It’s the world’s oldest, continuously played board game. The ancient Chinese game of Go is featured in Oliver Roeder’s 2022 book, “Seven Games: A Human History,” which I’m soon to finish. Go seems simple on the surface, but it’s actually mind-numbingly complex. Chess has 10-to-the-120th power number of possible board configurations. This measure of game tree complexity is called a Shannon Number after the poly-mathematician and information theory pioneer Claude Shannon. By comparison, Go measures a whopping 10-to-the-360th power possible configurations. It is said that this is greater than the sum of atoms in the observable universe. Go clearly takes genius to win at the highest levels. It’s a game that has long relied on intellect but also on intuition, creativity, and even quirkiness. When asked why they made a particular move, top-rung Go competitors have been known to say something like, “I don’t know; it just felt right." Maybe that's one reason why the ancient C...
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