Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that answer the question.
Query: What are the pieces in the board game Go?
Two players, "Black" and "White", take turns placing a "stone" (game piece) of their own color on a vacant "point" (intersection) of the grid on a Go board. Black plays first. If there is a large difference in skill between the players, the weaker player typically uses Black and is allowed to place two or more stones on the board to compensate for the difference (see Go handicaps). The official grid comprises 19×19 lines, though the rules can be applied to any grid size. 13×13 and 9×9 boards are popular choices to teach beginners, or for playing quick games. Once placed, a stone may not be moved to a different point.
"Mojo" is played with 3 pieces each and a single neutral pawn, used as a blocker, that is common to and may be moved by both players. The game starts with the pawn in the center of the board and during play, there is a choice of 2 empty spaces. Players take turns placing their 3 pieces on the board, one at a time, on any empty position, building on those already on the board, to complete and/or block winning rows. Then, continue by moving any piece (including the opponent's) or the pawn to an adjacent empty space. Players may move the pawn. Pieces and pawns may not jump over each other and the last piece or pawn moved may not be returned to its previous position. The game is over when a player has 3 same-color pieces in a row - horizontally, vertically or diagonally and is then the winner of the game.
The game can also be played on a 6 × 6 board with ten pieces on each side, labeled 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12. A pair of 6-sided dice are rolled. The game can also be played in rounds with a doubling cube as in backgammon.
Equipment varies with the game. Board games, such as Go, "Monopoly" or backgammon need a board and markers. One of the oldest known board games is Senet, a game played in Ancient Egypt, enjoyed by the pharaoh Tutankhamun. Card games, such as whist, poker and Bridge have long been played as evening entertainment among friends. For these games, all that is needed is a deck of playing cards. Other games, such as bingo, played with numerous strangers, have been organised to involve the participation of non-players via gambling. Many are geared for children, and can be played outdoors, including hopscotch, hide and seek, or Blind man's bluff. The list of ball games is quite extensive. It includes, for example, croquet, lawn bowling and paintball as well as many sports using various forms of balls. The options cater to a wide range of skill and fitness levels. Physical games can develop agility and competence in motor skills. Number games such as Sudoku and puzzle games like the Rubik's cube can develop mental prowess.
The Game of Ur is a race game and it is probably a direct ancestor of the tables, or backgammon, family of games, which are still played today. The Game of Ur is played using two sets of seven checker-like game pieces. One set of pieces are white with five black dots and the other set is black with five white dots. The gameboard is composed of two rectangular sets of boxes, one containing three rows of four boxes each and the other containing three rows of two boxes each, joined together by a "narrow bridge" of two boxes. The gameplay involves elements of both luck and strategy. Movements are determined by rolling a set of four-sided, pyramid-shaped dice. Two of the four corners of each die are marked and the other two are not, giving each die an equal chance of landing with a marked or unmarked corner facing up. The number of marked ends facing upwards after a roll of the dice indicates how many spaces a player may move during that turn. A single game can last up to half an hour and can be very intense.
Board games have been known since ancient history, with the oldest records being paintings in mastabas of the First and Third Dynasties of Egypt (3100-2700 BC). The first known version of chess appeared around the 6th century in India and was called Chaturanga, played on a board of the game Ashtapada. This board was monochromatic and divided into eight columns by eight rows, with special marks called "castles" in the first, fourth, fifth, and eighth squares of the "a", "d", "e", and "h" columns, which served a function in Ashtapada, but not in Chaturanga.
In backgammon, two players move their pieces in opposing directions, according to the rolls of dice. The use of a doubling cube allows players to increase the stakes of the game. The basis of the modern game can be traced to Medieval and Renaissance sources. Backgammon has been studied considerably by computer scientists, who have developed software that plays at the level of top human players.
"Tάβλη (tavli)" meaning "table" or "board" in Byzantine Greek, is the oldest game with rules known to be nearly identical to backgammon; it is described in an epigram of Byzantine Emperor Zeno (AD 476–491). The board was the same with 24 points, 12 on each side. As today, each player had 15 checkers and used cubical dice with sides numbered one to six. The object of the game, to be the first to bear off all of one's checkers, was also the same. Hitting a blot, reentering a piece from the bar, and bearing off, all followed the modern rules. The only differences with modern backgammon were the use of an extra die (three rather than two) and the starting of all pieces off the board (with them entering in the same way that pieces on the bar enter in modern backgammon). The name τάβλη is still used for backgammon in Greece, where it is frequently played in town plateias and cafes. The epigram of Zeno describes a particularly bad dice roll the emperor had for his given position. Zeno, who was white, had a stack of seven checkers, three stacks of two checkers and two "blots", checkers that stand alone on a point and are therefore in danger of being put outside the board by an incoming opponent checker. Zeno threw the three dice with which the game was played and obtained 2, 5 and 6. As in backgammon, Zeno could not move to a space occupied by two opponent (black) pieces. The white and black checkers were so distributed on the points that the only way to use all of the three results, as required by the game rules, was to break the three stacks of two checkers into blots, exposing them and ruining the game for Zeno.
