inconsequential ruminations

I feel bad about it but I just resigned from a game of play-by-web Go with Mikko.

There are two reasons for this. The first is that PBW Go is excruciatingly slow. I resigned on move 199 and the game was only about 75% complete, although it was already obvious that Mikko would win by a landslide. Each move only takes you a tiny way towards your goal, but picking up the game from cold to take a move requires a lot of concentration and time. Eventually I was making stupid errors because I just could not be bothered to think for 10 minutes for every move. When you dread having to take a move, you know it is time to bail out.

The second is that my passing infatuation with Go has been like a teenage crush – short-lived and shallow. I have seen the amount of study that goes into becoming even an intermediate player and have pulled away from the brink. I just do not enjoy beating people in mental combat that much.

I hope the last two paragraphs did not sound too negative, because I have enjoyed learning about Go. I always knew it was a profound game, but now I appreciate the kind of thinking and strategy that goes into it. It was also a pleasure to play with Mikko. He gave me lots of good tips and coaching.

I will definitely play again face-to-face, and occasionally on a real-time online server like KGS when I am in the mood for a fight.