Korean Job Discussion Forums

oneofthesarahs · Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Location: Sacheon City

My boyfriend recently foisted a personal challenge on me that I could never learn to play Go well enough to beat him. Clearly, I need to learn how to play Go and shame him. I know the basic rules, but don't know any strategy whatsoever. What are your recommendations? Any good websites/tutorials out there? I've googled around, but a lot of the sites seem kind of useless or overly complicated to get started with.

What's the best way to learn to play this game?

just another day · Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 4:44 am Post subject:

^ try yahoo games... its easy to learn on the beginner boards... and a lot of people are starting out there too.

http://games.yahoo.com/games/login2?page=go&ss=1

its also called "Baduk" too. but yeah, that game takes a lifetime to master... its weird bc when i play someone who is halfway decent, i have no idea how they are doing what they are doing... Confused

behindtheveil · Joined: 19 Sep 2006 Location: Gimpo

Hi, first don't play on yahoo. It's known for it's cheaters and i also don't like the way their rating system is set up.

This is the best tutorial i've seen for beginners. It teaches you the basics and then some. Do you know about ladders, eyes, double atari, etc? Do you know how to place your stones in the beginning
http://playgo.to/interactive/index.html

That's really helpful to getting you to the 30k level. After that there are a number of options. I handy site is www.goproblems.com also http://senseis.xmp.net/ is real good. But honestly i recommend just playing. A nice simple and user friendly site is www.gokgs.com I recommend registering on there so you can play people around your rank.

I've just reached 10k and am a bit obsessed at the moment I've started reading a book Elementary Go Series Vol.1. It's available here http://x86.sk/~toxygen/Go/

I've also played at a Baduk Bang, but it was full of old men and i walked out of there with sore lungs from the cigarettes. They were quite friendly though and showed me a lot of things.

But really after you get through that tutorial just go play it's the best way plus it's a lot of fun.

just another day · Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 6:30 am Post subject:

^ behind the evil sounds much better informed than me. all i got to know was ladders.

faster · Joined: 03 Sep 2006

Baduk is an amazing game that will reward literally any amount of yourself you want to put into it. It's inexhaustible. Kills chess dead.

wo buxihuan hanguoren · Joined: 18 Apr 2007 Location: Suyuskis

Billy Pilgrim · Joined: 08 Sep 2004

Go is fun. Easy too.

CentralCali · Joined: 17 May 2007

I find Go/Baduk/Weiqi to be an extremely interesting game. It's incredibly easy to learn how to play; however, to learn to play well is a different proposition altogether.

Here are some resources for you:

Wiki entry on Go (be sure to check the External Links section at the bottom, especially Learn to play interactively).

Boardgamegeek entry on Go.

Nihon Ki-in homepage (in English).

Korea Baduk Association homepage (in Korean).

British Go Association homepage (in English, of course).

gdyanks · Joined: 09 Jun 2007 Location: Seoul

I need to find some baduk (go) players in Seoul now that I'm here...

The Wikipedia Go page is excellent, not only because it gives a pretty detailed intro to the game, but because the number of related topics and external links help a lot. Make sure to look up tsumego (life and death) problems on Wikipedia while you're at it.