If a problem is too difficult to solve, then we solve simpler related problems first. In doing so, we typically gain insight into the more challenging problem. For example, before Calculus was discovered, areas and volumes were all computed in ad hoc ways, via "parlor tricks". Only by generalizing the insights gleamed from some of these "tricks" did we stumble upon Calculus.

Problems such as chess certainly did not seem like "parlor tricks" at the time they were proposed. In fact, many thought of chess play as being an idyllic example of human intelligence. Just because we do not understand how to solve Go today doesn't mean that it won't be a trivial "parlor trick" in ten years.