I started playing go seriously back in 1997, though I first learned the basics of the game when I was a child, from my maternal Grandfather. I am about 4 kyu (a student rank). It means I have 5 more steps to go before I reach the first dan (expert) ranks. The ranking is similar to Japanese martial arts, where you start with a student rank (around 35 kyu) and progress to a dan rank (black belt rank). It took me 2 years to go from 35 kyu to 7 kyu, and another 3 years to go from 7 kyu to 4 kyu. Here I seem to have reached a permanent plateau. I've come to accept that I may never reach a dan rank, but I still enjoy playing. I am very interested in understanding how a computer can play optimal go, theoretical questions about the game, and analogies I can draw between this game and life. Some of these life lessons are elaborated on below.
You can't have everything you want, but you can have (nearly) anything if you are willing to make some sacrifices. In other words, pick your fights, and don't try to boil the ocean. Look for trade-offs. Look for ways that you can trade things that you think are not important for things that you think are. In go, you can trade territory for sente, or sacrifice stones in exchange for getting more territory elsewhere.
Suppose you have a baseball card that you don't want, but your friend does, you can trade it for something which has more value to you, but less to the person you are trading with. This whole concept is the basis for capitalism. The trick in go, like the real world, is to be able to estimate the value of the things very accurately so that you can get slightly more out of the deal.
In computer programming, if your computer has a lot of memory, but a slow CPU, there are ways to program it so that it runs faster, but uses more memory/ In other words, trade memory for speed. Perhaps the amount of memory you have is small, and you can't even run a certain sized problem with it. If you use the other approach, then you can make the program use less memory, at the expense of running much more slowly.
Just because you lose a big group, it doesn't mean you will lose the game. For example, if something bad happens to you, you can still recover and live a fulfilling life. Don't lose a ko without gaining something of nearly equal value elsewhere. If stones are under attack, don't give them up without getting compensation for them elsewhere. If you make a sacrifice, either in go or in life, make sure that you understand the value of what you are getting in exchange for what you are giving up. Here are some examples
Usually, we don't give much thought to the order that we do our activities in if the dependencies are not obvious, but the truth is that there are often subtle dependencies that will have a huge impact on the outcome. Here are a few examples.
Leave options open. Be flexible. Don't ruin aji (potential). Aji-keshi means ruining the future potential of stones. You want to leave small weakness because they may not be as valuable as playing elsewhere. The difficult part is determining the appropriate time when those weaknesses must be fixed. Once you realize that there is no reasonable hope of saving a group, don't continue to try to save it. Instead, leave it for later when an important ko may arise. By the same token, in life, leave your options open. Don't burn bridges, don't throw good money after bad. Have several interests, in case it is not always possible to pursue your primary one. Have a plan B that you would also be happy with
Play moves which have more than one useful follow-up move. This gives you more options and potential. You are not restricted to one way of playing. If your opponent prevents one follow-up, you still have the other.
Try to make moves that accomplish more than one objective. (i.e. kill two birds with one stone.). For example, when I bike to work, I
The go stones are a little like units of time in your life. Make sure you plan each one carefully. Use them wisely.
If you are losing, take risks. If you are winning, be conservative in your play. Don't do something just because you want some end result many years hence. Do it because you love doing it. I don't play go because I want to become a master, I play because I enjoy it. Enjoy the process as much as the result. Delay gratification. Build influence, rather than getting quick territory. Don't get so excited about killing a few unimportant stones that you lose sight of the whole board (big picture). There was a study which showed that children who chose to wait for 2 marshmallows, rather than getting one now, became much more successful later in their lives. Winning or losing is not as important as self-improvement.
The best defense is a good offense. Always look for ways to keep your opponent off-balance. If he is busy protecting his own weak groups, he won't have a chance to attack yours. Meanwhile, you will build powerful influence on the outside, and won't even have to play extra stones to make your groups live. Make territory while attacking.
Have balance. If you are winning too often against an opponent, change the handicap. If you are unchallenged by your work or other activity, do something to make it harder, but not too hard.
Maintain a balance between work, family, and play. You should be enjoying all three.
Don't become over concentrated (heavy). In life, don't do one thing so much that you sacrifice other areas that might be more important. Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
Don't get split into little groups. (i.e. don't get spread too thin). Don't have too many pots boiling on the stove simultaneously, probably none of them will taste good. Or some will burn.
Play away from strength; both your own, and your opponent's. If you play close to your own strength, you become over-concentrated. If you play close to your opponent's strength, you will be at a big disadvantage in the ensuing fight.
If you are strong in one area, use it to improve your position in others. In life, If you know one thing well, then you can use analogy to increase your understanding of other areas that you don't know so well. Musashi, a great Japanese swordsman, referred to this as finding a "way". For him, his "way" was swordsmanship, for others, it is medicine, or computer programming, or law, or farming, or brick-laying, or even playing a musical instrument. He wrote about this in his "Book of Five Rings". In the movie City Slickers, the old cowboy relates the secret of life: "It's just one thing" he says. "Yes, but what thing?", Billy Crystal asks. Finally, they realize at the end, that it doesn't matter what "one thing", as long as you put your whole heart into it and do it well.
Small things can matter a great deal. A small misplay can have a tremendous effect on the outcome of the game. If the game is in perfect balance the smallest mistake by one player can become a large point deficit as the other player leverages the seemingly insignificant mistake to advantage. Since go allows handicaps (unlike chess) almost every game is configured from the start to be very close. Even if the two players have very different skill levels, the handicap allows the chance of winning for either player to be about 50%.
Recall the well known "butterfly effect": A butterfly's wings moving in one continent can have large effects on the weather in another continent several weeks later. Suppose you went back in time 1000 years and did nothing but kill a butterfly. This small act may prevent your grandparents from ever meeting, or shift the point of your conception by milli-seconds, letting a different sperm fertilize your mother's egg, meaning a completely different "you". If this is true, then every small action you make has a profound effect on the world's future.
