rules so you can understand what's going on during a game of Go.

Go is one of the oldest abstract strategy board games in the world. While the true origins

of the game are still unknown, it probably originated in China more than 2500 years ago.

The game used to be considered one of the four essential arts of ancient Chinese scholars,

along with music, calligraphy and painting. Nowadays, Go players are from all over the

world, but it is mostly played in East Asia countries such as Korea, China and Japan.

Rules of Go have remained essentially unchanged since its inception. The game is played by

two players, referred as Black and White. Each side has a supply of identical game pieces,

called stones. Go is played on a board marked with a grid of 19 lines by 19 lines. Beginners

can also play on smaller 13x13 and 9x9 boards. The aim of the game is to surround a larger

total area of the board by stones than the opponent.

A game of Go starts with an empty board. Black player is the one making the first move. Two

players then take turn to place one stone on a vacant point. Unlike chess, stones are

placed on the intersections of the lines rather than in the squares. Once placed, stones can't

be moved. However, if stones are surrounded, they are captured and removed from the board.

Sometimes this can cause an infinite loop when players keep capturing stones on the

same points repeatedly. To prevent that scenario from happening, players are not allowed to

make a move which returns the game to the previous position.

If there is no more useful moves, a player can choose to pass their turn. The game is

over when both players pass. Their scores are determined by the amount of surrounded

points and captured stones. White player is awarded additional points, called Komi, to

compensate for the first move advantage of Black player. The player with the higher score

wins the game.