Hello, I am pretty much a complete novice at Go but I want to get better. I've been replaying commented professional games on a live board every day several times a day. I plan on getting an online tutor when I have some money coming in. I just want to ask, is there anything else I could/should be doing to get better? Or is what I'm doing enough.
In addition to what you've done already, how about getting some books to read?
Any recommendations?
test
[eidogo]
(;CA[gb2312]AB[qq][rq][rj][qk][ol][pl][rl][nm][nn][no][ro][op][pp][sp][mq][oq][qr]
AW[om][pm][qn][rn][oo][po][qo][qp][rp][pq][pr]AP[MultiGo:4.4.4]SZ[19]FF[4]US[玄玄围棋]
MULTIGOGM[0]
;W[sr];B[on];W[rs];B[or];W[sq];B[qs];W[so];B[ps];W[rr])[/eidogo]
I suggest you to read this article
http://senseis.xmp.net/?BenjaminTeuber%2FGuideToBecomeStrong
I'm now 5 kyu on KGS and i learned a lot from badukTV video series ( becoming 5kyu and punish Trick Plays' by Kim Seongryong ) and from various books :
- Learn to play go series
- Opening theory made easy
- So you want to play go ? Jonathan Hop
- Elementary go series : Tsumego , Life and Death and josekies
Also BadukMovies videos are very good
- Find yourself some worthy opponents, play them often. Ask a stronger player to comment on your mistakes.
- Solve a lot of fairly easy tesuji and tsume go problems. Get a feel for shape, good shape, bad shape, and how to take advantage of the latter.
- Play often, develop your fighting skills. Try to ignore so-called sente moves by your opponent as often as you can: learn this from the professional games you replay.
- Learn to count and evaluate end game moves, again, try to avoid answering all the so-called sente moves by your opponent, get a feel for swaps.
- Play, play, play.
- Don't overestimate the subtleties of the opening, like memorizing joseki. Instead, develop a general feeling for the direction of play, recognizing weak groups, and how to attack them. Games are seldomly won in the opening.
- Play a lot, try to develop a feeling of what kind of game suits you, what makes you feel good.
Good luck!
Kind regards,
Paul
I know all of you advise novices to play, play, play but I have this fear of making my opponent fed up because I play a lousy game - I have no idea how to see life and death once the play enters attacking stage or how to 'read' even though I have been reading and reading books for the past 2 years. playing against bots show how weak I am. or should I just plunge in anyway and play?
Play a lot of game and don't have fear.
Every one has the right to learn!
I have been playing Go since around 1987. In the early days, watching go online was not as convenient (even though the Internet Go Server was around even then!). Nowadays, there are plenty of ways to watch online. The best for me is to go onto Pandanet - I can even do it from my smartphone. I simply observe the game with the highest-ranked white player, and there are usually several dozen people online also watching. You can see what people are saying, and also ask questions (but please be considerate, and judicious at first, so as not to capitalize too much on the conversation). I find that even highly ranked players are very helpful.
First play even games a lot , try to find someone stronger who can help you to find your mistakes. The most important is to review your own games. Pros do the same thing ^^. Then try to solve a lot of problems from opening to endgame. There are so many things on internet these days .
Hope you can improve well and quickly