Go Board Game

Two rules, one of which is about breathing. Two and a half thousand years and nobody has run out of things to say about it.

Go is the oldest board game still played in its original form, and the shortest to explain. Black and white stones go on the intersections of a grid. A group of stones with no adjacent empty points is captured and removed. Whoever surrounds more territory wins. That is essentially it — the rules fit on a beer mat, and people have spent entire lives on what follows from them.

What you get for that simplicity is a game with more legal positions than there are atoms in the observable universe, and a feel completely unlike Western strategy games. There is no material advantage to grind out, no engine to build. You are shaping influence across a board, and the stone you placed forty moves ago either turns out to have been in exactly the right place or it does not. Beginners usually start on a 9×9 grid before graduating to the full 19×19, which is the right way to do it.

Please note: This is a large, heavy item. Available in-store or by click-and-collect at DFO Jindalee.

Perfect for: The chess player who has started to suspect chess might be a bit cluttered.

2 players | 30–180 minutes | Age 8+