Go - The Best Board Game Ever

[Edmond Dantes]

So lately, I've been playing this classic board game. How do you play it? Simple--one player plays Black, the other plays White, and they take turns putting stones on intersections on the board. The goal is to own as much territory as possible by the end of the game, and you can also capture enemy stones if you surround them on all four cardinal directions.

(That's a basic gist of the rules--if I explained them in full, we'd be here all day)

If you want to try it out, there are many good freeware Go games. Sensei's Library has a list. Probably the best one is Many Faces of Go (although it's trialware, but still very good and includes a minibook about the rules and even some tutorial elements).

So, are there any other Go players here?

[Skykid]

Hiroshi Yamauchi approves of this thread.

[Aguraki]

used to play chess and go,but I ended up playing chess only cause go had not enough live players to fullfill my appetite.
pretty lame as go is a wonderfull game.
I taught a lot of people playing go back in the day,sitting in the street and giving free initiation.
Im a big noob and havent played for years but everything about this game is cool.

what game you can stop playing because the game was not aesthetical enough?

[Ruldra]

Game of the Gods right here.

I play it sporadically, but like Aguraki, I don't have anyone else to play in person so I tend to focus more on chess. Go is completely unknown around here.

Still, I play Go Free once in a while on my phone and some years ago I bought this book. It's an excellent read once you're familiar with the basics.

Best place to play online is KGS Go Server, you should check it out. Lots of different rooms to choose from. The beginner room sometimes has experienced players coaching the newcomers.

[CMoon]

Life-long addiction to chess, really need to give Go another chance. I know it is one of the 'great' games, but if it is like chess where it takes years to become good, I don't know if I need another game like that.

[RGC]

.

[Jeneki]

Not the same as Othello. If you flip a Go stone it's still the same color.

[brokenhalo]

Never played Go, unless it's the same as Othello(?). Which one is played in Aronofsky's Pi?

that's go in pi. love that movie.

great game. started playing a bit on a cell phone app using a small board to learn the basics. tried to get a friend to pick it up but he got bored of it pretty quick. haven't touched it since.

[Jeneki]

There's a Hikaru no Go game on Gameboy Advance. I wouldn't recommend it as a learning tool though.

Here you go, Gameboy, your turn ...

[system11]

I tried to play it once, didn't understand it. I will probably never try again just because I don't have time for any board games anymore, or have anyone to play them with. I've got a particularly nice Chinese themed chess set though, somewhere.

[Ruldra]

I tried to play it once, didn't understand it. I will probably never try again just because I don't have time for any board games anymore, or have anyone to play them with. I've got a particularly nice Chinese themed chess set though, somewhere.

This tutorial taught me how to play the game. Takes about 10-15 minutes to finish it.

[powersoul]

As far as board games go (no pun intended), Monopoly dominated my youth.

[Edmond Dantes]

Never played Go, unless it's the same as Othello(?).

What Jeneki said. The games have some thematic similarities (black and white pieces, goal is territory dominance) but completely different mechanics.

Also, I suck at Othello -__-.

....

So, guys, I think I have a problem.

As I said at the top, I play a lot of computer Go games lately. In fact, they've become all I play.

I've tried to force myself to play other games (Ninja Gaiden, Makaimura, Thunder Force IV) but.... I keep wanting to go back to Go. In fact, its gotten so bad that I was playing Thunder Force IV and the first boss (I usually start on that water stage with the mountains in the background) literally turned into a bunch of white Go stones before my eyes...

Oddly enough, this has actually made me better at the games in question, but not by much.

So, any addiction counselors here?

[Ruldra]

Just go and play it to your heart's content, nothing wrong with that. Forcing yourself to play something else when you don't want it is just silly.

[HydrogLox]

Probably the best one is Many Faces of Go (although it's trialware, but still very good and includes a minibook about the rules and even some tutorial elements).

Dave Fotland's Go computer player is probably one of the most competent you'll be able to currently find - so it's worth the coin. However part of Go's attraction is that high-level players can still beat computer players without much problem as the brute force approach used to crack Chess just doesn't work. That being said I personally found that you can't simply learn by playing a computer player - it doesn't tell you where and why you went wrong and how to improve.

I will probably never try again just because I don't have time for any board games anymore, or have anyone to play them with.

In the age of "remote" console multi-player KGS Go Server is the way to Go (baduk,wéiqí) - it's been around since 1999. However as a neophyte player it could be difficult to find opponents. Most of the players are already at some intermediate ranking and primarily seek a challenge to improve their own game - rather than teaching others the ropes. So the games rules don't tend to be the obstacle - it's the experience gap. So to get over that seemingly steep learning curve one has to '"study". If anyone is interested have a look at (as a start):

• Janice Kim's Learn To Play Go Series
• Ishi Press/Kiseido Elementary Go Series
• Kano Yoshinori's Graded Go Problems for Beginners (EDIT)

[Edmond Dantes]

I used to play on some online servers years ago, and I recall that there was some group of people who you could send saves of your games to, and they'd review it and point out your mistakes and suggest strategies.

