https://lifein19x19.com/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=18635I realise that it was likely in 2013, earlier than I first remember, I thought of the idea of an Ethiopian-Irish go player turning pro. The joke was the question of what does it mean to be lucky in a perfect information game (although historically Ireland seems to have been a bit unlcuky . . .), and also that Ethiopia was the only African country to not be colonised, so they must be good at military strategy, perhaps Ras Alula was an ancestor of 'Ayana' an Amharic-Japanese pun (no slight to the Omori, at the time I didn't know there where Omori and Amharic or that Ayana was Amharic, I just assumed Ethiopia would be a single ethnic group since it was never colonised by Europe and so Ayana was 'Ethiopian'. Of course I didn't consider multiple ethnic groups on the African continent taking control over Ethiopia beforehand), and a pun on the title songs, 'Surrounding Gardens'. Please have mercy on my 13-year-old self after watching Hikaru no Go, in any case he's better than my current self.
'Go' refers to the 'small stone' or probably more accurately the 'pebble' used in go. In any case a 'small stone' or 'go' can also refer to multiple variants of mancala played with small stone. Indeed they variants of mancala. Indeed if you consider the Arabian peninsula as part of Africa then Mancala is a game played throughout the entire of Africa.
What is interesting is that I've never heard of any historian or board game expert make the link between it and backgammon. Indeed Backgammon is likely just another variant Mancala/Awele/Adji. A variant which includes chance. A variant, rather than origin, since Backgammon is more complex and therefore I think it's 70% likely it's a later invention. It's also interesting that Senet, and Senet is the likely precursor to a game we play today, but I forget what it is and what the rules are (get the joke!).
The reason this connection hasn't been made by westerners may be the same reason some may see South Africa or Israel being part of the EGF is somehow par the course, with nothing strange about it (Although I don't oppose it, I just think Morocco, which sends representatives to the World Amateur Go Championships, maybe should opt for observer status with the EGF. In addition South Africa should probably also have observer status in the AGF until they or or and another or other African countries set up an African Go association)
Okay, Backgammon normally uses discs but you could play Backgammon with go stones and it's the same family of games. So I will there call all of the similar games, cycle
Igo and Cycle can all fall under the category of Go
Then all the Variants of Chess, Chess, Shogi, all variants of Elephant Chess, heck, Xianshochess, can likewise be combined with all variants, English and of Checkers or Draughts, to fall under 'capturing games with Monarchs or a leading piece in them'
And, in Surrounding Gardens, One character tries to master all the Go games while another tries to master all 'capturing games with Monarchs or a leading piece in them'. Haha!
An new idea for training a neural net lies within this, hence the link . . .