I'm trying to figure out how to play Go, to see if i'm interesting in playing it. That is, i don't understand the rules yet. I read a few pages on it, and understand a few things, but it hasn't "clicked" yet. It all seems so confusing.

I downloaded igowin, and win some, lose some, especially under 20 kyu. I'm having a really hard time understanding scoring. I also don't really "see" influence, connected pieces, or threatened pieces.

So, i'm not even sure what i am looking for. I need something to make it "click". Perhaps focus on one aspect at a time.

for a game with such simple rules, I really don't understand why it seem so much harder to learn from a book than by playing a person, but it does seem that way.

One of the best introductions for beginners that I've found so far is The Way to Go

I found the course here very helpful: http://www.321go.org

It starts off assuming absolutely zero knowledge and works up to decently challenging problems for a beginner.

Try Simple Rules:

http://home.snafu.de/jasiek/simple.html
http://home.snafu.de/jasiek/simpcom.html

There are different rules with different scoring but usually the result is the same with these exceptions:

http://home.snafu.de/jasiek/diffasts.html

As a beginner, you do not need to learn these differences yet. It suffices to know that they do not matter because at the end neutral intersections can be filled (almost) alternatingly.

Thanx, i'm starting with the PDF.

You can also try reading the introduction course at IGS/Pandanet
http://www.pandanet.co.jp/English/introduction_of_go/

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"Programmers who believe adding new features does not add new bugs are either new to computing or believe the tooth fairy is out there watching over them". - A.S. Tanenbaum

At the risk of overloading with instruction for absolute beginners let me point out the on-line interactive introduction: http://playgo.to/iwtg/en/

Let me recommend starting with the capture game, where the aim is to capture an opponent's stone. Then you can move up to capturing two stones, then three stones, and so on. By the time you are up to four or five stones, a lot of things should be clear.

Welcome to go!

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Sheik Yerbuti -- if that really is your name --

Sorin Gherman has a Capture game on his site you can practice against
http://361points.com/capturego/

Ooh. I'll have to check out the capture game. I want the game to become intuitive, one click at a time.

I agree with the recommendation for the interactive way to go. http://playgo.to/iwtg/en/

It's a great intro.

>I agree with the recommendation for the interactive way to go. http://playgo.to/iwtg/en/

Yeah, went through that. Was still confused as to scoring/influence.

Hop onto kgs and join the Life in 19x19 room. Someone there might be able to help.

Or the beginner's room. In practice, there will always be someone there who's happy to help a beginner, especially with a simple question like this.

The Learn to Play Go series really changed my game when I first started and was very effective in being beginner friendly. It also has a review section at the end. The most important thing though is to keep playing games as you read. Atleast 1 game per chapter.

This along with just having fun and trying to get my friends into it, as well as playing on KGS helped me to get past the beginning stuff pretty quick. Try to enjoy learning though, because with Go, you never stop

you might find this useful
http://senseis.xmp.net/?JapaneseCountingExample

(there are basicly two different rule sets/scoring/counting methods -- Japanese may be the more popular)

in fact, you may even want to start here:
http://senseis.xmp.net/?ExampleGame

If you are unsure about which group is alive and which is dead, continue playing until you are sure. If your opponent disagrees and passes, you will see at the end who was right.

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SL | EGF | KGS | GMT+1