Yay! O-chul teaches MitD GO!

[Tass]

That makes this comic my favorite so far.

Anyone else in the playground plays go? If so we should make a GitP room at KGS. I myself am a Danish 4k.

I bet O-chul is at least 5dan.

[bdares]

KGS? Is that just a server, or do they have their own client? How to go?

I also play. Don't have a ranking, but I'd estimate myself at about 8k.

[Kurald Galain]

I play go, but I prefer face-to-face to online play. So unless there's an OOTS meet... :smallbiggrin:

I'd estimate myself around 12k, but a friend of mine is second dan (no, not the professional dans).

[Holammer]

I tried it online a few times but for some reason there's plenty of high level players that enjoy donning wolves clothing and trashing lower ranked players.
Been a few years now since I played online last time. But it happened all the time back then.

[Tass]

I tried it online a few times but for some reason there's plenty of high level players that enjoy donning wolves clothing and trashing lower ranked players.
Been a few years now since I played online last time. But it happened all the time back then.

Yeay, sandbaggers are a common problem. Especially on servers where you have to state your own rank, rather than being ranked by your play. That is partly why I prefer KGS, people are generally nicer and more friendly there than in places like IGS or (worst) yahoo.

Yes, kgs has a client, but can also be used browser-based. www.gokgs.com. I have made the GitP room now in the faint hope that someone will come. (new rooms > gitp)

Kurald: Everyone (almost) prefer face-to-face play. It is just often hard to find oponents in the west. Besides it really doesn't take that long to get used to online play and then it is almost as good.

Hope to see you there :)

[Sylian]

Couldn't the game be Othello?

http://www.io.com/~rgatliff/gallery/board14.jpg

[Morty]

I sorta assumed they were talking about draughts game.

[Aquillion]

Given the eastern flavor of Azure City, though, it's hard to imagine it being anything but Go.

[Tass]

Couldn't the game be Othello?

http://www.io.com/~rgatliff/gallery/board14.jpg

Pepples?

Go find 64 flat pepples that have a white AND a black side. Go can be played with two kinds of ordinary pepples.

[Talyn]

I thought it was Othello, too.

[Renx]

No, it's go ;) Japanese paladins always play go. (well, pseudo-Japanese) Also, you can't play othello with pebbles.

Awesome comic for the GO and SotD reference. I'm a Finnish 5k, which translates to about KGS 1k.

Anyway, looks like the GitP room has timed out since no one was there. I've recreated the room, but it'll probably disappear in a short while. If there are enough people in here who play to justify a permanent room, one could be arranged. Anyone interested?

[hajo]

Pepples? Go find 64 flat pepples that have a white AND a black side.
Go can be played with two kinds of ordinary pepples.

Of course it is easier to flip the pieces, but you could just as well use colored pebbles or coins or whatever, and exchange one kind of object for the other.

OTOH, Reversi/Othello needs 64 tokens with two colors/markers, or 2*64 single-color tokens.
Go needs 19*19/2 = 180-181 stones - that is a lot of equiment.
With improvised materials, it would be a lot easier to play Nine Man Morris, or checkers :smallamused:

[Pip]

It's definately Go.

And I find it very interesting that the MitD is learning it "very quickly". Definately a hint of some kind.

[silvadel]

I am a beginner at go myself -- I mainly got interested in it from an anime I watched called Hikaru No Go.

[Corwin Weber]

It's definately Go.

And I find it very interesting that the MitD is learning it "very quickly". Definately a hint of some kind.

So do I.

I'm just not sure what it's a hint of. I'm sure it's significant somehow tho. Look at O-Chul's face when he mentions it.

He's up to something.

[Gamerlord]

i myself wish o-chul whould teach the mitd yu-gi-oh...that was made in japan right?

[FujinAkari]

I thought it was Othello, too.

It can't be Othello, O-chul refers to it as "The game where you place the black and white pebbles on the grid." In Othello, you play the pieces in the squares created by the grid, not on the grid itself.

[Kurald Galain]

It can't be Othello, O-chul refers to it as "The game where you place the black and white pebbles on the grid." In Othello, you play the pieces in the squares created by the grid, not on the grid itself.

Good point. The only other games I can think of that you play on the grid are Gipf (which nobody has ever heard of), Chinese Checkers (hard to pull off with pebbles) and Halma / Chinese Chekers (which requires a somewhat complex board).

My money is on Go.

[Arkenputtyknife]

Couldn't the game be Othello?

http://www.io.com/~rgatliff/gallery/board14.jpg
Very unlikely. Too many things point to Go (placing stones on the grid, cultural context, the difficulty of the game, etc etc). Of course, there's always the chance that the Giant is pulling our legs again.

Nice idea to start up an OotS Go room at KGS. I don't play any more (getting older — my game has degraded to the point where I make so many mistakes that it's become embarrassing to play) so I won't be joining you, but KGS is the best place online for friendly games.

[Helanna]

Hmmm . . . by now there are too many good reasons for me to learn Go to justify my still not knowing it. Does anyone know a good place to learn how to play online? It really does seem interesting.

[NENAD]

I read the basic rules on wikipedia a few minutes ago. That doesn't give me any actual experience and if I actually played someone I'd probably lose horribly, even if they were only a casual player, but I wouldn't need them to teach me the game.

[Dark Matter]

So do I.

I'm just not sure what it's a hint of. I'm sure it's significant somehow tho. Look at O-Chul's face when he mentions it.

He's up to something.

Speculation: Our Monster is Growing up.

[kabbor]

I've seen Go played with depressions in the dirt, and piles of marbles, seeds, sticks or gravel. You need nothing, literally, to play Go.
The only experience i have playing Go is with a computer player (gtkgo, and it tends to fill in the eyes of its own groups until I can capture them! I hope that I can find someone-san to teach me the less coarse points.

