Today I played my first real game of Go and here is the result. I was playing as white, and was shamefully defeated. The size of the board (19×19) is intimidating, and I had no clue how to play the game. I mean I know the basic rules from watching Hikaru no Go but my strategy consisted of a lot of head scratching. My opponent who wishes to remain nameless (out of humility, I’m sure) explained the concept of “eyes” as four stones surrounding an empty space and how they are apparently good to have because it’s secured territory that can’t be recaptured. So for a while I tried to get as many of these as I could but that became predictable after a while. In the end it was just trial and error with no real aim except to experiment with different moves. Then we stumbled upon the situation of Ko which I still don’t funny understand. Go seems like a fun game but I need more practice if I’m to be any good. I got some cool macro shots of the finished board too.