Primitive Rules of Go
These were devised by Shimada Takuji, also in response to the 10,000-year ko problem. Originally he called them Perfect Rules of Go but later revised the adjective to Primitive, possibly to reflect his claim that these rules were based on a comparison of ancient Chinese rules and Japanese rules.
1 Go is a contest between two players, Black and White.
DEFINITIONS
A go board is a board with a plane surface
on which are marked 19 parallel lines both horizontally and vertically. The 361
intersections are referred to simply as points.
Go stones are small pieces placed on the points and are used in order to show occupation of the points. Black uses black stones and White uses white stones.
The points nearest to an intersection a along each line starting at a are called the neighbouring points of a.
When, in a series a1, a2...., an, each point from a2 onwards is a neighbouring point of the respective points immediately preceding, this series of points is referred to as a chain of points connecting a1 and an.
A set of several points is referred to as a region.
When a region includes only one point, or when a chain of points connecting at least any two points in the region is encompassed by that region, that region is referred to as a continuous region.
The neighbouring points of a continuous region A refer to the points remaining after excluding the points of A from the whole comprised by the neighbouring points of the points of A.
If there is a white (black) stone on each of the points of a continuous region A, and no white (black) stones are present on the neighbouring points of A, the white (black) stones in A as a whole are referred to as a white (black) linked group. In that case, empty points among the neighbouring points of A are referred to as liberties of the white (black) linked group.
A linked group will be referred to below simply as a group. When black groups are present on several (including zero) points, and white groups are present on several (including zero) different points, their configuration on the go board is referred to as a position. However, it is to be assumed that there are no groups present which do not have a liberty.
A move by Black refers to the following procedure. (A move by White is defined in the same way.)
(i) A black stone is placed on any chosen vacant point.
(ii) If the result is that a white group does not have any liberties, the white group is removed.
(iii) If (ii) does not apply and the result is a black group that does not have a liberty, the black group is removed.
2 The two players have the right to move alternately. The initial position and the player who moves first are stipulated separately.
3 The position that arises as the result of a move must differ from any position which has already appeared in that game.
4 If the right to play a move is given up twice in succession, the respective numbers of stones for Black and White present on the go board are compared and the side which has the larger number is considered to have won by the difference.
It is interesting that not only does Shimada follow Yasunaga's style and terminology, later rules theorists such as Kaise Takaaki did too. Yasunaga's Constitution really was mould-forming.
Shimada's rules, though, went deeper in that, it was claimed, certain important conclusions or principles logically flowed from them. Among these, as suggested by Hayashi Yutaka, were:
* Suicide is allowed.
There is no historical evidence for this. It appears to be an inference.
* Void games are avoided by not allowing repetition of positions.
This conclusion appears not always to stand up, if we understand modern theorists
correctly.
* The order of moves in which dame are played can be significant. An example doesn't spring to mind, but one case (below) that may come under this heading was apparently introduced to the Japanese, including Shimada, by Robinson and Olmstedt. They called it "one-side dame" (which the Japanese rendered as ippou dame and it seems to have caused a buzz of excitement).
One-side dame
* There is value in separating a live into more than one live group.
This is another way of saying that group tax applies. This too still awaits
verification in historical texts for the earliest times.
* Vacant points within a seki may have the same value as territory.
This is either a tricky claim or an unclear one, but there is still debate about
the connection between group tax and sekis, for example.
* Dead stones must actually be removed by playing.
Perhaps it is more practical to say dead stones can be removed by play if necessary.
* Jigo is unlikely to occur.
Maybe, but are there not still contentious issues over the right to move last?
Shimada seems not to have taken his historical investigations any further, but he did keep working on rules, and revised his stance several times, mainly - he said - as a result of thinking of new positions that were not covered by existing suggested rules. Arguably such constant attempts at refinement have led to rules discussions running into the sand for most people, but pure research does have value, even if it is westerners who have mostly taken up the baton. They may wish to give more nods of recognition to Yasunaga and Shimada.
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