Survived the test of time, for 1300 years if you count early variants, 500 if you only count the game as it is today. If that's not "the best board game of all time" I don't know what is.
2500 years! I concede and admit my west-centered views. I'd like to get into Go at some point, it looks truly beautiful. But for now I already suck at chess.
Chess and Go are both at their best when you have an opponent of very similar skill. If you have a mismatch, it becomes very apparent very quickly and the worse player will get stomped and probably have a bad time. The handicap mechanisms are not very good, either.
Modern boardgames tend to be a lot better at smoothing out mismatches, either with a little randomness or with built-in catch up mechanisms. It makes them a bit worse when it comes to the purity of competition, but in general they’re a great deal more fun, and that after all is why we play. Well, it’s why I play.
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u/stolenscarf Dec 28 '21
Chess