[Vision2020] Go: Re: new topic: games

[Ted Moffett]

All-

One of the links I sent for info on the game of Go did not work, it seems...

Anyway, info galore is available with a search engine using obvious words...

Ted Moffett

On 1/8/07, Ted Moffett <starbliss at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> keely et. al.
>
> Do not arouse the ancient mystics wrath!
>
> Blokus is very different than Go!  Blokus suits families better, and
> allows brain teasing options, within the rather flexible ways the game can
> be played, but Go reaches into the highest levels of human cognition in a
> board game.
>
> Go is arguably the most incredible board game in history, perhaps dating
> back 4000 years!  No computer program yet can come close to beating the best
> Go players.  It is astonishing for the incredible complexity that develops
> out of the disarming simplicity of the rules, and highlights the functions
> of human intelligence that those darn computers cannot yet best us at.
> There was a Go club on the Palouse that once met regularly at the home of a
> WSU computer scientist.  The game is very big in China, where it was
> supposedly invented at least 3000 years ago, and in Japan and Korea.
> Sometimes a very good Go player has visited the Palouse from these nations,
> associated with WSU or the U of I.
>
> Chess is a plodding mechanical limited predictable game in comparison with
> Go, which is why computers are so very good at Chess, and stymied by Go:
>
> http://www.game/club.com/gohis/go.htm#FundamentalRule
>
> http://gobase.org
>
> Only two people can play Go.  This is not the sort of family game that
> Blokus can be, with four different colored pieces for four players.  Go has
> only white and black stones, all the same kind, except for the color.  Go
> stones are placed on intersections of lines on a board with 19 X 19
> rectangular placed lines (a perfect square is avoided for aesthetic or other
> mysterious reasons), while Blokus has 5 different sized pieces for each
> player.  Go has no restrictions on where the stones may be placed when the
> game starts or at any other time, except for the KO rule (same board
> position not allowed twice in a row to prevent infinite capture), and
> placing stones into surrounded intersections (suicide), while Blokus
> mandates starting corners for each player.  In Go stones are captured by
> being surrounded, while if I have this correct, Blokus rules do not allow
> capture of pieces.
>
> Go has a very clever handicap system achieved by placing stones on the
> board at the start of the game in predetermined positions, the number of
> stones given dependent on the relative skill of the players.  This can allow
> for a competitive game between players of very different skill levels.
>
> I've spent many hours studying and playing Go... I recommend the game to
> everyone, but I guess it's not the best family game given only two can play.
>
> Ted Moffett
>
>
>
> On 1/7/07, keely emerinemix <kjajmix1 at msn.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > I took a break from being screechy, gnarled, smug and shrill by playing
> > a
> > new board game this afternoon with Jeff and the boys -- Blokus, which we
> > bought at Hodgins as our "family gift" for Christmas.  It's an
> > award-winning, Mensa-endorsed game similar to dominoes and Go, I
> > think.  I
> > have the spatial ability of a lemur, and yet I'm able to learn this
> > geometric, block-placing game easily, and I've won twice now.  So, my
> > New
> > Year's Family Board Game recommendations are:
> >
> > 1. Blokus
> > 2. Backgammon
> > 3. Pente
> > 4.  Mancala
> > 5.  Yahtzee
> >
> > I am, without question, the world's worst chess player; I taught both of
> > my
> > sons when they were five and they've been beating me since they were
> > six.
> > In addition, I'm dying to learn how to play cribbage, but I don't know
> > how
> > and the online and in-print instructions are too confusing.  Still, on a
> > dreary, sloppy winter's day, it's great to hang out with the guys, turn
> > off
> > all electronica, and play a nice, testosterone-charged board game
> > together
> > (with my husband and two teenage boys, everything is
> > testosterone-charged!).
> >   Any other recommendations from the Visionaires in my life?
> >
> > keely
> >
> > _________________________________________________________________
> > >From photos to predictions, The MSN Entertainment Guide to Golden
> > Globes has
> > it all. http://tv.msn.com/tv/globes2007/?icid=nctagline1
> >
> > =======================================================
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> > serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
> >                http://www.fsr.net
> >           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> > =======================================================
> >
>
>
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