Go Magic: A Modern Way to Study Go

One of our subscribers Gerard Slooven from Holland has translated his own article about the relation between Go and Buddhism into English. Here is the result!

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Atari Go is not just a mini-game for kids

A game of capturing stones that starts with a crosscut might look too simple. However our team thinks that this training game can be very useful to a wide range of players up to 15 or even 10k!

Beginner Go players need to learn to spot an atari and play solidly — that’s what this mini-game is recommended for. Because it can quickly teach you some basic Go techniques. And besides it allows you to practice a crosscut. It is a very common shape in Go that even 10k players will often get wrong.

We made a short lesson on atari Go that will soon be part of the updated Go rules course:

We’ve got plans to make an atari-Go bot on our website but for now you can play this game in Hactar Go Lite app (android only).

Tell us about your experience: do you use Atari Go when you teach beginners?

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Atari go pros

The goal is easier to understand.

Atari go cons

Capturing stones is not the goal of the go game so can lead to confusion.

Hey y’all, Stanislaw Frejlak 1p :zap: is coming to visit us and he’s bringing some courses for Go Magic with him. There are lots of cool topics in his suitcase, so you’ve got some tough choices to make here! :wink:

  1. Ko — Take control over the chaos! (Stanislaw’s favorite topic)
  2. Endgame — How to search for the biggest move and count move values precisely (this feels like a sequel to Vadim’s course)
  3. Extensions — Protect your stones by safely extending, nuances of many common shapes
  4. Moyo — How to build, invade, and defend
  5. Sente exchanges — Why they are bad for you, and what are the exceptions
  6. Peeps — Connect or fight back?
  7. Sacrifices — Ars Moriendi, or How to stick in opponents throat
  8. The sources of mistakes — Emotional traps and cognitive errors

Stanislaw himself would like to male a course about endgame or ko but the choice is yours. If there is a topic that you’d really want to become a course, go ahead and vote for it! :white_check_mark:

Alright, go ahead and vote for two topics to give us a better idea of your preferences.

:point_right:https://forms.gle/buCRVbn99nPcpZJX7

P.S. Our Discord polls bot doesn’t want to function so this time the vote will happen through Google Form.

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New achievement unlocked: 5000 registered users! :tada::tada::tada: In order to celebrate we announce a week of massive discounts on courses and memberships!

Enter the promo code MAGIC5000 until October 24 and get a 40% discount :star_struck:

:globe_with_meridians: https://gomagic.org

P.S. If you already have a premium membership, you can use the discount to extend it. :wink:

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The improved and expanded Go rules course! :tada:

Making Go more popular is one of the most important missions of our project. So we tried making this course modern, fun and clear enough, so that anyone could play and finish a game on their own after completing it. Did we get it right? Did we miss anything? :thinking: Please leave your comments and we’ll try to fix all the bugs quickly so that this course could be rightfully considered the best! :rocket:

We’ll publish an interactive page with Go rules in the nearest future as well, for those who prefer reading to watching videos. Plus we’ve made an atari Go bot, so you’ll be able to practice capturing stones on our website soon as well. :eyes:

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We’ve released the final skills for the School of Wizards! :tada::palm_tree:

:point_right:Go Problems | Go Puzzles | Tsumego — Go Skills

Both this skill tree and the first one will keep growing with new problems and we are already beginning to work on the next “Magical Academy” tree (8–1 kyu). You can take a look at its structure on the website.

Some stats :eyes:
There are over 3000 problems on our platform already!
2270 problems in the Skill Tree and ~1000 problems in the courses.

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Stanislaw Frejlak has successfully reached Batumi! As you can see from the photo, sea air and khinkali make people happy! :palm_tree::sunglasses:

Work on the new course “Ko — take control over the chaos” (the winner of the last survey) is fully underway, but we also plan to shoot a short interview in the style of 15 questions to a Go professional. Please leave your questions in the comments, we will choose the best ones and ask them to Stanislaw. :clapper:

P.S. The previous video with 15 questions to Alexander Dinerstein: How to Become a Pro? — 15 Nerdy Questions to a Professional Go Player | Alexander Dinerstein [DUB] - YouTube

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Two updates for beginners coming at once! :star_struck:

  1. We have launched the beta version of the atari-go bot! He’s not playing very well yet, but we’ll fix it over time.
    :point_right:Play Atari Go (Capture Go) Online with Bot

  2. You can now learn the rules of Go on our new interactive page.
    :point_right:How to Play Go — A Modern Tutorial to Learn Go Rules

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Spanish subtitles are now available in the course on typical mistakes!
:point_right:https://gomagic.org/courses/typical-mistakes/

Thanks to our volunteer Sergio from Spain. :pray:

If you want to see this or any other course in your native language and are ready to help us with this — send a message to us in any convenient way. Right now we don’t have the opportunity to pay for this work, but we can provide an exclusive premium subscription. :heart:

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A new article from our regular author Jae Matson!
:point_right:The Surrounding Game: Interview with Co-Director Will Lockhart

This time he interviewed one of the creators of “The Surrounding Game” and discovered a lot of wonderful details. If you haven’t even seen the movie yet, go read the interview quickly first!

