How best to introduce a young child to go?

[Boidhre]

Thanks for the links and ideas. One of my 5 yr old twin girls is very interested in Go. I've had her doing the opening set of of problem on GoChild. She loves the it and has a good grasp of liberties and groups now.

Working up to playing with my board and stones but she gets a little wild sometimes and the stones get scattered

We should have our kids playing against each other on KGS...

[EiggHead]

Hehe .. she'd LOVE that.

Who knows, if we ever get an KGS app for it, she'd play whenever she could on her Kindle Fire.

I'm getting back into the local club and may also explore bringing her along eventually. The other twin may get interested as well.

[oren]

Who knows, if we ever get an KGS app for it, she'd play whenever she could on her Kindle Fire.

If you put on a different rom, it will run KGS.

[Bill Spight]

Doing tsumego as a standalone puzzles will be best way to start, then atari-go.

I worry about atari-go and his age because I don't want him to think it's a game about capturing primarily. He's young enough that if he gets that idea into his head that it might be quite hard to break the habit of constantly trying to capture opposing stones.

I used to worry about the same thing. However, if you play the capture game with no passing allowed, then it is possible for the game to become one of territory. Each player avoids capture, then they fill in the dame, then they start to fill in their own territory. The first player to put himself into atari loses. Once the dame are filled, you can tell who will win by counting territory. With a group tax, of course.

Your son already knows how to play, so the capture game would probably not be worth teaching him.

The main thing is to have fun.

[EiggHead]

Who knows, if we ever get an KGS app for it, she'd play whenever she could on her Kindle Fire.

If you put on a different rom, it will run KGS.

I did read that in the Kindle Fire thread but I'll lose Amazon Services if I do that. In any case, it's no big deal if she has sit in front of my computer to play on KGS. She's getting to web savvy as it is .. too often I find her asking for "our password" and find her on some random site trying to log in.

[Boidhre]

The main thing is to have fun.

Indeed.

[Boidhre]

I'm getting back into the local club and may also explore bringing her along eventually. The other twin may get interested as well.

I brought my boy along one evening, it was too long for him though. He got quite bored with it. That said when he came home he told me he was going to do a load of go problems, play a lot of games and then crush me over the board.

[EiggHead]

That's fear too .. that'd she'd get bored .. and when she gets bored .. watch out!

But want/need to do more for her. She's already a comparatively merciless game player, seeing a clear path to victory. I want to give her the challenge of a lifetime. Small steps will do for now.

[Boidhre]

That's fear too .. that'd she'd get bored .. and when she gets bored .. watch out!

But want/need to do more for her. She's already a comparatively merciless game player, seeing a clear path to victory. I want to give her the challenge of a lifetime. Small steps will do for now.

Add me on KGS and we can organise a 9x9 game between them sometime, I think they'd both enjoy it. Beyond that, teach her the rules, warn her about losing a lot and start her at 30k on KGS.

[EiggHead]

Will do!

I've got her to thank in getting me to dig out my board, my books and finally work to start shaking off the rust. I've not played much if at all since they were born. Tomorrow is my first club meeting in years.

Hehe, I'm telling my wife that "I'm doing it all for the children!" How can she possibly object?!

[Boidhre]

Will do!

I've got her to thank in getting me to dig out my board, my books and finally work to start shaking off the rust. I've not played much if at all since they were born. Tomorrow is my first club meeting in years.

Hehe, I'm telling my wife that "I'm doing it all for the children!" How can she possibly object?!

I was a bit harder on him tonight and killed two of his groups, he got a bit upset, he really doesn't like losing. I wanted to show him that he needs to think about his groups' survival though. Next time I'll go a lot easier. He really needs opponents his own level too though to keep his confidence up. But equally he needs to learn that losing isn't the end of the world also, video games are too easy on kids.

[Mef]

If all else fails, just forbid them from playing (=

Easiest way to get a child interested in something is to tell them they shouldn't be doing it.

[Boidhre]

If all else fails, just forbid them from playing (=

Easiest way to get a child interested in something is to tell them they shouldn't be doing it.

Eh, he was demanding to do GoChild and play 9x9 games today (he can beat me with 4 stones when I'm playing fast at least) and enjoying them a lot and is starting to get philosophical about losing. It's all about balance though, I'm letting him explore it at his own pace. I might get some of my stronger friends on KGS to give him a few 9x9 games to keep things interesting for him and so he sees a wide variety of styles.

[hyperpape]

For those who have a child who plays go, how did you get them interested in the first place? Do you have a board that you keep out and replay games, did they see you getting together with friends to play, did they see games on the computer? Or did you just say "wanna learn this cool game" at some point?

I ask because my selfish side can't help but notice that I'd have more time for Go down the road if it was a wholesome family activity instead of a ridiculous hobby. Eigghead has the right idea.

[Boidhre]

For those who have a child who plays go, how did you get them interested in the first place? Do you have a board that you keep out and replay games, did they see you getting together with friends to play, did they see games on the computer? Or did you just say "wanna learn this cool game" at some point?

I ask because my selfish side can't help but notice that I'd have more time for Go down the road if it was a wholesome family activity instead of a ridiculous hobby. Eigghead has the right idea.

My son asked me what I was doing on the computer, then asked the rules, then I showed him the basics of playing, then he started watching my games or high dan games that I might be watching on the computer where he starts kibitzing. Now he's started kibitzing when I play someone in the house, which is ok but his enthusiasm for it gets the better of him and he starts playing out variations on the board midgame with his finger and imaginary stones. This is rather annoying but cute. We had to bring in rules about never touching the board when someone else is playing and so on.

He's always shown an interest in whatever games I play though. As soon as I taught him the basics of go, he demanded to be shown the rules of chess. They're like magpies at 5, he'll settle on some game or interest and I'll encourage him, until then I just make sure he's exposed to whatever he shows interest in.


Now he wants to do tsumego.

The biggest issue is setting up a game that is both useful for teaching him and gives him a chance of winning. I'm experimenting with high negative komi even 9x9 games at the moment. He gets very discouraged if he loses all the time which is hard to avoid in go.