Welcome to our humble forum, Melanie!
We hope you will take up Go in earnest, as we have found it, through our experience, to be a profoundly transformative game, while at the same time being a lot of fun to play.
If you wish to improve at Go, do the following. One, play plenty of games. There are two ways about it. (The information below is useful when teaching first-timers how to play Go.)
If you are not presently feeling confident enough to play on a 19 x 19 board, you can begin by playing on a 9x9 one and playing in a way that an advanced player would consider childish. That is, play just to capture stones. Begin by agreeing with your opponent to capture at least 1 stone, then at least 2 stones, then at least 3, etc. One can learn a lot about Go fundamentals this way, such as the futility of merely capturing a group of stones and - very important - that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. As well, one learns the importance of knowing when to stop playing; play past a certain point in the game and eventually even the biggest group of stones is reduced to just one liberty, making it capturable. Through capture Go, one comes to understand and overcome the impulse to capture stones, to keep playing indefinitely, make overconcentrated groups, etc.
With novice players, these impulses are naturally present. Of course, there is the temptation to mention the above info beforehand in an attempt to spare frustration to the novice and to point out bad plays during a game, but both should be avoided, as he/she will not yet be able to appreciate such information. Better to just let them play a few games on 9x9. Eventually, the novice learns the futility of his/her initial playing habits and commits to changing them.
Otherwise, if you prefer to play games on 19x19 boards from now on, do the following 3 things. One, play plenty of actual games. Whether you win or lose is not important. Rather, you accumulate experience in Go and, as you go along, refine your understanding and technique. Two, practice your reading (analysis skills) by doing Go puzzles on a daily basis. There are six skill categories. Life & death, tesuji, jōseki, fuseki, middle game, and endgame. Life & death and tesuji are by far the most important skill categories and only after having a good grasp of these two is it possible to understand the other four. Of course, the more of these that you do, the stronger your reading will become, but three 15-minute sessions a day should be enough. Three, replay pro games. In practice, you can replay games by the pro player of your choice, but - at least in my case - games by Korean or Japanese top pros can be difficult to understand, as there is an exceptionally high level of analysis that goes into each and every move. For those who do not have much skill in Go, replaying games by, say, Hon'inbō Shūsaku or Hon'inbō Shūei can be very helpful. In fact, it is often said that replaying Shūsaku's games are highly beneficial for Go players, whether novice or master. Segoe Kensaku 9-dan (1889-1972) once said:
Shusaku simplified the complexity of go, concealing his great strength and profound analysis beneath the smooth surface of his game . . . It is not an exaggeration to say that all the principles and all the techniques of go are embodied in concentrated form in Shusaku's go.Pros are known to replay several game records a day, but for the casual player 1 or 2 game records a day should suffice. The important thing is to familiarize one's brain with patterns of play as they occur in a game of Go.
Of course, we do not guarantee that you will become as good as a Japanese pro player, but through regular application of the above study régime you will be able to improve steadily.
As you stated that you read some material in Japanese, I gather that Japanese culture holds your interest. I submit for your consideration the following article, as it helped me think about Go differently than before. Though it is from the April 1999 issue of
Tricycle magazine, a magazine covering topics related to Buddhism, I am confident that you will have some insight into how the game is viewed in Japanese culture.
http://www.tricycle.com/feature/the-game-goEnjoy the journey!
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Those who are skilled in combat do not become angered. Those who are skilled at winning do not become afraid. Thus the wise win before they fight, while the ignorant fight to win.Zhuge Liang
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