In Mathematical Go, by Berlekamp, you can see some amazingly subtle go-endgames were it is nearly impossible to determine where to play to win by one point. Most go masters will get the problems wrong. Only a sophisticated mathematical theory and computer algorithm can figure them out reliably.
Every move you make will involve making judgment calls. This goes for life too. You must recognize what is important and make decisions with a full understanding of the trade-offs involved. Every tiny action you make during a typical day involves a decision that profoundly affects your future. For the most part it is too complicated to determine if the outcome of a given action will be beneficial. You must weigh the risks and rewards and act accordingly. Sometimes a seeming bad outcome is actually for the better. For example, see the movie Regarding Henry or the parable of the Chinese farmer.
Every instant that we live, we continuously make decisions, and each one has a profound impact on the rest of our lives, and the future lives of everyone else in the world, and everyone who will ever live. You should not waste time worrying about it though since there really is no way for you to predict the outcome. All you can do is do your best given the information you have. Perhaps stopping on your way home to get a cat out of a tree seems like the right idea at the time, but what if it causes you to not get home in time to prevent a fire from burning your house down. In the Butterfly Effect, Ashton Kutcher keeps trying to make better decisions in his past to save the girl he loves, but they keep turning into worse futures. Each potential placement of a go stone will lead to a dramatically different board position 20 moves in the future.
Avoid having too many debts. On the go board, as in life, all debts must eventually be paid. Before attacking, make sure your feet are firmly planted.
Make sure that your own groups have a solid base before attacking to aggressively an opponent group. Playing what seems to be a purely defensive stone can be sente, because it sets you up to launch an invasion. If you launch the invasion before you defend, you risk going on the defensive because of weak groups. Such a move would be called an overplay. When such moves occur, they give your opponent the chance to seize the initiative.
Protect your investment, but if your opponent's moyo (investment) is bigger than yours, invade it first before you protect yours. Since he has more to lose, he must respond or suffer the greater loss.
If you can't save a group efficiently, don't try. Don't throw good money after bad. If the group is critical to winning the game, you have to try and save it. If it is going to be a burden to save, consider sacrificing it. One way to do that might be by threatening to save it. Of course, this is a very difficult judgment to make.
If you have a problem, fix it now - don't wait. If you do wait, it will become an increasingly bigger burden. Another possibility is that it will cascade into bigger problems. If you have a weakness, you have to play to reinforce it, otherwise, your opponent will get many sente moves in a row causing irreparable loss.
Once you get a slight edge over your opponent (or vice versa) then your lead will usually widen as you continue to play. In business, if you let your competitor get even slightly ahead of you in terms of technology or time to market, you may start to lose ground quickly after that. If you do lose ground you are forced to take risks in order to catch up. Even, though taking the risks increases the chance of you losing, If you don't take the risks you are certain to lose.
Don't try to capture all the territory on the board, just play such that your stones work together efficiently. You should not try to win by an overwhelming margin (don't be greedy), but rather win by only a few points. Winning by just one point is still winning.
Look for tesuji (non-obvious optimal moves, or trick moves). This involves reading (looking ahead). Plan your life carefully. Have a good idea of what the consequences of your actions will be. Sometimes you will be tempted to make a move just because you want to, and it looks good at first glance. You must consider carefully what might be the results of an impulsive decision.
Paths that look easiest often turn out hardest. life is full of ups and downs. e.g. taking drugs is a quick way to bliss, but the long term consequences can be devastating. Two ways to do most things: short but difficult, and longer but easier.
If you're using a clock and are under a time constraint, make a move which is sente or complicated, so that when your opponent is forced to respond you have another round to think.
Try to get a little more than your opponent on every move. A war isn't won in a single day. A long journey begins with a single step. Enjoy the journey, not just the destination.
When playing white in a high-handicap game, patience is of great importance. At the start of the game, the odds seem insurmountable. Play cautiously and solidly, and eventually, your opponent will make a mistake. The temptation to resign early may be strong, but the game can easily have a bit reversal toward the end. Over time, if you are perceptive, you will notice something that your opponent fails to see. That is the time to strike.
Sometimes in life, you will occasionally discover something that you recognize as really important to you. When this happens, pursue it with 100% of your being. Such occasions are rare, don't miss an opportunity.
In life, don't give up too soon. If you want something badly and are persistent, you will eventually achieve your goal. You may fail many times, or be told "no" many times, but persistence will usually prevail.
Fight your own fight. Have the battle on your terms, not your opponent's. Don't allow yourself to be pushed around. This happens when your opponent has the initiative (sente). The best way to prevent this is to ignore your opponent's last move and take the initiative yourself by making a move that he/she can't afford not to respond to. You can only do this, however, if your opponent's last move was sub-optimal - so be careful.
It is difficult to win by simply responding to your opponent's moves. This is a common mistake for black. You must try to consider moves elsewhere that threaten to achieve more than wherever the other played last.
If you are in a situation where you cannot win, don't try - it will only lead to a greater loss. Instead, play elsewhere (tenuki). Play your stones as efficiently as you can. If you feel like you are being forced to make an inefficient move, reconsider your move. Perhaps there is a better local move, or you can tenuki.
Don't ever feel that you are cornered or pigeon-holed. You always have a choice. There are almost always options that you have not considered. Discovering a creative solution to your predicament can be very rewarding. In Who Moved My Cheese Spencer Johnson portrays how different groups of mice/people react to their changing circumstances. Some just whine and complain, while others recognize the coming of change and react easily.
Here are some places to find more go wisdom and learn about the game
Some places to play go on the internet