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Help us prioritize which courses to work on! We have so much content that we don’t know where to start :exploding_head:. Which course do you want to see next? Vote for your top choice:

  1. Basic Invasions (Vadim Efimenko)

  2. The remake of “The Fundamentals of Go on 13×13” (Vadim Efimenko)

  3. Ko — Take Control Over the Chaos (Stanislaw Frejlak)

  4. Endgame for Nerds (Stanislaw Frejlak)

  5. Kajiwara Takeo: The Giant Who Made Titans (Matthew McKee)

We’ve already started working on Basic Invasions, but it’s a massive course that will be released in parts. Let us know your thoughts in the comments and vote using Google Form: :point_right:https://forms.gle/5Lzj87ognjfodzyD9

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:fire: For the first time, we are excited to release the lesson “Invading a Moyo and Making Sabaki” by Alexander Dinerstein for free! :raised_hands:

:face_with_monocle: This is a complex topic, and this lesson includes examples at the highest level. Soon, we will also be releasing a course on basic invasions from Vadim Efimenko. Stay tuned!

P.S. This is a shortened version of the lesson from "The Art of Attachments” course. The full version with puzzles is available on our website https://gomagic.org. :jigsaw:

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Would you like to learn how to invade bravely into your opponent’s areas? :person_fencing::boom: Our new course “Fearless Invasions” will help you with that.

:point_right:https://gomagic.org/courses/basic-invasions

The first four lessons are ready so far. The course is huge and will be released in several parts. :books::soon:

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:star: Attention all Go magicians! The Go Magic league is officially launching!

Our league is designed to help you play more games, communicate with fellow Go enthusiasts, and even get some reviews on Discord. Plus, there will be some Go Magic prizes up for grabs! :trophy:

The League will be held on the new Leago tournament platform. Register and read more details here:
:point_right:Leago

So what are you waiting for? Come join us and discover the magic of Go! :woman_mage::man_mage:

PS: Guys, this is our first league season, so everything will be experimental: games, reviews and even the Leago platform itself. Your feedback is highly appreciated. And yes, the league is free. :wink:

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We’re hard working on the Fearless Invasions course and will be releasing new lessons soon! :zap: In the meantime, watch our lesson on san-san invasions on YouTube, which is now available for free for the first time! :eyes:

:point_right: Basic San-San Invasions — Star Point Joseki | Vadim Efimenko 4d - YouTube

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Did you miss us? We are back with some new Go Magic updates! :rocket:

:one: Three more lessons from “Fearless Invasions” have been released — more standard side invasion mischief!

:two: There are finally sounds on our interactive board! That may be hard to believe, but we used a real kaya goban and slate/shell stones to record those :studio_microphone: (AT2020 mic). All notification jingles are played on marimba :notes:. Magical, isn’t it?

:three: Mistap protection for mobile devices has been added. You can select your desired protection level in the board menu.

:four: Many more minor changes and improvements that beg to be discovered :heart_eyes:

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In this new article our intrepid author Jae Matson is ready to share his impressions of the US Go congress 2022. That was his first Go congress experience. :memo:

:point_right:Get Out and Play Go!

That was last year though. How about this year?

European Go congress in Leipzig is coming up, July 22 – August 5
European Go Congress 2023 – July 22nd to August 5th 2023 – Markkleeberg / Leipzig, Germany :earth_africa::soon:

If you are in the US, this year’s Go congress will be in Ohio, July 8–16
Go Congress - Home - American Go Association :earth_americas::soon:

Go Magic is sponsoring both of these events, so it’s time to get packing for some prizes and unforgettable experiences! :gift::sparkles:

You don’t know what a Go congress is?
It’s a week-long festival for everyone who can’t get enough of this magical game. But wait, there’s more than just tournaments — you’re in for a ton of side events, games and even tours. More details in the article. :point_up:

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2 weeks

Double feature news for Telegram users and one update for everyone! :raised_hands:

If you’re on Telegram and you’d like to stay up to date with Go Magic news

:point_right:Telegram: Contact @gomagic_official

If you want to know where in the world Vadim is now with his wanderlust

:point_right:Telegram: Contact @statusquovadis

Get a glimpse into his language thoughts, movie reviews, and culture shock adventures. Expect tons of pics and quirky musings.

Join both channels and stay in touch :kissing_heart:

In the meantime, 10 lessons from the Invasions course are ready to watch. The entire course will be released very soon! :zap:

:point_right:Fearless Invasions — Course by Vadim Efimenko 4d

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