Where to Learn Go and Have Fun in 2022
Go Dojos and Leagues
Laser-focused on the improvement, usually long-term.
Yunguseng Dojang – for EU – work in progress
Yunguseng Dojang – for the US – work in progress
Szaleni Samuraje and their league IGLO with around 60-100 players in each season of all ranks. Focused mostly on players from Poland. They also have a Discord link on the website.
Nordic Go Dojo – work in progress
Awesome Baduk – a dojo with professional well-known teachers Young Sun Yoon and Yeon Woo Cho, pre-recorded courses, internal tournaments and a public Discord community.
Irish Go Association League – an online EGF league organised by Irish Go Association. No official reviews, but they have a Discord server. The next league starts around October.
Guo Juan’s Internet Go School – more info is here.
The Massachusetts Go Foundation League, Season 13 (August 16th, 2022 – September 13th, 2022) – a Go league with reviews from top pros organised by Massachusetts Go Foundation. More information and a link to MGF Discord are available in the Reddit post.
Go Courses and Schools
Often short-term, one-of-a-kind projects aimed at intensive training.
JIGS Summer Camp – 10.08.2022 - 27.08.2022, DE
Shanghai Summer School International Weiqi Promotion Project 2022 – an online free school for 25k-10k, starts Aug 8.
Go Communities
Hang out and play!
BeginnerGo Discord – work in progress
OpenStudyRoom and their leagues – work in progress
MassGo – work in progress
BenKyo – work in progress
Clossius – work in progress
Purpose of the Evergreen List
What reasons prevent beginners and amateurs from playing Go more?
This is the question I asked myself one moody Summer evening. The challenge is often not in simply playing more and building a habit. The challenge is in the quality of play, which helps make the habit and play more. People play less because of:
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… lack of understanding: what is going on on this board, and what do I need to do to win?
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… lack of same-level opponents: why play when I don’t even have chances to win? Am I even making progress?
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… and, of course, lack of fun, which is a direct consequence of the previous two issues, especially when there are no people around you.
How to overcome the challenges? Is there no hope for beginners in this harsh and alien-like world of Go?
How the global Go community addresses these challenges
Thankfully, people came up with elegant solutions to address these exact challenges.
First, the global Go community has a strong culture of game reviews. This dramatically helps pass the knowledge from more advanced players to their peers. The reviews are so critical that I strongly suggest reviewing your very first games over a voice in Discord communities. This is where people usually drop out from playing Go because they can’t comprehend and have no people around to explain the game’s flow to them.
Second, to utilize the competitive spirit productively, people play in leagues. A league is a place where people compete with each other to have a higher rank or score. Leagues are designed so that people of the same rank play together. No more total annihilation by dans! But there is more. Because leagues are parts of larger communities, you often can ask these dans for a free review. Take that, dans!
Obviously, people can just play together. But also, people are drawn to anything that provides any level of organized, repeatable fun. It is hard to build a community around nothing. So join the communities, play more, lose often, and once you grow stronger, organize the fun for others!
Are you looking for a different kind of resource?
Books, a list of YouTube Go personalities, or other resources?
Open this toggle to see other useful forum posts with fantastic Go resources
Types of Go organizations
So, where to get these reviews from gods of Go and play with people of the same rank? At the beginning of the topic, you can find a list of places where people gather together and learn Go. For your convenience, please see short descriptions of these organizations below.
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Community – mostly about communication on- and off-Go-topic, asking for reviews, and playing together more relaxedly. Probably, the most essential factor that helps people stay in Go. Usually, communities are built around a Go teacher, some sort of a league, or lectures by Go professionals. Extensively use Discord.
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Dojo – a training ground for becoming stronger. Usually oriented at SDK+ players and requires payment as they are run by top professional players. They have internal ladders, lectures, and regular reviews. If communities are local Go clubs with beer, then dojos are universities.
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League – work in progress
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Course – work in progress
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School – an event for a couple of days or a week organized by professionals to help people of all ranks play, review and spend time together in a beautiful place (ideally) or online. Typically, these are paid events.
Note that the boundaries between different organization types are fuzzy. E.g., a dojo can have a fantastic community around it, in addition to its training program.
Archives
Archive 2022
… waiting for 2022 to end …
Archive 2021
Congratulations! You received an achievement, “A Curious Cat”! The project started in 2022, so there are no updates from 2021.
Big Thanks!
People who helped populate and update the list
- Aumpa, for helping with Discord invite links
- Joachim, for Awesome Baduk
FAQ
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How to add a new project or update the existing one?
Just reply to this topic or message me directly.
Note that the list focuses on community projects and not teacher personalities. Probably we should make another directory of teachers. Discord communities around Go teachers are fine – if people build a thriving community, it should be rewarded. -
Why another list of resources?
… there is plenty of them on the web! Well, people are always looking to minimize their investments and maximize gains. So having a not outdated and regularly updated list of resources to learn in the most populated Go place in the West seems like a great idea to optimize the onboarding of Go beginners to the game. -
I found a small mistake, what should I do?
Just PM me to not clutter the discussion. Thank you!
