I learnt go when I was still a pupil and quit this hobby in junior high owing to the study stress。Now I gonna pick up it again and found me have nothing but the intuition。Are there anything that can help to regain my previousnlevel?
Well, go isnt like a particular skill, it’s a skillset. I would suggest u just search up go(weiqi) creators on YouTube and watch games/comentary at first, see if you really enjoy it. If yes - then start practicing, OGS is a good spot, just try to play games as well as you can and basically learn, relearn I would say, there are no magic secret. A lot of begginer/semi-begginer materials are already published in a lot of places, including but not limited to YouTube
But please please make sure to keep a game fun for yourself, it’s not a goal to become the best it’s a goal to spend your time the best
Have a great day and good luck!
This happened to me more or less as well. I’d say just play more games here on OGS starting from 25k. Since you’ve got the foundation laid down a decade ago, you will pick up things very quickly, and will be able to work your way from 25k back to your previous level probably very very quickly depending on how frequently you want to play.
But there are certain skills that are just very hard to re-master by just playing games on OGS alone. In my experience, I had forgotten probably 90% of all the joseki’s that I have learnt as a kid. Just by playing games on OGS, I could re-unlock some of these joseki’s, but I still, there are a lot of joseki’s that just refuse to come back to me. So I had to actively search them up online (e.g., on forums, blogs, Zhihu, YouTube, Bilibili, RedNote, and OGS joseki exercises etc.). There are also a few skills that are just very hard to re-learn without an instructor, especially reviewing on your games, which I would imagine can be solved by paying for an AI review service or simply just find a private tutor or something.
The most important thing is that you need to find the fun in Go back first. Everything else should just flow.
If you still have intuition (that doesn’t surprise me at all) go for it. Play and enjoy your games!
Definitely get bowls. Its really hard to pick up all 361 stones with just hands.
I got back into Go again after taking a break for 10 years. Just doing a lot tsumego problems and playing a lot of games will bring it all back.
It happens that having a break may in some cases make you progress, not regress.
Yeah,there might be some help on strategy,but strategy is nothing as you forgot almost all of the joseki and tsumego ![]()
Hi wwh0701 - so I searched up your username and I took a look at a few of your games, trying to figure out what you meant by you having “nothing but intuition”
(side note: I was able to find your OGS user page yesterday, but for some reason I can’t find it today - not sure if you changed usernames, etc…)
I looked at one game where you won against a DDK, and another one where you lost against an SDK. Given that context, from my perspective it seems like “using your intuition” meant focusing on local opportunities to disrupt or chase your opponent - but sort of narrowly focusing on the local exchange rather than zooming out and seeing how that local exchange will affect the larger global priorities based on the Stages of the Game.
In the game with the DDK it worked, because your opponent was more focused on fighting back and it was easier to chase for profit / chase for capture.
The SDK opponent not only fought back better, but they were able to make certain direction-of-play decisions that allowed them to advance into the next important areas for that stage of the game, while you often ended up taking the smaller portion from that exchange, and falling behind globally even though the local exchange might have felt like a good fight
At times like these, rather than “zooming in” and drilling down into the nitty-gritty details of joseki or tsumego - I would encourage you to “zoom out” and focus on the fundamentals that shape the flow of the whole-board game. Here I am specifically referring to
- playing an Opening that either gives you a good chance at about 1/2 of the available territory so you can enter Midgame on an equal footing with your opponent, or forces your opponent to create weak groups that you can chase for Midgame benefit
- focusing on the EFFICIENCY PRIORITIES at each Stage of the game - so in the Opening focus on corners > sides > middle, in the early Midgame focus on pushing your edge potential into the middle to make a moyo, or prevent your opponent from doing the same, in late Midgame, focus on invading any potential moyos your opponent may have or chasing their weak groups for direction of play benefits
- once you are paying attention to the correct efficiency priorities, look for opportunities to use direction of play to advance towards those stages-of-the-game priorities
Think of this as a set of strategic goggles that you put on that highlight parts of the board based on their value from that very focused point of view. Don’t just look for weak groups, or places your opponent has shape problems that can be exploited (local opportunities) - figure out what are the most valuable areas of the board based on the current stage, and then select the moves that will allow you to expand your groups in that direction, or give you thickness so you can attack / expand further (global opportunities)
Once you develop that strategic vision, it’s also good to back and up and practice the fundamentals, strengthening your various mental muscles that make you a strong player.
- Sente and gote: given those global strategic priorities, which of your available opportunities are the strongest sente moves / forcing moves? Is the biggest sente move actually the biggest area of the board based on those priorities, or is there a move that may be less severe of a forcing move, but allows you greater profit if you choose that position? If you need to play a gote move, how can you play the most efficient / shape move that settles the stones in that area and leaves the least aji? Is there an “urgent before big” situation on the board that needs to be attended to immediately?
- Shape: are your stones working together to create the best whole-board efficiency so that local exchanges are helping global priorities? Are you playing solid shape moves so that your attacking stones can stay connected efficiently rather than leaving aji for your opponent to exploit later? Are you “making a fist before striking” or are you playing too many sente moves in a row and leaving cutting points?
- Direction of play: rather than looking for opportunities to capture or reduce, look for opportunities to chase and expand your potential into the most efficient areas for that stage of the game. Instead of trying to surround your opponent, try to expand your groups into the most efficient unclaimed parts of the board and getting a footing there first so your opponent has to take the risks instead of you.
Good luck!
My 2 cents. Your mileage may vary. Void where prohibited.