I sometimes wonder how ancient peoples found out about the intricacies of the game. You know, in the years directly after its creation.

I sometimes wonder how ancient peoples found out about the intricacies of the game. You know, in the years directly after its creation.

Anyone willing to speculate about the origin of ko? Is it perhaps natural to think that in the ancient beginnings of go that there was no rule against immediate recapture - that, in a sense, it could have been seen simply as a defensive measure, along the lines of telling your opponent, "hey, you cannot take me here, since I can take you right back." - in this way the onus would be on the initiator of the ko to play elsewhere? Chess has a similar situation with threefold repetition: the players come to an impasse, neither player wanting to budge on their choice of moves (though sometimes they do, and the game continues) and the game ends in a draw. Thoughts?

It happenend slowly, I expect. IIRC, there is an ancient text that tells of a remarkable player who could replay a whole game from memory. Now that is commonplace among pros. Correct play in the Carpenter's Square was unknown for centuries. A number of very ancient joseki appear quite inefficient to modern eyes.

I'm looking at the page on carpenter's square - do you mean correct play to make a ko as white or do you mean to live as black, because that vital point seems incredibly obvious.

It is simple enough as far as its vital point and status are concerned - it almost always results in a ko. However there are endless ways to set up the ko, and even more ways to defend incorrectly and end up dead anyway.

I'm looking at the page on carpenter's square - do you mean correct play to make a ko as white or do you mean to live as black, because that vital point seems incredibly obvious.

I'm looking at the page on carpenter's square - do you mean correct play to make a ko as white or do you mean to live as black, because that vital point seems incredibly obvious.

Also, do you have examples of ancient joseki?

IIRC, there is an ancient text that tells of a remarkable player who could replay a whole game from memory. Now that is commonplace among pros.

The attack on the 2-1 was originally believed to kill without ko. See http://senseis.xmp.net/?CarpentersSquareWrongAttack

Carpenter square really needs meticulous functional study.

I find that rather strange as I can do that, but I don't see how that ability of mine is influenced by me standing on the shoulder of giants with the combined development of go theory over the centuries; whereas something like my understanding of opening theory obviously is.