Go is the granddaddy of all board games. It's 2500 years old and MORE POPULAR THAN EVAH.

My cousin's über-awesome fiancé, Dimitri, taught me the rudiments of the game. I've played a few rounds now, just enough to get a small sense of what it's about. They say if you want to learn go, you should start by losing your first 50 games as quickly as possible to more experienced players, LOL.

If you're not familiar with go, I'll try to describe it for you. Think checkers. Simple, right? Then chess: still pretty basic and predictable -- checkmate in five moves and all that jazz. After chess, Othello (aka Reversi). That's where you start to have some fun, IMO. You'll still be beaten by a computer, though, because of the limited number of possible moves. But go? Words fail me. There are more possible variations in the first 32 moves of go than there are particles in the known universe. That's a proven fact, look it up. And the level of fun? Astronomical. Srsly.

How it works:
You've got a board marked with a 19x19 grid. (It looks like 18x18, but we use the lines [+], not the gaps [□].) White gets 180 stones, black gets 181. Black starts. One stone per turn. You can place them anywhere you like, with only a few exceptions. The object is to own more of the board than your opponent by the end of the game. You have to try to take over areas of the board and neutralize your opponent's attempts to do the same. Simple? Very. But also very challenging and complex. Dare I say, even subtle. .:*Elegant.*:. If you're any good, that is. Me, I just bumble through and do whatever seems like a good idea.

Here's Dimitri's bride-to-be and her wunderkind little brother in the final stages of a game:





Gotta get me my own go set.

Leg godt.

<o> <o>