Anybody here playing Go?

[Soma]

If so, I use to play since years and even run a local Go club.

Go, also known as weiqi (china) or baduk (korean), is a ancient asien strategic boardgame using only white and black stones. It's usually played on a wooden board with 19x19 lines, stones are played on intersections. It's around 4000 years old and while there's only a few very basic rules it is highly dynamic, komplex but very elegant. It's about sorounding enemy stones while creating own territory. There's a large community playing live and on online servers all around the world.

If interested here you'll find more informations Wiki ie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(game)

Contact me if you need any more infos or help. I would love to get anybody involved or get a game or two.

[Frank Vèssia]

looks really interesting... 8)

[MatthewSchenker]

Greetings,

Only saw this post today, after reading an (unrelated) discussion -> http://processwire.com/talk/topic/4044-forum-likes-and-posts-and-the-top-list/

Go is great!  I have been trying to master it for years.

Thanks,

Matthew

[Soma]

Hey Matthew, great to know you also play Go! I haven't played for some time but would be great to have a few games. I'm on IGS http://pandanet-igs.com/communities/pandanet as iSoma (6-7k). 

Yeah it's hard to find players but chances are that there's a Go club near, at least here in Europe. But there's also the chance to play online and it has an active community around.

[nik]

I've played Go a little too, but it's been some years since I last played against a human player, even online. Computer has been enough of a challenge to me so far as I never quite reached single digit ratings being at 11-12k at my best.

It would be great to visit IGS sometimes and play a game or two if you're willing to give a few handicap stones for me Soma.

If only I had the time as it's the busiest time of year for me right now - week one out of four of my summer holiday.

[Soma]

Hey nik, thanks for dropping by. Rank doesn't matter, I'm playing for fun and it's one of the great things of this game to be able to give handicap to balance the strength.

I'm currently entering holidays and will have some spare time to play, just drop me message so we can arrange something.

[Soma]

Computer has been enough of a challenge to me so far as I never quite reached single digit ratings being at 11-12k at my best.

11-12k is quite good if you just played occasionally. Let me tell you that playing computer isn't that good to get stronger. A human opponent will always play very different. Playing computer the whole time can screw your game, especially when you're weaker player. There's a lot a computer can't really calculate, the variation are just too vast and the strategies/judging involved requires different thinking, and you kinda adapt to the playing style of a computer which kinda handicap you from getting "mastering" the game on all levels. There's currently a new area of computer programs that play go in a different way which involves playing random stones etc. but they're still way behind beating some of the stronger players Go has brought up.

Also doing tsumegos is way better than playing computer. It's solving local problems of life and death at different strengths. This will help you getting stronger at local fights a lot. And they're fun.

[MatthewSchenker]

Greetings,

I will check out the online gaming sources. Although, I'm a bit intimidated by the numbers some of you are posting here!

I'll just have to dive in and see where I stand.

Thanks for the suggestions,

Matthew