History of Go
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The history of Go has often been told in terms of traditional legends from China. Recent archaeology has added concrete facts. China is the probable birthplace of go (weiqi in Chinese), but an exact date for the appearance of the game is still unclear at present.
Chinese archaeologists have discovered a porcelain go board from the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC - 24 AD) in northwest China's Shaanxi Province. This is the earliest discovery of a board unearthed in China, and suggests that people started playing go more than 2,000 years ago.
The board was found in the ruins of a watchtower at the tombs of Emperor Jingdi of the Western Han Dynasty, and his empress. The board, slightly damaged and irregular, measures 28.5 cm to 5.7 cm long, 19.7 cm to 17 cm wide and 3.6 cm thick. It is carved with 17 ordinate and 17 transversal lines, which is similar to the modern (19×19) board.
Li Gang, a research fellow with the Shaanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute, said that this board might have been made from a floor tile, and that it did not belong to the royal family since the carvings are too rough. Li said the board could have been made by the tomb guards who played chess to pass the time. "That proves that go was being played not only by nobles, but also by ordinary people like tomb guards, more than 2,000 years ago," Li noted.
Li said that a stone board made in the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220) was found in Wangdu County, north China's Hebei Province in 1954.