An Intellectual Pastime for Everyone

GO is the world's oldest boardgame still played in its original form. Presumably created in what is now China more than 4,000 years ago; today, GO is enjoyed by millions of people all over the world (known as 'Igo' in Japan, 'Weiqi' in China, and 'Baduk' in Korea).

Professional players in Japan, Korea, China, and Taiwan, are celebrities on a par with Golf and Tennis stars. Elegant in its simplicity, four-year-olds can learn to play GO in five minutes and proceed toward mastering it happily ever after.

If this game wasn't fun, as well as stimulating, people surely would have stopped playing it thousands of years ago! Taking a moment to learn the rules may provide a lifetime of enjoyment.

GO is also well-suited to people with developmental delays, cognitive impairment and mental disease... The rules are extremely simple, and can be grasped by observation alone. Playing GO has been shown to be a whole-brain activity, stimulating both the left- (logical/analytical) and right- (intuitive/artistic) hemispheres of the brain during a game.¹ Playing GO is also used to combat mental degeneration and delay the progress of conditions such as senility and Alzheimer's Disease.²

I have composed a .PDF version of a simplified rule-set for GO that is suitable for any new player, but especially those mentally younger than 8 years, that I call "Survival GO". Essentially, it encapsulates the first 3 of the 6 components of standard Go, without compromising the integrity of the game, so that when the players are ready for something more rich, they may simply add the last 3 components, viz., 'The Rule of Ko', Passing, and Scoring. This version of the game is also known as "Atari Go", "Capture Game" and "First Capture GO". My 1-page double-sided rule-set for this excellent introductory form of GO is available for FREE (non-commercial) download here: SURVIVAL_GO.pdf along with a paper-board that may be downloaded here