You can think of chess and Go as two different languages; more knowledge is always more power.
How so?? Shusaku, GoSeigen, Takeymiya⌠To name a few. Of course I do encourage to look at their games
Iâ m afraid to compare deepness and difficulty between both. From my point of view itâs mostly a difference in the material: in chess pieces move and are different between them, and thatâs bring a complexity we donât have in go. Luckily the board is smaller too.
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When I bring up favorite players, the presence includes modern personalities. For sure there are those who like Spassky, Karpov, Kasparov. There are also those who like Levy, Hikaru (the chess one), Ben Finegold, Fabiano Caruana, Anna Cramling, the Botez sisters, Nemo Zhou.
These are all players that someone near, while not in, the chess sphere (twitch, reddit, youtube, + regular old news outlets) may have heard about.
If I mention to other go players I like the Ueno sisters, the Shibano brothers, and the Baduk Doctor, I would think I would get a so-so response. Something like âI may have heard of that nameâ or a âI may check them outâ.
Oh I see I misunderstood âpast gamesâ.
There arenât that much difference still, with a bunch of top players in the go world too. And fans. But maybe the information is more difficult to get. Because of that the chess show is surely easier to follow but that doesnât make the go show inexistant.
It always boggles my mind when someone says, âHmmm, I wonder if I should try exploring New Challenge Xâ
and so many people pipe up with âWell, youâll have to spend at least 10 years of intense effort to become an expert / grand masterâŚâ etcâŚ
I mean - seriously - if someone came on here and was like, âIâm pretty good at ping-pong, but Iâm thinking of learning tennisâ - would everyone be like, âHmmm you know it takes at least 10 years of training to become a pro tennis player. Are you sure thatâs worth the effort at your age?â
Canât people just enjoy exploring a given pursuit without assuming theyâre going to eventually rank up to world-class? Why must there be such an all-or-nothing attitude towards trying new things? Can one enjoy something without âbeing one of the top playersâ being a necessary goal? Why are folks discouraging people from trying new things? Or exploring two different things at once? Iâm genuinely confused.
Whatâs wrong with being a casual player? Whatâs so terrible about learning something new and not being a master at it?
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Maybe I missed it, but I donât feel like anyone answered exactly this way.
I think the conversation involves some level of âif you want to be an expertâ because:
a) the answer to the question âShould I try chessâ is relatively boring: âsure, if you want toâ
b) OP expressed some concern about the effect on their Go skill.
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I play both go and chess, and I never felt that playing both was detrimental to my performance.
The only thing is the opportunity cost - as others have pointed out - the time you spend doing X is time you spend not doing Y. But I wouldnât worry about it, unless you have very ambitious goals in go. Even then it can be good to try out different things, and not be too focused on one.
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Iâve occasionally played chess at the Go club.
On Wednesdays, thereâs a chess club right beside us, and sometimes people that come along try go and then pivot to chess, or play chess and then want to try Go, which is kind of nice.
In terms of playing chess
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