Update

go.md

@@ -6,11 +6,13 @@
 
 { I am still learning the beautiful game of go, please excuse potential unintentional errors here. ~drummyfish }
 
-Go (from Japanese *Igo*, "surrounding board game", also *Baduk* or *Wei-qi*) is possibly the world's oldest original-form two-player board [game](game.md), coming from Asia, and is one of the most [beautiful](beauty.md), elegant, deep and popular games of this type in [history](history.md), whose cultural significance and popularity can be compared to that of [chess](chess.md), despite it largely remaining widely popular only in Asia (along with other games like [shogi](shogi.md), or "Japanese chess"). There however, especially in Japan, go is pretty big, it appears a lot in [anime](anime.md), there are TV channels exclusively dedicated to go etc., though in Japan [shogi](shogi.md) (the "Japanese chess") is probably a bit more popular (however Sensei library states that go is even the second most played game in the world behind Chinese chess); nevertheless go may be the most intellectually challenging board game among all of the biggest traditional board games. **Go is a bit difficult to get into** (kind of like [vim](vim.md)?) though the rules can be learned quite quickly; it is hard to make big-picture sense of the rule implications and it may take weeks to months before one can even call himself a beginner player. To become a master takes lifetime (or two).
+Go (from Japanese *Igo*, "surrounding board game", also *Baduk* or *Wei-qi*) is possibly the world's oldest original-form two-player board [game](game.md), coming from Asia, and is one of the most [beautiful](beauty.md), elegant, deep and popular games of this type in [history](history.md), whose [cultural](culture.md) significance and popularity can be compared to that of [chess](chess.md), despite it largely remaining widely popular only in Asia (along with other games like [shogi](shogi.md), or "Japanese chess"). There however, especially in Japan, go is pretty big, it appears a lot in [anime](anime.md), there are TV channels exclusively dedicated to go etc., though in Japan [shogi](shogi.md) (the "Japanese chess") is probably a bit more popular (however Sensei library states that go is even the second most played game in the world behind Chinese chess); nevertheless go may be the most intellectually challenging board game among all of the biggest traditional board games. **Go is a bit difficult to get into** (kind of like [vim](vim.md)?) though the rules can be learned quite quickly; it is hard to make big-picture sense of the rule implications and it may take weeks to months before one can even call himself a beginner player. To become a master takes lifetime (or two).
 
-{ There is a nice non-bloated site hosting everything related to go: Sensei's Library at https://senseis.xmp.net/. ~drummyfish }
+{ There is a beautiful non-bloated site hosting everything related to go: Sensei's Library at https://senseis.xmp.net/. ~drummyfish }
 
-**Compared to chess** (some purists dislike this, see https://senseis.xmp.net/?CompareGoToChess) the rules of go are much more simple -- which is part of the game's [beauty](beauty.md) (see [easy to learn, hard to master](easy_to_learn_hard_to_master.md)) -- though the emergent complexity of those few rules is grandiose; so much so that to play the game well is usually considered more challenging than learning chess well, as there are many more possibilities (moves to make) and mere calculation is not enough to be strong, one needs to develop a strong intuition and so probably talent may be more of a factor in the game; this is also the reason why it took 20 more years for [computers](computer.md) to beat the best humans in go than in chess. Many say that go is yet deeper than chess and that it offers a unique experience that can't be found anywhere else; go is more mathematical, something that just exists naturally as a side effect of [logic](logic.md) itself, while chess is a bit of an arbitrary set of more complex rules fine-tuned so that the game plays well. The spirit of go is also more [zen](zen.md)-like and peaceful: while chess simulates [war](war.md) (something more aligned with western mentality and its [fight culture](fight_culture.md)), go is more about dividing territory, one could even see it not as a battle but rather a creation of [art](art.md), beautiful patterns (something better aligned with eastern mentality). Also the whole [culture](culture.md) around go is different, for example there is a strong tradition of go proverbs that teach you to play (there also exist many [joke](jokes.md) proverbs).
+{ NOTE: after more than a year of casually playing go with a computer I can say it really is one of the most difficult games in existence, I probably haven't even reached intermediate level yet. ~drummyfish }
+
+**Compared to chess** (some purists dislike this, see https://senseis.xmp.net/?CompareGoToChess) the rules of go are much more simple -- which is part of the game's [beauty](beauty.md). There are no pieces of different types, just black and white stones that never move, and a few rules for where they can be placed. Go may be the best example of an **[easy to learn, hard to master](easy_to_learn_hard_to_master.md)** game because the emergent complexity of those few rules is grandiose; so much so that to play the game well is usually considered more challenging than learning chess well, as there are many more possibilities (moves to make) and mere calculation is not enough to be strong, one needs to develop a strong intuition and so probably talent may be more of a factor in the game; this is also the reason why it took 20 more years for [computers](computer.md) to beat the best humans in go than in chess. Many say that go is yet deeper than chess and that it offers a unique experience that can't be found anywhere else; go is more mathematical, something that just exists naturally as a side effect of [logic](logic.md) itself, while chess is a bit of an arbitrary set of more complex rules fine-tuned so that the game plays well. The spirit of go is also more [zen](zen.md)-like and peaceful: while chess simulates [war](war.md) (something more aligned with western mentality and its [fight culture](fight_culture.md)), go is more about dividing territory, one could even see it not as a battle but rather a creation of [art](art.md), beautiful patterns (something better aligned with eastern mentality). Also the whole [culture](culture.md) around go is different, for example there is a strong tradition of go proverbs that teach you to play (there also exist many [joke](jokes.md) proverbs).
 
 **From [LRS](lrs.md) point of view go is one of the best games ever**, for similar reasons to chess (it's highly free, [suckless](suckless.md), cheap, [not owned by anyone](public_domain.md), [fun](fun.md), mathematically deep, nice for programming while the game itself doesn't even require a [computer](computer.md) etc.) plus yet greater [simplicity](minimalism.md) and beauty.
 
@@ -79,6 +81,7 @@ WORK IN PROGRESS
 These are some tips on how to play well:
 
 - As a newcomer first overview the absolutely basics: life and death, liberties, eyes, ko, komi, cutting, atari, ladders and so on. Just like with learning a new [language](human_language.md), however, do not spend too much time just reading books: invest time in actually playing and try to notice and learn what you read about. You must collect countless games under your belt to truly come to intuitively understand the concepts.
+- Another beginner advice: start playing on the tiny 5x5 board, then after a while move to a 9x9 board and stay practicing there. Only when you feel somewhat comfortable move to the full size board.
 - Double atari is a basic tactic similar to fork in chess: with one move you threaten to immediately take two groups on the next move and the opponent will only be able to save one.
 - Oftentimes it happens that a good move is to place your stone where the opponent would want to place his stone, so think from the point of view of your opponent, it may aid you in finding your own move.
 - A group that is alive (has at least two eyes and so cannot ever be captured) can serve you as a safe island of stability to which you can connect other of your groups, which will also make them uncapturable.