Game of Go
Introduction
Go, aka Wei Qi (Chinese), Baduk (Korean), is an ancient Chinese mind sport. It is comparable to chess in the sense that it is a game in which all information is available and chance is not a factor. Unlike all chess variants (international chess, Chinese chess, shogi) however, the game is played by placing pieces on the board rather than moving them. All pieces have the same value. The purpose of the game is to surround areas of the board and claim them as your territory. Enemy pieces can be taken by surrounding them completely (which will also breach their surrounding of their prospective territory). It is a game of simple rules, but to play it well a lifetime of study is still not enough.
For more information about the game and its rules, see Sensei's Library, a great wiki about go.
AI and Go
Because of the many possible moves at any time (a stone may be placed anywhere on the board and there are 361 fields on the board), AI has long had trouble tackling go - simple brute-force minimax game-tree calculation, which works reasonably well for chess, just is not possible with the branching factor associated with go.
However, currently AI programs are having some success using the Monte Carlo method, which (basically) consists of playing lots of random games from each possible next move and calculating statistics over the outcomes, then choosing the move that most often led to a win. With enough computing power, this works quite well. Recently, the Huygens supercomputer (I think it was) played a game against a top-professional at the American Go Congress, where the pro gave a nine-stone handicap, and won. This is impressive in that it is the first time a computer defeats a pro, but on the other hand, nine stones is a huge handicap (something like starting a football match 9-0 behind).
The AI researcher in my bemoans this development, because I would find it much more interesting to develop ways to copy human stategies of go - after all, humans definitely do not play millions of random games in their heads, but are still able to play the game. But because of the success of the MC method, all development will probably go in that direction, and if computers become more powerful, soon any home computer will be able to beat a human player, people will think 'ok, go has been solved', and the problem will be forgotten.
Personal Activity
I myself started playing go in january 2004. I knew the game existed, through my interest for the orient, and decided it would be fun to buy a set and start playing. I learned the rules from a simple book and started playing and solving problems. Real development started when I decided to try and find other players, and discovered there was a go club in Groningen. This was a very lively, active club at the time, with a number of stronger players who helped me with my game, and other beginning players against whom it was fun to play. I quickly moved up to 10 kyu (in about a year), but from there, progress became slower and therefore, the game became more frustrating (to me). Also, around this time I started my first job, so I did not have as much time to study as before. Because of this and other factors, my development slowed down. Currently, I am not playing very actively any more, mostly just a game every now and then for fun. I still enjoy solving problems, which is good training for your brain and visualisation skills. I am currently about 8 kyu.
While I lived in Delft (2005-2010), I was responsible for the organisation of the Delft Go Club, along with Bas Vet, Herman Hiddema and others. In this period, we started the Delft Open Tournament again, after many years of dormancy, and have made it into one of the most popular tournaments of the Dutch Go calendar. In 2010, Herman and I left Delft, so that year we passed the organisation on to Bas Vet en Laurens Spijker, helping out on the side. The transition went smoothly. Hopefully, the tournament will keep running nicely in the future.
In 2009, the European Go Congress, the largest go event in the world, was held in Groningen. I helped out as a volunteer and was responsible for the organisation of the pair go tournament, a popular side event. The congress, of which Herman was one of the key organisers, was a great success, and I am proud to have been a part of it.
Go-Smileys
Because there were no smileys about go on the internet, I started making my own. Here's a link to the page with my collection. I will add to it whenever I have time to make new ones :-)
(page under construction)