trying to find info about this game – have been trying to play for about week and iam lost – the helpful videos here and other helpful side games etc don’t have any helpful advice for me this games has too many rules too many scernios that you have to follow - to remember is there not a way to play this game simply against others playing simply no hard theories and strategy just play the game to learn not be lost after stone four
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I totally get that feeling of being lost after just a few moves in Go! When I first started, I remember feeling so overwhelmed, thinking, “How can anyone possibly remember all these scenarios?” All those helpful videos and game reviews felt like they were speaking a different language. I just wanted to play simply, without all the heavy theory and strategy, and not feel completely baffled after stone four.
Here’s what clicked for me, and hopefully, it’ll help you too:
I eventually realised that the rules of Go are actually super simple: you just place a stone, capture if you surround your opponent, and the goal is to control more empty space. The “lost” feeling comes from the incredible depth these simple rules create, not from them being complicated themselves. It’s kind of like learning to ride a bike; you don’t need a physics degree to balance, you just hop on and wobble until it clicks!
Honestly, a week is nowhere near enough time to even scratch the surface of Go’s depth. I’ve been playing for over 20 years now, and I’m still discovering new sequences and surprising moves! So please, don’t feel discouraged that you’re not seeing everything yet.
So, to make Go less daunting and more fun, here’s what I started doing:
- I played on a 9x9 board: This was a game-changer for me! The smaller board made it so much easier to see what was happening and finish games quickly. It felt manageable, not like I was trying to navigate an entire ocean.
- I focused on just the basics: For my first bunch of games, I literally only tried to capture my opponent’s stones and connect my own. I completely ignored all the fancy strategy everyone talked about. It took the pressure off.
- I stopped chasing “perfect” moves: I realised I was making “bad” moves all the time, and that was perfectly okay! Playing a lot is genuinely the key to getting better at this game. Every game, even a lost one, taught me something. It became less about winning and more about just playing and seeing what happened.
- I played against really weak AIs or other total beginners: This was crucial. It allowed me to experiment without feeling completely outmatched or embarrassed.
Go is definitely a journey, and the deeper understanding really comes from just getting in there and playing. Trust me, if you keep playing on that 9x9 board and focus on those simple goals of capturing and connecting, you’ll be amazed how quickly things start to make sense. You’ll start seeing patterns, and those overwhelming “scenarios” will become familiar friends. You got this!
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Definitely second playing on 9x9. It can build up some habits that would be bad on 19x19, but I definitely got over the “I have absolutely no idea what I should do” phase much more quickly on 9x9 than on 19x19.
I’ll also add it’s a good idea to avoid blitz and short time controls. You really want to think through the moves, and short time controls don’t allow you to do that.
AI definitely helped me feel less embarrassed. I joined this site, played a real game, felt like I was wasting my opponent’s time, and then didn’t play for a few years. AI helped me build up the confidence to play against people. However, it can also build up bad habits. The AI would not attempt to kill groups that could obviously make life so I would build up a vibe that a group is alive or dead but I had no experience playing out the moves. When I played people they would attempt to kill the groups and it turns out that, one, vibes can be wrong, and two, vibes are not a good defence against an attack. Apparently there are now more human like models but I have no experience playing against them.
I’d also recommend GO: A Complete Introduction to the Game by Cho Chikun to help get the basics down.
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(TBH I think Cho Chikun’s book is kinda down the track from “I am lost, where do I start”, unless perhaps you are already a serious gamer ready for that kind of text.)
Here’s a useful thread, and my post in it: Your beginnings with Go - #2 by Eugene
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I advise @tonybe’s Lessons for beginners.
If you have some time 
this series of 7 (?) chapters is a good start.
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That’s not extraordinary, that’s a very common feeling after a week only
It’s much easier with someone IRL as with online materials.
Anyway if you have fun keep playing at first, advices will come later. Play beginners like you, it’s more fun
Are you sure? Find me a game with less rules as go.
But maybe you want to say “many theories” instead?
That’s it. Don’t go too quick because it’s a very deep game. Take your time and enjoy it, there are no shortcuts indeed.
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Well in China, Go beginners usually start with ‘capturing stones’ game, played on a 9x9 or 13x13 board. The player who first captures the stones required (like 5 stones) wins. This helps practise basic Go skills, like the ladder.
