Any tips for reading ahead?

I just can’t visualise it. Im basically a beginner and all ive really tried is tsumego

Play, play and play. It will come. (I am serious)

Tsumego: wow, wonderful if you like them. Do the easy ones, spending time on too hard one (and getting frustrated btw) is not what I would advise.

So play, have fun.

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I would say don’t try to read too far at first. I also cannot visualise very well but get on ok by thinking in terms of “if I play here, where will my opponent play?” And then “if they play there what can/should I do?”
In general, that’s enough for most situations.
And then just by playing/doing tsumego you get to learn a few standard exchanges and can treat them as one move in your thinking.

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Well sure, in a large range of levels the reading is often short in fact, but I won’t discourage someone trying to read because they make pretty good players later :grin:

But it’s not necessary at all. As beginner only playing is enough to train reading, there is a lot to digest in each game.

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Welcome at OGS. Hope you enjoy your stay.
If you search in OGS Puzzles with keywords easy or beginner you will find a lot of puzzles. Don’t do too much puzzles at once, that is just not effective. But daily about 5 puzzles (and regularly repeat the ones you already did) will help you.
Good luck.

Learn shape.

Most of the reading is just visualising shapes to the board, and if you can visualise just few moves long variation on how to make simple shape (like “the table”), you are already doing great. If you can visualise how you can make one shape for your stones, then try visualising the next shape after that etc. ^^

If you don’t feel familiar with the go shapes, i recommend watching dsaun’s shape lecture: Dsaun Shape Lecture 10 18 14 - YouTube. Knowing “basic shape” helps a ton.

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Thanks man, will do

Thank you i will have a look

Yeah ive found this has helped. I will carry on doing this

Play correspondence go, not just live… When you start dreaming about your board positions, from my experience you’re about half way towards the first stages of visualised reading… Still a long way to go to visualising multiple variations that are each several moves deep

right ok ill give it a try

I’d like to note that if you struggle with visualizing ih general, you don’t need it. I have aphantasia and can’t visualize at all basically. What I do is quite simple, making a mental note of where there would be a stone in the sequence i’m reading. I can’t see it but I know it’s there-

yeah i have a mate with aphantasia. no i dont struggle in general, with chess i can visualise fine, but thanks either way

Count the liberties (of solidly connected stones and each chopped/seperated/cut/not directly connected stone in the area). Try to visualize for both sides (as strongly for your opponent as for yourself). When you find a resistance move for your opponent, see what happens if you play there first (1-2-3 reading, playing the last move first - explained in the video). "Let's make Go easier!" by In-seong 8dan - YouTube

Follow heuristics to have an initial idea about what might be a good move.
https://senseis.xmp.net/?ThereIsDeathInTheHane
https://senseis.xmp.net/?CaptureThreeToGetAnEye
https://senseis.xmp.net/?StrangeThingsHappenAtTheOneTwoPoint

In the long run, solve good tsumego collections which’ll help you learn dead/alive shapes and common vital points, so that those are in your pocket when you’re reading and you can take it one step further.

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wow this is really helpful thanks