h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I recently got infected with Go, it is really fascinating to play, although I am still a beginner.

At this stage I play a lot against a Go-program on my PC. It gives me the chances to play many short games in a row, check on my mistakes, get an analysis of how many points I have at any moment of the game, and teaches me to be aware of any weak points in my groups, as the program plays very aggressive and uses these weaknesses immediatelly. I do not have the feeling that I could beat the program easily - this may change when I will play better.

For this learning phase any program should do - mine is a chinese program, translated into english, and called "Handtalk" (I don't want to advertise especially this program, so go to the web and look for "handtalk" yourselves). The program is less than 300 kb in size and obviously a miracle in effective programming, compared to the multi-mb games that I usually play.

Parallel to playing against software, it is a lot of fun to play against people over the internet. MSN and Yahoo for example offer real-time playing forums. However, my favorite is "itsyourturn.com", which allows you to make a draw and then go offline again. You will get an e-mail once your opponent has made his move.

So, have fun with Go!