Beginner, with difficulty understanding the rules

chacham · Post by **chacham** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 10:49 am

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.

xed_over · Post by **xed_over** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 10:53 am

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

Boidhre · Post by **Boidhre** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 10:59 am

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.

RobertJasiek · Post by **RobertJasiek** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 11:08 am

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.

chacham · Post by **chacham** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 11:24 am

Thanx, i'm starting with the PDF.

gowan · Post by **gowan** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 11:40 am

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

Bill Spight · Post by **Bill Spight** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 11:46 am

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!

xed_over · Post by **xed_over** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 11:54 am

Bill Spight wrote: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!

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

chacham · Post by **chacham** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 11:56 am

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

oren · Post by **oren** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 12:10 pm

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

It's a great intro.

chacham · Post by **chacham** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 3:16 pm

>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.

oren · Post by **oren** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 3:21 pm

chacham wrote:>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.

jts · Post by **jts** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 3:53 pm

oren wrote:
chacham wrote:>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.

hettingerjm · Post by **hettingerjm** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 6:23 pm

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

xed_over · Post by **xed_over** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 9:46 pm

chacham wrote:>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.

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

Life In 19x19

Beginner, with difficulty understanding the rules

Beginner, with difficulty understanding the rules

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