Belgian Go Federation

Educational benefits of playing Go

Teaching Go game-strategies is an effective complement to traditional education methods. Go stimulates cognitive and social development in many ways.

1. Intrinsic motivation

Children are naturally caught up with the intrinsic motivation to play, to progress and win. In Go the progression is very quickly perceptible and the progression is almost infinite !

2. Respect and sharing

Respecting rules and the others are fundamental in society life.
Go is above all a game of space sharing: the victory is not acquired by crushing the others, but by finding a compromise. With also the help of an effective handicap system, Go teaches to behave in a civilized way in a competitive environment.
Go may also be an opportunity to discover the culture of the countries from where it comes: China, Korea and Japan.

3. Reflection and mathematics

Considering different points of view and different play options forces the child to make decisions in a complex environment. Feedback in the form of wins or defeats reinforces their thinking and judgement skills.
Go encourages rational thinking and problem solving. There are many relations with mathematics: counting, sequential thinking, locate points on a grid, projecting oneself, heuristic, formulas, etc.
The memory is also solicited: for the interesting sequences, pattern recognition, etc. The children build up their own experience, and often learn much faster than adults.

4. Self-control and care

Self-control is a key element of the game: concentrating to play better, learning patience and being flexible are keys to answer the blows of the other player. The child identifies with his/her stones and learns to pay attention and care.

5. Creativity

The game of Go offers plenty of possibilities, where everyone can express themselves, imagine and be creative. Every game is different, then it is necessary to improvise, to adapt.

6. Sense of effort

In Go, serious effort is essential to get good results. Hard work on Go problems, study of theory and serious game analysis pays off.

7. For all

Easy to learn, all children can play together quickly.
Even children with educational difficulties can flourish and win games, giving them confidence in their learning.