[BigV]

I play Go.

The single hardest concept for me to grasp, the thing that was the most different from all other games (and I've played many, many games) is that Go is not about the pieces on the board, but about the empty space surrounded by the pieces on the board.

Pente, Reversi, Checkers, these games are played on boards that are similar to a Go board. They have pieces that are similar to Go stones. The first three, the game is happening with the pieces. The score, the strategy, the action, it has mostly to do with the pieces. There is some aspect of the game that has to do with empty space, can you land on an empty square if you want to jump a checker, if I close a gap with my reversi piece I'll connect a block of pieces, there's something to space with these games. But with Go, the whole idea is about space. That was a fundamental difference. When I grasped that, I could see a Go board in an entirely different way.