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Dec. 8th, 2004 10:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inahandbasketSo last night I went to 'beginners night' at the local Go club.
Showed up, met Zack Grossbart. Youngish guy, taught me and my friend J the rules and whatnot. Then he played both of us at once on two different boards, a-la a chessmaster beating up on schoolkids.
My first ever game went pretty well actually. I managed to obtain a slightly respectable score and learned more in that one game than i'd ever learned from reading about it and trying to play against computer programs.
Apparently I spread myself too thin across the board, a theme which repeated itself in the other two games I played last night.
Then J and I played against eachother, with Zack watching and occasionally prompting deeper thought on a move. I won that game marginally, and learned more yet again. We went kind of quickly, and we were both still learning rules and a little tentative, so it wasn't all that it could have been. I spread myself very thinly again, but luckily J did just the opposite and condensed himself so tightly that he had no chance of covering more terretory than I did.
J had to depart to be able to be sentient at work tomorrow (today), so I then played against the other guy who had shown up for beginners night.
It was a really good learning experience.
I lost by about 250 points if I remember correctly... lol. not bad for a 9x9 board with only 81 points. ;o)
Not through any major skill of his, but because I wasn't concerned with winning but with learning and comprehending.
I spread myself too thin again, but there were a few points where I nearly scored 10-20 prisoners of his. unfortunately he saw them just in the nick of time. *shrug*
He wasn't very good, but my technique is severely lacking in safety. I extended myself too far and too often, but nearly got away with it because he wasn't really aware of what was going on.
We got into a Ko fight, which was really interesting. there's a lot of subtlety that goes on there.
Ko is a position where you could go back and forth capturing the same two spots infinitely without changing anything else on the board. This is illegal, because it's boring. The rule is that you can't create the exact same board twice, so as a result you can't take back the same piece that was just taken. But... if you can make a play that he's forced to respond directly to elsewhere on the board, you can take the Ko back again. Sounds simple, but has complex repercussions. like the rest of the game.
Went home and played some computer games, and I have to say that they felt slightly empty in comparison.
now I just have to figure out when i can get back there again. maybe next
tuesday.
*loads up the go computer program so as to try out a few things*
Showed up, met Zack Grossbart. Youngish guy, taught me and my friend J the rules and whatnot. Then he played both of us at once on two different boards, a-la a chessmaster beating up on schoolkids.
My first ever game went pretty well actually. I managed to obtain a slightly respectable score and learned more in that one game than i'd ever learned from reading about it and trying to play against computer programs.
Apparently I spread myself too thin across the board, a theme which repeated itself in the other two games I played last night.
Then J and I played against eachother, with Zack watching and occasionally prompting deeper thought on a move. I won that game marginally, and learned more yet again. We went kind of quickly, and we were both still learning rules and a little tentative, so it wasn't all that it could have been. I spread myself very thinly again, but luckily J did just the opposite and condensed himself so tightly that he had no chance of covering more terretory than I did.
J had to depart to be able to be sentient at work tomorrow (today), so I then played against the other guy who had shown up for beginners night.
It was a really good learning experience.
I lost by about 250 points if I remember correctly... lol. not bad for a 9x9 board with only 81 points. ;o)
Not through any major skill of his, but because I wasn't concerned with winning but with learning and comprehending.
I spread myself too thin again, but there were a few points where I nearly scored 10-20 prisoners of his. unfortunately he saw them just in the nick of time. *shrug*
He wasn't very good, but my technique is severely lacking in safety. I extended myself too far and too often, but nearly got away with it because he wasn't really aware of what was going on.
We got into a Ko fight, which was really interesting. there's a lot of subtlety that goes on there.
Ko is a position where you could go back and forth capturing the same two spots infinitely without changing anything else on the board. This is illegal, because it's boring. The rule is that you can't create the exact same board twice, so as a result you can't take back the same piece that was just taken. But... if you can make a play that he's forced to respond directly to elsewhere on the board, you can take the Ko back again. Sounds simple, but has complex repercussions. like the rest of the game.
Went home and played some computer games, and I have to say that they felt slightly empty in comparison.
now I just have to figure out when i can get back there again. maybe next
tuesday.
*loads up the go computer program so as to try out a few things*
