Life In 19x19

My highest priority, in teaching my young kids how to play, has been attitude. Losing (and winning) graciously is not something that comes naturally to most of us, but it can be taught at a younger age than most people realize. Before every game, we have the following conversation:

"What will you ...

I have never used opening plays other than 33, 34, or 44, but that's probably pretty common. Let's see...

I rarely consider any pincer other than the 1 space low, especially when working from a 44 point. After the 33 corner invasion, you either have a weak shape or you give up sente to defend ...

2/4... I'm every bit as good as a random monkey!

Don't bother with girls/ boys/ whatever who want flowers.

"Hey baby, want to come to my place and... ... try out some joseki variations?" is an excellent pickup line. It weeds out the riffraff.

Another virtual hug. Let us know when you're back in the game.

For that amount of money you can get a nice balanced library.

Developing reading ability is probably the quickest way to improve, though a lot of people find it boring, so:

* Tesuji (Elementary Go Series)
* Life and Death (also EGS)

Those are classics. If you want more reading practice, I'd ...

Some good advice so far.

I think the main thing is to know you'll get past it. I often have vicious losing streaks right before going up a rank... it just takes a while to process new ideas. Important thing is not to let yourself get so frustrated you give up completely. So taking a break may be ...