What do we think? Go is infinitely more complex than chess and entirely unsolvable. Computers cannot really beat human players, and its unlikely they will ever beat Go masters. Go is a strategist's heaven: vast, yet intricate positions with each move having implications hundreds of moves later. And yet, chess allows for beautiful piece coordination and spectacular tactical motifs through elaborate variation calculations: sudden and rupturous annihilation with the deployment of entirely different forces, each filling its perfect role in the onslaught... Thoughts?
My first thought is I can guarantee you when someone wants to they will make a computer that can beat the masters at go.
People said the same thing about chess. Then they said the same thing about no-limit texas hold-em poker because they felt you needed to be able to read people and their emotions. Well they have a poker program they've been working on for a few years that they've put pro poker players up against and it beats them easily now.
Eventually someone will get interested enough in making the best GO AI and it will destroy people.
On the actual game side of it, some day I plan on trying it out. Hard enough trying to master one game at a time though :).
I use both these games because they are fun and they have utility value. I find Go to be very very freeing and relaxing to play. However I find that playing Go increases my perceptional ability so that I grow increasingly impatient with nonsense at work, and therefore I largely study chess on my lunch breaks simply to give me the energy to put up with the nonsense. However if I had my way I would be studying go. At my work(in a hospital) there is largely a lot of bs and nonsense that goes on during the day which is irrelevant to patient care. I consider this to be similar to a constant fight or tactics. So chess has the advantage here in terms of activating the left brain and dealing with bs. With Go there is more of an appreciation of understanding of position and space and the almost unlimited possibilities. This is why I play lots of correspondence games of Go, you really get to know yourself and the other player.
All this being said, I also notice with Go that because it is very fatiguing it impacts my weight workouts in a bad way. Chess seems to increase my physical ability to perform work and gives me energy during the day, I actually study chess openings in books in between sets when lifting heavy weights.
In terms of time perception, I believe that because Go is largely a right brain activity, there is a feeling of escaping the world. And yet because Go is so static, a lack of movement, after playing Go it seems that time seems to slow way down. This is very problematic in a big city or at work, as annoyances seem to be more amplified. With chess due to the large amount of movement, yang, if you will, time goes by quicker perceptually, so annoyances are less so.
Both games are very interesting and have value for the reasons I listed above.
Very good reasons, but where do you play it correspondence? I play it live but have not found a correspondence site. Do you have to speak Japenese?