[7thaccount]

Go is one of those games I could never understand whether a move I was making was a good one or not. It just felt like I was randomly placing stones and then at the end had to count up and see who won as I certainly had no clue how it was progressing. Is that normal for new players or am I particularly challenged in that area? Chess is a less abstract game where I can generally tell what's going on.

Regarding Quake, I think you're right. Nothing else is quite like it.

[ep103]

When I first started playing Go, I realized I thought about it like Risk. I was trying to draw Napoleonic battle lines on the board, and push back the opponent. And it kinda worked for very entry-level games, but mostly didn't make sense? Because then the opponent would just place somewhere behind my "line" and it all fell apart.

Over time, I started imagining each of the spots on the board as being a person in a city. And placing a stone, really, was like bringing the AOE II priest to "wololo" convert the person to my team. So really, the goal wasn't to create battle lines, the goal was to pick and choose who on the board to join my team, so that by the end of the game, I would have the most influence in the city. (I've heard others describe it as planting plants to grow over the majority of a garden, which is similar) At that point, I started choosing spaces around the board in order to make sure I had enough friends in each neighborhood that I would be the most popular person there, even once my opponent started advertising in the region too.

That begs the obvious question, are there different neighborhoods that are more important than others? And the answer is yes. As you learn about eye shapes, you'll realize its easier to be popular and own in a corner than it is a side, and a side than it is the center, so when you start the game, you prioritize being popular in these regions, in that order (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqpqa5NCbMY&t=52s)

And then over time, I've learned how to do that more and more efficiently, and the tradeoffs that come from that.

It also helps to start on smaller boards, then move to bigger ones as you get a feel for what's going on : )

[jurynulifcation]

You're not alone. It takes a bit of studying to figure out the strategy of Go, which is primarily conceived of as creating different shapes. Shapes of stone groups impart certain properties to the group.