Learn something every day

July 23, 2024 2:22 PM

Would you like to learn how to play the board game Go? This website is visually appealing, simple to use, and easy to understand. You will start with explanations of the fundamental rules of the game and progress through basic beginner play using interactive puzzles.
posted by bq (17 comments total)

Never learned Go, nor even heard of it until I was an adult, (not that) surprisingly. Once I'd heard of it, it always seemed alluring but I never sought to play it. This looks about my speed. Thanks for posting it!
posted by not_on_display at 3:22 PM on July 23 [1 favorite]

I like that the header shouts out to the classic "Interactive Way To Go," which has long been a standard for teaching Go online.
posted by JHarris at 3:25 PM on July 23

Hikaru no Go is also on Hulu if you want a decent anime about Go.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 3:43 PM on July 23 [7 favorites]

When I was a teenager there was some free PC game with 7UP branding that my cousin and I used to play for hours.

Sometimes I think it was just a branded Go, but other times I think it was not. Would be fun to see that game again.

This is a cool intro.
posted by teece303 at 4:18 PM on July 23 [2 favorites]

When I was a teenager there was some free PC game with 7UP branding that my cousin and I used to play for hours.

Sometimes I think it was just a branded Go, but other times I think it was not. Would be fun to see that game again.

That would be Spot which is based on Reversi/Othello not Go. You can play it online right here.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 4:22 PM on July 23 [7 favorites]

Cool. Always been curious, but never had a patient Zen master in instruction.

Qi is one of the classic Four Arts.
posted by ovvl at 4:58 PM on July 23 [2 favorites]

I remember Pente was a game favorite for my family when it first came out.
posted by jabo at 5:17 PM on July 23 [3 favorites]

That would be Spot which is based on Reversi/Othello not Go. You can play it online right here.

Spot is based on Ataxx, an unreleased Amiga game formerly called Infection, that got published for computers as Spot and in arcades by Leland as Ataxx. (I've played Ataxx on an actual cabinet, it's pretty cool!) It is a game with more similarities to Reversi than Go, but it doesn't really play a lot like Reversi either.
posted by JHarris at 6:21 PM on July 23 [3 favorites]

Nerd that I am, I know that in Go, "Atari" refers to a situation where a player can capture one or more opponent's stones in the next move. Have never played the game, though.
posted by milnak at 7:07 PM on July 23

Right, Nolan Bushnell named Atari after the term from Go. The name of his later game company Sente was also borrowed from Go.
posted by JHarris at 7:14 PM on July 23 [1 favorite]

Tengen, the branch of Atari that handled NES ports, was also named for the center point on a go board
posted by DoctorFedora at 10:52 PM on July 23 [3 favorites]

I was just thinking about finding something like this the other day. And here it is. Seems like a good use of a few hours of my vacation.
posted by kathrynm at 7:43 AM on July 24 [2 favorites]

Msg me if you want to play online
posted by bq at 8:37 AM on July 24

there is also a MeFi group on OGS
posted by okonomichiyaki at 8:40 AM on July 24 [2 favorites]

I feel a bit bad that there's not a lot about Go in this thread about a website for playing Go. I once played a lot of a trainer game called igowin.exe, that simulated play on a 9x9 board. I thought it was interesting how I thought I was getting better, then after a certain point I started doing really badly, even against a computer opponent of the same difficulty, and not being able discern what I was doing differently. But then, when I say I played "a lot," it was a very casual meaning of "a lot."
posted by JHarris at 1:18 PM on July 24 [1 favorite]

Alpha Go (youtube, full movie) is a documentary about trying to beat Go's world best with a computer a la Deep Blue with chess. Highly recommended.
posted by mcstayinskool at 2:22 PM on July 24 [1 favorite]

Mod note: [Thanks, bq! This has been added to the sidebar and Best Of blog!]
posted by taz (staff) at 1:52 AM on July 28