Go is better than chess because

Maybe we should compare go with gomoku or connect 6 before chess, since gomoku and connect 6 are also build-up instead of move-around games. I’m good at none of gomoku, connect 6 or chess. But my experience is reading in gomoku is harder than go. I find gomoku and connect 6 less intuitive, although that might be that I’ve never spent time training on them.

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Because the governing body for Chess is literally mafia.

Although I’m sure there is a lot of BS in Asian Go Associations too. Just not translated into English. So we don’t know about it.

I mean the worst thing I can found about EGF was the Catalin Taranu and CEGO/pro thing. Even that one was resolved peacefully.

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Go is better than chess because chess was not something important in your family (or go was).

I say this in respect to the chess players with some deep practice from their childhood, and who were very keen to enjoy my go teaching.

go is much more popular among women than chess

– Tamsin, 2005, SL

I’m not sure I’ve ever faced a woman over the board, actually. A girl once.

I think I have faced about 10 women in go tournaments and I have also played pair go competitively. My overall competitive score against women is probably less than 50%.

Maybe no chance? I faced many women and girls too on a weiqi board. Clubs and tournaments.

The married couple against whom I have the worst winning record is a lesbian couple :slight_smile:

I thought pair Go was exclusively M / F.

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I mean against each of them in individual games, rather than as pair go.

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In terms of reading difficulty, the biggest difference for me is that, because chess pieces move, deep reading in chess often involves envisioning how chess pieces will be able to move after some number of moves, rather than just envisioning what the position will be. Complications like “after these three moves, I will have a piece positioned on a square that defends against some tactical threat” make it harder for me to read deeply in Chess than in Go. After 3 chess moves, the pattern of what is pinned, what squares are defended, and what tactics are available can change a lot more drastically than a Go board will usually change after three moves. Chess games tend to be sharper, in general, which also means that accuracy in reading those three moves is at a much higher premium than it would be in Go. Go also tends to have longer forcing sequences. Capturing races, for instance, might involve reading 10+ moves deep, but if 8 of those moves are just filling liberties reading out the line is a lot easier. Tesuji/joseki also simplify things, somewhat. If I’m reading out how a corner sequence is going to go, it will often be on the basis of some joseki I know reasonably well. I’m “reading” 10 moves out, but I’m not considering a large number of moves at each junction, just a few different joseki variations.

In general, my feeling is that reading in chess is shallower but broader, whereas reading in Go involves deeper, narrower sequences. Reading in chess is also more critical, whereas Go can be a bit more intuitive.

For reference, I’ve peaked around 1D OGS and 2000 lichess blitz. I’m not amazing at reading in either game.

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Yep, Pair Go is a registered trademark, so actual Pair Go ® is specifically male/female pairs. Rengo is the genericized version.

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I feel so strongly that deep and simple is more essential than shallow and complex.

Fred McFeely Rogers

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It is?

Seems to be written that way here (Japanese website) Welcome to Pair Go and here (European Go page) Pair Go which is the same logo.

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In addition to the difficulties you mention, I always thought it was hard to understand what makes a position or move good in general.

For example, you can’t judge if a position you arrived at has good shape, if it’s solid or if you got a lot of territory. It all depends on what the individual pieces can do from where they stand, so whether something is good always seems to depend much more on the specific board position.

There are a few generic concepts, like pawn structure and approximate value of pieces, but only a few.

Without those generic concepts, it is all about reading and recognizing some common patterns like when a knight fork might work. I think that makes weiqi much deeper than any chess variant.

Memorizing a million openings is very similar to joseki, the only part i never liked about weiqi.

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I played chess as a kid. My skill was average. I liked the idea of playing chess and I wanted to get better at it but for some reason I couldn’t find the motivation to read the books or play it obsessively. I guess it just didn’t “click” with me for whatever reason.

Then I discovered Go as an adult and was immediately hooked. Full on Go addict overnight. The game just instantly clicked with me in a way chess never did. I have since tried chess again to see if it was just an age thing but chess still doesn’t click with me in the same way Go does. Sure, I can enjoy a casual game of chess with friends and family but I would never read multiple books about it, join a club, play hundreds of games online, post regularly in online forums, etc etc. as I do for Go.

As for why there is this difference… I don’t know. Indeed, I find it quite curious that there is this difference. But there you go. That’s just life, personal taste, personality, etc. I guess. And that’s why some like Go, others like chess, others like football, death metal, gangster rap, Taylor Swift, whatever :laughing:

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Go is better than chess because you rarely see an evil mastermind in the movies playing Go…

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Chess is better than go because it’s what the evil masterminds in movies always play. :smiling_imp:

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äh no?

One thing that was very surprising for me (being a Software developer and a chess player for 30+ years) is the fact
that chess has much more and better software for handling lots of games, analzing players behaviour, etc.
on go I found nth nearly to for exampole chessbase

And for the discussion:

Both games have its own beauty and are quite different.

Not sure if it has been mentioned so far. One VERY GOOD thing about go is that there are is no more Jigo. In chess it is much easier to play as white for a draw against a stronger opponent… ( a certain level of skill expected )

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