Show Notes
This episode is from All Things Go, a podcast about the board game Go, also known as Baduk in Korea and Weiqi in China. Episode Summary Travis explores two very different sides of what makes Go endure. First, game designer and researcher Cameron Browne shares ideas from his written interview about the history and evolution of games, the Digital Ludeme Project, why Go may sit in a rare strategic sweet spot, what he learned while designing the three-dimensional Go variant Margo, and why superhuman AI does not make human play less meaningful. The second half turns to the physical side of the game with Kuroki, a Japanese Go-equipment artisan who works for Mitsuishi, the company behind Kuroki Goishiten, and who asked to be identified by family name only. He explains how traditional clamshell stones are made, why black stones are slightly larger than white, how kaya boards age, what grain and tachi-mori grid lines can reveal about an old board, when restoration is worthwhile, and what owners should avoid doing if they inherit traditional Go equipment. Resources Cameron Browne - Game design, research, publications, and projects. Digital Ludeme Project - Research into modeling and reconstructing traditional games. Ludii Portal - Playable database and general game system developed from the project. Margo - Cameron's three-dimensional Go-inspired game. Gonnect - A connection game combining ideas from Go and Hex. Kuroki Goishiten - Traditional Go stones, boards, bowls, and equipment from Japan. The Tale Behind the Go Stones of Kuroki Goishiten - Background on Hyuga clamshell stones and Go-stone production. How to Choose a Go Board - Guide to Go-board materials, grain, and construction. The Art of Board Making with Naoki Kumasu - Related All Things Go episode on traditional Japanese Go-board making.
Full transcript, related episodes, and additional resources: https://allthingsgogame.com Join the All Things Go Discord community: https://discord.gg/uf3jgEAA4J Theme music by UNIVERSFIELD & background music by PodcastAC Show your support here Email: [email protected] Episode Sponsors BadukPop - Learn the rules of the ancient Chinese board game Go - also known as Baduk (바둑) or Weiqi (圍棋) - with a fun, interactive tutorial. Sharpen your Go skills with daily random Go problems (Tsumego) at your choice of difficulty level. Play games online or with a variety of AI opponents, each with its own unique playing style and strength. SmartGo One - Your complete app for the game of Go. Learn to play, practice against the computer, study master games, solve problems, and read Go books. Free to download. Recent updates include direct OGS support, plus a new feature that can turn a photo of a Go board or book diagram into an SGF file. You can also read the Go books Relentless and Shape Up! for free inside the app. Find SmartGo One in the App Store or at SmartGo.com.
More from All Things Go
Travis closes the five-part New to Go? series with a practical look at how to make Go a sustainable part of your life. He discusses finding teachers and useful feedback, building community in ways that fit your personality and schedule, deciding what you actually want from the game, handling plateaus without letting rank define your progress, and learning to appreciate Go beyond wins and losses. The episode ends with a reminder that a long-term relationship with Go can change over time: periods of intense study, casual play, breaks, and returns can all be part of the same journey. This is the fifth and final episode in the five-part New to Go? beginner series. Full transcript, episode notes, and more: https://allthingsgogame.com Join the All Things Go Discord community: https://discord.gg/uf3jgEAA4J Show your support here Email: [email protected]
This episode is from All Things Go, a podcast about the board game Go, also known as Baduk in Korea and Weiqi in China. Episode Summary Gunnar Dickfeld, the publisher behind BOARD N'STONES, joins Travis for a wide-ranging conversation about how Go books get made and why he has spent more than two decades bringing Go literature to German- and English-speaking readers. Gunnar traces his path from discovering Go as a teenager and studying Sinology to teaching beginners, writing his first books, and eventually building a small publishing operation around the game. They talk about the practical side of publishing in a niche community: deciding which books are worth translating, working across Japanese, Chinese, Korean, German, and English, navigating licensing, and knowing when a project simply is not worth pursuing. Gunnar also discusses recent titles including Ueno Asami's Play Like the Hammer Princess, Shin Jin-seo's My Go Journey, SEVEN, How to Play Go the AI Way!, and Cosmic Go. The conversation broadens into the future of Go books, the growth of digital teaching, the limits of volunteer-driven Go communities in the West, and Gunnar's view that the game itself is not the problem. What matters is the infrastructure around it: places to play, ways to learn, and communities that help people stay connected to Go. Resources BOARD N'STONES - Gunnar Dickfeld’s English-language Go publishing catalog, including books on professional games, AI, tsumego, Go history, and instruction. Play Like the Hammer Princess - Ueno Asami’s book on fighting Go and attacking large groups, whose English edition led Travis to discover Gunnar’s work. My Go Journey - Shin Jin-seo’s personal account of his development as a Go player, including commentary on games from his remarkable Nongshim Cup run. How to Play Go the AI Way! - Yamada Shinji’s introduction to modern AI-influenced Go, which Gunnar discusses as one of the books he is particularly proud to have published. Cosmic Go - Takemiya Masaki’s classic exploration of his center-oriented “cosmic” style, brought back into print in English by BOARD N'STONES.
