Though, personally I'm not sure how far one could get and staying true to the spirit, or the deliciousness of go, namely the interweaving quality of different ever-status-changing groups and also considering that stones have somewhat global effects (ladder).
Perhaps the AI could also make helpful annotations to player why the move was important. Or suggest that this and that group should be strengthened. Or if player makes a move that first selects a region, then give some options to choose from.
I love abstract aspects of go (e.g. reading attack and defence, direction of play) but often situations involve local context that are too interesting to ignore, and thus tesujis. It would definitely would be fun to see how a game like you are suggesting would feel like.
One thing I really liked about go is that learning from a book, or trying out puzzles, is much easier than for example in Chess due to much less destructive change in the board.
(I'm ranked online perhaps 3-5 kyu, so take my take with a grain of salt).
I like the idea you linked to, too. In fact, the first version of that "have more stones on the board" is exactly how I explain the rules of the game to beginners. They pretty quickly realise the tediousness of filling in what's effectively already owned intersections, at which point they're ready to hear that "normally, experienced players don't actually go through the trouble of filling it in, they just count it as theirs. If there is any dispute about whose it is, play resumes until it becomes clear again."
Though, personally I'm not sure how far one could get and staying true to the spirit, or the deliciousness of go, namely the interweaving quality of different ever-status-changing groups and also considering that stones have somewhat global effects (ladder). Perhaps the AI could also make helpful annotations to player why the move was important. Or suggest that this and that group should be strengthened. Or if player makes a move that first selects a region, then give some options to choose from.
I love abstract aspects of go (e.g. reading attack and defence, direction of play) but often situations involve local context that are too interesting to ignore, and thus tesujis. It would definitely would be fun to see how a game like you are suggesting would feel like.
One thing I really liked about go is that learning from a book, or trying out puzzles, is much easier than for example in Chess due to much less destructive change in the board.
(I'm ranked online perhaps 3-5 kyu, so take my take with a grain of salt).
Wrt. teaching absolute beginners, here's a nice but not that experimentally-minded blog post by a European player that became professional in Japan: https://www.nordicgodojo.eu/post/9/how-should-we-teach-go-to...