In Go, playing optimal moves does not equate to playing the moves that would lead to the greatest winning margin. It is a zero-sum game, where a win by several points is equivalent to a win by 1/2 point. Under this premise, for a given value of komi, I'd assume that there are several first moves that lead to the same result, but it would be dependent upon komi. Eg., for a large enough value of komi, all first moves would be equivalent - leading to a loss for black.

Assuming that fair komi is around 6.5 or 7.5 points, my most educated guess would be that a black play at the 3-4 or 4-4 would be the move. This is simply based on the observation that many pros play this way today under these komi constraints, with similar win ratio between black and white. Pros are not gods, but to guess a different first move would seem to suggest that I am closer to understanding optimal strategy than pros themselves.

Now, given your question as stated, trying to win by the greatest margin (which I don't think is the same thing as go), I would guess that God would play according to the person, since he would know how the opponent would play, and therefore, could annihilate each opponent according to their own weakness.

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be immersed

What I mean is that if, as the OP seems to suggest, optimal play is winning by the greatest margin - the greatest number of points, then you can gain more points by playing the incorrect move, sometimes (eg. overplays).

For example, if the opponent is 30k, and doesn't know how to protect after atari of his big group, and if God knows this, he can play the atari even if it's not the best move on the board. That's because it would create a "greater margin" in the difference in score.

OTOH, I see that the OP also said that the opponent would "play optimally as well", so I guess this wouldn't fit the scenario that I was trying to (somewhat jokingly) point out.

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be immersed

The way this distinction is usually made in these sorts of discussions is the "God of go" vs. the "Devil of go". The "God of go" being the one who plays the optimum move assuming we overcome our faults and find the perfect response, while the "Devil of go" plays into our weaknesses.

Thanks, I wasn't familiar with the reference. In any case, assuming we're discussing the "God of go" and not the "Devil of go", and assuming that optimal play means anything to win the game, I suspect there are several first moves that would work equally well.

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be immersed

Which move would the devil play?

Same thing. God and the devil are two manifestations of the same entity.

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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).

Well, this is also what I think, but that leads to so may other questions...
but that entity will play at tengen, so you know... but all the other posibilities are just manifestations of the same position anyway ...

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Converting the book Shape UP! by Charles Matthews/Seong-June Kim
to the gobook format. last updated april 2015 - Index of shapes, p.211 / 216

For the first move...perhaps - but the devil would soon resort to hamete...

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My days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle

Obviously the devil would cheat.

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http://tchan001.wordpress.com
A blog on Asian go books, go sightings, and interesting tidbits
Go is such a beautiful game.

Of course, an interesting related question to "where would god play the first move" is the question "what would the appropriate number of handicap stones be if god plays our best pros" ?

I'd also like to respond to this:

>>>my most educated guess would be that a black play at the 3-4 or 4-4 would be the move. This is
>>> simply based on the observation that many pros play this way today under these komi constraints

I wouldn't trust this way of judging. Didn't professionals NEVER play 4-4 until Go Seigen or someone like him in about 1950 start studying it ? So if we made such a judgement back then we'd say the 4-4 is inferior.

Extrapolating upon all of this, maybe pros don't play 5-5 tengen much not because they are inferior but merely because the pros haven't yet studied those moves enough to be confident to play them.

ericosman@rcn.com

As a perhaps more answerable corollary, where wouldn't God or the devil play their first move?

The goban of god is a sphere...
Or even an n-hyper-sphere
So the first move doesn't really matter

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Converting the book Shape UP! by Charles Matthews/Seong-June Kim
to the gobook format. last updated april 2015 - Index of shapes, p.211 / 216

They aren't the first move, but check out and , from a game in 1838. (!)

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The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Thera are a lot of figures in the xuan xuan qi jing (published in 1349) with 4-4 moves as starting points.

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Simplify!

God would play as white, arrange matters so that He loses by a half point, and then spend a long time reviewing the game with you afterwards.

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Poka King of the south east.

What about on a 9x9 board? Where would God play Black's first move?

Are we 100% sure that tengen is the best first move on a 9x9 board? ("best move" meaning the move which leads to the greatest winning margin if both players play optimally)

Is it possible that 3-4, 4-4 or 4-5 might be better than playing tengen?

“God”? What “god”? Homo (allegedly) sapiens invented the idea of “gods”, and then they — quite more sapiens now — proceeded to something more fun: Go!

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“The only difference between me and a madman is that I’m not mad.” — Salvador Dali ★ Play a slooooow correspondence game with me on OGS?

It occurs to me that the title of this thread is nonsense. If god played black's first move he would be disqualified for playing with the opponent's stones.

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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).

And, in the first place, why “He”?

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“The only difference between me and a madman is that I’m not mad.” — Salvador Dali ★ Play a slooooow correspondence game with me on OGS?