Yes, play 9x9 to your hearts content! It was interesting reading the comments here about 9x9, in the very same comment some would say they didn’t like how much elo they lost when losing to a weaker player, and then they say, “its almost a different game”. Exactly, 9x9 is its own quirky game, yet still Go. Why did the “stronger” player lose on the smaller board, because the rank he earned came from 19x19, where as on the 9x9 board he wasn’t as strong. I would argue there needs to be a different rank section for it all together.
Some said there aren’t strong 9x9 players to play against, that’s not true, OGS has many strong players who play 9x9. I enjoy 9x9 more than 19x19.
i would definitely NOT recommend playing against bots for 6 months O_O
personally i got to sdk about 9 months after i started… i can’t imagine playing only 9x9 for six months O_O
everyone is different, if you enjoy 9x9 you can stick with it, if it’s fun for you, but telling someone they should ‘always’ play 9x9 for some set amount of time is bad advice IMO
Edit: i think i misunderstood your post. my points still stand though, especially playing against only bots for so long is a terrible idea
starting with 9x9 and bots is one thing, and i those are good reasons–but six months is a LONG time. maybe six days, if you’re playing an hour or so every day…