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Learn to play Go

online-go.com

41–50 of 159 posts

Re: Learn to play Go

#41

I love Go and have played it a lot in person, but I always struggle to get games online, even on OGS. Feels like the online community is very small compared to chess (which is now my boardgame of choice, basically for this reason). Has this changed? Are there better sites now where a beginner can find matches without waiting half an hour or more?

Do your settings allow for handicapped games? This increases pool of potential opponents.

Re: Learn to play Go

#42
post #31

I first learned to play Go back in university, but never got very good (it was competing with learning how to program). Many years later, shortly after the war in Ukraine started, I was looking for an activity to share with my 8-year-old son. Life was chaotic then: everyone was anxious, we were hosting a refugee lady, and I could see the stress taking a toll on him. I wanted something where it would be clear we shoul…

> Oh, and the anime about Go, Hikaru no Go, is really good (you should watch it even if you don’t care about the game).

I really enjoyed the Chinese drama adaptation of this - more so than the original anime somehow.

https://mydramalist.com/45437-qi-hun

Re: Learn to play Go

#43
post #31

I first learned to play Go back in university, but never got very good (it was competing with learning how to program). Many years later, shortly after the war in Ukraine started, I was looking for an activity to share with my 8-year-old son. Life was chaotic then: everyone was anxious, we were hosting a refugee lady, and I could see the stress taking a toll on him. I wanted something where it would be clear we shoul…

Hikaru no Go manga is super good too. Aged very well as well. Manga/Anime from that time usually has some problematic stereotypes/scenes.

Re: Learn to play Go

#44
I've been playing Go with my spouses brother for a while. He had a lot of free time to studyGo back then, I didn't. I couldn't get a single win out of him, still I enjoyed every single game.

We rarely play anymore, I should invite him over sometime :-)

Re: Learn to play Go

#45

Will I like go if I don’t like chess? Chess seems too one dimensional for me if that makes sense.

I like go and don't like chess, for the simple reason that getting good at chess requires a lot of memorization, while getting good at go doesn't. Having lots of openings and positions memorized to know the best moves automatically is not something that I personally find fun.

In go there are some sequences of "standard" moves (joseki) but it's highly controversial whether memorizing them even helps at all, see another thread in this same comments section.

Re: Learn to play Go

#46
post #34
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is an unintuitive aspect of go because it is different from virtually every other strategy game. No, it isn't. As a decent chess and go player I can tell you that they're both just tactics until you approach the master/dan level. And what is strategy if not just a longer form of tactical play? At the end of the day, strategic play is just play that sets up tactics later on. Or, to quote Fischer: "Tactics flow…

The Fischer quote sounds like the opposite of what you're saying, i.e. it's a suggestion to prioritise macro over micro: "from good logistics, tactics will sort itself out".

You could read it both ways. I would say tactical opportunities flow from a better position. If you're a good enough player that exploiting your tactical opportunities is automatic - and this doesn't apply even to most grandmasters - then you can afford to spend all your energies on creating those opportunities. If you're not good enough, creating strategically better positions is of limited value.

Re: Learn to play Go

#47
Nice to see other go players here! Here are some go resources I like that I haven’t seen mentioned yet.

1. https://gomagic.org/ , it has free and paid content, and I learned a lot here.

2. The European go journal. A nice print publication, I’ve not lived in or near the Asian countries with a stronger go history so I’ve enjoyed getting printed problems and go news.

3. The “so you want to play go” book series by Jonathon Hop. I like his writing style.

Re: Learn to play Go

#49

My daughter has recently become obsessed with Go and now beats me half the time. I think that's good because Go helps her slow down and think before she acts.

I lesson I have yet to learn (along with everyone on the Fox go server, presumably)

Re: Learn to play Go

#50
I apologize to hijack this a bit, but do you know of similarly accessible resources about chess? So far the stuff I found online is either nerdy or explaining the basic moves to the children.
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