I like the visual aesthetic of the stones on the board, especially in the middle-to-early-end game when it is unresolved, yearning for examination and discovery of meaning in black and white dots.
Finding a dead group while kibbitzing a stronger players game.
Killing a group in your handicap simultaneous game against a pro player (was a bit more as “little” pleasure)
Playing a move in the opening phase you regret at once and that bugs you for the rest of the game. And then suddenly in the (late) endgame it turns out to be useful after all.
Draughts is pretty easy, or hex, or gomoku, or dots & boxes, or othello / reversi. I’d say most of those have even simpler rules than go, yet none of them seem as complex strategically.
It’s the combination of the simplicity of go with the complexity of go strategy that makes it good. It’s like the perfect balance.
Amazons has a really good complexity/simplicity ratio. The rules are arguably simpler than go, but it’s quite a deep game. Of course I don’t think it beats go, but definitely worth checking out for those who like interesting games with simple rules!
Elwyn also made an introduction to Amazons on his own YouTube channel, which goes into a little bit more detail on the mathematically interesting parts:
Playing out book positions onto a real board in a quiet place, with the aid of a beer or two.
Finishing a game with a player you thought was a stranger, looking in your history and realising that the two of you played a game before, often years ago; and then looking over that game and chuckling at your old mistakes, and suggesting better ways to play.
Watching an old youtube video of a twitch stream, having forgotten that you were ever in the chat; thinking about an aspect of the position, you’re surprised when your past self pops up to ask the very question that was on your mind.