Martial arts and Go (asian board game)

GretaGabbro

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Well, I don't know if "asian board game" is the best way to describe it, but has anyone here played the game Go? Quick description from the Wikipedia entry:

Go is a strategic East Asian board game for two players. It is known as Weiqi in Chinese (Traditional Chinese: 圍棋; Simplified Chinese: 围棋), Igo or Go in Japanese (Kanji: 囲碁 or 碁), and Baduk in Korean (Hangul: 바둑). Go originated in ancient China, centuries before it was first mentioned in writing c. 548 BC. It is now popular throughout the world, especially in East Asia, and noted for its simple rules as well as its complexity.

If you've played Go, could you talk about the ways in which it has influenced your training, or similarities to your training? I've become quite fond of it lately, and have found it to be very relevant. It has definitely gotten me past the "quick! block block punch! yikes!" phase, and I'm at least slightly more competent in strategizing and long-term combat thinking now. A nice mental complement to the physical side of training.
 

Sensei Payne

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Just like a form of Chess, Checkers, or some card strategy game(IE: Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh)

the history and background are really nice...I enjoy doing activities with a purpose...like this one...so I will be sure to check it out eh..good link
 

tahuti

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It is harder than chess. At least nobody made program that can beat go master as they have already done to chess grandmaster. Go requires time to learn, interesting part occures when you switch from tactical to strategical thinking, but some people loose interest before that occures. Would recomand Hikaru no Go anime, first nonviolent anime that I have seen :) There are free windows programs for 9x9 called igowin (good for learning), gnu go 19x19 or with different front end -shades of go, it can play 5x5 to 21x21 boards.
 

rmclain

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This is where the modern martial arts ranking system comes from. Jigaro Kano is credited with applying the system for martial arts ranking. But, those ranks (kyu, dan, etc.) comes from this game (Go).

R. McLain
 
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GretaGabbro

GretaGabbro

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This is where the modern martial arts ranking system comes from. Jigaro Kano is credited with applying the system for martial arts ranking. But, those ranks (kyu, dan, etc.) comes from this game (Go).

R. McLain

wow! I hadn't realized that the ranking system came from Go -- I'd just assumed it was the other way around. thanks :)
 
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GretaGabbro

GretaGabbro

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It is harder than chess. At least nobody made program that can beat go master as they have already done to chess grandmaster. Go requires time to learn, interesting part occures when you switch from tactical to strategical thinking, but some people loose interest before that occures. Would recomand Hikaru no Go anime, first nonviolent anime that I have seen :) There are free windows programs for 9x9 called igowin (good for learning), gnu go 19x19 or with different front end -shades of go, it can play 5x5 to 21x21 boards.

Yes - making a computer program that can beat a Go master is seen as one of the great challenges of AI. Feng-hsiung Hsu writes about this a bit in his book "Behind Deep Blue" (he was one of the folks who built Deep Blue, the chess computer that beat Garry Kasparov). Wheras in chess there are a finite number of events that can happen throughout a game (each piece can only move in certain ways, so it is possible to program a computer with every possible outcome), Go changes with each stone that is laid down, and there are almost no limitations on where a stone can be placed (and the Go board, though of variable size, can be much bigger than a chess board!). So, existing computer Go games are somewhat limited in how they perform -- I think I read a quote in the book along the lines of "today, there are many computer chess games good enough to beat an international master. But, even a beginner can easily defeat a computer game of Go."
 
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GretaGabbro

GretaGabbro

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I also like the art of the game -- it is strategy and battle, but also beautiful to see the simplicity of wood, black, and white stones laid out in complex patterns. I might be biased by my background in okinawan martial arts, but it is the same beauty I see there -- a set of basic tools and movements becomes something complex and beautiful in practice.
 

mrhnau

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Yes - making a computer program that can beat a Go master is seen as one of the great challenges of AI. Feng-hsiung Hsu writes about this a bit in his book "Behind Deep Blue" (he was one of the folks who built Deep Blue, the chess computer that beat Garry Kasparov). Wheras in chess there are a finite number of events that can happen throughout a game (each piece can only move in certain ways, so it is possible to program a computer with every possible outcome), Go changes with each stone that is laid down, and there are almost no limitations on where a stone can be placed (and the Go board, though of variable size, can be much bigger than a chess board!). So, existing computer Go games are somewhat limited in how they perform -- I think I read a quote in the book along the lines of "today, there are many computer chess games good enough to beat an international master. But, even a beginner can easily defeat a computer game of Go."

Interesting.. I play Shogi, Japanese chess. Would be interesting to see if there is any decent AI out there to play that game.

It's really hard finding people to play it. I learned it back in high school and when I left, I had noone to play with and noone interested in learning. Stinky poo! Fantastic game though. I prefer it over European chess any day. Chinese chess is fun too, but I don't like it as much as European chess.
 

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