The τάβλη of Zeno's time is believed to be a direct descendant of the earlier Roman "Ludus duodecim scriptorum" ("Game of twelve lines") with that board's middle row of points removed, and only the two outer rows remaining. Ludus duodecim scriptorum used a board with three rows of 12 points each with the 15 checkers being moved in opposing directions by the two players across three rows according to the roll of the three cubical dice. Little specific text about the gameplay of Ludus duodecim scriptorum has survived; it may have been related to the older Ancient Greek dice game Kubeia. The earliest known mention of the game is in Ovid's Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love) (written between 1 BC and 8 AD). In Roman times this game was also known as alea, and a likely apocryphal Latin story linked this name, and the game, to a Trojan soldier named Alea.
Mancala is one of the oldest known games to still be widely played today. "Mancala" is a generic name for a family of two-player turn-based strategy board games played with small stones, beans, or seeds and rows of holes or pits in the earth, a board or other playing surface. The objective is usually to capture all or some set of the opponent's pieces. Versions of the game date back to the 7th century, and evidence suggests the game existed in ancient Egypt.
To reduce the possibility of cheating, most good quality backgammon sets use precision dice and a dice cup. This reduces the likelihood of loaded dice being used, which is the main way of cheating in face-to-face play. A common method of cheating online is the use of a computer program to find the optimal move on each turn; to combat this, many online sites use move-comparison software that identifies when a player's moves resemble those of a backgammon program. Online cheating has therefore become extremely difficult.
Board games have been played in most cultures and societies throughout history. A number of important historical sites, artifacts, and documents shed light on early board games such as Jiroft civilization gameboards in Iran. Senet, found in Predynastic and First Dynasty burials of Egypt, c. 3500 BC and 3100 BC respectively, is the oldest board game known to have existed. Senet was pictured in a fresco found in Merknera's tomb (3300–2700 BC). Also from predynastic Egypt is Mehen.
In October 2011 World Series of Backgammon announced a partnership with the largest online gaming operator in the world, Bwin.com, for online backgammon creating bwin.com/wsob to provide an online tour with a lower buy-in to attract all levels of players. The new tour mimics the major live tournaments run by WSOB and includes a series of events, a points race and the WSOB Championship. The WSOB Champion wins the coveted Gold Cube® and an official backgammon board made by Geoffrey Parker Games and worth apparently €2400.
The board itself (as an adjudicating body distinct from the functions separated as a result of Taft-Harley) has a fixed seating which is assigned based on the names of 5 original members.
The Malays also have a variant of Mancala board game known as Congkak. The game is played by moving stones, marbles, beads or shells around a wooden board consisting of twelve or more holes. Mancala is acknowledged as the oldest game in the world and can be traced its origin since Ancient Egypt.
As the game dispersed around the globe, every culture has invented its own variation including the Malays.
"Twilight Struggle" was the highest-ranked game on BoardGameGeek from December 2010 to January 2016. As of August 2018, the board game occupies a fifth spot. Being released in 2005 it is the oldest board game in the overall top 10 ranking.
The popularity of backgammon surged in the mid-1960s, in part due to the charisma of Prince Alexis Obolensky who became known as "The Father of Modern Backgammon". "Obe", as he was called by friends, co-founded the International Backgammon Association, which published a set of official rules. He also established the World Backgammon Club of Manhattan, devised a backgammon tournament system in 1963, then organized the first major international backgammon tournament in March, 1964, which attracted royalty, celebrities and the press. The game became a huge fad and was played on college campuses, in discothèques and at country clubs; stockbrokers and bankers began playing at conservative men's clubs. People young and old all across the country dusted off their boards and checkers. Cigarette, liquor and car companies began to sponsor tournaments and Hugh Hefner held backgammon parties at the Playboy Mansion. Backgammon clubs were formed and tournaments were held, resulting in a World Championship promoted in Las Vegas in 1967.
Two competitors play with a ball, in an arena which is split into two halves with breakable blocks on both sides. The aim is to get a higher score than your opponent by breaking more blocks on your side than your opponent does. Competitors are in the form of humanoids, robots and aliens, all of which have a 'gun' of some sort enabling them to take control of the ball. The range of arenas have several pinball-style flippers which make the ball bounce off at unpredictable angles. The game can be played as one player versus a computer player (controlled with good AI for its time), or as two players competing against one another. Players can suck the ball into their gun then fire it at their blocks for points, or deliberately shoot the ball into their opponent to make them lose points. When hit, players disintegrate but instantly re-spawn with control of the ball going to the opponent.
