Go wins over sloppy execution

To take the mother of all strategy games, with a proud heritage of 4,000 years, and embarrass oneself with a tacky fold-out board and a garbled instruction booklet, should be enough to make United Toys, manufacturers of Go, burn with shame! I worship Pente, and that magnificent 5-in-a-row masterpiece owes its

origins to Go. While browsing stores for games, ahead of the festive season, I saw a simple red box, which so discreetly announced that Go was now available in India, and at a modest price of `299. Three to five times that price wouldn’t have slowed the speed at which I grabbed the box, but I was disappointed when I saw no one else doing the same!
Go is a classic game. This single title has spawned many dearly loved strategy titles. I opened the 19x19 single-fold board excitedly anticipating a pleasurable start to the day. It’s hard to believe that a manufacturer, this long in the tooth, should mess up with something as simple as the quality of the board. When open, the two halves do not align, making pieces placed on the central vertical, a precarious and sloppy distraction.
But Go is profoundly above such mortal failings. Playing with 130 pieces each, two players plot their way through alternate moves, maximising the territory they can claim as their own, while effecting captures along the way. A piece played on the grid, stays there through the game, unless captured. In swift parry and thrust moves, sections of empty grid are cordoned off, a reflection of your empire. The sum of the intersections within your control, less the number of your pieces captured is the score your opponent has to beat.
The author may be contacted at arup_kavan@yahoo.com [1]