So I picked up Go about two weeks ago and have been playing nonstop, and I’ve come to a question I can’t seem to find good answers on, the answers I do find are conflicting. What board size is best for beginners? And furthermore… what are the key differences in them? Many books suggest beginners to play 9x9, but the actual book specifically on the board size (81 Little Lions in the learning section) notes how 9x9 is a much more aggressive game with a virtually non-existent early game and radically different starting stone placement. Other more general books like A Go Guide From A Beginner have seem to treat 9x9 like a smaller version of 19x19, including in the opening moves they suggest, but it doesn’t seem to be great info for the board size.
When it comes to 13x13, I’ve yet to read any books mentioning it at all. When I look on OGS it seems to be the case that this is - by a good margin - the least popular variant.
So my question is this: Should beginners still start with 9x9? Or does this teach bad habits for the 19x19 board due to the more aggressive nature of the smaller board that prohibits tactics like running and forces you to play bolder. Also what the 13x13 board is for I guess.
The best size is the size the beginner will enjoy the most and in my own teaching experience, beginners enjoy most the regular size of 19x19.
Forget about difficulty, a beginner will be lost on any size.
I agree that at the end of the day you should play the size you enjoy, and not be afraid to try out all three. 9x9 has an advantage that the feedback loop of gameplay to win or loss is much tighter than 19x19, but it’s also true that 9x9 is a very punishing size with a really unique feel (which some people love, but it’s not for everyone). I think that all 3 standard sizes have unique characters to them that make them well worthy of play in their own right
There’s no rule for that so it depends on your preference.
It is common to recommend 9x9. It makes for shorter games, and quicker feedback loop to learn basic good or bad moves. By removing most of the strategy to focus first on local tactics, it often helps feeling less “overwhelmed”.
From my experience (my own and other beginners I’ve seen), 9x9 is greatly favored at first, but as you can see this isn’t a universal experience so it mostly depends on you.
In any case, everything you learn on 9x9 will be useful for 19x19, you’ll just need to learn other things as well. You can try and see what you’re enjoying.
Although I like to play this size on my phone, I never heard about a book devoted to it. Anyway I found that most of the theory is similar to the one on 19x19.
Side note: favorize games over books as a 2 weeks player. Still bit early to read them is my guess.
Most books are definitely beyond my level, but I did like A Go Guide From a Beginner as it does a wonderful job of basic concepts that I found I was vaguely aware of but unable to name.
Thanks for helping clear things up about the sizes by the way. I like the perspective someone suggested of seeing 9x9 as more of a tsumego and not being afraid to play it quickly and see what works. My confusion was mostly in the openings, as 9x9 has a very different approach and I was unsure if that meant 9x9 as a whole was the same as a result.
I d say that most of the books are not providing the very basic stuff a beginner is asking for. But it’s not so easy to offer it either, because most of it is better being discovered as read.
For example let say you start exploring fighting and you have to find some right distance. Too loose and it’s not efficient but too close and answering in one move your opponent stones gains a lot of liberties, so you attack and finish to be the attacked one. Anyway you ll train to watch for your liberties, paths on the board and how your stones work together. How you get your security and little by little how you optimize your space.
The beginner has a privilege to be allowed anything which may inspire you. Later you ll have to respect and keep in view a bunch of underlying fondamentals but now you can experiment anything at will. Another source of inspiration may be to just watch some 13x13 games between very strong players. (13x13 because it’s good balance between theory and quickness). I’m not sure you can keep interest in watching games that you understand like 3% but may be another experience.
When I started I had a review of my first game by 2 strong players discussing together and it went amazing: those talked together with normal words for a few hours and I did understand like nothing. This eager me a lot and gave me a huge appetite of knowledge. So I bought books and honestly they didn’t help that much, I felt like contemplating a gem or a piece of art and that’s it. Later I did read them again with much more benefits. Finally I had the chance to find a friend interested and we play many games together in the madness of go explorers.