"Newish" to the game: Looking for teaching game

Hello!

I live in Texas, and I recently regained interest in Go after watching Alpha Go and The Surrounding Game. I know the absolute bare minimum basics, such as how pieces are captured, don’t move placed stone, etc., but not much more than that. I would love to do an in person game, but due to my schedule, I can’t go to the Go group in my area.

I’ve been playing on the Little Go app on my phone on a smaller board, and just getting pummeled by the computer. I’m at a point where I can’t figure out how I should be thinking about my pieces.

I believe I’m looking for a correspondence teaching game, which I’m assuming is an asynchronous game? The last time I tried Go was when my father tried to teach it to me when I was a kid. Let’s just say I haven’t been in the same room with him and a Go board since that attempt. :stuck_out_tongue:

I’d be interested in a 9x9 or 13x13 game before jumping head first into a 19x19 game, but not a strong preference.

Thanks!

Well if you’re looking for correspondence games, there are others more eager to play those than me, but if you have a little free time,… I’ll be streaming a lecture on basics in a few minutes. I will stream at https://www.twitch.tv/smurphing and you will probably also see a notification in the top right as soon as I go online. You’re welcome to join or watch at your leisure after the stream has ended and the recording made available.

Otherwise, good luck. :slight_smile:

I am as usual happy to play some games :slight_smile:

smaller board is often recommended for the beginnings, so feel free to send me a corr challenge if you want.

@smurph Thanks! I will see if I can pop in at least for a few minutes before I need to head off.

@AdamR Thanks! Let me figure out how to send you a challenge, and I’ll send you one.

First section should help. If not let me know and I will walk you through it :slight_smile:

Video recording of the stream is now available at: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/317219623 :3

Welcome here !

For a beginner player such as you, I would recommend asking for a 9x9 teaching game. I expect live game will work best - 9x9 is normally fast enough that you shouldn’t want to make it a correspondance game. The best way to get a teaching game is to ask for one on the main chat (that is, the chat tab on ogs, not the chat window within a game).

If you really only know the rules of the games, there are also some very basic strategies you’ll want to learn first - things like making two eyes to live. You can read about these online, or have someone explain it to you, but you’ll need to understand the concept to progress in the game.

After that, play other 9x9 games with beginners. They’ll beat you at first. That’s OK - just try to figure out where it went wrong. If you can get into the habit of reviewing your games afterwards, that’ll be very helpfull. And you can still ask in chat for another teaching game once in a while.

I’d recommend sticking to 9x9 until your rank stabilizes somewhere above the 18k mark. Then it’s time to give 19x19 a try :slight_smile:

1 Like

@smurph I really enjoyed that lecture! I found it quite insightful and helpful. It was given at the right pace. I may review it later, since I was at work while you were streaming.

@walken thanks for the advice! I found the readings and resources (actually through the twitch broadcast from smurph).

2 Likes