In agreement with other replies, I believe that you will find all of those aspects, which you fondly appreciate from chess, in the game of go as well, and perhaps more so.

I think that a deep appreciation of the game of chess readily carries over into a deep appreciation of the game of go, and that your efforts toward discovering go will certainly not be wasted.

Personally, chess was long my favorite game, starting from learning in grade school and then playing avidly with friends during high school, until I discovered go later on after college. Since then, go has been my favorite game, but I would not say that I appreciate chess any less, but I have simply found much more in the intricacies and elegance of go.

There is an interesting story about Emanuel Lasker (World Chess Champion 1894-1921) and Edward Lasker, who was a friend of Emanuel (but no relation) and a chess international master. Edward, as co-founder of the American Go Association, played an important role in increasing the popularity/awareness of go in the west, where it is still a relatively new pursuit (in comparison to the centuries of chess popularity). The story can be found starting on the second page in this PDF:
http://web.archive.org/web/201107182349 ... merica.pdf

I was talking about regular chess (8x8) vs. 19x19 Go.

Don't feel like a moron. Even after 100 games, you may not grasp the whole concept of Go. Things like:

-Influence
-direction of play (which is weird at first if you see the game as static)
-Power
-Sente
-Gote
-Half points
-Moyo vs. Territory
-Junk stones
-Key Stones
-Aji
-HEavy stones
-Running light
-Sabaki
-Thickness
-Ko
-...

And so many other strategic concepts that makes Go a game an almost infinite source of fun.

Like in chess, you have tactical motifs, among which you find
-Nets
-Ladders,
-Atekomi
- kosumi
-narabi
-hara-cuke
-hiki
-tsugi
-osae
-nuki
-miai
-tobi
-warikomi

to name a few. 100 games is far from enough. The more a play the more I admire the games of those who have mastered it, and the less I think that I ever had a clue about the game. I keep re-reading the same books and always learn something new in these thin beginners books.


My advice is to start reviewing professional games as soon as you can. Then try to explain every move. Go went through an evolution from its fundamentals to modern days. Games of Dosaku and Shusaku are really instructive and the motifs are simple enough and clear enough to study easily.

If you want to test your grasp of the game, memorizing a Shusaku game is a good test. Try to memorize it as a story that makes sense. You should be able to do so in a couple of hours if you grasp the basic concepts of go.(My humble opinion).


Another advice if you are just starting, don't bother studying joseki's. Chances are, your opponents will not follow them, there are too many. And if you don't know how to punish joseki mistakes, chances are, as a beginner, your opponent won't either.

It depends on the version of Tic-tac-toe. If you have read my entry on SL you will know that I was introduced to go because of by games of four dimenensional tic-tac-toe (on a 4x4x4x4 board)

_________________
Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).