在2025年末，日本首相高市早苗与韩国总统李在明首次会晤时赠送围棋子，几天后李在明在首尔接待中国领导人习近平时回赠由稀有榧木雕制的棋盘；围棋在中日韩三国地位特殊。围棋约在2500年前起源于中国，其近代形态在日本江户幕府时期（止于1868年）通过官办棋院与段位体系成型，日本到二战结束时仍独步天下，但在20世纪80年代起中国与韩国棋手开始击败日本冠军并改写国际格局。
紧张在2025年于首尔的一场国际赛事中升至顶点：中国棋手柯洁在与韩国对手的冠军对局中，因未将提子放入指定区域而多次受罚后退赛，而该规则由韩国棋院在赛事进行中途引入。此后中国棋院对国内赛事限制外籍棋手参赛，受影响者多为韩国棋手；一位韩国九段（相当于国际象棋特级大师）将此归因于自上而下驱动的强竞争文化。
围棋观众正在老龄化，商业兴趣走弱，年轻人转向更简单的爱好（如国际象棋或将棋）以及尤其是电子游戏，日本棋院也因财务压力研究出售其东京总部。中日韩甚至无法就统一规则达成一致：围棋与国际象棋、桥牌一起被国际智力运动协会注册以期最终进入奥运时，采用的规则多接近美国围棋协会版本；围棋“十条黄金规则”之一倡导在弱势与孤立时求和避战，但其守护者仍陷于对立。
In late 2025, Japan’s prime minister Sanae Takaichi gave South Korea’s president Lee Jae Myung Go stones, and days later Lee presented China’s leader Xi Jinping with a Go board; the game holds special status across China, Japan, and South Korea. Go was invented about 2,500 years ago in China, its modern system was shaped in Japan’s Edo era (ending in 1868), Japan led through the end of World War II, but Chinese and South Korean players began toppling Japanese champions in the 1980s and changed the hierarchy.
Tensions peaked in 2025 at an international tournament in Seoul: China’s Ke Jie withdrew after repeated penalties for not placing captured stones in a designated area, under a rule introduced mid-tournament by South Korea’s association. China then restricted foreign participation in its domestic events, affecting mostly South Koreans; a South Korean nine-dan (comparable to a chess grandmaster) links this to a top-down, ruthlessly competitive culture.
Go’s audience is ageing, commercial interest is ebbing, and younger people are shifting to simpler games and especially video games, while Japan’s Nihon Ki-in is even exploring selling its Tokyo headquarters under financial strain. China, Japan, and South Korea cannot agree on a common rulebook—when Go was registered with the International Mind Sports Association alongside chess and bridge for hoped-for Olympic recognition, the rules adopted were mostly those of the American Go Association—despite one of Go’s 10 “golden rules” urging peace and avoiding fights from weakness and isolation.
Source: Why Go is going nowhere
Subtitle: Three masters, one game, zero consensus
Dateline: 1月 15, 2026 06:13 上午