You’ve probably seen Go before, maybe even without noticing. Here are some examples:
Manga & anime
Hikaru no Go (manga 1998–2003, anime 2001–2003) – a schoolboy finds an old Go board haunted by the ghost of an ancient Go master. The series started a real Go boom among young people in Japan and far beyond.
Film & TV
- The Match (2025, Netflix) – Lee Byung-hun plays the Go legend Cho Hun-hyun. The film tells the story of his rivalry with his own student, Lee Chang-ho.
- A Beautiful Mind (2001) – mathematician John Nash, played by Russell Crowe, plays a game of Go at Princeton and loses.
- π / Pi (1998, Darren Aronofsky) – a mathematician and his mentor play Go while searching for patterns in everything.
- AlphaGo (2017, documentary) – the story of DeepMind’s AI against Lee Sedol.
- The Surrounding Game (2018, documentary) – young players trying to bring Go to the West.
- Knives Out (2019) – a murder mystery in which Go plays a central role.
- The Glory (2022–2023, Netflix series) – the main character Moon Dong-eun plays Go. The game runs through the whole series as an image of her revenge.
Books
- The Master of Go by Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata. A novel about a real, legendary game from 1938.
- Shibumi by Trevanian (1979) – a thriller whose hero thinks in Go strategy.
Famous faces at the Go board
Konfuzius / Confucius
Chinese philosopher. Go is already mentioned in his Analects.
Albert Einstein
Physicist. Founder of the theory of relativity.
Lise Meitner
Physicist. She explained nuclear fission.
Alan Turing
Computer science pioneer and code breaker in World War II.
John Forbes Nash
Mathematician and Nobel laureate
Nolan Bushnell
Founder of Atari. The company name is a Go term.
Jiyu
Singer in the K-pop group KiiiKiii.
Bill Gates
Co-founder of Microsoft.
Sergey Brin
Co-founder of Google.
Robin Williams
Actor.