Hi (Beginner in Sweden)

[pobe]

Hello!

I almost got into go a few years back, but not quite. Got myself a miniature set (19x19 wood board, but very small with plastic stones) but never really started playing. Recently I found it in my basement and thought "hey, perhaps it's time to learn this game".

The feeling of those small plastic stones weren't very enjoyable though, so I made myself a full size goban (first 19x19, then 13x13 and 9x9 as well) and bought a set of 10mm glass stones.

Still haven't gotten around to playing much though, the local go club doesn't meet during the summer (I will go there when they start in september!) and staying at home with two small kids doesn't leave much time...

I want to play more with real stones on a real board before diving into net play. Played a game on KGS yesterday and got crushed, but I wasn't expecting any other result.

I live in Uppsala, Sweden. There's a tournament in Stockholm this weekend and I'll probably go there just to check it out and meet some players IRL.

This seems like a nice place, I already enjoy reading through discussions even when I don't even understand half of it...

[EdLee]

Welcome!

[TheBigH]

Hello and welcome!

[jts]

Welcome to the forums.

[Chew Terr]

Howdy, and welcome!

[tekesta]

Welcome to LifeIn19x19.com! We encourage you to keep playing Go. It is a richly rewarding game and we are confident that you will not regret choosing to learn it.

Whenever you do not have time to play actual games, you can do these two things. One, do many easy tsumego. By "easy", I mean that the solution can be found in 60 seconds or less. Since the endgame is where most games of Go are decided, you might want to begin with life & death and tesuji problems. You can do other categories such as middle game and fuseki, but the aforementioned two categories are considered to be fundamental since they help develop tactical skills and the ability to anticipate the outcomes of different patterns of moves. (Go is a game of strategy, but every strategy is carried out tactical exchange by tactical exchange.) The more of these you do, the better, but even 15 minutes a day or, say, three 10-minute sessions a day is effective. There are online stores that sell tsumego books and online documents where problem collections can be found. Here is one place you can go to: http://tsumego.tasuki.org http://www.goproblems.com is another place to go for problems. As for books, you may want to look at the Speed Baduk series by Kim Seong-Rae or Kano Yoshinori's Graded Go Problems for Beginners. I've had positive experiences with both.

Also, replay professional game records on a regular basis if possible. Twice a week is fine. This does two things. One, it accustoms the mind to the patterns of plays that occur in a game of Go and, two, you observe what a game of Go between two skilled players looks like. It is time consuming to play through a game record with 150 or 200 moves, but this helps develop mental stamina and patience, two things desirable for Go players.

http://www.gocommentary.com/ has commented videos of professional games, narrated by a strong Chinese amateur player known as "countsheep". The commentary therein will help you to understand why X professional played Y move in Z game. GoCommentary.com has many helpful videos, of which a fair number are available for purchase.

May your enjoyment of this marvellous game increase

[pobe]

Thanks everyone!

tekesta, very encouraging post indeed! I went to the tournament in Stockholm and really liked the atmosphere. Bought one of the Graded Problems books, been working through it as well as doing problems online. I've also been replaying old pro games and find that I kind of understand at least parts of what's going on. Still having trouble finding time to actually play, I'll probably go ahead and play online even though I'd prefer to play more on an actual goban first.

[goTony]

I too enjoy playing with real people and stones. I found showing my friends the game, that I got a few interested. Good luck finding people to play with.

[Rowen]

Welcome!