That's different, since he can always redo it, until it is complete/perfect, but a go game happens only once.

Beginner is such a vague term, it can have a lot of different meanings depending on which criteria you choose to define it. I guess when people use it on themselves they try to indicate that they still are quite a bit worse than how they would like to be.

I can keep playing go until I am perfect too...

Or Roger Federer is a tennis beginner because he made an unforced error in the Wimbledon final? (If you want a non repeatable game situation).

Beginners are 初心者
After 初心者 are　級位者
After 級位者 is 有段者　and　高段者

You can take the literal translation of the characters but that is not how it is used in Japanese Go.

World chess champ Kramnik missed a mate in one once, with 30 minutes still on the clock. Most chess players would not make a mistake like that unless they were totally drunk.

And professionals have played self-atari of large groups.

There you go, that sounds like a perfect reason why they are not satisfied with their skill-level.

That's a matter of the context in which "beginner" is meant. Similar to a BA (or BS) being a "beginning" degree for a career in academia.

But here are my thoughts on the initial question. First of all, I don't think particular strength levels can/should be associated with "beginner". Rather, and amount of time/number of games from one's first games. That's because there are a few of us who perhaps read the rules in a book, walked through a number of games in books, perhaps a book of the proverbs with examples of their application, and so might have begun playing their first actual games at around 10 kyu.

At the same time, there are some of us who though we have played many games, never seem to get very good But there might be a difference between not knowing some fundamental and making mistakes in its application. I suggest that we consider what would be that package of fundamentals that we would consider a person would have had to come to understand (that the fundamental existed) even though they might still be making mistakes of application.

Here's the start of a list (I am not going to try to be complete; we all should add things. Or argue for the removal of something). What has to be learned to advance beyond "beginner"?

1) Knowing the fundamental live and dead shapes.
2) Understanding ladders.
3) The importance of getting out.
4) Seki.

Yes.

Hi Mike,

One interesting property shared by all four of the above is
that the understanding of each is a continuum.

Beginner isn't a useful word to use here, mainly because of the strong connotations it carries in English around "recently started playing" and similar. Novice is more useful but as Uberdude points out it'll rankle some people because again there are quite a few negative connotations. There's no good fix here really, in sports in my country people aspire to be a junior hurler or to play intermediate for their country, these are near elite levels of competition in the more competitive teams, whereas there's no such aspiration to be on the junior soccer team, unless you're 10.

That said, the argument does boil down to trying to find a nice way of saying, "you're not that good yet." Comparing to some arbitrary level of strength for that which is considered good. The 2k is king of the small city club but a minnow in the capital or whatever.

Depends; in a forum thread asking to define what a beginner is, then I consider myself a beginner. On a resume or during an interview, I am a pro-level grand master.

LOl!!!

_________________
Walla Walla GO Club -(on FB)

We play because we enjoy the beauty of the game, the snap and feel of real stones, and meeting interesting people. Hope to see ya there! お願いします!

Anthony

A beginner is someone who has not been playing very long. I am being facetious. You meant what should be considered "beginner level". That question can be answered by reading books aimed at beginners. They usually explain

• The rules
• Two eyes make life
• Ladders+Nets
• What is ko
• Opening theory in three words: Corners-sides-center

I've heard many times from older Koreans, "Don't play baduk if you don't know nets and ladders." A variant of that is "You know everything there is to know if you know dansoo, nets, and ladders." The spirit of both sayings seems to be that you can consider yourself a graduate of the beginner class if you know nets and ladders. Of course, that is a very arbitrary line, but that is the nature of the question you have asked. You will get the results of a survey, and not an authoritative answer.