I'm quite new at go and I'm still learning the basics. With enough practise and patience that'll work itself out. The only thing I miss at the moment is knowing what I'm doing wrong (I play against the computer for the moment).
I'd like to play people but since I haven't really gotten a grasp of the game yet, I don't want to waste anyone's time

I played this 9 x 9 game against Cosumi. He obviously beat me, but I feel I did okay. However the program tells me that I made a mistake at move 9. Could someone explain why? I thought that move forced him to the side while I got influence over the middle, where I already had a stone.

Any other tips obviously very much appreciated as well!

Game link: http://www.cosumi.net/en/replay/?b=You&w=COSUMI&k=0&r=w28&bs=9&l=0&gr=eecfcdgcgfdgfhbdcebedfdhcgbfchdigdfbbcccaccbcabbddhdegbgffighgieghhhhfiffchcebecfefdeddcfcgbfdhigiiheiciehbhhetttt&ds=caebacbc&bm=ebe

was supposed to cut off . Hané at the spot marked "good move", is nobi (extension) to save , then Black connects at the 3-5 point in preparation for killing one or the other White group. In the actual game, your move made White's lower side group stronger. If after at 2-5 White does not nobi, Black captures with a play at 1-5 after playing at the 2-7 point.

Since there are only so many points on the board, as the number of stones increase there will be fights between opposing groups and cutting off enemy stones while rescuing your stones is an essential skill. If one side is going to get more points, it only follows that the other will lose points.

Beginners often struggle with analyzing capture situations. To capture stones or save them from capture, it is necessary to count on sight the number of liberties, or, more precisely, turns, available to two competing groups before capture occurs. Mastering the concept of liberties and capture is essential to understanding the concept of life & death, which is the category that deals with assessing whether a group of stones can be subject to capture or not and how to proceed towards the intended result. If a group of stones cannot be legally captured, it is considered to be "alive". If a group of stones is subject to legal capture at all times, then it is considered to be "dead". A group of stones is defined as any chain of stones solidly connected along orthogonal lines. There are techniques the beginner learns to increase the number of liberties available to his/her groups of stones, reduce the number of liberties available to the opponent's groups of stones, or both.

Below are a couple of model games to learn from. (COSUMI is playing at difficulty level 0 in both games.) This is a game in which Black wins by 10 points. Notice how Black did not attempt to attack White from the start.



Here, Black won by 3 points, despite making a mistake in reading out a capture by White. As well, was to be at 9-4 instead of 7-1, as White can take advantage of the kiri (cut) 6-5 and 7-6 to capture 2 Black stones. A couple more mistakes by Black appear in this game. I will let you think about them before giving my answer.



If you have a smartphone, I recommend downloading the Tsumego Pro app. It has hundreds of interactive Go puzzles and if, after several tries, you have difficulty getting the right answer, there is a feature indicated by a question mark (?) that you can press to be guided through the correct solution. Though, knowing the right answer is not as important as knowing why the right answer is the right answer.

As you are just beginning to learn Go, there will be moments along the way when things get really hard and you feel like giving up. Well, I've learned that learning Go is like learning language. You learn individual bits such as phonemes and words in language, and individual moves such as shoulder hits, jumps, and attachments in Go, but each bit can be applied in a wide variety of contexts to derive meaning and so know how to proceed. Just as one word in a language can mean one thing in one context and quite another in another context, so can one particular move in Go have different implications in different contexts. Hopefully this can serve as brisk encouragement to persist in what can often be a heartbreaking game.

Thanks a lot!
I've the patience to learn Go. Love the proverb: lose your first 50 games as quickly as possible. It's great to have such a challenge ahead of me.
I've got tsumego and there are permanently 4 of the problems laid out on my Go board. I study on them until I have the answer, then check on the phone and put a new situation (4 corners - 4 situations)

It's tough to see any more mistakes in that final game you posted.
Except maybe move 21 isn't immediately necessary, instead you could come in at like 4-8 or something to reduce white's territory, or wouldn't that work out? If you could connect to your wall, you'd take away some points from white, I guess.

Played a full game againgt Cosumi today.
It didn't go fantastic but I feel like I'm getting some basics at the very least.
Still lost big time though.

Advice on how to improve my game will be greatly appreciated!
(so what do I do wrong, what do I do right, what should I never do again and what are my early strenghts/weaknesses?)

Eager to learn

EDIT: actually forgot to attach the link and now it's lost

Hello!
I would recommend you try out some online server like OGS, they have in general bots that play at your level but also other beginners. For me it was really cool to play with someone my level when i was just starting.

There are quiet a few introductory go books available, some free to download. They are a really good source to grasp the fundamentals.

Another advice i would give you is to concentrate right now in how to capture: semeais, those capturing races in both are taking each others liberties and the one who has more generally wins ;
Ladders



And nets



You can review your games and see if at some point you could have captured using one of those methods.

About tsumego pro, the problems in general are too hard even the easy ones. I would recommend getting the first volume of graded go problems for begginers, using the puzzle section of OGS and/or using goproblems, a page with a lot of tsumegos.

About the last game Tekesta showed, you said :21: wasn't necessary, how would you stop white from entering your territory after white takes that point? Compare the difference between blocking there and letting white push.

A link that may be useful https://forums.online-go.com/t/ogs-link ... ion/2809/5 (It doesnt seem like advertising, i hope it isnt agaisnt the rules to post that)

Keep up the good work, hope to see some more games

Thanks a lot for your help! I've made an account on OGS and played a few games. I'll post them here for analysis. I made some very stupid mistakes, though. It got a bit frustrating near the end but I had been playing over 2 hours so I'm just beat, I reckon.









I'm playing a game now that's a big better, though. Have that one in the bag but still a few moves left
Overall a tough first day on OGS. I'm beat. Need some mental rest now

Here is a link to a good book for beginners.

http://agfgo.org/downloads/LoveBaduk.pdf

The curriculum laid out therein lasts a week, so it's a good introductory guide if you want to get a grasp of something right away.

Playing more 9x9 games against COSUMI will help. However, be sure to pay attention to the post-game reviews and apply what you learn from them. This is a good time to learn the names of different moves, known as tesuji. Here is a list to get you started.

http://senseis.xmp.net/?Tesuji

It takes time to learn tesujis in Go, but once you learn them they stick. As they say, practice makes perfect!

A few comments on your OGS game against NguyenMinh:

should not be at R17. Playing this move at D17 is probably better as there is more space for development in the top left corner than in the top right.
is too close to the White stones in the top left corner. C10 or D10 is better.
should be at C10 to begin making a base for Black using a knight's jump to the 3rd line, as is too high.

Of course there are lots of mistakes by Black in this game, mainly tactical ones. The number of such errors that occur in each game should decrease with constant practice and refinement. One positive is that Black tries to play a proper opening. Which is good, except that poor tactics will render even the best-played fuseki useless. Thus, increasing tactical proficiency is top priority at the moment.

Beginners like yourself will at first have difficulty creating stone groups immune to capture. Below is a tutorial on how to create such groups.

http://senseis.xmp.net/?HaengmaTutorial ... gPositions

As well, a wider list under the same topic.

http://senseis.xmp.net/?Haengma

Knowing these will help you learn how to make group shapes that are optimal for making live groups.

If you like we can play a correspondence game on OGS. I am "slashpine" on that server.