Your beginnings with Go

  1. I’ve been playing properly since January 2016.

  2. I got stuck around 18k until April 2016, took a long break, and returned in January 2017; having returned, I settled in at about 15k and then rose steadily into the stronger DDK ranks, making SDK in early 2018 iirc. It’s impossible to tell now that the ranking system has been changed multiple times.

  3. I was in my late teens.

  4. I learnt about it on a forum which was mainly about TTRPGs.

  5. I don’t think I can tackle that question.

  6. I’m currently 3k OGS and 4k EGF. From reviewing my older games now, I’m confident that I’m improving, in skill if not in rank.

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  • How long have you been playing Go?

When I was twelve or thirteen (early seventies) my father went to Taiwan for business and apparently got to know of the existence of go. At that time a Ravensburger go set with those pesky little plastic stones was bought. My brother and I played some games, but soon lost interest, as we hadn’t the faintest idea of what we were doing.
Late eighties I discovered that Nijmegen hosted a go club. I joined and played go for about 15 years, before I quit in 2003 (although still playing one, maybe two games a year). In 2019 I joined again and soon after discovered OGS.
So how long? Half a century, 30 years, 20 years? I don’t know.

  • How were you doing at the beginning?

Well, the proverb “loose 100 games” was in my case very optimistic.
But I had fun playing and learning new tricks was chill also.

  • How old were you when you started?

My real beginning was late eighties, when I was nearing 30 years of age.

  • Why did you pick up Go, how you got in touch with it for the first time, what was your motivation at the beginning?

It looked fascinating (especially the graphical aspect of go). Liked to play, but was also into the apres go (drinking some beers and playing silly go games in Cafe 't Haantje).
Don’t think I was very ambitious about it.

  • How do you think a person should do at the beginning? What would you expect from a beginner in the first few weeks since they started?

Play, play, and have fun. Don’t be too serious.

  • How you progressed since the start?

I started with the assigned rank of 25 kyu and got better over the years. OGS: 4-5 kyu.

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  1. How long have you been playing Go?

Started in late 2014. Stopped mid 2017.

  1. How were you doing at the beginning?

Pretty bad. . I was really directionless until I got weekly lessons from Clossius.

  1. How old were you when you started? (Btw, I’m 18, almost 19)

24

  1. Why did you pick up Go, how you got in touch with it for the first time, what was your motivation at the beginning?

Never liked chess, and Go wa really aesthetically pleasing to me, plus I had a copy of shonen jump back in grade 10 that had a chapter of hikaru no go, and my friend was into it but I wasn’t, so…

  1. How do you think a person should do at the beginning? What would you expect from a beginner in the first few weeks since they started?

I’d expect them to know when a group is definitely alive and when a group is definitely dead. Otherwise, maybe “corners first, then sides, then centre last”. Not much more than tht though.

  1. How you progressed since the start?

Made it to 2d. I reached my goal of hitting dan and then fizzled out. I also burned myself out when I went ham and did like 8-12 hours a day for a couple months one summer. I still find it hard to get back into the game.

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Uhm, so you were 24 when you started, and now you’re 18? :smile: Welcome back, paradoxical time traveller.

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Nah it’[s just copy-pasted from the OP.

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I discovered go the same year The Bangles were taking the radios with “Walk Like an Egyptian”. I was 21.
In a kind of private party, there was a game going on, I asked and they invited me to be teached another day.

That day in a private appartement, they were again two players, not sure they were the same players, but one was 2k he said. They show me the rules quickly and propose me to play (19x19, no handicap). They said my second move was really good, I had no idea why.

After the game, they started a review (2 hours?). I was in a very new and unknown situation, where people use words I understand but logical reasoning completely obscure in fields that I was thinking to be not that bad (game, strategy, space and time…) It hurt I couldn’t stand that ignorance and just wanted to understand .
So next day my first visit was to the local bookshop. Bought two books written by a navy french admiral of very medium quality ( I learned at least the one space jump with them). I teached a friend and we played dozens of free spirited 19x19 games together.

