Life In 19x19

My name's Bruno. I started playing about three weeks ago, so I'm still pretty terrible, but I decided to make an account anyway, even though I'll probably spend most of my time here lurking. I was introduced to go about 2 years ago, when, predictably enough, I read Hikaru no Go, but only learned the basic rules so I could understand what they were talking about in the manga, and never actually played a game until I saw a thread on another forum about it, and that got me interested.

I currently have no rank on KGS (not sure how many games you have to play to get one, but I haven't played nearly enough and I still lost them all). I want to become a better player, so I decided to start getting more serious about it. I bought The Second Book Of Go yesterday (even though it's technically my first book), and wanted to buy an exercise book as well, but it was more expensive than I expected, so I guess I'll have to go with whatever exercises I can find online for now.

I was born in Portugal, but am currently living in Canada, so if anyone knows any good places to either buy go-related things or play in the York Region, I'd be very thankful, as it isn't very practical to have to go downtown every time I want to buy something.

Not much else to say, I guess. I look forward to learning from all of you!

Welcome.

I currently have no rank on KGS (not sure how many games you have to play to get one, but I haven't played nearly enough and I still lost them all).

KGS doesn't need many games to start guessing your rank, but it works best with a mixture of wins and losses, so it's probably waiting for you to win a game.

I want to become a better player, so I decided to start getting more serious about it. I bought The Second Book Of Go yesterday (even though it's technically my first book), and wanted to buy an exercise book as well, but it was more expensive than I expected, so I guess I'll have to go with whatever exercises I can find online for now.

If you haven't already found them, the Beginners Room and KGS Teaching Ladder are both good places for learning on KGS. People will be happy to help you with any questions you have, and it's easier to find opponents of the right strength when you're at the lower end of the ranking system.

You may also be interested in www.goproblems.com and http://gochild2009.appspot.com/ for go problems, but if you just want to start getting a good grip on the game your best bet is to keep playing games. There is a common go proverb 'lose your first 50 games as quickly as possible'. It is good advice

Welcome, Bruno! Feel free to drop by the L19 room on KGS to ask someone for a game.

There are lots of great beginner exercises here:
http://senseis.xmp.net/?BeginnerExercises

amnal wrote:KGS doesn't need many games to start guessing your rank, but it works best with a mixture of wins and losses, so it's probably waiting for you to win a game.

Might take a while then.

amnal wrote:If you haven't already found them, the Beginners Room and KGS Teaching Ladder are both good places for learning on KGS. People will be happy to help you with any questions you have, and it's easier to find opponents of the right strength when you're at the lower end of the ranking system.

You may also be interested in http://www.goproblems.com and http://gochild2009.appspot.com/ for go problems, but if you just want to start getting a good grip on the game your best bet is to keep playing games. There is a common go proverb 'lose your first 50 games as quickly as possible'. It is good advice

Thanks. I've been to the Teaching Ladder once, and it was actually great, I learned a lot from the game I played. I'll start going there more often.
I already know about goproblems.com, and I try to do the problems every once in a while, but sometimes even with the explanations, I find it hard to understand, especially with the tesuji problems.

jts wrote:There are lots of great beginner exercises here:
http://senseis.xmp.net/?BeginnerExercises

Oh, I can't believe I hadn't found that yet! Thanks!

Yotsuba .

Welcome.

Araban wrote:Yotsuba .

Mayuushi

Thank you all for the warm welcome, by the way!