I saw the Chess thread and am curious.
For those of you who don't know it:
Go is a strategy game. It was invented in China a majillion years ago, and its unfortunate Western name is the Japanese name "Igo" shortened, as if that needed shortening. It's unfortunate because when you Google things relating to Go, you will invariably end up with results about CS:GO, Pokemon Go, and, well, going places. It's a mess. But rejoice, there is no need to Google things because now you have this concise introduction to the game and will need no more information about it ever.
Some of you may know it from AlphaGo, the first major achievement of Google Deepmind's AI project. Indeed, it was the first piece of software that was ever able to beat a human pro at the game. It was the first to even come close, I might add. Go was always a notoriously difficult game to crack for AI developers, and would never have been cracked without neural networks, because of its incredible depth of strategy. Brute force algorithms, which do well in Chess, could never have beaten human pros. While they may be good at tactics, they lack the intuition to play strategically sound moves.
This is a 19x19 Go board:
Stones are placed not in the squares, but on intersections. Because it's more satisfying that way. Roll with it.
The game can be played on 19x19 (regular), 13x13 (small) and 9x9 (tiny) boards. On 9x9 boards, it really is just one big battle, but on larger boards there are multiple battles going on and you have to try to both win the individual battles and keep the big picture in mind. Imagine playing multiple games of chess at the same time and they are all connected to each other, and you fight for map control. The goal of Go, after all, is map control. You want to surround more territory (empty intersections) than your opponent.
There's literally one rule. Okay maybe two. At most three, but let's not get hung up on the numbers here. It's simple. It's one of the simplest games in existence. Trump could play it. And yet, there is near infinite strategic depth. The simplicity of the rules combined with the unmatched depth is a game designer's wet dream. Therein lies the irresistible elegance of Go.
Whereas in Chess you are always calculating ahead and basing your moves on the optimal sequence in your mind, hoping you didn't miss anything, in Go you are considering a wide variety of strategic principles for each move. You may have looked ahead and found a move that wins you a small battle somewhere, but is that move big enough? Are there other moves that gain you more territory elsewhere on the board? Does winning this battle gain you influence over that other battle that you are fighting somewhere else? Does it endanger the lives of these stones over here? Does it weaken your opponent's group over there? Wait, if I move here will I be trading this little territory for a big one on the other side of the board? What about the other 300 possible moves I can make?
Constant, humbling uncertainty. Intuition is the only thing you have to go by. "You know what, this move feels right". That about sums up how I play Go most of the time. And how else can you play, when as soon as you start trying to look ahead a few moves, there are already billions of possible game states? You have to rely on subconscious, intuitive pattern recognition and then apply strategic principles that you have learned throughout your life (by playing AoE2, for example).
Of course, experience helps. Go has a notoriously steep learning curve. The rules are simple, but don't let them fool you. Having played 5 games, you will think the game is simply too difficult. And of course you won't master it, who are you kidding? The point that is often missed here though is that Go is an incredibly rewarding game to play even if you are utter dogshit at it, which, needless to say, I am. There is no other game where I have so clearly seen myself improve game after game, slowly but surely seeing the board come to life. You may see a mass of stones, I see a war. A war fought with blood, sweat, and tears. Tears for the lost comrades who got left behind enemy lines.
This is a pretty great though old tutorial, for those interested: http://playgo.to/iwtg/en/ (uses flash)
To play: https://online-go.com/play
For those of you who don't know it:
Go is a strategy game. It was invented in China a majillion years ago, and its unfortunate Western name is the Japanese name "Igo" shortened, as if that needed shortening. It's unfortunate because when you Google things relating to Go, you will invariably end up with results about CS:GO, Pokemon Go, and, well, going places. It's a mess. But rejoice, there is no need to Google things because now you have this concise introduction to the game and will need no more information about it ever.
Some of you may know it from AlphaGo, the first major achievement of Google Deepmind's AI project. Indeed, it was the first piece of software that was ever able to beat a human pro at the game. It was the first to even come close, I might add. Go was always a notoriously difficult game to crack for AI developers, and would never have been cracked without neural networks, because of its incredible depth of strategy. Brute force algorithms, which do well in Chess, could never have beaten human pros. While they may be good at tactics, they lack the intuition to play strategically sound moves.
This is a 19x19 Go board:
Stones are placed not in the squares, but on intersections. Because it's more satisfying that way. Roll with it.
The game can be played on 19x19 (regular), 13x13 (small) and 9x9 (tiny) boards. On 9x9 boards, it really is just one big battle, but on larger boards there are multiple battles going on and you have to try to both win the individual battles and keep the big picture in mind. Imagine playing multiple games of chess at the same time and they are all connected to each other, and you fight for map control. The goal of Go, after all, is map control. You want to surround more territory (empty intersections) than your opponent.
There's literally one rule. Okay maybe two. At most three, but let's not get hung up on the numbers here. It's simple. It's one of the simplest games in existence. Trump could play it. And yet, there is near infinite strategic depth. The simplicity of the rules combined with the unmatched depth is a game designer's wet dream. Therein lies the irresistible elegance of Go.
Whereas in Chess you are always calculating ahead and basing your moves on the optimal sequence in your mind, hoping you didn't miss anything, in Go you are considering a wide variety of strategic principles for each move. You may have looked ahead and found a move that wins you a small battle somewhere, but is that move big enough? Are there other moves that gain you more territory elsewhere on the board? Does winning this battle gain you influence over that other battle that you are fighting somewhere else? Does it endanger the lives of these stones over here? Does it weaken your opponent's group over there? Wait, if I move here will I be trading this little territory for a big one on the other side of the board? What about the other 300 possible moves I can make?
Constant, humbling uncertainty. Intuition is the only thing you have to go by. "You know what, this move feels right". That about sums up how I play Go most of the time. And how else can you play, when as soon as you start trying to look ahead a few moves, there are already billions of possible game states? You have to rely on subconscious, intuitive pattern recognition and then apply strategic principles that you have learned throughout your life (by playing AoE2, for example).
Of course, experience helps. Go has a notoriously steep learning curve. The rules are simple, but don't let them fool you. Having played 5 games, you will think the game is simply too difficult. And of course you won't master it, who are you kidding? The point that is often missed here though is that Go is an incredibly rewarding game to play even if you are utter dogshit at it, which, needless to say, I am. There is no other game where I have so clearly seen myself improve game after game, slowly but surely seeing the board come to life. You may see a mass of stones, I see a war. A war fought with blood, sweat, and tears. Tears for the lost comrades who got left behind enemy lines.
This is a pretty great though old tutorial, for those interested: http://playgo.to/iwtg/en/ (uses flash)
To play: https://online-go.com/play
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