Stones and Empires: Learning the Game of Go Through a Study of History

By Bradley Collum

What if the best way to learn the world's oldest strategy game was through the battles and campaigns you already know?

Stones and Empires teaches the game of Go - the 4,000-year-old strategy game that resisted computer mastery decades after chess fell - through fifteen historical episodes spanning the Age of Exploration to D-Day. Napoleon's doomed march to Moscow reveals why supply lines determine life and death on the board. Lee's forced retreat to Appomattox becomes the ladder - a relentless chase with no escape. Hannibal's encirclement at Cannae shows how a loose perimeter traps what a direct chase cannot. Grant's Overland Campaign demonstrates the brutal arithmetic of seizing and holding initiative.

No prior knowledge of Go is required. No prior knowledge of military history is assumed. Each chapter opens with a story, lets the strategic logic emerge naturally, and then shows you the same pattern on a nineteen-by-nineteen grid. By the time you place your first stone, you'll already think like a player.

Includes 15 board diagrams, a complete glossary, rules reference, and historical bibliography.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GQ2FWBV8
• ISBN13: 9798249484927
• Release Date: February 2026
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 104 Pages
• Weight: 0.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.2" x 6.0"