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24 April 2009

white and black stones flying all over the place / goblins punished for kibbitzing

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Three images of the East Asian board game of Go involving Samurai.

We apologize for the earlier spelling error in the post's Title.

A kibbutz (there probably is no verb form) is a communal farm in Israel.

To kibbitz refers to an onlooker who comments on a game in progress and gives unwanted advice to the players. It is a well-known Chess term (and disliked practice). English-speaking and European Go players -- who gravitated to Go from Chess -- use it as well.

kibbitz is Yiddish, and so may have its origin or cousin-word in German/deutsches.

In Chinese, Go is

* weiqi
* traditional Chinese: 圍棋
* simplified Chinese: 围棋
* pinyin: wéiqí
* Wade-Giles: wei ch'i

According to legend, a woodsman with a brand-new axe paused along a forest road to watch a game of Go being played, and found it fascinating. When the game was over, he picked up his axe, and the handle had rotted away. So a common nickname for Go means "rotten axe-handle."

Please keep watching Vleeptron, there is Really Big News in the world of Go. It's a matter of Life and Death.

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