Any Go players out there?

[pokerfan]

This came up in a lounge thread on board games. http://tinyurl.com/4mwag">Go is such a beautiful game and so simple that a four year old can learn to play.

I first learned it thirty years ago at school but found it very hard to find opponents after I graduated and computer Go was so terrible that it wasn't even an option. So that lounge thread got me searching around and I found a http://www.smart-games.com/manyfaces.html">program that plays at a very strong amateur level, which is more than good enough for me.

http://www.smart-games.com/manyfaces.html">

[panader0]

1. Occasional player of Go.

But I can't find any opponents. I also like 5 stone very much, played on a Go board, and beat all my friends.

[tekisui]

2. I love Go.

The problem is finding opponents. Thanks for the link!

[DFW]

3. Never learned

If I had Nicholai Hel to teach me, I'd learn............

[Brazenly Liberal]

4. 15 minutes to learn and decades to master

It is a wonderful game - both stimulating and relaxing. I played for a few years way back when and really enjoyed it, but since we moved to the country, I have nobody to play it with and haven't played in years.

[DoBotherMe]

5. John Nash thought he WAS a Go board

His delusions were so extreme during his bouts of schizophrenia he imagined he was a Go board. I don't play Go, but for him to think that he was inanimate and yet alive ... it was chilling. Dana ; )

[pokerfan]

9. I did not know that

The true story of the life of math genius John Nash is considerably more complicated than the film version now playing in a theater near you, and the book makes for rewarding post-film reading.

Of special interest to Go players, of course, are Nash's encounters with the game of Go, which began in his first year at Princeton in 1949. "There was a small clique of go players led by Ralph Fox, the genial topologist who had imported it after the war," writes Nasar. Fox got strong enough to be invited to Japan to play and invited Fukuda to play him at Princeton. Fukuda, naturally "obliterated Fox" as well as another local player by the name of Albert Einstein.

Go figures in the tale of Nash's descent into madness, as well. At one point, "he imagined he was a go board whose four sides were labeled Los Angeles, Boston, Seattle and Bluefield," writes Nassar. "He was covered with white stones representing Confucious and black stones representing Muhammadans." Later, Nash "was thinking of another go board whose four sides were labeled with cars we had owned: Studebaker, Olds, Mercedes, Plymouth, Belvedere. He thought it might be possible to construct 'An elaborate oscilloscope display...a repentingness function.'"

And the game theory that won Nash the 1994 Nobel speaks as much to the game of Go as to other applications: the possibility of mutual gain rather than zero-sum games where one player's gain is another's loss. Nash's insight, writes Nasar, "was that the game would be solved when every player independently chose his best response to every other player's best strategies."

http://www.hilltopgo.com/agej/2002/2002-02-11.txt

[pnorman]

6. If you have a Palm OS based PDA (or smartphone), there are some Go games available.

Here's a freeware one: http://www.palmblvd.com/software/pc/Go-2002-4-7-palm-pc.html

Here's a shareware ($8) version: http://www.palmblvd.com/software/pc/AIGO-2001-5-17-palm-pc.html

Rotzaruck with a Windows-based PDA!


pnorman

[pokerfan]

10. I had that back when I had a Palm!

Wasn't especially strong but a great time-killer. My biggest weakness was a backgammon program I had for my Palm 505. Can't remember the name of it.

[pnorman]

18. I was never into board-games, but I just downloaded and purchased that Go program.

I'll give it a try. A cursory check tells me that there are NO Go programs for the Microsoft OS PDA/Smartphones.

I've been an admirer of the Palm OS for a long time, and remain so despite it now being written off by Palm itself. For a very long time, that platform attracted the attention of many gifted programmers, and it shows! Here's a good example of one such app that may be of use to some here, and it's free: http://www.toolworks.com/bilofsky/tidetool/

pnorman

[pokerfan]

20. I did some work with RIM a few years ago

They hated the fact that I had a Palm. :)

Just found a folder of my old Palm files. I had:
Go v1.2 by Adorjan Kiss
Agushka Backgammon 1.20

[sam sarrha]

7. i'm a verbal/visual/tactal learner, i need someone to show me how and answer questions.. i made a

really nice board and found two of the stone bowls http://www.go-gamestore.com/goequip/bowls.htm the light colored ones. they were old and a mess, i sanded them down and put a Teak Oil finish. .. i ordered stones, but then we moved away from an area with a great Asian population to North Carolina.

one day i will find a group to play with... i hope.

[pokerfan]

8. Interactive Go instructor

Looks pretty good and better than just reading the rules, at least for visual learners.

http://playgo.to/interactive

My thirty-year-old set looks exactly like this:



The downside is that the glass stones were pretty easy to chip.

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. I have the same board and stones...

also 30 years old.
Never played much out of college, actually, but still hauled the board and stones around.
Now it is hard to find a good wooden board.
Also have the 4 best Go books by Japanese masters.
gotta dust that off someday soon, prolly.

[pokerfan]

15. I bet we have the same books then

Basic Techniques by Isamu
Basic Joseki (three volumes) by Ishida
Go Proverbs by Kensaku

[aikoaiko]

11. I learned it about 7 years ago and played for 2 years, but then drifted away

I liked the game, but I realized I needed to start studying books and technique seriously if I were to get better.

[dixiegrrrrl]

13. I found this link, News and information about computer programs that play Go.

http://www.reiss.demon.co.uk/webgo/compgo.htm

[pokerfan]

16. I see that 'Many Faces' is well represented

I've been playing against it on a 13x13 board just trying to gain back some of the most elemental understanding of the game that I've lost. I'm happy to report that it's coming back more quickly than I expected.

Thanks for that link.

[dixiegrrrrl]

21. Do itashi mashite.

[keroro gunsou]

14. i use panda go

occassional player. consequently, i suck. ^^

thought most japanese players i've played with are nice and don't try to slaughter me

too bad i can't say the same for the american players i've had the misfortune to play.

i started to play last year for what some might consider to be the dumbest reason of all: hikaru no go.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikaru_no_go

[backscatter712]

17. Try the Kiseido Go Server...

Let's face it. Go AI is not competitive with decent human players - they can play strong amateur, maybe moderate games, but really strong human Go players will massacre computers at Go every time. (Go and Poker seem to be the games that AI researchers are focusing on these days.)

So go to the Kiseido Go Server at http://www.gokgs.com/

There should be plenty of human Go players on there at any time. Playing is free, the Go client software is free, built with Java, and works on Windows, OSX and Linux systems.

The software has lots of bells and whistles, the KGS server tracks your games and automatically sets you up with a kyu rating, so you get halfway decent handicapping on your games (you'll get something resembling the correct number of stones for the weaker player.)

Try it. You'll like it!

[pokerfan]

19. I will

Once I recover some of my old Go self by playing against Many Faces.