tonybe
April 15, 2020, 5:41pm
36
I’m glad that helped. FWIW - I can really relate to the feeling of being overwhelmed and in-over-your-head because Go is such a complex game, and the learning curve for a 25k player can seem dauntingly steep.
Even within the first 50 moves of a 19x19 game, there are SO many priorities to juggle, that it can be very easy for minor tactical errors (i.e. over-focusing on one contact fight) to snowball into major strategic blunders (your opponent uses direction-of-play to grab an early lead, etc).
I’ve been working on a (long/wordy) beginners guide. I feel like the articles on sente/gote and playing a balanced opening might help you find your footing:
19x19 FOR BEGINNERS SERIES
THINGS I WISH I KNEW WHEN I WAS 25 KYU
Introduction: Making Sense of Go
When I first started learning about go, I did it in the slowest possible way - I was isolated, intimidated, confused, and stubborn. Lacking any local friends to play with, and too embarrassed to play strangers on the internet, I beat my head against the GnuGo AI for a long time - never able to understand why I was consistently losing by 30-50 points. I read books and articles about go - I watche…
19x19 FOR BEGINNERS SERIES
THINGS I WISH I KNEW WHEN I WAS 25 KYU
Part 1: Sente and Gote
Welcome back! In my introduction to the series, I tried to give the beginning player a broad overview of the 19x19 Go game. In this section, I am going to drill down to the nitty gritty of one element of the game, and I could think of nothing more fundamental than the paired concepts of sente and gote. Loosely translated, the terms mean initiative and response, and once you understand how these concepts p…
19 X 19 FOR BEGINNERS SERIES
THINGS I WISH I KNEW WHEN I WAS 25 KYU
Part 2: Settling Your Stones
[A quick disclaimer for any readers who are SDK and up: this series was written by a DDK for TPKs, with the goal of making the process of “losing their first 100 games quickly” less confusing and more productive. As you read it, you may become concerned at the number of important concepts I’m leaving out, or the crudity of analysis used in the examples.
If you find yourself wanting to fill those …
19x19 FOR BEGINNERS SERIES
THINGS I WISH I KNEW WHEN I WAS 25 KYU
PART 3: PLAYING A BALANCED OPENING
[A quick disclaimer for any readers who are SDK and up: this series was written by a DDK for TPKs, with the goal of making the process of “losing their first 100 games quickly” less confusing and more productive. I say this because you may become concerned at all the crucial elements of the opening I’m about to leave out of the story. All through this article, I am going to encourage TPKs to a…
Cheers!
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