Hey all

[Fisher]

Hey guys,

I've been both learning about go and reading these forums for about a week and a half now -- I discovered LI19x19 only just after learning of Go. I've always played video games on and off throughout my life (I'm 21), but never really got into any. I would play Halo 1 and 2 with friends online back in the day, played some Warcraft 3 for a while, but very shortly after playing something I would grow disinterested.. Most games didn't have strategy, and the ones that did too heavily emphasized things like reaction time or randomness for my tastes.

As I'm now getting ready to move on from college to the real world next year, my studies and responsibilities have grown, and I found that longer video game sessions really didn't fit my lifestyle anymore. I decided about two weeks ago that I wanted to find a turn-based strategy game for my iPhone and iPad that would offer both in-depth gameplay and the ability to pick it up and put it down at my leisure; little did I know that by searching the internet for such a videogame, I would turn up such an ancient, rich board game that I had never heard of!

When I first downloaded SmartGo, I felt like an idiot trying to play. I've been amazed at how the extremely simple rules of Go are virtually useless to you if you don't understand concepts like two-eyed living groups or exactly how the score is calculated. While it frustrated me at first, after a couple of games I grew to appreciate this curve, and I like that I had to go back to the internet and really look beyond the rule set before I could play with even elementary strategy.

I found Go completely by accident, had never heard of it, but am so excited to have the chance to really delve into its intricacies and improve my rank (or even get a rank at all!). I think that I'll be poking around here for some time; I hope you're all a patient bunch!

[Joaz Banbeck]

Welcome to L19! Yes, we're a patient bunch. We have to be: go has a frustrating learning curve. It takes so long to learn how to play a decent game that we are really patient.

[Boidhre]

Go seems to me to be an eternal learning curve, you figure out one new move and two more seem to pop up to challenge your judgement. Welcome, I hope you find this forum as useful as I have.

[EdLee]

Welcome.

[jts]

Welcome to the forums! Go really is quite deceptive, isn't it? No matter how much I play, I always find more bizarre tactics lurking around the corner. Usually at the 1-2 point, to be specific.

As for taking up Go because you want a game you won't spend a lot of time on... good luck with that!

[Buri]

Greetings,
wait till you start salivating at wooden go boards. All is lost.
BTW I really recommend taking a look at the Juan Guo internet school. Thats what helped/is helping me the most as a beginner.
Best wishes,
Buri