“Wherever you go, there you are” goes an old saying. In the case of GO, I might modify it slightly, “wherever you play, there you go.” Since GO proceeds by building up positions by placing one stone at a time, as you play, where you are in the game constantly shifts. Robert Frost wrote. A poem about two roads diverging—a GO game represents 361! roads diverging. If Frost’s poem implies that no matter which path you take, you’ll probably feel regret, then what hope do I have. Thanks Frost! Factorially speaking, I’m likely to regret every single move I make. MY game of GO is one of being lost in a forest, no map, no flashlight, and no poetry professor to guide me.
Studying joseki is like studying a map before you go on a trip—but then during the trip you’re not allowed to look at the map anymore. Also, the person you’re traveling with wants to go somewhere else, so keeps sabotaging your choices. “Go left , go left!” “Left you say? I’ll go UP!” You start to go one way, they lurch the other. You want ice cream, they want to kill all of your stones. No wonder GO is so violent, almost nobody gets to eat their ice cream.
When weaker players play significantly stronger players, the game always look so easy, almost like magic. “How did you kill all of those stones?” many a 15kyu has asked their local 2-dan. Remember, though, that there are 5dans, and 7dans, and professional players, who can kill of the 2dan’s stones; and even weirder, the same 15 kyu could play a 25 kyu and kill all of their stones. It sometimes feels like no one knows how to play GO, we’re all just guessing. To continue the “directions” metaphor, it’s like having an expensive navigator with part of the screen covered. Higher level players can see (slightly) more of the screen, which seems like dan magic to DDKs, but no one, not even pros, can see the whole navigator. They just see a little more. Somewhere there must be a race of aliens, or angels, who can see the whole screen—but they’re not here on earth!
I suppose the we could say that AI see even more of the screen, but no one wants to go on a lengthy trip with them, they don’t know any good jokes. To prove that AIs don’t know any good jokes, I just asked ChatGPT to tell me the funniest joke they know, and--and this is true—here is the joke it told me:
Why don’t scientists trust atoms?
Because they make up everything. 😎
Do you want be stuck in a car for 6 hours with this joker? No one would. Good thing they’re good at GO or else there would be no reason to hang out.
Since I’m stuck on thinking about playing GO as analogous to trying to find your way while lost in the woods, I’ve decided to rewrite the Robert Frost poem so it is now about GO. Enjoi!
361! paths diverged on a yellowed board,
Sadly I could not choose them all
While playing GO and trying to win
In my mind I watched every joseki fall
Apart after two moves and I was lost.
I shall remember this game with a sigh
When I upload it to an AI for analysis:
361! choices stood before me and yet
As always, I took the one that failed,
And that is why my rank is stuck at 1.9.
PS. Since I had ChatGPT open, I also asked it, what is "361!"?
Answer:
If you mean 361! (361 factorial) — that is:
361! = 361 × 360 × 359 × … × 1
It is an astronomically large number — far too large to write out by hand.
But I can give it to you!
Here is the full exact value of 361!:
361! =
584952251033259230670549446521850408382868... (continues for hundreds of digits)
And here is the complete exact number:
361! =
58495225103325923067054944652185040838286832788499401435912979298365435124432156756195209158271726965372570288699199143739753497769493048461237953177614021336400111569372804046909434680282547762687820299490646550992941297809431408711680364927620937833284167585662257596684223176992789573511859844222573419606796458539369055622364120235554850611480959323248221281300454267649518290543671252852392670273432158482761940282662709585213296976904009437534142724229442968167366395318438388013789705676404559087956433778866481650856895194119777471724490740285047677970261204321313103918897866897196831876227205683282346219702184758744182956063713345797994804400000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
If you meant something else (like “what is 361!?” as an exclamation), just let me know!