If anyone can point me to a good computer Go player/tutor (for GNU) I'd be interested.

[David Argall]

That makes this comic my favorite so far.

Anyone else in the playground plays go? If so we should make a GitP room at KGS. I myself am a Danish 4k.

I was threatening to become 3k when I drifted away from the game. So I'd have trouble claiming more than about 6k now.


I bet O-chul is at least 5dan.
Very little chance. The top in the city is likely 8 or 9 and most of the dans would be pros. O'Chul is likely well in the k ranks.

Keep in mind here that nobles often deem it poor form to be really good at something like Go. You are supposed to be good, but the really good have to devote full time to something that is only a game or otherwise not worthy of such sacrifice. Moreover, the pro must earn money from the game, and earning money is by definition lowly. [The noble is of course as money-hungry as the rest of us. He just doesn't want to admit it. So he must avoid behaving like he wants the gold, and being as skilled as the pro hints at that.]

[Douglas Limmer]

I've had some success with igowin (http://www.smart-games.com/igowin.html), although I've never had the patience to really think through moves, so I don't think I've ever gotten better than about 14 or 15 kyu (as this program rates it).

The program has some tutorials; The Interactive Way to Go (http://playgo.to/interactive/) seemed pretty good to me as well. Again, though, I'm not very good myself, so keep that in mind when I give advice. :)

[Corwin Weber]

Hmmm . . . by now there are too many good reasons for me to learn Go to justify my still not knowing it. Does anyone know a good place to learn how to play online? It really does seem interesting.

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=hikarunix

Ok, yes, this is an entire Linux distro. Don't panic. No no, come back!

When I first ran into this at least, there was a VMWare image available... so you don't need an entire computer to run it on. It's also based on DamnSmallLinux, so it shouldn't bog down your system too much. (DSL is a tiny linux distro, so it doesn't use much in the way of resources.)

** Edited to add **

Ok, I did some poking around. This distro is defunct, but the download mirror on that link still takes you to ISO's. It's a live CD, so even if you can't find a VMWare image you can either just boot to the CD and run that way, or you can set up a small, empty VMWare image (in VMWare server) and tell the image to use that ISO file as its CD drive instead of your actual, physical CD drive. It'll run the same. As I recall it's a decent teaching environment for the game.

[Tass]

Hmmm . . . by now there are too many good reasons for me to learn Go to justify my still not knowing it. Does anyone know a good place to learn how to play online? It really does seem interesting.

There's a fine tutorial here: www.playgo.to/interactive

To try yourself in quick little games against a fast computer program: http://kiseido.com/download.htm

To play against humans online go to www.gokgs.com choose a username and log in as a guest. Once you are logged in you can register through the "user" menu.

[nosajtpno]

I, too, assumed it was Othello (or as I first learned it, Reversi). But Go does make a whole lot more sense.

[Firestar27]

I thought it was Othello because Othello's motto is "A minute to learn, a lifetime to master". The Mitd says the game is hard ("a lifetime to master"), but he's learning very quickly ("a minute to learn"). But there seems to be so much evidence that it's Go. Maybe the Giant meant this to be the next speculation ambiguity, like V's gender and Sabine's species.

[NENAD]

It had better not be. That'd be a really lame ambiguity.

[Tass]

I thought it was Othello because Othello's motto is "A minute to learn, a lifetime to master". The Mitd says the game is hard ("a lifetime to master"), but he's learning very quickly ("a minute to learn"). But there seems to be so much evidence that it's Go.

Yes. That is excactly the apeal of go, very simple rules, leading to very complex play. Kinda like fractals generated from a simple equation.

"A minute to learn, a lifetime to master" is indeed the motto of othello. I guess the creators wanted to create something like go (othello is a modern game), in my humple opinion they only partially succeded. Othello does not achieve the complexity of go. For example wikipedia claims (unrefferenced however) that a strategy as simple as looking a few moves ahead and choosing the variation turning most pieces, still wins 45% of the games against extremely experienced players; and computer programs easily defeats the best humans.

I go even a relatively weak player like me can beat the crap out of all but the strongest computer programs.

[pasko77]

i play Go on kgs, if rarely.
I'm ranked 2-3k on Kgs, 5k in real life.

[pasko77]

Keep in mind here that nobles often deem it poor form to be really good at something like Go. You are supposed to be good, but the really good have to devote full time to something that is only a game or otherwise not worthy of such sacrifice. Moreover, the pro must earn money from the game, and earning money is by definition lowly. [The noble is of course as money-hungry as the rest of us. He just doesn't want to admit it. So he must avoid behaving like he wants the gold, and being as skilled as the pro hints at that.]

I disagree.
I remember an opponent of Shusaku was a samurai (a noble).
Since he was obliged to learn the arts of war, he took the first dan in kendo, and then totally quit his martial training and devoted himself to the game of Go, his passion. He claimed to be 5dan strength, even if he couldn't become a pro for social reasons, and his game records proved it. He even wrote books on Go.

His name was Sekiyama, if i remember correctly.

Though maybe you are correct and Sekiyama was just an exception.

[Pimple]

Is it just me or did the room disappear? :'(

[Tass]

I does all the time sadly.

I dont know how to make a permanent room.

[Tass]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v110/Tasselhof/Smallgoboard.jpg

[Glorfindel]

For example wikipedia claims (unrefferenced however) that a strategy as simple as looking a few moves ahead and choosing the variation turning most pieces, still wins 45% of the games against extremely experienced players; and computer programs easily defeats the best humans.
Ehm ... for all but the last 10-or-so moves of Othello, it is usually better to flip as few disks as possible.