How to motivate newbie to do tsumego

General Go Discussion
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that newbie has been 25kyu since 6 months ago

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I mean, if they’ve been 25kyu for that long and they’re not motivated to do tsumego it sounds like they’re not that into go

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More context please? Why do you want to motivate the newbie to do tsumego? Do you interact online or in person with them? Is the newbie a child or an adult?

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I’m also not sure tsumego will help someone who has been 25k for that long. I feel you need a certain solid understanding of the basics before tsumego make sense, and at 25k that basis isn’t there yet.

It’s probably more important to learn not to respond to every move of your opponent, learn some fuseki in the form of a couple of joseki (and how to deal with improper responses to your joseki), so that you can get an edge over your uninformed opponents.

But most importantly, not everyone who plays Go wants to study it. Let people enjoy the game however they want. I myself don’t find tsumego appealing, so I don’t study it. It doesn’t bother me if that prevents me from improving.

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Also something to be aware of is that OGS unfortunately still has a floor of 25k for displayed rank which makes it hard for beginners to see their progress

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The motivation must come from themself, not somebody else.

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Good advice, but easier said than done, and I don’t think extrinsic motivation is always bad (though it can be)

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6 month can mean anything between “played a game every two weeks” to “played 5 games a day and reviewed it after”. If it is more on the first side, no wonder the player is still 25k. If it is more on the other side, I hope he has fun anyway.

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12

Don’t.

  1. I don’t think that it would be at all effective. Read Opening Theory Made Easy instead, which imo would be more effective and interesting for a beginner.

  2. Asking or forcing someone to do something just for sake of doing it in a long term just doesn’t work.

My advice is to grow the love for the game first and only after, if you want to pursue it a bit more seriously, incorporate some studying. Go is so broad you really can afford to study only things you like. There’re opening, joseki, counting, fighting, positional judgment. At first just pick one thing you’re interested in the most and try to learn it.

If after that you still don’t find it enjoyable, then I’d advise to stop it and quit go. It doesn’t worth doing something, whatever that is, that only brings you misery. It also applies to things you’re good at.

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I have https://tsumegodragon.com where I try to make Tsumego more fun and engaging.

But typically people do puzzles to improve at something they enjoy doing. So if they are not already playing on a regular basis I don’t know if they will do puzzles.

Are you playing with them on smaller boards and with handicap? I usually let beginners beat me to move up a size or down a handicap stone so they feel like they are leveling up.

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In the Chinese Weiqi books there are a bunch of tsumego for beginners with huge collection of very basic easy problems. They use it with children in schools. These problems can’t be more easy.

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16

Host a beginners-only tournament with $50,000 cash prize

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I’m down for this, I could use $50k.

Then again, I’d probably just learn I’m the worst amongtsst the beginners. :frowning:

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Tsumego is not really fun and it won’t really help someone who is 25k.
If they do not find Go fun or you cannot help them enjoy Go, then nothing will really help.

I have seen the light and have forgotten how to play, I swear.
Screenshot_16

Where do I sign up? :stuck_out_tongue:

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Whoa, speak for yourself! :rage: :grinning:

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give them igowin 9x9