Posted by: Bobby Fincher on 2013-03-15 08:30:14   Like Chess: YES
Its more than a game its life. I have been playing chess for a really long time and it makes you turn to something that everyone loves.

Posted by: Calgary Go player on 2012-08-28 08:23:06   Like Chess: YES
I believe the main difference between chess and Go is the feel of the game. They both have uses in dealing with stress, but differently. To say that both are not about crushing the opponent is nonsense. Top Go players and top chess players are quite similar but the approach to crushing the opponent in Go is colder as it is more subtle, less overt.

I find chess to be highly tactical and this helps to deal with situations where you are forced to deal with highly annoying people in your face, such as at work. Chess teaches you the killer mentality and to not accept the opponents view. It gets rid of depression feelings and feelings of hopelessness. That being said, the books on chess are not well dileneated in helping a person to train. There are opening books, books on endgame, and books on checkmate, which is about it. Opening strategy is limited and attack and defensive postures in chess are generally not well outlined as to why a certain move was made.

With Go there are much more clear training materials: Life and death is a bit like checkmate training( and even if no answer key is provided you will improve), there are the best move problems, there are actual games which are easier to visualize than in chess and there are opening problems, such as fuseki which attach relevance to opening strategy which has long term implications. All in all Go is a much better game for training than chess. That being said, Go teaches patience but lacks the chess killer instinct where you are confronted with irrelevant nonsense, such as at work. Go teaches you to ignore things which is valuable, but it doesnt really teach you how to deal with the stress of continual nonsense in the immediate sense.

So my feeling that if you really want to learn how to deal with day to day bs, train and play both. At work I use a handheld chess computer to play games and train, it looks like a PDA so it looks like Im organizing a planner or something, during much of the time when there is absolutely nothing going on(work in a hospital). At lunch I train by working on life and death go problems and at home I do my turn based go sites, dragongoserver.net, gomatches.com and wuzheng.org where I can play moves over a prolonged time period. As chess is largely to deal with idiots and the stress caused by them I dont play it to much at home, because for the most part other than my wife being annoying there arent outsiders in the general public who I am forced to deal with. So I mostly play Go at home.

Posted by: Bubbleburster. on 2012-07-04 10:48:35   Like Chess: NO
Chess is a very simple game of tactics, not strategy. It's linear with a very finite number of possibilities. It has no unseen variables therefore no element of chance. It's the epitome of the "zero sum game".

In short, it's a very simple game that pretty much anyone with a room temperature IQ can play well.

Go is essentially a large version of tic-tac-toe and not particularly challenging but far more so than chess. Personally I prefer games with unforeseen variables such as Mahjong or even poker.

Don't get me wrong; I think chess is a great game for kids! In recent years volunteer groups have been bringing chess to American inner city schools. While it has done nothing to raise test scores, since it carries a credence of elitism, it does help raise the ghetto kids' self esteem and make them easier to manage!

Posted by: muleyy on 2011-07-24 11:24:12   Like Chess: YES
How about Chinese chess -- is it worth spending some time on it?

Posted by: Athanos on 2011-02-11 00:03:38   Like Chess: YES
I don't see why you feel the need to attack other games so much. It seems small minded to attack games without having a deep understanding of them. If you really want to attack GO you should have a good understanding of what you are attacking.

Not being great at chess I refrain from making any broad sweeping generalizations about it, or its players. If you want to prove that you are not a blow hard who is prone to bursts of rage similar to a toddler perhaps you would take a challenge. If you can pass my challenge then I will listen to all your attacks against go. I challenge you to reach at least the rank of 1 dan. If you can do that then you can talk about go, you can bash it as much as you want.

Posted by: Chess to Go on 2010-10-10 19:28:02   Like Chess: YES
The reason why Chess is much more popular than Go is because Chess had a charismatic westerner who popularized it all over the world - Bobby Fischer. Go, on the other hand, had no such missionary.

Posted by: Chess to Go on 2010-10-10 19:24:50   Like Chess: YES
I think I am in a good position to comment on both the games. I played Chess for almost 20 years. In the last 5 years, I have been playing Chess against the computer almost exclusively (I must have played at least 5000 games against the computer alone) I recently learnt Go. Although I am still only a patzer at Go, I find that my desire to play Chess against computer programs has disappeared completely. I do not wish to offend anyone by badmouthing Chess, but I have to point out that Chess has many similar variants like Shogi, Chenese Chess which are atleast as complex as itself. But I don't think there are any games that are as simple as Go, and yet are as rich strategically. Also, it would be wrong to think of Go as some slow, sleep-inducing game. Go can be played in an aggressive manner too. In fact, it is a lot easier to differentiate strategy and tactics in Go than in Chess.

Posted by: dood on 2010-01-13 17:31:19   Like Chess: NO
Why doesn't everyone at least *try* to play Go? Basically all Western Go players tried chess... and then found Go.
If Go were more popular, then there would obviously be more Go players than chess players, but...
Anyway, the old proverb sums it up quite well: Chess is a battle, Go is a war. We'll leave you to your battles if you leave us to our wars.

Posted by: chess variant inventor on 2008-04-08 19:25:41
Hello contrarymary,
Notice the title the Flaming Defense of Chess -
I am sorry you didn't find any of this funny - because it was meant to be
And you should take a look at the bad reviews of chess at boardgamegeek . This was the response to them ..

