[btilly]

Indeed. For this reason I refuse to teach chess to my children. Instead I'm teaching them go. I find that it has much simpler rules, more complex strategy, more varied games, less memorization at my level, has a good handicap system, and uses areas of your brain that chess simply doesn't.

But in the end it is a game. If they enjoy it and learn a way of thinking, great. But I will not encourage them to master it either.

[igravious]

I've been showing my little girl both, but I started with Go as it is the more intellectually demanding game. There is rote memorization in Go but conceptually initially it seems to require far less memorization of specific sequences. It seems to be more about spatial awareness, counting, balancing defense and attack and grabbing territory, as well as the if-this-then-that-if-the-other-then-something-else (decision trees?) that Chess has. I may have said this on this site before but I personally am saddened that Go is only just gaining mindshare in the West because it is a far superior game to Chess and I wish I had been taught it as a kid when my mind was more sponge-like. At least my kid will should be able to kick my butt one day which will delight me.

[robomartin]

Yes, Go is really interesting. I think there are reasons to teach both. Again, in moderation.

[qohen]

Again in moderation

I was reminded of some cautionary voices from this: http://www.laweekly.com/1999-03-18/news/the-go-club/full/ , an interesting LA Weekly article (1999) about the Korean female reporter's experience at a Korean Go Club in Los Angeles (note: Go is known as Baduk in Korean):

But Go players, regardless of nationality, are mostly men — and Korean women, particularly wives and mothers, think they’re full of shit.

"You know the people who play the Baduk," my mother answered disgustedly when I asked her about the game. "They are just the lazy people who like to smoking."

My friend Mia has a more dramatic tale. One day her mom came home to find Mia’s dad teaching her and her brother Go. She immediately grabbed the kids by their shirt collars and carried them out of the room. I will not allow you to turn my children into Baduk players, she informed her husband. "She wouldn’t let us learn," Mia explained, "because Baduk sucks your life away."

(There's lots more to the piece -- if you're interested in the game and some of its sociology, check it out).