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zallydacoolguy

Hello, I've been playing Go for about 3 months now and I was thinking Chess could also give me some Joy. Anyone here mind explaining the differences beginners face? In Go it took me a while to understand at an okay level. Is Chess easier or Harder for beginners than Go?

notmtwain
zallydacoolguy wrote:

Hello, I've been playing Go for about 3 months now and I was thinking Chess could also give me some Joy. Anyone here mind explaining the differences beginners face? In Go it took me a while to understand at an okay level. Is Chess easier or Harder for beginners than Go?

Why is Go special?

What makes Go extraordinary?

As an intellectual challenge Go is extraordinary. The rules are very simple, yet it resists all attempts to program computers to play Go. Even the best programs, the results of many years development, are still beaten by experienced players. Apart from a chance to beat the computer, Go offers major attractions to anyone who enjoys games of skill:

  • There is great scope for intuition and experiment in a game of Go, especially in the opening. Like Chess, Go has its opening strategies and tactics but players can become quite strong knowing no more than a few basic patterns.
  • A great advantage of Go is the very effective handicapping system. This enables players of widely differing strengths to play each other on equal terms without distorting the character of the game.
  • The object in Go is to make more territory than the other player by surrounding it more efficiently, or by attacking the opponent's stones to greater effect. On such a large board, it's possible to do somewhat badly in one area but still to win the game by doing better on the board as a whole.
  • Every game of Go quickly takes on a character of its own - no two games are alike. Since a player needs only to have more territory than the opponent in order to win, there are very few drawn games, though the outcome may hang in the balance until the very end.

That linked pamplet asserts there is more room for intuition in Go. I have a sense that is untrue.

It also says that computer programmers haven't figured out Go yet, so  good player can still beat a computer. That isn't true in chess anymore.