I haven't seen this thread here:

When were you first introduced to go?

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Last fall I started college, and there was this asian kid a couple doors down with a goban. I got curious, and he taught me how to play.

2007 in my second year of college, a classmate was reading "Cosmic Go: A Guide to Four-Stone Handicap Games", and after he taught me how to play, we played 9x9 in class, on pieces of square paper for the next few weeks.

I hope a lot of people vote. I'd like to see the distribution of this.

(i voted 2005-2006)

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Laurens
Go school: freegame's Teaching School
Author of: The Next Move a book for 15-3kyu players.

This could have been a two-item poll: pre-HNG and post-HNG.

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Help make L19 more organized. Make an index: https://lifein19x19.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=5207

Anime or manga?

It would make a difference for me even though I didn't see Hikaru no Go until years later.

I have yet to read or see it.

The buckets are not the same size so it would not be very useful.

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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).

Started reading Hikaru no Go manga in 2005. Got a goban in December, played for a while. Then I stopped playing until march 2008. I played again for about 7-8 months, not very seriously, and was around 8-9k before I stopped being serious again. In 09 I started playing regularly, and only at the end of 09 did I not play frequently (couple games a week)


But, since january I've played pretty much everyday. It's hard not to.

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7 kyu. Nakamura on kgs.

I did not know what that was until some time after joining this forum ;-D

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Japanese or English?

My story with Go is a bit long, but I don't think it's uncommon. I learned how to play in high school, which doesn't sound like much, but high school for me was 1984 .

Over time, I only played occasionally and would go years without playing one game. In 2006, on my 40th birthday, I decided to make an effort to get better at the game and play regularly. I still don't play as much as I would like and I'm nowhere near as strong as I want to be, but I do get at least a game a week in now.

With all that in mind, I voted 2006.

And yes...I did start reading the English versions of Hikaru No Go when they were published in 2005, why do you ask?

I did not know what that was until some time after joining the predecessor of this forum ;-D

I didn't know that forums existed for Go until after I watched (and fell in love with) Hikaru No Go.

I put 2009. I had run into the game previously on Yahoo! games (when I was bored with chess) circa 2001. I played 9 games, then I went back to playing chess. I really didn't "play" go, though. At that time, the game just didn't hold my interest.

Hikaru No Go jump started an interest in the game for me. After this renewed interest in finding a game other than chess, I found this community, KGS, and IGS. I'm now a go player for life.

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My plan to become an SDK is here.

The statistician has spoken

Even if the buckets are not the same size, it would still provide information, no? It may be that most kinds of analysis can't be done on the data but still, some information would be presented. Perhaps one could apply meta-buckets, i.e. group the answers in fewer buckets.

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FusekiLibrary, an opening library.
SGF converter tools: Wbaduk NGF to SGF | 440 go problems | Fuseki made easy | Tesuji made easy | Elementary training & Dan level testing | Dan Tutor Shortcut To Dan

All my 3 siblings are chess players, but I barely know the rules which has always made me feel a little '' not smart '' compared to them. But since I am the best who is dealing with computers at home, one day I opened their site to play chess and I saw a ad '' click here to play go ''

Since then I play go all the time

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Stefany, web programmer

I first started playing in 1966, pre computers, pre HNG, pre the last ice age.

Best wishes.

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No aji, keshi, kifu or kikashi has been harmed in the compiling of this post.
http://www.gogod.co.uk

I remember, back in about 1976 or 1977 I guess, that the AGA celebrated reaching 100 dan. That is not 100 players of dan rank. It is a combined 100 dan for all those players who were officially ranked dan players. I was at the bottom of the heap at 1 dan and I don't remember many others except for the top 3 or 4. But I do remember you for some reason. You had been 2 dan since I started playing and, even though only a few years older than me, you seemed like one of the elder statesmen of the game in the UK. I don't think there were too many players on the list aged over 30.

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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).

Euh...2010, one brother-in-law was playing on KGS end-december 2009. I asked: "What the hell are you doing? It's Christmas!!", he answered: "In front of Go, Christ could wait a little bit"
After that he learnt me the rules. Was not very convinced at first, but by April/May 2010 I started to play on a regular basis.I was very bad, and am always, but it's fun so...I keep playing

I don't entirely agree. From a strictly mathematical standpoint, you have a point. But pyschologically, there is little difference between starting in 1975 or 1972 - either way, it's a longish time ago. Whereas, starting in 2009 versus 2006 seems like a significant difference. So for this poll, I have no problem with the sort of slow logarithmic increasing bin size.

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Main Entry: zing·er Pronunciation: \ˈziŋ-ər\
1 : something causing or meant to cause interest, surprise, or shock
2 : a pointed witty remark or retort