Anyone remember who that was?

[Edmond Dantes]

Bump for question:

Does anyone know a good website or book that discusses openings? I feel like the beginning of the game is where I'm my weakest... I'm not good in situations where I don't have a clear direction (I often do better once combat starts and the game gets underway, but usually by that point my shit opening has harmed my game, sometimes irreparably).

In about eight or nine days I'll start playing online too (I tried to register at Pandanet, but missed the "must use your account within 20 hours" deadline and it says you can't re-register with the same email until eight days have passed). I'd like to see some of you guys there.

[Edmond Dantes]

Bump AGAIN for AN OTHER QUESTION. (This'll be my last bump for this topic, if no responses)

Okay, anyone here watch Hikaru no Go? I saw the episode where Hikaru has a game against that Korean prodigy. The Episode in Question.

Now, in this game, Hikaru makes a move everyone thinks is bad, but in the course of the game its revealed that it actually was a stroke of genius. Now, when you see what the move is, and how they explain it in context... can someone explain to me how that move helped Hikaru at all? I'm just not seeing how any of the moves he made prepared for the battle in the upper left, in any way, shape, or form.

That's one thing I don't get about Go... how apparently playing a stone on the opposite side of the board can still influence a distant situation.

[Jeneki]

Sometimes a stone across the board becomes important as a ladder breaker, which makes a cut possible that wasn't before.

[Edmond Dantes]

Speaking of which, I picked up a Hikaru no Go game for the PSOne recently, Insei Chojyokessen (that's how its spelled on the spine).

I wish I could read Japanese, because the core game is actually a visual novel (there is a mode to just play Go against various characters, but only Hikaru is available at the beginning--the others are unlocked via the story mode).

I think I'm gonna start collecting Go-based video games. There seem to be plenty (anyone know of one for the Mega Drive?)

[Ruldra]

Hikaru no Go 2 for the Gameboy Advance is a good game, I played the versus mode quite a lot back in the day. I don't remember how but you could collect all sorts of different stones to use during the matches. It was a nice touch to have everyone use their own set instead of the usual black/white.

[Edmond Dantes]

Did the new stones change the rules in any way or were they just different colors/patterns?

The PSOne game seems to have a new mechanic too--there's a blue bar in the lower left that fills up... I'm not sure what it does though. It's never seemed to have an effect on gameplay to me.

[Jeneki]

The unlockable stone colors/patterns in HnG2 are just there to collect. No gameplay effect. Unless you give both players stone types that look really similar and make things really difficult.

[Aliquantic]

Posting here just so I can easily find this thread for future reference, searching for Go on this forum is pretty painful I've been meaning to try learning Go coming from the likes of Gomoku/Connect 6, but it's pretty challenging and I don't have any good teacher locally.

[Edmond Dantes]

Indeed, it should be our duty to keep this topic bumped! (Although, I'd just bookmark it if you need it as a reference point).

I just thought of something.

Go is a game of Black vs White. In other words, African-American vs. Caucasians. Who made this game, the KKK? Such themes of racial conflict and genocide would never be allowed in these more enlightened times! Go must change! I vote we replace the black and white stones with purple and green, in order to eliminate the racist subtext and keep Go pure!

... Sorry, I just wanted to poke fun at political correctness after being in the "Tropes vs. Women" thread.

[szycag]

I just thought of something.

Playing on my phone a bit after reading this thread. I'm clueless still, but that tutorial page might have helped a bit.

[Edmond Dantes]

Today I played Hikaru no Go: Insei Chojyosen (I might've mispelled its title) for the PSone, played a free game against Hikaru on a full 19x19 board... and for the first time, I won (19x19 games tend to stretch on so long that they short-circuit my braincells and I get stupid).

In doing so I noticed something odd about how that game keeps score: Apparently, stones work on a "radius" system, because there were points I owned (in that I surrounded them and there was no way Hikaru could invade), but that it counted as neutral simply because there weren't stones anywhere near them.

I'm pretty sure that's not how Go works, and I'm not sure if there's an option I can change to make it score differently, so until new evidence surfaces, I'm guessing that this was a decision Konami made based on some limitation of the hardware.

It's still better than the almost completely arbitrary score system used in the Ultimate Board Games Collection though.

... So, anyone else know another Go console game I should pick up? Did any ever exist for Super Famicom or Mega Drive? (I've heard one existed for Famicom)

[reimu-silvergun]

I do love this game but I'm not made to play it, if I work really really hard I can get my KGS rank up to 13 kyu (which is pretty weak beginner..) and if I stop playing for a week I'm back to the start. It's so interesting even though it takes hard work to get started on.