What is the best board size to learn to play Go?

Go Resources Beginners
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What is the best board size to learn to play Go? Right now I’m 989 and read one beginner book and watched several YouTube videos. I feel like I like to influence and be aggressive in style. I am also up for some unrated coaching games if anyone is up for that. I still am getting crushed by the 1000 level.

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Rating doesn’t really have anything to do with it.

9x9 is the easiest to learn the rules on, but once you can play a complete game, the best board to play on is the one you enjoy the most.

If you are looking for resources that will help you grow, almost all of them are tailored for a 19x19 game experience. However, if you just want to play and learn either through reviews or teaching games, then just play the size you enjoy the most :slight_smile:

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9x9
learn the game first
get a feel of it first
19x19 is very time consuming, takes 30mins~1hour

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—Cho Chikun 9p (Go: a Complete Introduction to the Game)

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https://forums.online-go.com/t/when-should-you-graduate-from-9x9/16382/6?u=flovo
Play the size you want to play (after you recognise self Atari).

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I start the game with 19x19, it’s definitely the common approach! :smiley: (people had learned the game that way for thousands of years)

The biggest issue is to find someone who want to spend an hour to play on 19x19 with you. If you have the same problem, 9x9 could be a good solution.

Don’t worry about board size, just choose the one most comfortable to you. Size doesn’t matter :wink:

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Doing what is most fun to you is important of course. Apart from that 9x9 has simply the advantage of speeding up the feedback loop. On 19x19 you can make a big mistake and not notice that it was a big mistake until 150 moves later. (If you even can still find out that that was the big mistake.)

So I’d suggest to stick to 9x9 until you get bored. Whenever that happens (may be quick for some, never for others :-)), switch immediately.

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I think starting total beginners on a 5x5. All the rules come into play. there is a beginning and end quickly. And once they start winning, they are ready for 9x9. Also for some players it is best to start with capture GO.

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How about 4x4, I heard it’s pretty good?

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Not for me, I prefer 4-4 openings just too much. :wink:

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25x25, after mastering that, the 19x19 should feel like children’s game ^^

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In case the legitimate beginner can’t tell, the last 4 comments are troll posts and shouldn’t be taken seriously :wink:

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@Nghtstalker’s post is legit.

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true dat… Ty.

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