Posted by: contrarymary on 2008-04-06 06:01:51   Like Chess: YES
"...a pathetic bunch." "...garbage..." "...youtube attention span idiots."...trendy, superficial morons in the West, who have a much greater interest in asinine activities and games that require no intelligence at all."
I, for the most part, have agreed with everything you've written about chess thus far. It is, indeed, not a flawed game, as some often charge. I also fully agree with the opinion which you, and many other chessophiles,share regarding the the over-analysis to which chess has been subjected, though this is probably an inevitable consequence of it's age and popularity. Go has been the subject of an equal amount of intense, theoretical scrutiny, as well. High-level tournament chess often seems more like a demonstration of rote memorization, rather than an expression of tactical and strategic creativity and prowess which chess ought to be. In the end, it's simply more fun to play chess by one's "wits," rather than out of memorized chess opening books- of which there are hundreds these days! I know I am simply reiterating what you have already discussed.
I have included some of the words and phrases you include in your writing to illustrate what I consider to be a fairly large problem with your writing ITSELF., and the effect it has on your thesis. Why do you feel so compelled to employ such startlingly arrogant and bombastic rhetoric in your attempt to advance several rather straight forward, innocuous points? I agree with most of what you've written, as I've said, but soon found myself in the strange position of almost wishing that I did NOT agree with ANY of what you have written! Then, of course, I really did disagree with few of your assertions, and would have regardless of your belligerent tone and word choices.
Why do you have such a chip on your shoulder about something as harmless as other strategy games, like, say, war games, for instance? Additionally, you might want to consider that you may be just plain, old incorrect with regard to your claim that other strategy games, besides chess, and to a lesser extent, Go, require no intelligence to play, and are "garbage." Certainly many of the myriad other strategy games floating about are very poor games. Yet, there are also strategy games OTHER than chess (though, admittedly, not too many) which are, in my opinion, at least equally as difficult as chess, if not, dare I say, MORE difficult.
Of coarse I can not be certain, but I do I get the feeling that you have probably not played very many strategy games (like other abstract strategy games, or war games, etcetera) other than chess- , or, at least you may have only played a few of the many weak games out there.
Yet, quite a few of the non-chess strategy games I enjoy are, in my opinion, "gems" in their own right. The best of them demand just as much tactical and positional skill and creativity of their players (albeit in a wide variety of schemes!) as chess. Ultimately, what I fail to be convinced of by your reasoning, is why it is, in your mind, that only in chess, and chess alone, that these mental capacities find their highest expression? (and, BTW, and at the risk of sounding like a nitpicker, how is it that Go "...de-emphasizes absolute victory," when you, later, refer to it as a war game. Isn't a game of two players, one of whom must win and another who must loose the essence of absolute victory?)
I mean no disrespect. I hope you realize this, and I apologize if my words have offended you. More likely, you may just think that I'm an idiot- or, just simply wrong! I've taken a look at your chess variations, and they seem impressive and fun. I'd play them with you, not that I imagine you'll be too inclined to do so once I post my screed!
I must say that your assertion that players of Chess and Go are inherently more intelligent than players of other strategy games is absurd. Of course higher IQs may allow better chess and Go play, but that could be said of ANY game, not just those two. I know a couple of people who I consider to be bigoted, ignorant clods, but they, and one in particular, are good chess players. Clearly my little anecdote is not "scientific!" I would, though, bet money that both of them, if given Wexlers, wouldn't even be as intelligent as George Bush!

Posted by: sherman101 on 2008-04-05 20:19:50   Like Chess: YES
Hello Mr. Inventor! During one of our current games, you mentioned a variant called Titan Chess, and that I might find it here. I can't seem to find it, though. If you don't mind, might you point me in the right direction?
Say, why do you think that there is, at least from what I've encountered, often varying degrees of contentiousness between GO players and chess players? Though I prefer chess, I do not dislike GO. I am very bad at it, and have played it no more than 10 times. I don't really "get" it yet, but, to me, it certainly seems like GO could be a mental challenge equal to that of chess, though, likely, of a moderate, or even highly different sort. Any thoughts?
Whoever was playing white on that board depicted above is murdering his/her opponent!
Regards, The Guy with Whom You Are playing Toulousain Chess!

Posted by: garcics on 2008-02-21 13:33:49   Like Chess: YES
There are many animals that can out run man, many that can out jump out swim and out lift man.

But none of them can out think
man. And the greatest chalenge to man's
mind is another man's mind.
Mind vereses mind is chess !

Posted by: ever play Populous? on 2008-01-03 01:07:14   Like Chess: YES
Comparing blade to blade combat with philosophical discourse is akin to comparing Go and Chess.

They are two different dimensions entirely, any comparison drawn between them is futile and a display of ignorance.

Ultimately, the player whom does not recognise the absolute and irrefutable perfection of each system in it's own right will happily waste a lifetime considering the both on par whith each other and comparable.

They do not share geographical relation or origin.

Chess hails from india, known as Chaturanga, Go from china, known as Wei-chi.

Posted by: inventor@chess.computerwebservices.net on 2007-12-05 12:24:47   Like Chess: YES
The problem with people like Azrael is they are not happy with their game GO. They keep touting it as been better than Chess - while having a limited understanding of what chess is about.
And I said, I like: CHESS - which I regard the best strategy game of all time.

Posted by: Azrael on 2007-12-05 09:52:29
P.S Go has been in exsistence longer than chess and both were invented in the Asia. That says something about Western minds at that time.

Posted by: Azrael on 2007-12-05 09:50:35   Like Chess: NO
You haven't actually stated why chess is better than Go. You merely stated that you like combative games than stratgey games. You obviously have no idea of what Go represents.

Posted by: Gee on 2007-10-01 18:45:41
Ok.. nice..
"in defense of Chess "

Posted by: observer on 2007-09-05 13:19:10   Like Chess: YES
it's time that people start defending Chess!
GO - give me a break - at least Xiangqui and Shogi are chess games!