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An ancient board game is winning new players: Go's complexities are ageless. (Sean Wood, 8/13/09, The Inquirer)

The Chinese Emperor Yao was disturbed by his young son's inability to concentrate. So, legend has it, the ancient ruler asked an adviser to invent an activity that would condition the boy's mind. The result: a wooden board and two boxes of stones.

Thus was born "go," one of the oldest and most complex board games on the planet. Part sport, part mystical experience, the 4,000-year-old tradition has attracted followers who are a rare combination of strategists and seers. An increasing number of Western devotees include celebrities Robin Williams, Paul Giamatti, and Rod Stewart.

Locally, go evangelists congregate at about 10 clubs and societies scattered throughout Philadelphia and its surrounding counties. The players are a mixed bunch, ranging from curious kids to an older Chinese player at the Phoenixville Go Club who - according to his opponents - knows little English outside the words "you lose."