Tuesday 21 August 2012

Go figure


I was amused by this box image from the Michael Stanfield (MS) Go set. The makers haven't gone for the obvious Japanese-themed illustration, and have instead tried to portray a kind of 1960s middle-class sophistication. Full marks for the depiction of the man using the correct traditional stone placement method (between index and middle finger). But the game itself is a bit of a mystery: there are a lot of peculiar stone placings that don't further the game's aim, to surround territory, usually starting with the corners and then the edges.


It is, however, vastly better as a portrayal of a Go game than the completely random board position in Kunyoshi's 1843 Raiko Tormented by the Ground Spider. Considering the general attention to detail, you'd think Kuniyoshi would have known better.

image from The Many Faces of Go software package

A real Go game tends to look like this at the end of the opening phase:


This is the Wikipedia image of Game 1 of the 2002 Korean LG Cup final between Choe Myeong-hun and Lee Sedol.

- Ray

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