have a go

I have been trying out weiqi (aka Go in Japanese) lately. It started off when I was involved as an official in a national weiqi competition some months ago. It was quite a sight to see hundreds of participants pitting against one another in the league, similar heartening sight but yet different from the calligraphy competitions that I am used to. So I decided to give it a go.

Some say that you can learn a lot about the way of life in a game of weiqi. I personally think it is very taoism. You have the black and the white, and sometimes when you think you have surrounded your opponent, in fact you are the one being surrounded. Something like there's you in me and me in you. It is a game of territory, but often got mistaken for a game of killing your opponent's stone. It is possible to win without killing, and surrender without being killed. The rules are few and simple, yet bringing lots of variables to the game.

To be exact, I actually learned weiqi for one academic term during my teenage days, but I've forgotten most of it except the way to hold the stone in a stylo manner. So, back to the guide books and online tutorials. I even went to watch the anime "Hikaru no Go" (ヒカルの碁), which was purely for entertainment purpose. For the time being I am playing with GNU Go, a software for playing weiqi. Wanting more practise, I tried running the symbian version, but it hangs on my Nokia E72 after a few moves. Guess I have to settle for the computer version.

I've reached a bottleneck to the point I have to open up 2 windows and let the computer fight with itself, and see the tactics from there. Anyone wants to enlighten me?