[arsenide]

I recommend go instead of chess, for the same reasons.

I played chess for years, learned go, and haven’t looked back. I personally prefer it.

YMMV

[jesterson]

Pardon me for a stupid question, but you're not referring to go-language, are you?

[arsenide]

Nope! The game! Though I think learning other programming languages through toy projects is useful, that’s a separate opinion

[maps7]

Do you have a favoured online site?

[arsenide]

I play mostly on the Asian servers (Tygem and Fox Weiqi) because it is very fast to get games. For beginners and players ranked up to about 10kyu I recommend online-go.com! The Asian servers mentioned are also good for beginners, just not as easy to get into