Many love this ancient board game because of the essence of Chinese philosophy it contains. For example, Confucianism emphasizes the rule of the golden mean, that people should not go to extremes and that they should not reveal everything about their personality. Similarly, in the game of Weiqi you have to hide your intentions and not reveal them until the end. According to traditional Taoist doctrine, if you want to take something from others, you must first give up something of your own. This is equally applicable to the strategies of this board game.

The rule of this strategy board game, which has the largest number of players in the world, is for the players to fence off more territory than the opponent. It is played mostly on a wooden board with horizontal and vertical lines using playing pieces called stones. The players take turns placing their stones on the vacant intersections on the board, and each player has 180 stones, one of which is black and the other white.