This episode is from All Things Go, a podcast about the board game Go, also known as Baduk in Korea and Weiqi in China. Episode Summary In this unscripted episode, Gazza White of the Pro Go/Baduk/Weiqi podcast joins Travis for a wide-ranging look at recent professional Go. They break down the 2026 World Pair Go Championship and what makes Pair Go strategically different, check in on Shibano Toramaru's 3-2 lead over Ichiriki Ryo in Japan's Meijin title match, follow Shin Jin-seo's run to the 49th Korean Myungin final and its unusual face-to-face online format, and unpack the Kisei's league-and-stepladder system. The conversation also looks at Ueno Asami's historic promotion to Kisei League B, her "Hammer Princess" nickname and attacking style, and the challenges of following professional Go across Japan, Korea, and China. Resources World Pair Go Championship 2026 - official results and game information from the international Pair Go event discussed in the episode, won by Fujisawa Rina and Ichiriki Ryo. Pro Go / Baduk / Weiqi Podcast - Gazza White’s podcast covering professional Go tournaments, players, and news from across the international Go scene. Ueno Asami — Nihon Ki-in Profile - the official profile for Ueno Asami, including her rank, titles, career record, and recent results. Play Like the Hammer Princess - a book featuring Ueno Asami’s games and aggressive playing style, which inspired her “Hammer Princess” nickname.
New to Go? This is the fourth of five short episodes designed to help you understand what makes Go special, how the game works, how to get started, and how to keep going. In this episode, I talk about what to do when you understand the rules and have started playing, but still feel completely lost. I cover some of the things beginners can focus on during a game, how to avoid trying to understand everything happening on the board at once, and why confusion is a normal part of learning Go. The goal is to give you a few practical ways to simplify what you are looking at so you can keep playing, learning, and gradually recognizing more of what is happening. This is #4 in the five-part New to Go? series. If you're starting from scratch, you may want to begin with #1. Full transcript, episode notes, and more: https://allthingsgogame.com Join the All Things Go Discord community: https://discord.gg/uf3jgEAA4J Show your support here Email: [email protected]
This episode is from All Things Go, a podcast about the board game Go, also known as Baduk in Korea and Weiqi in China. Episode Summary This episode takes a slightly different form. Travis sent a series of questions to longtime Go journalist and author John Fairbairn, and John responded in writing. Travis then adapted those responses into this narrated episode while preserving John's language where it matters. John discusses why he does not really think of himself as a historian, what Western Go players can miss when they separate the game from the history and culture around it, why Go Seigen and other great players learned so much from earlier masters, and why old games can sometimes make strategic ideas easier to see. He also talks about GoGoD, his late colleague T Mark Hall, concepts that rarely reach amateur players, and the major historical Go projects he is working on now. The episode page at allthingsgogame.com includes the cleaned episode transcript plus John's full original written responses. Resources GoGoD Online — John Fairbairn and T Mark Hall’s enormous archive of professional Go games, along with information about John’s books and historical Go research. How Strong Was Go Seigen? — John Fairbairn’s recent book examining Go Seigen through his games, opponents, and the historical context surrounding his dominance of Japanese Go. The Story of GoGoD — the history of Games of Go on Disk/Download, including how John Fairbairn and T Mark Hall built the database and preserved tens of thousands of professional game records. T Mark Hall — the British Go Association’s profile of John’s longtime GoGoD colleague, whom John credits heavily for building the database discussed in the episode.