- Broken Base: Despite its antiquity, the rules of Go are mostly the same everywhere, but there are technical differences between the rules used in China and those in Japan and Korea. The differences mostly concern the way the score is calculated, but also how a few very rare situations are handled.
- Germans Love David Hasselhoff: While Go originated in China as Weiqi, it became incredibly popular in Japan once it was introduced there in the 7th century, being intertwined with imperial court politics. By the end of the Sengoku Period, the rules and ranks of Go were formalized, and there were four rival Go schools which were mediated via an official Go office (Godokoro), which also approved matches and ranking promotions, and was headed by the best Go player of the time. Furthermore, Japanese Go players helped popularize the game in the West, which is why Go is more known by its Japanese name and rules internationally.
- Memetic Mutation: Teasuji Explanation
- Popular Game Variant: A Sudden Death variation where players start with two stones each placed in a square on the board, the goal being to capture an opponent's piece first to win. This has very little to do with the normal playstyle (which is about building up territory with the stones), but it is a lot faster.
- "Stop Having Fun" Guys: For people who Play-by-Post or online, Go is Serious Business.
- Scrub: Some players feel entitled to assume that their way is the only legitimate way to play, and anything else is cheating. The particularly applies to the choice of Japanese vs. Chinese rules and scoring.
- That One Rule: There's a major rules dispute over how to handle endgame ko fights. Japanese rules forbid ko in the endgame, which makes certain shapes dead in certain situations where they might survive. Chinese and American rules have no such stipulation; if life and death is disputed, the fight is played out instead of virtualized.
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