Reason To Quit Playing Go

[RobertJasiek]

Either go still is, or is not, fun for you. Make your choice accordingly. Later (if you quit), if you see fun again, you can resume at any time. (But then do not complain to have missed that fun for years because, you know, it is your decision :) )

Life is so enjoyable because we can choose our preferred activities, uhm, except for the necessities of life, of course.

[schawipp]

Do you have any good reason to quit playing Go?

Asking that here feels a bit like asking frogs if they know about any good reasons for draining the swamps.

Currently, my priority for Go is also significantly lowered due to many other activities. However, in Go, it seems that you do not quickly "unlearn" positional understanding. Even after longer breaks people tend to re-establish their previous playing capability rather quickly (at least that's my limited personal observation). This is unlike e.g. physical sports where a longer break can throw you back for a long time.

So, why restrict your own options by declaring to quit? Why not just say that you are currently in a phase with different priorities?

[dhu163]

I think we can be more understanding. There are many reasons to feel dissatisfied with something. Disappointment of hopes, seeing things in a different light, a change in circumstances with what motivated you in go before. There is less meaning to playing go if you don't have real people around to enjoy it with. Perhaps it is difficult in your country.

Go is a deep game with layers of understanding and intuition to develop, rich in culture and history. It is particularly interesting at this point in time with the research alphago has brought, and the changes that will bring.

On the other hand, go can take up a lot of time, and each game can be quite long. It can be tiring for your mind, and keep you too much indoors. If people around you see it as boring it can be disheartening.


If you do find something else hopefully you can enjoy it more, but I hope the go community will always be welcoming if you come back.

Life is always a balance.

[Uberdude]

Do you have any good reason to quit playing Go?

Instructions from wife/SO.

[dhu163]

uberdude: if you go, that would be a serious loss to the go community

[Kirby]

In my case, I find it useful to regularly review my priorities. Sometimes it means devoting more time to go. Sometimes less.

The important thing is to act according to decisions that I believe in at a given point in life.

[Bill Spight]

Do you have any good reason to quit playing Go?

Instructions from wife/SO.

It's amazing how many people are unwilling to sacrifice their families for go.

Edit: My father was an avid golfer. He told me the following joke. Joe and Jerry were golfing buddies and always played on Sunday afternoon. Joe usually got back home by 6:00 p.m., but one day he straggled in at 10:00. His wife asked him what had happened, and he said, "Honey, it was terrible. On the fourth hole Jerry had a heart attack and died." She replied, "Oh, that is terrible!" "Yes," said Joe. "I had to hit the ball and drag Jerry, and hit the ball and drag Jerry."

[skydyr]

uberdude: if you go, that would be a serious loss to the go community

Don't you mean if he doesn't go?

[Solomon]

Do you have any good reason to quit playing Go?

• If it starts getting dull (which, after over 10 years, has yet to for some reason unlike every other game I've played).
• If someone walked up to me and offered $50,000,000 to quit.

[alphaville]

I am planning to quit playing go.
The reason is there are many important things in life other than Go.
for example, I want to go cycling 30 mnts rather than play go 30 mnts.

besides, Go is not so popular in my country.

Do you have any good reason to quit playing Go?

No.

[Bantari]

Do you have any good reason to quit playing Go?

I think you're asking the wrong crowd. If I really wanted to quit Go, I wouldn't read this forum anymore.

Might be true for you, but it does not necessarily apply to everybody.

In my case, I pretty much stopped playing go (aside from an occasional game here and there) but I still read the forum and even post sometimes.

My reasons from stopping: family, and work. And age.

So, on one hand I find it harder and harder to concentrate, and it takes more and more effort to keep my level. On the other hand, increased demands placed on me by my family and my work leave me with less and less time and energy. I found it very frustrating for a while... then I accepted. Right now, if I have an hour to kill during the day, I go for a walk, or bike, or read this forum - this is still fun.

[Charlie]

Do you have any good reason to quit playing Go?

Yes. And it's one of the greatest attributes of the game.

When I lived in Cape Town, a friend of mine talked me into forming a two-man Starcraft II team. We played every day and made it into the gold league within a few weeks, online. This demanded a tonne of work from me, the weaker player in the team. Simply keeping up with the meta-game consumed all my free time not given to actually playing on the ladder. In the end, my wife started issuing ultimatums and I gave it up. In hindsight, I realised that learning every type of "cheese" for every race-pairing on every active map was totally a waste of time: if I stopped for even a month, I'd be back to the bronze league and have to start again!

Go is not like this.

I am 100% certain that if I live to be 105, I will still be able to play Go. The meta-game will not have changed at the amateur level - at least, not enough to render my present-day experience redundant.

If you are not currently having fun playing Go or you would simply rather spend your present time on other things, you're free to do so. At any time, the game will always be here - there is no pressure.

I took a two-year break and returned to the game and found that I improved very rapidly on my return. I do not subscribe to the idea that one does not get weaker - I certainly lost it in the short term - but I do believe that it is rather easy to return to the game of Go, with fresh skills and opportunities to change your habits.

When I moved from Cape Town to Europe, I tried too hard to retain my lifestyle as a "Rock Climber". Frankly, though, I do not enjoy climbing glassy, polished limestone mounds in a damp forest - I was a climber because, in Cape Town, I could spend all day on a 100+ metre traditional route with a view for kilometres, on hard, high-friction, dry TM Sandstone. I tried too hard to hold on and completely killed my love of the sport. Today, the thought of a day spent climbing fills me with lethargy and a desire to sit on a comfortable couch and read a book.

Do not play aji-keshi. Play tenuki - do something else. Leave Go for the future.

[HKA]

Do you have any good reason to quit playing Go?

• If it starts getting dull (which, after over 10 years, has yet to for some reason unlike every other game I've played).
• If someone walked up to me and offered $50,000,000 to quit.

I completely agree with point one and you can almost quadruple that number of years for me.

As a result, I am honestly not sure about the second one though. The type of opportunities and security such a pile of (hopefully tax-free) money would provide is of course tempting. But for me, a primary part of any lottery winning fantasy has always been more time to study, play and travel for go. Perhaps being older, I am more set in my ways, but I am not sure I could keep all the good things in my life - family, friends, community - and enjoy that money without go.

the hot breath of green
does not warm the addled heart
like the cooling stones

[goTony]

Alpha GO is much stronger than any human player, but so far at least only a human can decide to play GO or not...

[Calvin Clark]

There's quit and then there is pause. They are not the same thing. "Quit" implies a kind of finality. There are times I go several months without playing; it used to happen when work got busy but now being a parent is a factor, too. But so far I've always come back to it.

Usually with a recreation we don't have to explain to anyone else why we are quitting. It's not like quitting school or quitting a job, where someone else may have an expectation of you.

We quit things that cause us damage. It makes total sense for an alcoholic to quit drinking, or at least try. If go is so all-consuming that you're living the kind of life described in the book "First Kyu" then I can understand quitting. Whenever I get back into playing, it sometimes takes effort to stop thinking about go when I'm not actually playing or studying go. The temptation to, for example, follow this forum or check in on the pro scene is pretty large, so it requires moderation.

In any case, I hope you can learn to pause rather than quit, but either way, good luck!