Go and intellectual development in childrenRecently, the
educational value of games and their role in developing intelligence
in children have come to be appreciated. A number of studies in the
West have shown that playing chess aids not only the early
development of the brain but also benefits young players socially,
builds character and contributes to overall classroom performance.
Unfortunately, all the research done on this subject in the West has
neglected go, the one game that has the most pronounced effect on
intelligence. Why does go enhance a young person's education?
A number of Japanese psychologists have done extensive testing on
children who play go. Their research has led them to believe that a
child's innate abilities are best developed by playing go. According
to one researcher at Chiba University, go strategy is global in
scope, so action that takes place on one part of the board affects
the entire board. In contrast, a child's view of the world is
narrow, but when taught to play go, a child quickly develops a
broader vision of the world. These researchers also assert that the
younger the child learns to play, the better the result-4 to 5 seems
to be the best age to learn. At this age, a child's brain is only
about 65 percent to 70 percent developed, so the benefits of go to
his or her thinking processes are optimal. Moreover, the child
enjoys playing go because, like all games, it is fun.
One of the benefits children get from playing go and chess is the
ability to concentrate. Children usually acquire this ability by
doing things that interest them. But there are different kinds of
concentration: passive and active. Children may concentrate on their
favorite TV programs, but this is passive concentration. When they
play a game like go, however, they have to use their minds to the
full. They must perform prodigious feats of memory and flex their
mental muscles to keep track of the many variations they are
analyzing, to visualize mentally what a hypothetical sequence will
look like on the board, and to come to a decision on their move.
Other endeavors in which children use their minds so intensively,
while enjoying themselves so thoroughly, would be hard to find. In
the end, this ability to concentrate, acquired by playing go, can be
transferred to other endeavors.
When playing go, it is necessary to use both intuitive and
analytical faculties. In the opening stages, there are so many ways
to play that no one can say that one move is better than another.
Strategic principles can guide you, but even the strongest players
must ultimately rely on intuition. As the game progresses, however,
analytical ability becomes more important until, in the final
stages, it is the overriding factor. In contrast, chess is an
analytical game from beginning to end-every move must be backed up
by thorough analysis. This is why computers play chess so well but
play go so badly.
Some knowledge about the brain is necessary to explain this. The
brain is divided into two hemispheres. Logical and linguistic
abilities are controlled in the left hemisphere. The more intuitive
abilities-aptitude for music and the ability to recognize complex
patterns-are controlled in the right. When a person suffers a
stroke, one side of the brain is usually damaged. One study carried
out on go players who have suffered strokes found that if the right
hemisphere was damaged, their opening became weak, but their middle
and end games remained strong. If the damage occurred on the left
hemisphere, their opening strategy remained strong, but their middle
and end games became weak.
The conclusion drawn by the researchers was that children who
study go exercise both sides of their brains, enabling them to
develop both their creative and logical abilities.
An example of ko in a gameHere is an example on a 13 x 13
board to show how a ko can arise in a game. After Black 11 in
Diagram 1, White ataris the black stone at 7 with 12. Black
counter-ataris with 13 and White captures with 14. The result is
shown in Diagram 2.
According to the ko rule, Black cannot capture the marked stone
with his next move-he must play 15 elsewhere. If Black plays 15 as
in Diagram 3, White can connect at 16 and end the ko. Black
will then push through with 17 and destroy the territory that White
mapped out in the lower left corner.
White might not like this result, so he defends his corner
against the threat of Black 15 with 16 in Diagram 4. Black
can now go back and capture the ko with 17. This time it is White
who cannot recapture-he must make a move elsewhere. This ko could go
on for several more moves before being resolved. Victory or defeat
is often decided by the outcome of a ko fight.
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