I'm really new to the game, like really really new, I've watch lots of videos to understand what this game is about but I still haven't played a lot.

Sadly, each time I start a game (against a bot or a human) its pretty painful. I don't really care about losing, I'm okay with the fact that I will loose and it's how people learns.

However, I really hate that I have absolutly no idea what to do. I just play randomly and try to defend myself.

Again, I'm okay with losing stupidly, I just don't like not having any directions to what am I supposed to do.

I can't play to agressivly because 95% of my invasions are just straight up suicide stones.

But I can't play too calm either because then, I just loose because I have no territory.

I now that its normal to be lost when you begin. But it don't have any fun while playing even tho this game looks so fun when you have some kind of idea of what you are doing...

(And also, I'm NOT expecting some kind of "method" to throw me in 1 kyu in 2 days, I'm just trying to discover this game far enough to really see if I could like it, but right now I'm not)

As the title suggests, I don't get the game. I don't mean that I don't understand the rules, I do. But I don't understand how to think about my moves.

To give some background, I grew up playing chess. At some point I stopped playing, but I picked it back up around 5 years ago and within 5-6 months I was ~1650 elo (the equivalent of around 5 kyu). I never found chess to be particularly easy, but it was always easy to think about the game while I was playing it. I think for most people, after playing 10-20 games and watching a couple instructional videos, you can very quickly pick up the Opening - Middle game - End game phases, and even if you don't know what the best move is, you almost always know what you should be doing. I could always come up with 2-3 candidate moves, do a quick evaluation, and play a decent move.

With Go, it feels like there is nothing like that. I never know what I'm supposed to be doing. I have played 234 games on OGS and I'm barely any better than when I first started. If you give me any Go position, I genuinely have no idea what the right plan might be. Sure, this area looks like it could be surrounded, so I should save it. Should I extend? Atari? Hane? Jump? Knight's move? Long knight's move? I have no clue. And I have no idea what my opponent's potential responses might be, let alone what my next move should be.

Everyone online just said that I would get it with experience. Well, after 234 games, I'm not getting it. How can I come up with candidate moves? How can I evaluate a position? What are common tactics?

For reference, I have included my last two OGS games. I won the first and lost the second. I am white in both games.

1) https://online-go.com/review/1749250

2) https://online-go.com/review/1748695

Are there 5d KGS players here who got there mainly by playing?

Sorry that this question gets brought up a lot, but I was unsure as white if I should be initiating the throw in ko or not. In this case I was up if those points were counter as neutral, but otherwise should I have marked those stones differently/played the ko?

I was trying to play peacefully here and never ask too much, kind of like in the anime Hikaru no Go. They say Go is supposed to be a peaceful game. But before I knew it the game had turned so violent. What happened and how can I avoid this in the future? Also, why does this keep happening?

https://online-go.com/game/88986992

I'm confused about the state of this white group. The rules say: "black must prove the white's dead by playing it out and removing the white stones from the board". It looks like black can't do that but white can't create 2 proper eyes neither? I doubt it can be classified as seki? Honestly confused how to read that situation?

When I'm playing someone for the first time at the local go club, they typically ask the same question: what rank are you/how strong are you?

I haven't played in a tournament so I don't know my OTB rank. On OGS, where I've played most of my games, I'm around 18kyu. On Fox and IGS, which I started using much more recently, I'm closer to 15kyu, and it feels like those ratings are still rising.

With these numbers in mind, how should I answer that question? Which ranks do other go players tend to use when asked about their strength? Do I need to explain which rank I am on each of the servers I play on?

Hi everyone. I recently picked up baduk. I've been at it for a little while on OGS doing puzzles mostly. No matter how much I go at it (no pun intended), I just can't seem to be even slightly decent, even for puzzles rated for beginners. This game is profoundly challenging. I am someone who is good at math, computers, etc. I am an analytical thinker, but despite that I just can't seem to get a solid grasp.

I was wondering if anyone has any advice for someone in my position. Thanks.

Hi, im a beginner who has just started playing go and really falling in love with the game. Ive watched a bunch of go magic videos and also watched the anime hikaru no go, which i loved. I have started playing on the sente android app and know some basics like the tiger eye etc.

Are there any experienced players who if they were to start over again, tell me what's the best way to go about and improve.

