January 25, 2004

The Wonderful World of Go. Go is said to be the oldest board game still being played today. (It was born in China 3000 years ago.) The game is an elegant synthesis of attack and defense; wood and stone; thought and intuition. You can play online and the Net is full of vast resources to help new players.
posted by scartol 20 years ago
  • I always thought the rules were different Good link by the way, scartol!
  • Go's a great game. Like the quote in the link suggests, the rules are elegantly simple, with hardly any arbitrary rules (though there are a few rule-versions which differ in minor ways, I think the so-called New Zealand ruleset is the most natural). The gameplay is extremely complex, however. You've heard, no doubt, of Deep Blue and his successors matching or defeating the reigning chess champion. So far, even the best computer programs are incapable of defeating an amateur with a year's serious study under his belt. Oh, and my favorite resource (good for beginners, and for improvement): Interactive Go Problems I play on KGS with the same pseudonym (ranked 6-7k).
  • Also, the example game in that flash animation has a few less-than-optimal moves. Not that it matters too much for its purposes. I'm just showing off.
  • Also, the example game in that flash animation has a few less-than-optimal moves. Not that it matters too much for its purposes. I'm just showing off.
  • Thank you scartol and exppii. I've kind of flirted with Go, but was never able to commit, but your links have brought me hope. I've bookmarked them and will devote time to learning until the virtual opponents start laughing at me. Lovely stuff!
  • Wee! Someone complimented me on my playing, then proceeded to eat my entire wall. Seriously, this game is fun. Thanks scartol.
  • In my searching for more resources ages ago I found kuro5hin 's guide to Go. It provided me with a good start to go.
  • Yes, Scartol, I second Selfstep. Lots of fun plus virtual partners. This is a GOOD link. Way to GO!! *snickers*
  • After some serious searching (paid for by Day Job): Go for Mac OSX