Lesson 114: The Number of Star Points
Nowadays, the ``star points'' in Baduk refer to the nine black dots painted on the intersections along the fourth lines. Since we use the star points in playing handicap games, and the maximum number of handicap stones is nine, we don't feel any awkwardness in the fact that there are nine star points; however, until the mid-20th century, the numbers of star points in Japan, China, and Korea were all different.
The modern form of Baduk comes from Japan, and the number of star points in Japan has been nine for at least 400 years. But, as you already know, until fairly recently, it was 17 in Korea, 5 in China and 12 in Tibet.
What influence did the difference in star points have on the game? The starting positions of Baduk differ according to the number of star points. In Korean traditional Sunjang Baduk, Black and White placed 8 stones each on the board before starting, and Black opened the game by playing 1 on the star point in the center, as shown in Diagram 1.
In China, Black and White put two stones each on the board, as shown in Diagram 2, and either Black or White could start the game by playing anywhere they wanted. There was no fixed rule for the first move as in Sunjang (I'm sorry for not being able to find a software program able to draw a diagram with 5 star points; the last star point is on the intersection in the center).
Even though it is very hard nowadays to find people playing Baduk in the area near Tibet, we can still find Baduk boards there handed down from old times, which have 12 star points. Actually the number of lines on the Tibetan Baduk board is 17, and its starting position looks a lot like Korean Sunjang Baduk as shown in Diagram 3. (Again, I'm sorry that there are 9 star points on the diagram, which faithfully follows the number of star points in modern Baduk.) The distinctive feature of Tibetan Baduk is that there is no center star point, and the points are painted along the 3rd line. As in the Chinese style, there was no rule for where the first move should be played.
Thus, in Korea, China, and Tibet, the star points were fully utilized in an even game. However, in Japan, and consequently modern Baduk, they are used only in handicap games. The number of nine has never been found outside of Japan. Then, how did the Japanese people start playing Baduk with 9 star points?
As far as I know, there is no concrete evidence explaining how there came to be nine star points. Even on the different usage of star points, there aren't that many reliable facts, or even guesses. Some believe that the unknown ancient Chinese form, which is believed to be the origin of all the other variations, was the same as the modern form; that is, played with no stones on the board before starting an even game. They think the Korean and Chinese forms that utilize pre-placed stones are more recent versions of the game because they need more complicated starting positions. However, others claim that the Japanese form is more modern because more variations are possible in a game that starts without any fixed rules from the very beginning. Well, what do you think?
The writer is a baduk professor at Myongji University and a professional player of the game.