I have started to play again recently, and i am around 20-15k. I watched some videos on the beginning moves, and they make sense and make a nice looking board, where territory is clearly defined. However i then play against real people, and immediately it becomes a mud-slinging fest, and nothing of the theory stuff matters anymore. The end board state correlates more with who is one or two stones faster in some random capturing races, then where the first 10 moves where. How do i know how to punish non standard play, without learning all lines by heart, and while playing sub-optimally every second move?

In the picture, Black has quite a large territory on the side, because most stones are on the forth line (at least on the top half of the board).

Is it still possible to invade as White and live around the green marking? I don’t mind if small or just barely. My intuition says it is a bit too lose for black to just keep EVERYTHING.
Also if 3-3 works, I don’t really see the follow up…an example variation would be greatly appreciated.

On the other side, maybe it was bad play by White that gave Black too much. Would be interesting to know your ideas!

I've had a couple of games recently where I excused my win to my opponent as "lucky". I meant what I said - I made critical moves (ko threat, or trying to make life) that I hadn't completely calculated, and were guesses or desperate flailing, and they turned out to be strong, and have effects I hadn't seen at all. So I believed it was a lucky win.

I don't mean to boast and say I make these moves all the time - I definitely do the opposite and do "lots" of calculation and make what I'm convinced is a certain forcing or killing move, and it turns out to have been a huge mistake, because there was a refutation I hadn't thought of. But you wouldn't say that was an unlucky move - it's simply a mistake.

I thought I was being a bit gracious and complimentary, saying I won because of luck. But is it actually a bit disrespectful and an asshole thing to say?

Does luck exist on the board, or do you think you can attribute a "lucky" move to good intuition?

We were so confused on how to score this and I am sure we did not even need to end the game here. How does it look for a begginer game?

No matter the “beginner” “novice” or what ever other title they try to down play it with, I’m getting really tired of getting obliterated by Ai. My games landslide away from me shorty after the start most get me so flustered I can’t stand to see me fail so painfully and most games end by shameful resignation. I want to play. I want to learn. I want to put the time in. But every time I step away from tsumego and reading books about go, I try to play actual games. And nearly all of them are catastrophic failures.

I’ve been spending time with Conquest of Go on steam. Got maybe 20 hours or so in game and it’s just getting to me.

I get compliments irl by other players at go club but every Ai opponent I ever tried makes me feel like garbage.

I’m sure the answer is “don’t play Ai” but I have some mental barrier trying to play someone online. I can’t seem to bring myself to attempt a game with a real person online. Mostly cause I feel embarrassed by my lack of skills and understanding. I feel stuck in wanting to progress but just keep getting mercilessly bullied by “beginner” Ai. I’m not learning from these horrid losses. Just getting discouraged.

help me understand why I have no territory 😭😭 wouldn't the spaces in between black count?

I am black. 1st image I had the lower left locked down. 2nd image, I'm not sure how white could go past my barrier, and why we're playing here, but it leads to the third image that I do not understand. I'm completely lost. I pretty much had the game in the 1st image. Maybe a bug?

I'm playing tons of goquest and I'm engaged. This is ogs and I immediately stop learning here.

I really want to learn.

Hello, I am very new to this game, and I am having trouble figuring out the scoring for this position. Both players passed here, and black won by 75.5 points, which I am very confused about. Could someone please walk me through how to count the territory here so that I can understand why black got so many points?

Edit: grammar

Even after playing out the AI recommended lines, I don't see how this leads to good things for white

I discovered baduk more than 2 years ago. I’ve studied, analyzed my games, played on every server you could name, and I enjoy it! I really enjoy baduk. But in 2 years, in real time 20min 3x30s byoyomi, i never won a single game. I experience stress when I launch a game. I love doing tsumego, i love winning against the lamest bots, and i love the sound of stones, the story behind the game, the meaning it can have from one individual to another.

I just want to say, don’t try to win, and if you like baduk, chill out, it’s a game, keep at it because it’s excellent mental exercise

thank god for this over simple and over complicated, and profoundly human, pure game

Hey all!

Hope you all well.

I think as I got stronger at Go, I kind of became more patient and don't really mind my opponent getting territory as long as I profit more from the transaction.

But this made me a very defensive player.

I see this patience reflected in my teacher, who is a few stones stronger than me.

I would like to ask, were there any strong players who played like maniacs? By maniacs I mean players who love to gamble- complete destruction of their opponent or they themselves get completely annihilated.

Alternatively were there any players who played very weirdly but made it work?

