Hoping to play a few games with a teacher

I am a Beginner - I’m happy to play anyone but would appreciate some tips as to why I keep getting systematically annihilated. :grinning: It would be great to have a few games with someone who could give me some feedback or suggestions. Looking for live game. Evenings Australian time are currently pretty convenient.

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The reason why you’re “getting annihilated” is probably because OGS matchmaking system is kinda weird and in order to rank you it matches you with mid-tier players first.

As a beginner, you’re unlikely to be able to play on par with them – but now that your rank fell to 18kyu, you should start seeing people closer to your level, although you might have to lose some more games.

Sorry about that, in the community we’ve been discussing solutions to that problem, but this site is run by a very small team of people and they have a lot of work with bugs and such, so it might take a while before it gets better for beginners.

For now, I can play with you and give you some advice if you want – do you want a live game about now?

EDIT: oh, I guess you weren’t online anymore. Well, maybe another day, or you’ll find another teacher.

Yes I’m online now-are you still here?

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Feel free to send me a challenge.

Okay, let me see if I can work out how to do this, :grinning:

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Ok, we played almost a full game :slight_smile:

When we have a chance we can keep playing, but for now I have some advice for your own time, I thought I would write them here so you’ll find them when you get back online:

  • If you like watching YouTube videos, I think this series is very good for beginners! All the videos in the series are good, but especially the one I linked in particular. I tried to teach you some of those concepts during our game but I’m not as good a teacher as the video’s host :slight_smile:

  • If you get the chance, you should play some “capture Go” with other beginners – Capture Go is a simple variant of Go where the first person to capture a stone or group of stones wins the game. If you can’t find other beginners who are interested, you can play it on your own (playing both Black and White) and try to understand why one side wins.
    This is the way I personally studied Go before playing on OGS, so while it might sound silly, I think it’s a good idea. Whatever happens, you win :laughing: and you start seeing new patterns and wrapping your mind around how Go works.

  • after a while, I also suggest this other Youtube series, at least the first few videos. Same thing as before, I already introduced you to some of the ideas here, but watching this will make it clearer. I believe practicing this “approach” is good for beginners because it promotes learning from games, and it makes losing a game less of a tragical event and more of an opportunity to learn from your mistakes.

  • if puzzles are more of your thing, there are some very good puzzles series for beginners! For now my favorite is the Graded Go Problems for Beginners, but if you ask around people will show you a lot of them, on different sites too :slight_smile:

One thing that is important is to find a way to learn that you personally enjoy – every person is different so it’s hard to tell in advance, but if you find a way to practice Go that you enjoy, you’ll be less likely to get frustrated :slight_smile: I suggest you try the Youtube videos, the puzzles, playing with other beginners, playing games on your own, and see what you like the most!

Oh, and if you have the time, it’d be great if you could give some feedback about these resources, so we can get a better idea of what beginners need (me and everyone reading here). Did you find some of the resources particularly helpful, or too confusing, that kind of stuff :slight_smile:

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Thanks for the practice game, it was very helpful. The resources look good - I will work through them on my own for a while and let you know how it goes. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Sorry I ended up getting into another game. I will do some more practice on my own for a little while and then will send you a challenge. Thanks for the offer!

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