Axel - you could also look into internet game servers. Dunno what's the preferred server among serious players these days, but I note that yahoo games seems to have
a reasonably active Go section.
I've played a few of the free or shareware programs that were available, and found they were often good enough to challenge
me, at least.
Except that often they don't know when to stop, so if you use Japanese counting you can convert a losing game into a winning game simply by letting the computer stupidly keep filling in its own territory.
Never wrote a program for it myself, but thought about it, and did a little reading on the topic. I was also interested in pente (ninuku-renju), which is much more amenable to competerization. It has a comparable number of theoretically possible moves, but it's much easier to filter this down to a list of 2-10 moves that might actually
accomplish something. Plus the games are much shorter, which (back in meatspace) made it a lot easier to convince other people to play it. When I was living in a dormitory, I could just set up the game board in the front lobby, and the pretty glass pieces would attract passers-by ask what it was, and then try a game. Soon enough, you've got a group of people watching the game, waiting to play next.
[ January 06, 2003: Message edited by: Jim Yingst ]