There are definitely more variables but I personally think it's alot more strategical rather than tactical. In chess you can lose a game through a blunder but in Go you can come back from making a tactical mistake. Mastery is all dependant on the player rather than the game itself. That goes for pretty much anything. (Learning an instrument, math, etc) Similarly, challenging is subjective and cannot really be measured.
is Go a technically harder game then chess
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Yes, Go has an exponential amount of more possible positions than Chess and is thus inheritently more complex (tougher).
Computers barely have the capability of playing Go at a club level, let alone at a professional level. Contrasted with chess where computers are now our daddy. That alone should tell you everything you need to know.
That being said, I enjoy playing chess a lot more.
Don't ask me! - I don't know what go is!
Dec 1, 2013
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#5
Yes. Especially when you play a hungry opponent and use m&m's for the pieces. Eventually you just get frustrated.
The only conclusion I've come to with this debate is that if you're a good player in one and not the other you will consider the game you're better at to be harder. And if you are not good at either game you will consider Go harder simply on basis that it is more mathematically complex and that computers play better than human in most positions. I, however, do not consider these to be good indicators of difficulty level.
And no I would not like to debate this topic. It is very long-winded, subjective, and ultimately a giant waste of time. I would, however, be interested in hearing the opinion of a person who is both a chess and go professional, but that person probably doesn't exist haha.
aatkins wrote:
Computers barely have the capability of playing Go at a club level, let alone at a professional level.
This hasn't been true for a number of years now.
AlphaGo!
Yes, Go is a technically harder game than Chess.
However AlphaGo has beaten Lee Sedol.
Apr 22, 2024
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#10
I'm not good, but not bad at either. I play both and find Go harder, because I haven't played it as much.
thedeliveryman wrote:
Yes, Go has an exponential amount of more possible positions than Chess and is thus inheritently more complex (tougher).
Computers barely have the capability of playing Go at a club level, let alone at a professional level. Contrasted with chess where computers are now our daddy. That alone should tell you everything you need to know.
That being said, I enjoy playing chess a lot more.
No because the patterns will fit into types.
Jun 29, 2025
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#12
Nope, chess is harder than Go.ChatGPT agrees that chess is harder than Go with me after arguing for 2 hours.
#11 ChatGPT is programmed to understand with you in everything
Oct 22, 2025
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#15
Chess actually has more possibilities, including positions and sequences, than Go, IF we consider the theoretical maximum. In this case, Chess has more possibilities than Go, in positions, Go has about 10^170 to 10^172, while Chess has 10^50,000 to 10^80,000, and in sequences, Go has about 10^10,000 to 10^20,000, while Chess again has 10^50,000 to 10^80,000. So, in the theoretical maximum amount, Chess is the winner. But Google says that Go is harder because Google says that Chess has 10^44 positions, while Go has 10^171. But this is the simplified calculation, not the theoretical maximum amount :
✅ In the short run, Go looks bigger (which is what most sources quote).
✅ But in the long run, when counting all extreme legal positions and sequences, Chess truly has more possibilities.
I hear that the chinese game "Go" is a much more challenging, and harder game to master then chess... is this true?