Hello, I have recently taken a huge interest in this wonderful game and I thought being a part of a community would be best for me. By recently I mean about 3-4 days ago and I have gotten almost no sleep in while studying the game.
Anyway, enough about the game and more about myself I suppose..
Well, I am 21 and I love any type of strategy game. I just love knowing that somewhere in my rhythm of play there is technique that will get better as I play and watch others play.

Anyhow, I am excited to be here as I feel it's my next step.



(also, I've played about 4 games total.)

Hello and welcome I hope you are enjoying your studying as well the game

Just wondering what got you interested or at least notice go?

If your on KGS send me a message if you want a game, I'm a beginner too

Well I was interested years ago, but it never really caught me like it did a few days ago. I was looking up somethings about an online game called Hearthstone, and there was a thread on the forums arguing about the complexity of the game itself. Someone brought up GO saying it's simple in it's rules, but people make the game complex and it can be very fun. I don't know why that caught my eye so much, but at that moment, I kind of dropped everything and started studying the game.

And yes I am enjoying the studying almost as much as I've enjoyed the game. Hell, I've put WAY more time into studying at this point and I doubt it will change anytime soon.

Also, I will play you later, currently I am just looking to study and learn the game more. I know playing is part of the game, but maybe a few more hours of Joseki studying will make me feel more comfortable playing against someone again. I got crushed in my first few games. Thanks for the offer though.

Welcome to L19!

The best advice I can give (and it's common advice to new players) is to play a lot of games over the next few weeks. They can be 9x9, 19x19, with handicap or even. The key is to get in games and start trying to drink in patterns and sequences and ways of playing. Don't worry so much about winning or losing (obviously try to win still) but instead just try to experience the game.

The proverb is this: "Lose your first 100 games as quickly as possible." When you are just starting out you will lose to players who have more experience than you and that is just a fact of life. But you can learn so much in your first games because you still have so much to learn. Often you learn more from a loss. (I'm still learning the value of a loss myself.)

I know how much fun it is to study the game. I often will spend more time in a week studying than playing. But I also know that's not a good habit because playing teaches you things that studying cannot.

And I agree that being a part of this community can definitely help. If you have any games you want help looking at you can post the games in the Game Analysis sub-forum for others to evaluate. If you want to keep a record of your progress to look back on and have others give you advice/encouragement you can start a Study Journal. And if you have any questions about even the most basic game concepts you can post about them in the Beginner's sub-forum.

_________________
"You have to walk before you can run. Black 1 was a walking move.
I blushed inwardly to recall the ignorant thoughts that had gone through
my mind before, when I had not realized the true worth of Black 1."
-Kageyama Toshiro on proper moves

Thanks for the welcome and don't worry, after today I will probably play so many games that I will learn my current play style. I really am just starting and I know that losing my first 100 games will happen regardless of what I do because the people I'm playing will have been ahead of me by a year or more. I don't mind losing. I just love to study something before I jump into it. Thanks for the advice though. Anything helps really. I will be playing my fifth game tonight.. maybe even my twentieth as well.

Also, I will be sure to keep records of all my games from this point on. I would love to see how much I improve over time and to show others as well, as I feel it's one of the more important things about a game to me.

Hey... that description of sleepless nights immediately after discovering Go is very recently familiar. My wife is amused, I guess.

Then I went book shopping!

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

Hi Cody, Congrats and welcome!

Thanks for the welcome.



I am planning to buy some books, I just haven't figured out which ones yet.

Welcome! I know about Hearthstone, its not a bad game but I think it will end up nickel and dimeing folks to death.

Hope to play you on KGS at some point.

I do play on KGS and it's the only place I've played, but I have only played four games. I haven't put my username in my profile yet though. I will soonish.

I remember the major amounts of tetris effect I suffered when I first started playing Go regularly. Even when I was asleep, I constantly had shapes flying through my head and my sleep was very restless as a result.

_________________
We don't know who we are; we don't know where we are.
Each of us woke up one moment and here we were in the darkness.
We're nameless things with no memory; no knowledge of what went before,
No understanding of what is now, no knowledge of what will be.

Waking up to a half-solved problem in my head still happens occasionally.

Welcome!

Hope you enjoy the game for a long time to come. I find I play better with at least 6 hours of sleep!

Anthony

_________________
Walla Walla GO Club -(on FB)

We play because we enjoy the beauty of the game, the snap and feel of real stones, and meeting interesting people. Hope to see ya there! お願いします!

Anthony