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Does anybody know a rough figure for the typical length, in number of moves, of a Go game? I'm thinking KGS-style games, not professional.
Karl Knechtel: There is not really any such thing as an "average game length" for go, any more than there is for chess. A huge fight could break out at nearly any time, prompting a resignation, and a ko can slow things down considerably (especially molasses ko, although that is incredibly rare). This does not vary much with the player's skill level, either.
250 moves is about average for games that don't end by resignation. That leaves 110 empty points on the board (not accounting for prisoners), so if you've got more than 60 points of territory in a "normal"-looking position then you're probably winning--a useful heuristic.
Of course there is a lot of variation. If both players make huge moyos then the game might be over by move 180 (and you could take 80 points of terrritory and still lose). Or if there is a long ko fight, the game could go more than 300 moves.
A few freaks even more than 400 - more moves than there are points on the board.