About the game of Go

Go is a fascinating board game with no element of chance. It was played first in China (where it is called wei'qi) some 2,500 or more years ago, making it the oldest board game still played in essentially its original form. In Korea it is called baduk or pahdook, and played regularly by some 30% of the population. In Japan it is called igo ("ee-goh") or just go, and since it was Japanese players who introduced the game to the West, Europeans and Americans also call the game "Go."

The rules of Go are so simple that a child can learn to play in a few minutes.

Despite the simplicity of the rules, the strategies and tactics of the game are deep, layered, and exquisitely complex, leading to a lifetime of mental adventure.

Here are other pages introducing Go:
Go: Life Itself (at kuro5hin) -- Senseis Library page about Go -- Wikipedia article about Go

I will add to this, time allowing...

A few links for learning to play, for beginners:

PlayGo.TO (interactive; requires java) -- recommended
UK Go Challenge Tips Sheet is a great second step for beginners
Kiseido intro and tutorial
Go - An Introduction with cartoons -- most of the pictures are about 65K; concise yet comprehensive explanation of the rules and how to play.
Wonderful World of Go -- self-paced slides provide fairly advanced introductions; requires Flash
Beginner's Introduction to Go
Janice Kim / Samarkand introduction to Go
Hanging Out at Dan's, at MSO World, is a gentle conversational introduction that continues into advanced topics.
What is Go? and The Capturing Game by Mindy McAdams are excellent (more about Capture Game).
The Fun Way to Learn Go is hosted at the Nihon Ki-in, a major Japanese Go organization.
An Introduction To Go, at Internet Go Server, is heavy on the graphics, but thorough enough.
The Rules of Go, at GoBase.org
The Way to Go, at American Go Association (.pdf file, requires Adobe Acrobat); or download one of the instructional videos.
Yahoo! go introduction (follow the "rules" link). Not very interactive, but quite readable and succinct, yet reasonably complete.
More rules detail (generally not necessary)

The BGA page comparing go rulesets is quite informative.
Tromp/Taylor rules are about as simple as go gets.
Ing's ruleset, intended to improve the game, is used in many tournaments.
Ing's SST Rules of Go, and a lucid explanation of Ing's rules.
Senseis Library rules discussion
The AGA rules page links to the rules and clarifications for AGA and Ing rules, among others.
Robert Jasiek's rules site is comprehensive; perhaps even exhausting.

A few links for growing stronger, once you are comfortable with the basics (atari, capture, ko, territory):

The first step to improvement is to get a firm grasp of life and death. Even the strongest pros practice reading life and death problems. You will learn basic patterns that are seen on the go board again and again, in endless permutations, and ways to attack and defend. You will see these in your actual games, and between games, you can practice tsumego.
- goproblems.com has over 1000 problems for you to solve via an interactive java applet. If you know your way around an SGF file, you can also contribute.
- Senseis Library has several pages of tsumego problems and tesuji.
- AGA weekly go problem archive (the AGA homepage has a go problem on the right side); also see AGA lists of tsume-go problems hosted at other sites.
- Minoru Harada's tsumego collection
Another step to improvement is game review. When you and your opponent / partner have finished a game, it is customary to say "Thank you," and to review the game. When you can, you should make a habbit of this friendly after-game review. Of course, many players study actual games in much more depth than this. Many feel that a good way to improve is to study the games of strong professional players.

GoBase.org houses Jan van der Steen's encyclopedic database of professional games (free registration required to view most of game records).
Go4go.net -- "huge collection of Go game records, daily updates, pro commentaries"

Seems to be Alexandre Dinerchtein's site. There is also a subscription service of commented pro and amateur games.

GoGameWorld.com has news from professional go, and provides commented game records via subscription (some records without commentary are available free; login as "guest" when prompted).
Jan van Rongen's Friday Night Files has some games of Cho Chikun, Yamashita Keigo, and others.
Samarkand GameBase has a java applet that will display some recent professional games from title matches and the Korean leagues.
Game databases on CD-ROM, with analysis tools, are available from Games of Go on Disk (GoGoD) and MasterGo.com, among others.
weiqi.ru is a Russian go portal, with Russian news, clubs, pictures, tournaments, game records etc. (mainly in Russian)

Updated 2006-09-18
Begun 2002-02-14