The ancient board game Go (also called Weiqi and Baduk)
So you wanna play Go?
What is Go?
Go is an ancient abstract strategy game invented in China thousands of years ago, in which the objective is to surround more territory than your opponent. It is the oldest board game that is still played today.
Learning resources
Websites
Free Ebooks
Falling in Love with Baduk (Korean/English)
Play Go online
Online Go Server (OGS) [Realtime and Correspondance]
I highly recommend playing on OGS, it fairly easy to use and has many players. I've even created a group for this Imzy Community on OGS
Other servers
Pandanet IGS [Realtime]
KGS Go Server [Realtime]
Dragon Go Server [Correspondance]
That's it for now, I'll be updating this post with more info over time.




I have a friend who is crazy about weiqi ('way-chi' in Chinese - 围棋) who showed me how to play. I grew up playing chess, so was really curious about how many points of difference and strategy there would be. The 'game of encirclement' is so interesting.
I used to regularly beat my weiqi fanatic friend with a tactic he calls 'ladders'. He claims I had some unfair advantage as a chess player, but it's a very different game! I'm just a beginner, but my observation was that he was repeatedly surprised by certain patterns or sequences, and I just thought I would take advantage of that idiosyncrasy until it lasted... ;)
Yeah, it's s pretty interesting game. I'm interested in it mostly because of it's rich history and I have an interest in Asian culture.
Sounds like a fine strategy to me, also it would help your friend learn to improve in those areas. I think the biggest benefit to already being a chess player would be your general problem-solving skill and ability to pay attention to the board, other than that they are quite different games.
For sure. I was trying very hard to learn from him and became very attentive to the patterns! But beyond that, the only thing that felt familiar from chess, was the study of personality and habit. As a kid I played against my angry tyrannical chess fiend dad, and because A small child has no hope of knowing all the games he did, I learned to study his weaknesses and habits instead.
There's also Dragon Go Server for correspondence go. Which is fairly easy to use.
Also, hi!
Welcome to the community! I added Dragon to the list.