Just popped in to introduces myself. I’m a new player who lives near Marquette, MI in the Upper Peninsula. So far I’ve been going over introductory material: books, videos, etc. and practicing some 9x9 games with igowin.
Seeing as I’ve not yet found any Go players in my neck of the woods, it seems like most of my practice will be online. My wife is trying to learn the game with me as well so at least I’ll have one person to play with over the board.
Anyways, nice to meet you all and I’m looking forward to learning more about this game.
Thanks! I started to learn chess in my late forties, and now in my sixties it’s Go. The road to improvement seems similar: A combination of study and practice. Be willing to lose lots of games as you learn, and get in the the habit of going over your games to see where you went wrong and what you could do better next time.
I’m 61, progressing extremely slowly b/c my learning has slowed down plus I have zero time for study, but I still enjoy the game, currently exclusively very slow correspondence games.
If you want I’m always open for such a slow game, no matter the size.
My preferred game settings:
Fischer Time
Initial time 3 days
+1.5 days (or more) per move
Max. 28 days (and yes, sometimes it takes so many days until I play)
Ranked game (but it probably won’t be possible for us b/c of too much rank difference)
Handicap, automatical.
Pause on Weekend
Usually I keep a “Malkovich Log” during the game (visible to the opponent only after the game), sometimes with more, sometimes with fewer comments and variations. No idea whether they ever really have been helpful for any of my opponents. Often I just comment “feeling clueless” or something
Hey there, stillday, welcome to OGS and the OGS forums. I hope that you’re not put off by such things as rude opponents, losing streaks, and unexpected rank changes. My advice to you is whenever you’re playing, whoever you’re playing, just enjoy the game and appreciate the opportunity to think and learn.
If you want to learn on the Internet, then OGS hosts some resources at https://online-go.com/docs/other-go-resources. There are about 75,000 professional games on ps.waltheri.net, and you can find a wiki at senseis.xmp.net which has over 22,000 pages on every aspect of the game. If you like, I could also show you the way to a lot of other bits and pieces on the net but you’ll be fine enough if what I’ve linked. And if you’d like to watch the games of other players live, you can do that at https://online-go.com/observe-games as I expect you’ve probably found out already; or on twitch.tv at https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Go.
Best of luck and remember not to take things too seriously.
No, those things don’t put me off as I’ve experienced all of those things in the online chess community. I’ve found that the rude people are usually in the minority. I just thank them for the game and move on. The majority of the people I’ve played in chess were nice people who just wanted to enjoy playing. I’m assuming the same applies in this Go community.
I too am a new player…actually have not played my first game yet. Have you made any progress yet? I would be interested in playing you a game. let me know. So much to learn!!