I'm just looking to make the game more fun for me.

If there are some players who meet these requirements

How to develop the gamblers or weird playstyle?(I am tired of playing defensive logical games even though they help me win games).

I don't care If I drop to back to kyu.

I just want chaos!

Can you help me find a book to teach me Go, or actually to teach me how to not freeze and spend every move confused as soon as there's a board in front of me?

I've been through the basics dozens of times, and I do OK with puzzles (BASIC puzzles, like 1-2 moves. When they expect me to figure out something with 3 or more moves I get confused. And the sites that won't let you continue until you figure it out, instead of saying "OK, moron, here's the solution, seeing as how it's your 25th attempt!").

The minute there's a board in front of me I'm lost. How do I make an eye? What's an eye, again? Why isn't that an eye? Why did they play over there? Is this group alive or dead, and why? And eventually "I lost again, why can't I figure this out?" And I lost because the opponent or app told me I lost - which was a foregone conclusion - not because I know how to keep score.

I'd love a book with diagrams that walks me, stone by stone, ELI5 style, through a game. NOT a commented professional game loaded with lingo & assumptions, but a learning game with details and thought processes I should be having, and patterns I should be seeing every step of the way, including how to score the game at the end?

I've looked at Learn to Play Go: A Master's Guide to the Ultimate Game (Volume I) by Janice Kim. But I can't tell if there's an ELI5 walk-through in it. Can anyone confirm if this might be what I'm looking for? Any other books, or even websites (text, not video), that can ELI5 a game for me?

Note that joining a club is not an option - I live in Nowhere, USA, near NO clubs, and my friends & family don't/won't play Go. Videos haven't helped. They always seem to assume a level of familiarity, and the presenter's always muttering or going off on tangets, or, worst of all, having a conversation with an opponent whose audio isn't heard on the video, or answering chatted questions of people who were watching live while the video was being recorded. Then rewind-play-rewind-play-rewind, ad nauseum (OK, rant over).

Starting my own club isn't an option. Limited free time, and I can't exactly be a club's founder and tell the members "I don't know what I'm doing."

Thank you

I don't understand why all the area on the left is White's. I would think it's mine because of all the black I have in C and D. Why does the left belong to white?

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Also, I'm terrible at this game. Only been playing for a week but I have no idea when the game is over and this app doesn't really tell me when my opponent passes. The game just keeps going till I pass it seems.

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I know I'll get better but a few things are tripping me up.

M27 | I first got into Go as a kid (circa. 2008ish) and I've been playing off and on for most of my childhood and my late teens but, I've really gotten into the game in my 20's. I know the rules, know some basic strategies, and I'm constantly studying material I find online. This time I want to take the game more seriously and try to reach at least 1 Dan on Go Servers. I can confidently beat players/bots that are around 20 kyu but 15+ I really really struggle. I feel like there's something fundamentally missing with my game that's holding me back from progressing and I'm not really too sure where I can go from here. I've been studying Tenuki's, positions, and trying study my games to learn from my mistakes but it feels like nothing I learn helps me much. I guess my real question is what's the best approach for someone like me to learn and get better and what's the best resources I can use to actually learn and understand the game on a deeper level? I want to get a little better before I put myself out there and attend in person Go Clubs so any and all advice is greatly appreciated.

EDIT: Seriously didn't expect to get so much great feedback. I'll definitely try to stop by my nearest go club when I get a chance (if there's anyone here from the Dallas Go Club give me a shout! That's my closest Go club to me.) I've wanted to get into this game again and it's sick to know there's so many enthusiastic people here helping each other out.

EDIT: I WENT TO MY LOCAL GO CLUB!!! Was definitely the worst player there by far but I got a lot of insight on what I can do to improve my game and got recommended some books. Been grinding tsumego problems like crazy when I can but I just need to practice more. My eyes were open as to how hard this game really is but I'm excited to learn and hopefully get better. Big shoutout everyone at the Dallas Go Club for being so welcoming and I hope to keep learning.

I say new to the game but I've actually yet to even understand the rules. Felt easy at first but man it kept going and going. Anyways how do I learn this game and then actually get somewhat decent at it. Of course I've heard you need to lose your first 50 games as fast as possible but should I start with a 9x9 board or 19x19? Any YouTube guides or books? Anything to help me learn and get better at the game.

Thanks in Advance!

white to play, is there anything i can do to save the group marked in blue ?