“How do you think a person should do at the beginning? What would you expect from a beginner in the first few weeks since they started?”

At the beginning a person should play real life games (don’t be shy,19x19 is great) with players of same level. He can have a stronger and wise player around to give him very few advices like how to close boundaries. I said wise because the stronger has to restrain himself to teach and that’s hard. After a few weeks I expect the beginner to see the Atari and get more interest in tactics and strategy and start to study a bit by himself.

Last question need a long answer, maybe later if I don’t forget.

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In addition to this one, people have similarly discussed their beginnings with Go in other threads as well

Self-reference for completeness

And in a broader, but related vain, here are some other threads focused on forums users talking about themselves…

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I’m struggling to remember how I learned that the game of Go was even a thing and why I started to play. The videos with Michael Redmond commenting the first AlphaGo match had an impact on my interest, I remember that much. I might have stumbled upon them looking for videos about artificial intelligence, but I somehow think I heard about Go before that.

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Thanks @Kosh for pointing out this thread, apparently nobody here used the word “introduced”, so I didn’t find it via the search function.

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Did you find it via Go Commentary on YT after watching Hidetchi’s Shogi videos? That’s how I found Go.

I’ve not been in touch with shogi yet. I know how to play chess and go, isn’t that enough? :wink:

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  • Since 2011/2012

  • I know go existence since i saw HikaGO on 2000-ish on tv back then but can’t learn with lacks resources. Only starts playing on 2011 when i was 16. Thanks to app Called GOdroid until i found out Igs/pandanet. I Don’t know what iam doing at first even maybe now

  • 16, i wish i was younger when starts playing instead of chess

  • I got bored playing with Chess, i playing chess since i was younger and i loves Hikago and trying to Understand what they’re doing

  • What i found from GO beginners they will stop playing entirely if they’re facing the “Wall” and doesnt try to break it. Just take it slowly as hobby; or in some cases they couldn’f find someone to play with. Instead, find someone to play how about try makes someone close to you to learn.

  • As For starter, just play it. it’s advisable to play with person instead of Ai (it was my mistake as well, and for my cas Godroid’s Ai is bad for today standard) until you understand “flow” of the game, next learn fundamentals, try solving tsumego once in while, Review your own game, doesnt matter if its “messed” review or “wrong”, try finding “strong”
    player who able to see your review and ask them for feedback about your review and discussed it if possible. Losses, Despair, Confusion is what to expect at beginning but dont discourage keep playing.

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I started about a week ago, needless to say I’m not very good, just at the very beginning of things, but I’m enjoying myself. I don’t mind losing at the moment. It make me think about it. I like the feel of the game. I’m 70 yrs old and never really saw go much and then last week a friend told me about the Doc Alphago. Liked it, registered here and have had 4 games, won the second one, lucky. I have a couple of friends where we hopefully will be playing each other regularly.

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Welcome. Although young people dominate OGS, there is a place for older players, too (I’m 67).

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Thanyou Conrad. I hope seniors get extra handicap, I’m going to need it, (-;

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My first ever Go encounter was ~25 years ago. A guy who is likely the most arrogant individual I’ve ever met pulled out a goban and proceeded to delight/relish in demolishing me. A very unenjoyable experience, I didn’t play for the next two decades, a waste considering that the vast majority of players are not like that.

(there are currently other threads on how to attract new players to the game; unsure about that but turning people off the game is fairly easy).

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Compares OGS community to Lichess…

Two households, both alike in dignity

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In the fair West wherein we lay our scene,
Where ancient game shews new competitor,

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Welcome! Here’s another older player (63) who shamefully let the game languish for over a decade before picking it up again six months ago. First learned it 30 years ago, thanks to Kawabata’s novel Meijin. So I got to discover my favorite game and favorite novelist all at once. :slightly_smiling_face: :bowing_man:

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