Kigo (Go Board Game)

Kigo (Go Board Game) is a board game developed by KDE as part of its kdegames package. It is similar to the popular Go game where the players aim to take control of the majority part of the board. It is known by many names across the world: baduk for Korea, weiqi for China, and igo for Japan. In this game, the players place black and white stones on the board. The board is composed of a grid of boxes consisting 19 boxes across and 19 boxes down. Easier versions of the game have a grid of 13x13 or 9x9.

The Kigo (Go Board Game) gameplay is simple. Players alternate in placing their stones, black or white, on the board. The goal is to use the stones to surround a larger area of the board against the other player. Stones that are placed on the board may no longer be changed or moved. However, the gameplay also includes capture of pieces. Capture is done by surrounding the opponent’s stone by all of the player’s stones. Once the surrounded piece no longer has an empty adjacent box, it is deemed captured and removed from the board. This is the only time a stones can be removed from the board. When there are no more free spaces to place the stones, the game ends and the area occupied or surrounded by each player is computed. The player with the most area controlled wins the game.