All Things Go Podcast

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity. Timestamps correspond to the published episode.

Why Go Is Worth Your Time

[00:22] Travis: If you've never played Go before,

[00:24] Travis: there really is something special about it, something that pulls you in and makes you want to understand what it's all about.

[00:31] Travis: There's almost a mystique to it.

[00:34] Travis: So I'm going to start by describing why Go is worth exploring and devoting time to.

[00:39] Travis: For me,

[00:40] Travis: there are a few reasons.

[00:43] Travis: First,

[00:44] Travis: Go gives you a chance to slow down and really focus on one thing.

[00:49] Travis: Second, it gives you an enormous amount of room for creativity.

[00:54] Travis: And third,

[00:55] Travis: it's one of those games that can keep revealing new things to you, even after you've been playing for years.

[01:01] Travis: So let's start with the first one.

Focus and Attention

[01:04] Travis: The first thing I really value about Go is that it can be a kind of antidote to the distractions of everyday life.

[01:12] Travis: We spend so much time balancing between our phones, notifications,

[01:17] Travis: emails, social media.

[01:19] Travis: There are plenty of examples.

[01:21] Travis: Go asks you to do the opposite instead.

[01:25] Travis: When I sit down for a game online or I sit down in person to play Go,

[01:30] Travis: it's like all of my focus and attention goes on the board and pretty much nothing else.

[01:36] Travis: And it actually almost demands that of me.

[01:39] Travis: If I am distracted and looking at other things,

[01:42] Travis: I play poorly and don't do well. So it really quickly pulls me back to focusing on the game.

[01:50] Travis: Keep in mind, this doesn't mean that Go feels relaxing all the time.

[01:54] Travis: It could definitely be frustrating and intense and very mentally exhausting, but at least it keeps me focused.

Creativity and Self-Expression

[02:03] Travis: The second thing that makes Go special to me is how creative it can be and how much of yourself can come through in the way you play.

[02:12] Travis: Every game starts with a completely empty board.

[02:14] Travis: From there, you and your opponent have an enormous amount of freedom in how the game develops.

[02:19] Travis: And because there are so many possibilities,

[02:22] Travis: each game can take on a character of its own.

[02:25] Travis: Different players can look at the board and see completely different things, see completely different possibilities.

[02:31] Travis: And it's often said in the game of Go that no two games have ever been played that are exactly the same.

[02:39] Travis: To give you a little bit of a sense of the scale,

[02:41] Travis: computer scientist and Go enthusiast John Tromp calculated that there are roughly two, followed by 170 zeros of possible legal positions on a full 19 by 19 board.

[02:55] Travis: And the point is not the exact number, it's just the sheer magnitude of the possibilities.

[03:02] Travis: So, again, you have so much freedom, right? You can play so many different moves, you have so many choices,

[03:10] Travis: and that reveals a lot about who you are. It's almost like a mirror.

[03:13] Travis: You can find that you play very defensively or you like to play very aggressively.

[03:19] Travis: And when you review the games and review mistakes you made or good moves you made, this can often show back to you some of those mechanisms you have and say, wait a second, I should really introspect about that and think about that.

[03:33] Travis: It's not something that I originally thought the game would reveal about myself,

[03:37] Travis: but this is something over and over that I've heard from other Go teachers and Go players.

A Lifetime of Depth and Discovery

[03:44] Travis: The third thing that makes Go special to me is that it can give you a lifetime of depth and discovery.

[03:50] Travis: No matter how much you learn,

[03:52] Travis: there always seems to be another layer underneath it.

[03:56] Travis: You can keep getting stronger,

[03:58] Travis: keep seeing things you didn't see before,

[04:00] Travis: and keep discovering new ways to think about the game.

[04:03] Travis: In a sense, the puzzle never really ends.

[04:07] Travis: That's kind of what drives me crazy about the game. It's so simple in the rule set, but after beginning to learn those rules quickly,

[04:15] Travis: you start to understand, wow, there's a lot of things going on in this game and it's going to be really challenging.

[04:22] Travis: They say that it takes a lifetime to master.

[04:26] Travis: And what you find is that there's always another concept to learn, or another pattern or position or way of thinking to go through.

[04:34] Travis: You often have to learn key concepts and then as you get better, you have to almost undo those concepts. And this is really something that's pretty profound about the game.

[04:45] Travis: This is definitely a game for somebody that wants to have something grow with you that doesn't have like an end completion date. Right? It's been solved, figured out.

[04:55] Travis: Go is very, very far from that. And I think if you enjoy that concept, then you'll love the game.

[05:02] Travis: There were moments for me personally where I realized that there was more to it in this game than just being any other game.

[05:09] Travis: And I can't pinpoint a particular moment, but I would be reviewing the game with somebody and all of a sudden this concept would come through or be explained to me and it would be like,

[05:18] Travis: whoa, this is incredible, right? Like, I didn't even realize all these things were going on. And they are.

[05:24] Travis: And that was really special.

What Comes Next

[05:28] Travis: So those are the three big reasons that for me,

[05:31] Travis: Go is worth exploring.

[05:33] Travis: It gives us a chance to step away from some of the distractions of modern life.

[05:38] Travis: It gives us this enormous space for creativity and self-expression.

[05:42] Travis: And it offers a puzzle that will continue to unfold in front of you for years to come.

[05:47] Travis: So if you're ready to go a little deeper, the next question is,

[05:51] Travis: what do you actually need to understand about the game to get started?

[05:55] Travis: That's where we're going next. I'm going to try to explain the basics of Go as simply as I can. Without assuming you know anything about the game,