As for me, 19x19 is definitely the most interesting, and of course the most time-consumimg. I recommend 13x13 for those who are a bit more skillful.
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If it can be helpful, Atari go (capturing stones) is implemented online here Play Atari Go Online and Train Your Stone Capture Skills , possibly also elsewhere on the interwebs.
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Hello @NEWOLDGUY,
this is Tom in Germany, an old old guy 
My suggestion is to play through the Interactive Tutorial first, it’s FUN!
Then, there’s this nice intro to Go by Go Magic:
And go through this also:
Most of Go Magic is paid content (which is worth the money IMO), but they also have a lot of free stuff, like their exceptional “Skill Tree
”, a huge collection of Tsumego (Go puzzles), I suggest to do a few every day, it’s a lot of fun also!
And then, play, play, play, preferably humans, not bots.
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I don’t see this one recommended as much, but I thought this was an excellent starter text 
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+100. And if you can find a local club, do that. Online is great, but you often won’t get the random kibitzing/assistance, which is important in the early stages. Stuff like pointing out dead groups or sharing relevant joseki patterns after the game.
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You can have some explainations and help online (starting by posting here) but it takes a few seconds with words and stones IRL and much more online. And it’s surely a much better way to communicate and exchange on the game.
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I just looked up your account, is this it? NEWOLDGUY
It looks like you have hundreds of games under your belt and have risen to 7k, then you dropped to 25k. I’m a little surprised that you are having issues understanding the rules given you got to 7k, even if it was a few years ago now. Have you taken over someone else’s account? I think part of your frustration might be due to playing against people who are far too strong for you. You had to grind through about 100 games to drop down to the rank you are now, I can absolutely see why that experience would be frustrating.
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This data appears to support my theory, which is that it’s a great starter text for game-nerds 
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Lol I’m only a game nerd for one game!
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That’s very intrusive and insensitive. People’s mental capacity can vary throughout life. There can be temporary and permanent causes of impairment and improvement - sometimes medical reasons - and yet people like you are so quick to judge and draw conclusions. Who gives you the right to, anyway?
One other thing to note is that the rating system got updated a few times and all the ratings were retroactively recalculated (which I’m not sure was a good idea at least from the point of having historical ratings make sense).
For example after the recalculation some of my earliest games where I was like 22kyu in the old system put me temporarily at 6kyu for some strange reason.
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Yeah but the OP has a string of losses that explain the rapid rank decline.
At face value, it appear’s Ronin’s guess is close to the mark.
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But notice the high rating might just be wrong to begin with because of the updates.
Basically none of the ratings from around 2019 or earlier make any sense historically.
You could play the same way now as then, but your old games might be marked as 10kyu and your new games 25kyu.
Edit: in more detail…
We used to have a system in like 2016/2017 or so where if you were a new account you were 25kyu, and also a system where you could pick you starting rank.
Then we had an update to glicko2 where the starting rank for everyone was deemed to be around 11kyu.
Then we had another big alignment bump and retroactive fix that moves that starting rating to around 6kyu.
So theres a bunch of chaos happening when you historically recalculate all the matches that happened over that timeframe assuming that new players who didn’t choose a starting rank are now 6kyu rather than 25kyu. Because those “6kyus” didn’t play much higher ranks when they won, they just played other 24kyus, 23kyus etc.
So a bunch of weird smoothing has to happen then when you play a bunch of wrongly ranked accounts until you get to a much more reasonable spacing of levels after the recalculation.
Now finally we came full circle and allowed people to pick their ranks again.
If we did another full recalculation of ranks in a couple of years but ignore the ranks those players chose and set every new account to be 15kyu, then again there would be chaos, the ranks wouldn’t make any sense from a historical perspective.
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All this is true.
Nonetheless, the OP’s graph seems to tell a different story, don’t you think? There isn’t a “recalculation discontinuity”, there is the typical “gaining skill” climb some years ago, then solid losses when the OP resumed play recently.
I guess this is explained by saying that the SDKs they met recently are way tougher than the ones they defeated before 
… as you said.
Wow - well, no wonder the OP would feel disheartened then!
If it were “sooner” I’d have said “maybe create a new account with a more representative rank”!
As it is, I guess awareness of what happened helps, and things should be better now the rank is corrected!
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