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Ask HN: Who Plays Go?

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Re: Ask HN: Who Plays Go?

#54
post #43
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"there is any such thing as objective quality in board games, go is objectively the best game anyone has come up with yet" Could you please elaborate?

I'm not sure I could. (If I could, I'd probably be able to omit the hedge at the start.) But here's the best I can do. 1. The rules of go are very simple. (Well, kinda. Use, say, the Tromp-Taylor ruleset.) 2. The resulting game is very subtle, in e.g. the following senses. (a) For any game, define an "increment" to be how much better you need to be than someone else in order to beat them 75% of the time. Then the num…

I wonder occasionally about playing go on a graph that isn't just a square grid. It seems like hexagonal go wouldn't be too big a stretch, whereas to make a decent hexagonal chess game you have to change lots and lots of things.

How about playing on a Penrose tessellation generated within some bounds, like a square or circle.

Come to think of it, I wonder what Conway's Life would look like if it were shoehorned onto such a graph. I'm not sure how one would define the neighborhood, but sounds interesting to explore.

Re: Ask HN: Who Plays Go?

#55
I just started playing casually earlier this year and I'm about 13-15k on DGS. I really liked the players on KGS, but it's hard for me to find an hour or two of totally uninterrupted time. DGS is so perfect for the slow pace I like to play that I wrote an iPhone client for it: http://dgs.uberweiss.net

When I started playing, it was frustrating and confusing. Now, it's still frustrating and confusing, but it's also so much fun.

Re: Ask HN: Who Plays Go?

#59
post #56

Anyone know where I can play Capture Go at multiple levels? That is, single capture, 2-capture, 3-capture, etc? 9x9 and larger boards?

I don't know where, but when you get there, I wrote an SPI HTML5/JS Goban for iPad/Safari that supports single capture and capture five on various boards:

http://github.com/raganwald/wood_and_stones

If you want other games like 2-capture or 3-capture, I can file an issue and add the games. And nothing's stopping you from forking, making the changes, and sending me a pull request :-)

Re: Ask HN: Who Plays Go?

#60
post #40
post #31

I've never played, but I'd be happy if someone could point me to the best place to learn.

If you want to learn, the easiest way to start would be on a 9 by 9 board using a program like gnu-go. Computers are awfully predictable and have a hard time even on a 9 by 9 board. Next up, I would look at checking out a local Go club, maybe read a book or two, maybe check out igs/kgs.

For an absolute beginner I'd add that the computer should give you a 9 stone handicap. Dial the handicap down as you start to get the hang of it.

Move to a 13x13 when you want the game to get more complex. Raise the handicap again when you do so.

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