For what it's worth, you won that game. There was one white group that you should have marked dead, and another that would have been dead if you made one more play or alive if the computer made one more play. Review your game and see if you can find the group that can live or die depending on who plays next, and it will help you begin to see what living groups look like.

The bots on KGS play two types of games: Ranked and Free. If the game is ranked there will be an R next to it in the KGS game list, and it will count toward helping you establish a rank. The game you played the other day was a free game, so it has no bearing on your rank on KGS.

Thanks for looking at the game. I thought it auto-filled in the dead groups, so I didn't highlight white's dead groups. Whoops. Good to know it was a winning effort if scored correctly. I'll be able to look at the game when I'm back in town this weekend, so I'll take another look. I'll play some games on my phone in the meantime to get some reps, so to speak.

Hi.

Colour me envious - I wish I had my twenty-something brain to apply to learning Go instead of my nearly-forty brain

I started last October-ish, have only really played correspondence Go (it's what is available to me right now) and have not been madly crash studying like some people do (because I have a nearly-forty life to keep moving with other very energy-consuming hobbies, and a nearly-forty job to look after to pay for it all ), but am presently in the low DDKs. You have to take ratings with a grain of salt and it's a pretty arbitrary line to draw, but I feel like SDK is very close.

I may suddenly hit a wall, who knows? But so far I haven't seen anything that might suggest that age is any barrier to my one day being an OK amateur player. Give me a year or two

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Confucius in the Analects says "even playing go is better than eating chips in front of tv all day." -- kivi

This question just made me realize that I'm getting old(er). I'm 34, but I still think of myself as twenty-something...

I started GO in my early twenties (not counting the childhood games I had with my brother) and I'm now 6k. I had a little stop around 14k but other than that I reached 6k with minimal effort, slowly through the years. Now I'm kind of stuck and have to fix my "fundamentals" and catch up with the learning I skipped until now. But it's working, and the more I learn the more interesting the game becomes. I don't feel my brain would be the bottleneck for my progress - but rather lack of free time and lazy-ness.

This is the best piece of Go advice I have had so far (and this is not the first time it has been given).

Another way to say the same thing is that it's a good tool for finding challenging even games (on OGS, I use the ladder tournaments to supply me with a steady stream of even games against people 1-3 stones stronger, occasionally more, and it's been lovely).

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Confucius in the Analects says "even playing go is better than eating chips in front of tv all day." -- kivi

I first played just shy of 30, and eventually made dan. So there is precedent.

But there is no magic at the low-dan level. You become just good enough to truly understand how not good you are. (And I'm okay with that.)

I guess it's fine having a goal, but the key is to enjoy the journey! If you become disenchanted because it is taking too long to become 1k, well, that would be a real pity.

Rejoice in your good games, take pride in your advancement, learn from your mistakes, and enjoy go. This should be the way at all levels.

Enjoy!

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- Brady
Want to see videos of low-dan mistakes and what to learn from them? Brady's Blunders

I read an old post from here telling the story of a Japanese man who advanced from 1kyu to 5dan after hitting fifty, and it only took him several years.

I also remember reading somewhere about an amazing woman who learned how to play go at 50 and was a 3 dan by 70.

I'm nearly 32 and I'm ~13k. SDK is not out of reach.

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Poka King of the south east.

I started at the age of 38 about six years ago. I peaked at 4k some three years ago (before I stopped playing regularly). When I am retired I will pick up my go books again and make it for shodan. Yay!

Some of you will be familiar with Geoffrey Gray, aussiemate on KGS. If I recall correctly he started playing in 1966 at age 41 and was British shodan (now about KGS 3d) when I knew him in the mid-70s. He still logs on to KGS every day, where he is now 9k. He will be 90 year old in four months.

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

We had one player in our club, who started when he was 69. He died when he 73 years old as 8 kyu.

I was first introduced to go when I was 29y old. I played my first 19x19 game when I was 30y old. 3 years later I had managed to get egf/kgs 2 dan rank. So dont worry about your age, if you want to learn you will.

When I was 30 kyu, I thought:

"Wow, 10 kyu is such an astonishing rank, I'd be satisfied to just take nine stones from those guys"

When I eventually became 20 kyu--

"My goodness! 1 dan is an incredible level! If I could get to 10 kyu, I wouldn't ask for more!"

Upon hitting 10 kyu:

"I-- Impossible! Those top pros must be born superhuman! 1 Dan is definitely something I can settle for, I'll never be able to be that strong so standing a chance with 9 stones is way enough for me!"

And then, I hear pro players (people who could beat me with their eyes closed... literally) saying that they're "not that strong" and "can barely understand Go".

Focus on the beauty of Go. Every time one climbs a level, a new appreciation for the game you could never have comprehended when you where, say, 20 kyu unfolds, so the stronger you become, the weaker you feel. So don't worry about being too old too start, because while reading and sharpness is a factor in Go, self-discipline, judgement, curing bad habits and just life-experience are general advantages you may have over most younger people that you could apply to the Go board. Treat every game like a lesson, rank would come naturally as the only way to ever feel strong at Go is to stay 30 kyu!.

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On Go proverbs:
"A fine Gotation is a diamond in the hand of a dan of wit and a pebble in the hand of a kyu" —Joseph Raux misquoted.

Found out about the game at the age of 38. Took me about six years to get to 1 dan (despite the distractions of family/work), currently 2 dan.

Congratulations.

I'm 39 and just started playing on June 26. Anyone can start. And anyone can be good. It's (smart) effort in for results out.




This rang true with me. I just got my first tentative 17 kyu rank on iGS, only 2 months in, and it's exciting, but... I have a job, a family, a paying non-job activity (writing), I also teach Kung Fu. Can I really fit the amount of effort necessary to improve in Go into my life for the long haul? It seems doubtful.

I may end up in your shoes, Bonobo. But I will continue to enjoy my advancement until the obsession cools, if it ever does.