Go

Something I found interesting in the game Go was how it could be compared to chess. Chess is a Western game (at least I think so...it's got Kings and Queens and Bishops...), and I think that if you take it as a reflection of the Western mind compared to the Oriental mind, it's quite interesting.

In Japan, there are the huge thriving businesses, where everyone needs to sacrifice him/herself for the good of the company. You don't count as an individual, you count as a part of a total. In the U.S. of A., however, people care much more about individuals, and the power and talents of a specific person (or at least that's what I think).

This is reflected in the games Go and chess. In chess, you center around the individual, the King. He is the most important person in the game, you need to kill him, then you win. In Go, no one cares about the individuals, it's the groups that matter. You need to eliminate them to win.

I really liked the game Go. It's very strategic, and the fact that the pieces have more freedom makes the game more complicated than chess (I keep comparing the two because they're the only kind of really old games I know how to play). I don't think I'm good enough at it yet to be able to tell just how intricate it is, but I'd like to become better at it if I can find people to play with, since I prefer playing with people than computers.

I don't know what else to say about it. It's a great game, and I'm curious to see how it relates to Taoism.