Home Is Where The Heart Dwells

Go is a traditional Chinese game.

Rule: Players place alternately black and white stones on the vacant intersections of a 19×19 rectilinear grid. A stone is captured and removed if it is tightly surrounded by stones of the opposing color. The objective is to control a larger territory than the opponent by placing one’s stones so they cannot be captured, but can capture any opposing stones played in one’s territory. The game ends and the score is counted when both players consecutively pass on a turn, indicating that neither side can increase its territory or reduce its opponent’s; the game can also end by resignation.

Just for info:

It is commonly said that no Go game has ever been played twice. Calculations suggest this may be true: on a 19×19 board, there are about 3³⁶¹×0.012 = 2.1×10¹⁷⁰ possible positions, most of which are the end result of about (120!)² = 4.5×10³⁹⁷ different (no-capture) games, for a total of about 9.3×10⁵⁶⁷ games. Allowing captures gives as many as

possible games, all of which last for over 4.1×10⁴⁸ moves.

In comparison, the number of legal positions in chess is estimated to be between 10⁴³ and 10⁵⁰.

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