uk/bookmark.htm"> +<p>Harry Fearnley's Go Pages Links (even more fabulous than Ken's!!!)</a> + +<p>But please remember to return to my web page after you've visited them! + +<p><a href="Mind.html"><Font Color="#0033FF"><strong>Continue</strong></Font></a> + +<p>Click Here To Return To<a href="index.html"><Font Color="#0033FF"><strong> Milt's Go +Page</strong></Font></a> + +<p><hr> + +<br wp="br1"><br wp="br2"> +</body> + +<!-- Mirrored from users.eniinternet.com/bradleym/GoHist.html by HTTrack Website Copier/3.x [XR&CO'2014], Sun, 06 Nov 2022 07:03:34 GMT --> +</html>