Prior to the first "Civilization" video game, an existing 1980 board game of the same name had been developed by Francis Tresham, published in Europe by his company Hartland Trefoil and licensed for publication in the United States by Avalon Hill. The board game and video game share many common elements including the use of a technology tree, and while Meier stated he had played the board game, he stated it had far less influence in his video game's design compared to the significant influence of "SimCity" and "Empire". When MicroProse opted on the name "Civilization" for the video game, the company worked out a deal with Avalon Hill to allow them to use the "Civilization" name.
Cho was born in a farming village in Buan, North Jeolla Province. In 1934, Japanese professional Kitani Minoru visited Korea and played with ten-year-old Cho, who deeply impressed the great master. He went to Japan in 1937 to study go as Kitani's first "insei", or live-in student. In 1943, he returned to Korea and played a key role in the founding of the Hanguk Kiwon. It wasn't until 1983, that he would be awarded 9 dan, but for most of the 1950s and 1960s, he won the vast majority of national tournaments.
Cho Namchul (November 30, 1923 - July 2, 2006, alternately Cho Namcheol) was a professional Go player (Baduk in Korean). He died of natural causes in Seoul at the age of 83.
Senet is one of the oldest known board games. Fragmentary boards that could be senet have been found in First Dynasty burials in Egypt, c. 3100 BC. A hieroglyph resembling a senet board appears in the tomb of Merknera (3300–2700 BC). The first unequivocal painting of this ancient game is from the Third Dynasty tomb of Hesy (c. 2686–2613 BC). People are depicted playing senet in a painting in the tomb of Rashepes, as well as from other tombs of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties (c. 2500 BC). The oldest intact senet boards date to the Middle Kingdom, but graffiti on Fifth and Sixth Dynasty monuments could date as early as the Old Kingdom.
At least by the time of the New Kingdom in Egypt (1550–1077 BC), senet was conceived as a representation of the journey of the ka (the vital spark) to the afterlife. This connection is made in the Great Game Text, which appears in a number of papyri, as well as the appearance of markings of religious significance on senet boards themselves. The game is also referred to in chapter XVII of the "Book of the Dead".
The Onyx board is a grid of interlocking squares and triangles, with pieces played on the points of intersection (as in Go). Each side of the board comprises twelve points. Black tries to connect the two horizontal (black) sides with an unbroken chain of black pieces, while White tries to connect the two vertical (white) sides with an unbroken chain of white pieces. The first to do so wins the game.
Mak-yek, Apit-sodok, Rek, and Min Rek Chanh are all played on an 8 × 8 square board with each player having sixteen pieces, exhibit intervention capture and custodian capture (or a modified custodian in the case of Rek and Min Rek Chanh), and pieces move like the Rook in Chess with the exception of the kings in Min Rek Chanh; furthermore, captured pieces are immediately removed from the board (as opposed to being converted into the capturing player's pieces as in Ming Mang and a few others). These commonalities suggest that they may form a subfamily within the family of games that also includes Jul-Gonu, Hasami shogi, Dai hasami shogi, Ming Mang, Gundru, Seega, Ludus latrunculorum, Petteia, and Firdawsi’s Nard. They also bear resemblance to the Tafl games which exhibit custodian capture and rook-like movement of pieces except that the Tafl games are asymmetrical in the number and type of pieces each player possess, and the objective in Tafl games is for one player to move their king to the edge of the board with the objective of the other player to capture that king. They distantly resemble Agon, Awithlaknakwe, Bizingo, Watermelon Chess, Reversi, and Othello as all of these games exhibit custodian capture or some form of it. They may also distantly resemble Wéiqí, Baduk, and Go as these games also have a capturing method resembling custodian.
The Diamond gameboard consists of interlocking squares and triangles. White and Black each control 12 game pieces of their own color. "Neutral" pieces (red-colored in the diagrams) enter the game via captures. The pieces are played on the line intersections (called , as in Go). White and black (but not red) pieces can move along straight lines to adjacent unoccupied points. A player wins by being the first to occupy all four corners (points) of a board square with their pieces.
Entropy is a board game by Augustine Carreno published in 1994. It is played on a square board divided into 5×5 cells, with seven black and seven white pieces set up as in the Korean board game Five Field Kono. The object is to be first to go from the initial position, in which all the player's pieces can move, to a position in which none can. A piece is able to move only when it is in contact, orthogonally or diagonally, with at least one other piece of the same type.