H:S G

ISTORIC UNJANG O

23 March 2000
The freshly added commentary on the last game of Sunjang Go from 1937 can be found here.

TRADITIONAL go in Korea was rather di erent from the versions

played in China or Japan. It dates from the late 16th century, but its
roots may be the version closest to the original form of go. It appears to
have died out only this century. The last known game before it
disappeared was played in 1937. Its recent rediscovery is due to the go
writer Yi Seung-u (Lee Sungwoo), but there has also been intensive
work done on both the rules and history of old Korea go by the
professional Kweon Kyeong-eon 5-dan, and by An Lyeong-i, former
editor of the monthly go magazine Baduk and of modern Korean
versions of the go classics.
Old Korean go is called sun-chang pa-tuk (sunjang baduk).
Sunjang is written in two completely di erent ways when written in
characters, indicating a basic uncertainty about the meaning, but the
commonest way of writing it nowadays - touring o cers - o ers two
possibilities. One is that it refers to a military rank and may refer to
guards who moved from post to post (or are posted round the board).
The other is that the 17 "star" points for the starting stones were called
"guard points" (the usual term is ower points), and sunjang refers to
going round the board placing these stones at the start. The other way
of writing is even more obscure but could be rendered "following one's
seniors." There seems to be some connection with an administrative
system introduced at the time, which relied on ranks.
As the above may indicate, the game was played on a specially
marked traditional board, of which several examples survive. The 17
starting-stone points are marked. It appears that both players placed
eight stones each on the points shown in the game below, and Black
then played rst. But as he was obliged to play his rst move on the
centre point, we can e ectively regard this as a starting stone too.
These stones have no special powers, unlike their equivalents in
Tibetan go. There is a ritualistic order in which they are placed but this
has no bearing on the game.
The basic rules are the same as in modern Japanese go, which no
doubt encouraged players to abandon the old form. For most of the
doubt encouraged players to abandon the old form. For most of the
rst half of this century Korea was a Japanese colony and the status
and strength of visiting Japanese players presumably encouraged
Koreans to play the Japanese way. This trend was accelerated when
senior players such as Cho Nam-ch'eol - the father of modern Korean
go - established even closer links with Japan by studying there.
The real di erence in sunjang go, apart from the starting
position, is in the counting rules. Ko and seki are treated exactly as in
Japan (no points are counted in a seki). There was traditionally no
komi, so clearly Black had a big advantage - yet another factor
favouring adoption of Japanese rules. But at the time the last known
game was recorded, the players were already playing each other in
newspaper games using Japanese rules, and borrowed the idea of komi.
The game here was perhaps even then something of an exhibition
game, but it is valuable that it was played by strong players. The top 10
players at the time ranged from about 4 dan amateur to 2 dan
professional in modern terms.
The method of counting requires that the game continues until
all necessary dame have been lled in. As in Chinese go, dame (neutral
points) is a misnomer because they can contribute to the score.
Prisoners are ignored. Once the nal position is reached, all dead
stones are rst removed (and ignored) and then all stones not forming
part of the outside walls are removed. The idea is to achieve the
minimum outside wall - cutting points can be left at this stage but no
stone must be left in atari. The respective total territories (vacant
points surrounded) are then counted and compared. The winner is the
one with the highest total (after komi adjustment, if any), but it seems
that there were in some areas extra provisions such that a tie was a
win for White and a 1-point win for Black counted as a tie. Judging by
the variant rules still extant in Korean chess we can expect some such
local variations in sunjang go.

As an example of old Korean counting, take the following 9x9

position once all moves have been played.

1. Game as actually nished

 2. Dead stones are rst removed

3. Then super uous internal stones are removed

Handicap play is also possible. Black occupies points on the

seventh line but not the centre point, while White occupies the centre
point.
 The game here is the one known as the "last game." However,
there have been exhibition games since then involving players as
strong as Cho Nam'ch'eol. Typical rst moves in their games have been
K8 and K6. Games invariably become a test of nerve - though excellent
training for life and death and capturing races - and that may be
connected with the fact that until recent times go in Korea was largely
a gambling game.

Note: McCune-Reischauer transliteration without sound changes

(i.e. hyphenated) is used as a basic reference standard, especially in
names (the circum ex being shown as a leading e as in Seoul). More
traditional spellings or sound changes may also be used for
convenience.