I often refer to it as Baduk, because to me Go is a programming language
8 Likes
“Go is a programming language”
Now that’s a controversial one!
21 Likes
Probably not that controversial since I’ve talked about these before:
-
Encouraging 17kyu - 25kyu players to focus exclusively on tsumego as a learning tool will only confuse them. Until they understand sente/gote, settling their stones, the stages of the game, life/death, shape, and living shape - tsumego will teach them to play the right moves at the wrong times (i.e. tsumego will NOT help you much during the Opening or the early transition to Midgame, etc).
-
Having 20kyu - 25kyu players play ONLY 9x9 games for months on end, and never try a 19x19 game will teach them all sorts of habits that will actively hurt them when they eventually try 19x19 (i.e. start in the middle and contact fight to the end). I think 9x9 can be a great learning tool, but players need to be informed that the strategy/tactics for different sizes of board are VERY DIFFERENT, and don’t necessarily translate from one to the other.
8 Likes
I don’t know much about the structure of the AGA and other go associations. I only know the NGoB (Dutch go association) and I know the EGF a little bit.
I know the Dutch go association more because I’m a board member since 2018. But I have to say my impression before and after I became a board member, is that it has quite a flat hierarchy. And it’s quite easy to become a board member, because we have a hard time filling vacancies. Perhaps that is because you’re basically volunteering to do mostly thankless tasks. So usually, anyone who volunteers is warmly welcomed to join.
Also, our members can reject proposals made by the board on important decisions. Being a board member is not a position that’s associated with a large amount of power. That might be something “Dutch”, because we’ve had a stong tendency to rebel against authoritarian autocrats throughout our history.
But even the president of the EGF feels far from an autocrat to me. In the end, EGF member associations have the power to reject proposals made by the EGF board. So the board better come with proposals that have a good chance of being accepted by member votes. I have particated in a couple of EGF General Meetings, and the members usually ask a lot of critical questions on many topics (so these meetings take ages, 6 hours is no exception).
4 Likes
The game should be called Goe to clear up any confusion
(only a submission for the premise of thread, while I don’t agree)
10 Likes
- The game should be called wéiqí and people should learn how to pronounce it (that and huáwéi).
- Area scoring with group tax is more elegant than any other scoring system.
- It’s OK to play without komi, the stronger player can take white.
10 Likes
We should play on squares instead of intersections.
There’s too much traffic, and roundabouts aren’t safe either.
2 Likes
Well, let’s state this: Go game is all about luck.
8 Likes
a) Most of the times the AI suggests moves that require AI level continuations, otherwise in our hands those are “bad moves”. Ergo using AI as your main tool for studying should be reserved for people that are at least high dan level.
b) Adjusting the komi to a negative value is FAR FAR better than handicap stones, if you are learning the game.
c) After a dozen 9x9 games, a new player should be introduced to the 19x19 board.
d) Go books with diagrams with captions “diagram 1-2…-x” and the whole corresponding text for each diagram being in a mashed together wall of text, are hard to study.
Now, if you want entertaintment of that kind, I might be able to help:
a) OGS didn’t implement its latest rank adjustments before Biden became president, because getting our ranks adjusted upwards is “socialism” 
b) AGA congress participation fees are secretely funding a “build the wall” campaign to research better ways to make it viable. Not the wall in the border. That wall.
c) EGF congress participation fees are not really lower than the AGA congress fees. EGF just announces half the prices just to annoy AGA and every participant is part of the huuuuge conspiracy. In truth, the participants pay double the fee when they arrive, but noone will admit that. 
d) Anoek is an anagram of the word “kanoe” and he has secretely carved all his go boards into little kanoes.
e) The galaxy is a gigantic Go board and planets and stars are just the stones. This means that every single one of them is FLAT and NASA is hiding it because they wouldn’t get funds to send probes into Go stones, obviously. The probes and satelites NASA does send into space, are actually AlphaGo transmitters that send AI moves from outer space (where Go really comes from).
f) The christian cross symbol is an ancient Go reference. It just represents the four liberties of a single stone on the board. Wake up people! Jesus’ real name was Josekisus and him coming back from the dead is an obvious teaching of how you can restore a dead group even if all seems lost.
I could go on … 
11 Likes
I should be playing games for the Western Dan Challenge, but I’m actually having more fun right now playing chess (as a beginner) on lichess.
5 Likes
Japanese rules are too complicated for kyu players, but territory counting is nice, so the OGS default for everything should be AGA.
7 Likes
The ranking of DDK and TPK should be hidden so that they don’t get distracted by futile interests.
5 Likes
I have a hypothesis about precursor games for Go
One of the controversial idea I had is to NOT take out the dead stones on the board, but just mark them dead and leave them there. And there will be no ko problem.
5 Likes
Back on topic: OGS’s start page (when you log in) should be more similar to lichess.
Their starting dashboard is better, you can clearly see the upcoming tournaments, and who’s streaming.
5 Likes
I’ve noticed recently that every game-saving move I’m really proud of is considered by AI to be a horrible blunder and the low point of the game 
6 Likes
I would go further and say:
It is wrong to have an objective of increasing your rank
6 Likes
People have to stop play Japanese Go rules in internet. Chinese Go rules are much more logical. The only good thing about Japanese Go rules is counting in real life, but internet has automatic scoring anyway.
12 Likes
Territory scoring is superior in principle, but the Japanese rules have issues.
We should make some rule changes to modernise territory scoring rules, making it obviously superior:
-
Use an integer komi of 6 in all games, including handicap games (so the first handicap level is 2 stones with 6 komi for white). Draws are fine.
-
Use the basic ko rule. Any other repetitions (triple ko, chosei, etc) should end the game after cycling 3 times (like in chess). The game result would be a draw.
-
There is free placement of handicap stones.
-
Surrounded intersections in seki should score points, just like regular territory.
-
When there is a disagreement on a group’s status between passing and scoring, the players should fight it out. The dead-claimer goes first and the other plays last. Use pass stones in the process. You are not allowed to make ko threats in an unrelated area of the board.
I call this rule set “Baarle rules!”. (Baarle is my home town).
3 Likes
It doesn’t matter what a beginner starts with. If you like the game, play what board you like, against bots humans or whatever, and eventually you’ll correct your errors at your own pace.
10 Likes
I just had an image in my mind of trying to play Go on a Stratego™ board … the lack of some intersections in the center seem intriguing.
5 Likes