Go

My friend Marty recently convinced me to start playing Go with him. Go is a board game that comes originally from China, but we get it from Japan (Go is the Japanese name). It is played by two people who take turns placing stones on the intersections of the lines in a grid. The objective is to "capture" territory which is done by surrounding said territory with your stones. The fundamental rule is that a group of stones is considered to be captured when it has no "liberties" where a liberty is a place where another stone can be played such that it will connect to the chain:
Here, the black stones form a chain which has 3 liberties...two up and one on the right. The white stones block what would otherwise be the 3 liberties on the bottom and left.


This is an immensely complex game and I am just beginning to play it, but in it's simplicity it allows the player to focus on the strategy and reflect upon other aspects of life in which similar principles may apply. Last night I finished my algorithms homework at around midnight and started a game with Marty on a 13x13 board. Considering that I've recently tried to reform my sleep schedule to wake up at 9am every morning, this was probably a poor idea -- the game lasted until half-past three. Not only that, but the power went out briefly around 7 in the morning, so my alarm clock didn't fire. I woke up and saw the clock blinking and my first thought was that I'd slept through the beginning of my 11am class. Miraculously I somehow actually woke up just after 9, so I went to breakfast and started some VLSI homework before class.

~KMarsh