Hardest Board Game to Master?

Regarding How Hard is Chess, Really?, there were many outstanding  comments. Thank You!

In my previous topic, the game Go was often mentioned as THE hardest board game.  So, which board game is the hardest to master, Chess, Go or something else?  

Looking at Wiki, a master player in Go is called a Dan. They are considered professionals. Can you make money playing Go? Is it too late to start if you are 50 plus?

Taikyoku shogi?

Definitely! 

What.

Simply learning the rules of the game would be quite a feat.  How many unique pieces are there?

Wiki says 209!

A friend of mine pushed me to learn Tenjiku shogi, I told him that was just crazy. I can't even play standard shogi. But compared to Taikyoku shogi it has to be a piece of cake .

Perhaps we can stick to board games that are humanly possible to play. I seriously doubt anyone on this planet is playing this insanely difficult game anymore. It sounds absolutely horrible. Pure torture!

Tenjiku shogi

Two players, Black and White (or 先手 sente and 後手 gote), play on a board ruled into a grid of 36 ranks (rows) by 36 files (columns) with a total of 1,296 squares.

The squares are undifferentiated by marking or color. 

Each player has a set of 402 wedge-shaped pieces of 209 different types. In all, the players must remember 253 different moves. The pieces are of slightly different sizes with the larger pieces near the king and becoming progressively smaller for pieces further from the king, regardless of power. In general, the stronger pieces are nearer to the king.

I believe that 'Go' would be the hardest game to learn and master

I heard that a lot in my previous topic, How Hard is Chess, Really? . What would make the game Go harder to master? A greater number of patterns to memorize? More variables? I guess I need to give the game a try. Is there a computer version? I don't know of anyone who would want to sit down and play a game of Go with me. I have never seen anyone even play the game, well, in California.

I found a few free sites to play Go against a computer. I have lost every game. Perhaps the computer is set to a hard difficulty. Not sure yet.

well consedering that the size of a typical go board is 19x19 imagine the calculation, computers playing go i believe if we used a chess rating comparision would be around 1900 to 2000 at best.

Game of the generals i think is harder

Air War, David Isby, is pretty complicated. Simple pieces, but the procedures are convoluted.

I see we've got a Taikyoku shogi expert here .

lol i was bored and looking up the rules for regular shogi

perpetual check apparantly loses for the player giving it :O

its very different from chess haha. you can promote a piece and have it be disadvantageous! Knights only go forward too and there is no queen so it looks like a promoted rook is the most powerful piece. And captured pieces can be dropped in place of a move! More tactical I guess.

Is a draw impossible in shogi?  There is no possibility of both players having insufficient material to material to mate since captured pieces can be placed back on the board.  A mutual agreement to a draw is I guess possible.

EDIT: Apparently, four-fold repitition is considered a draw, not counting perpetual check of course.

After hearing more about TaikyokuShogi, it sounds like chess is not so hard in comparison! I'll stick to openings like the King's Gambit if I want more complications.