Ask My Neighbor about being a Ninja.

[Blarg]

I think at the beginning levels, just knowing the standard ways to close different sized holes is enough to let you know a lot of what to do and how to stay out of trouble. Maybe playing on small boards would be good too, so you can really drill the common situations. Going bigger makes things so much more complex. Have you got closing up the holes down yet?

[splashpot]

Igowin is a free program that lets you play on a 9x9 board against a computer. I have no idea if it's any good or not though.

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
Igowin is a free program that lets you play on a 9x9 board against a computer. I have no idea if it's any good or not though.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think I downloaded this one a long time ago and liked it. The problem with lots of Go full programs is that they are very expensive, or so it seems to me. Like this one's full version is 90 bucks!! Shipped brings it over 100 bucks. Yeesh.

[yoshi_yoshi]

Go is such a fascinating and elegant game; i was really into it a couple of years ago.

Igowin is fun but teaches you bad habits since the computer is bad. If you really want to get better, the best way is to just play other players.

http://www.gokgs.com/ is a mainly English go server where there are a lot of players on all skill levels, and people there are on the whole friendly/helpful. I'd be happy to get anyone started on there, so feel free to shoot me a PM if you want a teaching game (or real game).

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
Go is such a fascinating and elegant game; i was really into it a couple of years ago.

Igowin is fun but teaches you bad habits since the computer is bad. If you really want to get better, the best way is to just play other players.

http://www.gokgs.com/ is a mainly English go server where there are a lot of players on all skill levels, and people there are on the whole friendly/helpful. I'd be happy to get anyone started on there, so feel free to shoot me a PM if you want a teaching game (or real game).

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the tip. Is there another game/software tutor you would recommend instead of igowin? Preferably with at least a small version like igowin's for free. I work odd hours and a jillion of them, and can't see myself sitting down to play people much for a while.

[yoshi_yoshi]

I don't really know much about other Go programs.

On the whole, the computer AI for Go is still fairly naive (because of the complexity of the game) and even middling players like myself don't have much trouble beating the best of them.

Go programs might be good for learning the very basics, but probably not much past that. The reason is that their play is pretty erratic - if they recognize a pattern they might pull off some really good moves, but if they get confused they might play some horrendous moves even a beginner wouldn't play.

If you are looking for a quick game against human opponents, Yahoo Games has a Go server. Most games there are a lot less serious than at KGS and a lot of people there like playing quick 9x9 games (like 10min max). The downside though is that it is full of aholes and also there are a lot of escapers.

[faman]

Blarg,

DGS (Dragon Go Server) is a turn-based go server where typically you're only expected to make 1 move per day:

http://www.dragongoserver.net

Might be something to try if you can only play for short periods of time, i.e. when you're at work [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[CommanderCorm]

@yoshi-yoshi: PM sent!

@anyone contemplating to download (or even buying) a go program, I would strongly advise against it. You can figure out the VERY fundamentals playing against it, but if you play it for an extended period of time, it will teach you the bad habit of answering certain moves in a way which exploits its weaknesses, since it can´t answer correctly, but would never work against a real player (even a beginner). In times of online go, theres no need for a Go Program anyway, because you can play against real people 24/7.

Besides from KGS (Kiseido Go Server), IGS (Internet Go Server) should be mentioned, which is an asian server and has more games with a more serious competition. Personally I prefer it, but play on both servers.

There´s also dashn and cyberoro, both korean servers with mostly asian competition.

If you want to learn, goproblems.com will be helpful, which represents a large number of Go-problems (japanese: tsume-go) to solve in an interacive format from beginner to expert difficulty. Solving tsume-go is the traditional method of studying the game, and absolutey necessary to become any good at it. I think you should have played some games to get a feel for placing the stones before you do any tsume-go, though, if you have never played before.

I´m an intermediate player (~1 dan) that has wasted quite some time of his life on studying and playing the game, and anyone interested please send a PM to me on 2+2 or to "S1lv3rd1m3" at the KGS server. I´ll be happy to show you how the game is working, even if you are a complete beginner which doesn´t know the rules, or if you´re a regular player to have a game with a 2+2er.

If there are stronger players than me in OOT that read this, I could need some teaching myself to become better, since go is a game you never learn out [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

P.S.: Awesome thread, adsman. I´ve been visiting OOT several times a day to see if it has been updated, even before Eddie introduced the game which i am quite an addict of.

[Blarg]

Thanks for the ongoing tips, all. I was mostly interested in go software so I could place stones around the board and work out problems in a quick lunch break or something, where nobody would have to wait on me and play out a full game. I used to have some go books, like The Second Book of Go, years ago, and it really benefited me to visually move stones around instead of just keep an entire huge sequence of possibilities in my head. Mostly I just want something to do the same thing I would with a go board alone working out problems.

[CommanderCorm]

[ QUOTE ]
It really benefited me to visually move stones around instead of just keep an entire huge sequence of possibilities in my head.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you want to benefit from your studies, this is exactly the wrong approach to solving go problems. The goal is to be able to solve them in your head, not to move the stones around! To give you a comparision: It´s a bit like when discussing how a poker hand should be played, the opponents cards (=the "invisible moves to come" in go) should be kept concealed to those who discuss. To solve a problem while actually working with the stones and trying variations is like being results oriented.

If you need to use this method, it means the problem is too hard for your level.

I recommend you to order "Graded Go Problems for Beginners" by Kano Yoshinori. It comes in four volumes from easiest to hardest, and you should probably start with Vol.1: "Introductory Problems".

I still have a look at vol.4 once in a while for a quick warm-up before a session.

edit: [ QUOTE ]
I was mostly interested in go software so I could place stones around the board and work out problems in a quick lunch break or something

[/ QUOTE ]

Goproblems.com may also be what you´re looking for.