The Bob High Memorial Library

Former AGA Membership Secretary and President Bob High, who played a crucial role in the AGA's development, liked to read and write about all aspects of go. Welcome to the Bob High Memorial Library, which houses a collection of original articles Bob would have enjoyed. Here you will find links to articles from magazines and newspapers, as well as original material that is not available elsewhere.

Downloadable articles are copyrighted, so material that is "checked out" cannot be copied, used or quoted, except for brief passages with adequate citation, without the authors' written consent. There is no fine for late return of checked out materials.

The Go Kiburi Stories
He's back! Learn of the exploits of Go Kiburi, go player extraordinaire, and his sidekick, Iki Jibiki.

The Honinbo
A parodist's paradise! Bob High wrote this 43-page adaptation of "The Mikado" for the world of go.

The AGA Songbook (3rd edition)
edited by Bob Felice
Dozens of go-theme parodies based on well-known American songs. Click here to dowload the 2002 supplement.

Francis Roads' Go Songs
The singer, writer and raconteur extraordinaire's new site presents dozens of European go songs, and you can play the melody if you don't know it!

The British Go Songbook
Even more European go songs.

Games of No Chance
More Games of No Chance
Richard J. Nowakowski, editor
Scholarly essays on a wide variety of "combinatorial games" of perfect information, where all possible moves are known to all players (unlike bridge, Stratego or Monopoly for instance). Each volume contains several interesting go-related articles such as "Loopy Games and Go" and "Go Thermography".

Go and Chess
Ethan Goffman compares two great games as vehicles for learning. This reprint made available by Knucklebones magazine.

Last Dango in Rochester
The only known crossword puzzle with a go theme. Click here to download the solution.

2008 Revision of Speculations About The Origins of Go
A few further refinements have been made to the vastly expanded and revised version of Shotwell's article for The 2001 Go Almanac, with five appendices.

2007 Revised Appendix I: A Synopsis and Commentary on Dr. Paolo Zanon's Discussion of Weiqi in the Warring States period and During the Han Dynasty

2007 Revised Appendix II: A Marxist-Oriented Structural Anthropological Interpretation of Yao Myths

2007 Revised Appendix III: Go and Ancient Chinese Divination: A Commentary On Shirakawa Masayoshi's A Journey in Search of the Origins of Go

2007 Revised Appendix IV: Some Thoughts About the Evolution of Early Go

2007 Appendix V: To Be Of Good Heart: Some Thoughts On How Go Was Used by the Writers of the Zuo Zhuan, the Analects of Confucius and the Mencius

Go in Ancient and Modern Tibet
Peter Shotwell traveled to Tibet in the early 1990's, on the trail of the origins of go. Here is what he found. A revised and expanded version of an article that appeared in Go World #69.

Appendix I: Two Stone Tibetan Boards Discovered

Appendix II: Gesar

Appendix III: The Possible Spiritualism of Tibetan Go

Doers and Dreamers -- Weiqi Players and Poets
An expanded version of an article by Peter Shotwell that originally appeared in The American Go Journal.

The Politics of Go in Old Shanghai
Tales of intrigue in the early 1900's in Shanghai. Translated by Roy Schmidt and edited by Peter Shotwell.

Go and Cognition
How do we learn to play go? What makes masters stronger than the rest of us? Peter Shotwell summarizes and discusses studies of go players that try to understand the nature of thought itself. Related chess studies are also discussed.
Appendix: Some Updates and Commentaries
Appendix II: An Interview With Mogo's Teytaud

The Art of Black and White: Wei-chíi in Chinese Poetry
This article originally appeared in The Journal of The American Oriental Society.

The Flavor of the Game
Bob High reflects on what makes go special.

Go: The Study of Buddhist Ideals
by American Ing Goe President, Ernest Brown.

The Glass Bead Game
Further reflections by AGI President Ernest Brown on the essential nature of go.

Go As a Model for Change
Dr. Robert Israel explores the metaphoric implications of chess and go.

Go in the Emerald City
The origins of the Black Hole Go Club.

A Disturbance at the Chicago Airport
Nakayama Noriyuki, Pro 7-Dan, master raconteur and the author of The Treasure Chest Enigma, recalls his encounter with a fearful opponent -- the Chicago airport, as he was en route to the 2000 US Go Congress.

Deviant Go
Bob High suggests some unusual things to do on the go board.

Small Board Go
Myron Souris finds surprising complexity on boards as small as 2x2.

To Test a Powerful Computer, Play an Ancient Game
Why can't computers play go? Despite years of effort, the strongest programs are easily defeated by talented children. New York Times science writer George Johnson explains why.

On-Line Samurai Transform an Ancient Game
New York Times writer Katie Hafner visits the world of online go in this article from December 24, 1998. Available online from The New York Times archive for $2.95.

All Systems Go
This article by David Mechner, which originally appeared in The Sciences January-February of 1998 issue, describes some of the problems the would-be go programmer faces in even more detail.

Life and Death on the Go Board
An article by Peter Schumer of Middlebury College that appeared in Math Horizons magazine.

A College Course Curriculum
Peter Schumer has taught a course on go at Middlebury College for years using this outline.

Hikaru No Go
A coming-of-age tale that has captivated Japanese youth. English version serialized in Shonen Jump magazine starting December 2003.

A Chinese Way of Seeing the World
An eight-part series of articles by a professor of anthropology, showing how weiqi embodies the Chinese point of view.

Learning from the Stones: A Go Approach to Mastering China's Strategic Concept, shi
David Lai, a professor at the US Military College, uses go as a paradigm to illustrate some essential characteristics of Chinese thought.

Go in North Korea
Can go bring North and South closer together?

An Interview with Go Seigen
Pieter Mioch talks with one of the great players of all time. A three part series.

Behind the Rules of Go
At least three different counting systems can be used to figure out the result of a go game, all of which lead to the same result 99.9% of the time. There are at least five distinct "rule sets" of conventions and procedures. Charles Matthews thinks through some issues involved in creating a viable rule set.

Sufficient but not Necessary
Charles Matthews continues his review of fundamental concerns behind the rules, explicating the dilemmas posed by ko and seki, and how they are best resolved.

Going First
Charles Matthews explores some considerations involved in calculating the value of the first move in various games, focussing mainly on go. This article also contains links to interesting information about other games that Matthews discusses, including hex, nim, mancala, gomoku and shogi.

Combinatorial Game Theory
Elwyn Berlekamp, David Wolfe and others have applied mathematical principles to analysis of the endgame in books like Mathematical Go and Chilling Gets the Last Point. Charles Matthews describes some of their thinking in this article.