Best thing about go

General Go Discussion
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In another thread our beloved mod and player Sofiam(add dolfins here) stated:

Then I answered:

Now I’m curious!
What’s the best thing about go for you?

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2

Drinking a beer afterwards.
Slowly suffocating a group but not killing it, so that you have an endless variety of forcing moves.
Having the right balance and the inner peace that comes with it.

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3

This would be the best thing about almost everything, if that’s allowed… :stuck_out_tongue:

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4

The community.
The memes.

Oh, and also the universal language of “what do you mean by placing your stone here?”. It’s a language to learn. The better you speak it the more arguments you can win. :woman_shrugging:t2: And any new language is a new outlet to be playful, funny and helpful and murderous, another way to express ourselves.

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5

Personally, one of the best thing about Go is that it lead to the discovery of the surreal numbers, kickstarting combinatorial game theory. Although, perhaps, Go was not inherently necessary for this to happen.

As far as the game is concerned, I really love the way it looks. It’s just aesthetic.

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6

The ‘high’ or afterglow you get after a long and intense game. The sort of pseudo-enlightened state of meditation that persists for hours or days afterwards, where I will unconsciously see the board position and read out sequences in my head. It doesn’t happen often, usually only when playing over the table with very long time settings. Who knew thinking about black and white stones eating each other would make you feel fulfilled?

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7

I have already said this, but I will explain a little bit further :slight_smile:
I like games where there is a lot of fighting, even when I am the one who dies. But I’m not good at reading and I don’t like doing that and I panic easily if I try. Better to play the first move that comes to mind.

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8

The strategic complexity.

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9

BTAG is when you play a move in a correspondence game and your opponent replies and you get to play another move. A little slice of live play in a correspondence game is amazing!

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10

That’s what happens to me every time I get close to 0 moves to play :rofl:
If you like it that much you might consider starting a lot of games.

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The feeling that every game is unique in its own way.
And the friends ive made by playing go ^___^

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12

I’d say the fact that it is scalable for skill.
You can’t play most other games against a much better player (mostly because they’d be bored and you’d feel like you are wasting their time), but you can play Go vs an amazing array of players, with the appropriate handicap and you can both have some challenge and fun.

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13

I should have been clearer that I find the joy of it happening in a single given game. Not that I play a correspondence move and then another, different, game pops up with a move to play.

It’s like bumping into a friend on the street, having a little chat and then each continuing on your way.

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14

Maybe I didn’t explain myself well either, sorry. I meant that if you have a lot of games and you want to play in all of them at some point you get the only the moves of the opponents who are online and actively playing. Which is what you were referring to I think, some parts of those games are played like if they were live

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15

The best thing about go is playing good/optimal endgame and/or winning the game by playing good/optimal endgame.

Playing optimal endgame is the one area of the game where you can know to be 100% correct, infallible. When I get in the lead in the opening or in the middle game, I mostly feel like I’m winning because my opponent made some mistakes, often hard to grasp. But when I get in the lead in the endgame I feel like I’m in control of the game, I’m the one who was able to overcome adverse odds by catching up, few points at the time, and with surgical precision. Feels good.

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16

The simplicity of the rules and complexity of the game.

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17

The best thing about Go is the friends we made along the way :slight_smile:

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18

I use my OGS SGF library to keep track of my favorite games - either games I like to study/learn from, or games that demonstrate a particular type of strategy that I can use for demonstration purposes

In general, I find that I am drawn to games where

  • both opponents are equally matched in skill
  • the game is close through all stages
  • I can tell myself an interesting “story” about the exchange of sente/gote, or the way groups fought to stay alive

Here are some examples of games that I’ve found aesthetically pleasing:

A great sense of balance:

Fantastic use of shape

So many cuts and counter-cuts

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19

I like what I call the “incompleteness” of this game. Meaning that sometimes I simply don’t know what will happen in a situation. Just choosing the best move i can, knowing i have no idea whats best.

Oh yes, killing a group makes all the time i ever spent in tsumego worth it.

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20

I’m a pretty new player, few months, and besides surviving, capturing groups, winning, one of the best feelings I’ve had is when I’m really getting beaten but i can sense a way out, a solution. My intuition says over here, and i make my move and turn the game over in my favor. That makes me feel like I’m evolving.

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