Life In 19x19

College student here interested in learning to play Go. I'm a pretty good chess player, but I've started to like the aesthetics of Go and would like to expand my knowledge.

Cheers!

Hi BinRoot! I also used to play chess a lot when I was younger. Some members here still do play chess. Do you play on any particular Go servers? If not, KGS is a good server to paly on. Anyway, I hope you come to enjoy both the game of Go and this forum .

Welcome to the forums.

This thread *might* be of interest to you.

September Tournament: 19x19 DDK

As a chess player you probably have some advantage since reading moves becomes more important as you improve.

Welcome to the forum and enjoy your time with go.

Hey, and welcome! College, eh? What's your major? There are already a lot of us computer-types.

Glad you're here, be sure to ask any questions you might have.

Dusk Eagle wrote:Do you play on any particular Go servers? If not, KGS is a good server to paly on. Anyway, I hope you come to enjoy both the game of Go and this forum .

I downloaded Panda-glGo and I think that's the "IGS" server. Is KGS better?

Chew Terr wrote:Hey, and welcome! College, eh? What's your major? There are already a lot of us computer-types.

Haha, good guess! I'm actually dual majoring in Computer Science and Mathematics!

rubin427 wrote:This thread *might* be of interest to you.

September Tournament: 19x19 DDK

Hmm That looks fun. I'll look into that.

Welcome to L19.

You will find that many of your chess playing skills will transfer, particularly the ability to make and prune decision trees.
The biggest change from chess will probably be the 'where to focus' problem. In chess, there is usually one battle going on ( occasionally two if the center is locked up with pawns ). In go, there are usually several, sometimes a dozen or more.

To get stronger, post a game in the 'game analysis' sub-forum.

But go is most easily learned in person. Visit your local club if you can. Have a look at http://usgo.org/cgi-bin/chapters.cgi

Joaz Banbeck wrote:But go is most easily learned in person. Visit your local club if you can. Have a look at http://usgo.org/cgi-bin/chapters.cgi

Woah, I just learned there's a Go club in my city!

BinRoot wrote:
I downloaded Panda-glGo and I think that's the "IGS" server. Is KGS better?

KGS is much better for beginners. It is friendlier, more social, and it's easier to learn.

IGS is great for stronger players to get games, but its ranking system is completely broken at the beginner levels, and people don't chat a lot.

I recommend KGS!

Hi there and welcome! If you're ever decide to play on KGS and want someone to play with, look for me. My handle is the same as my name here. I'm not so far off the beginner scale myself.

Good luck in school! I'm just finishing up my second BA myself...eeehh.... ;D

amnal wrote:KGS is much better for beginners.

True. Apart from the "Beginner Class" the IGS ranking system starts with 17k. And 17k on IGS is roughly equivalent to 12k on KGS. So once you're around 12k on KGS, IGS is a good alternative.

amnal wrote:It is friendlier

Not necessarily. I had much less escapers and insults on IGS.

amnal wrote:more social

True. There's much more chatting on KGS. If you like that, then KGS is surely the better choice.

amnal wrote:and it's easier to learn

True. I've tried to resume a game that was interrupted by bad connection and failed because I didn't know how to do. The help function of the GUI (glGo) didn't tell anything about that. So I had to switch to console mode and dig through the help function of each command (there was no "resume" command, so I had to check out all of them). I lost four games because of this

Ok, I don't know how to resume a game on KGS either (well, I've never been in the situation that I had to), but it can't be more difficult than on IGS...

karaklis wrote:I don't know how to resume a game on KGS

Next to the Custom Game button there is a Resume button that will be italicized if you have any unfinished games. Simply click on it, then select the game. If your opponent is still in the game, you're good to go, otherwise you may have to ask them to come back.

(This is from memory, so some details may be wrong.)

karaklis wrote:True. I've tried to resume a game that was interrupted by bad connection and failed because I didn't know how to do. The help function of the GUI (glGo) didn't tell anything about that. So I had to switch to console mode and dig through the help function of each command (there was no "resume" command, so I had to check out all of them). I lost four games because of this

yeah, the IGS help system sucks, and is incomplete.

to resume a disconnected game on IGS, I believe its the 'load' command. 'load whiteplayer-blackplayer' (or something like that)

Anyway, I hope you come to enjoy both the game of Go and this forum .

Moderator Edit: Please don't spam.

Hi welcome