Nick Sibicky for beginners

[Ian Butler]

Someone at my go club asked me a good/fun Go channel to watch. I told him I liked watching Nick Sibicky when I was first learning how to play. I told him I'd send him a link.
Anyone who's seen many Sibicky videos has a good idea what lecture of his would be most interesting for an absolute beginner (he's played max 6 games, that's it)?

Thanks!

[00Noles]

I think just following the chronological order works quite well. In the first five videos kyu games are reviewed starting out with the difference between 4-4 and 4-3, how to build territory/influence and so on - real basic stuff. After those i found most videos concerning fuseki to be quite helpful and comprehensible, while i skipped most joseki lessons. The pro game reviews are very interesting although of course as a beginner you don't get quite much. I enjoyed them nevertheless and don't mind watching them a second time after i may have improved and get deeper insight.
I recall the lessons (not the workshop) on shape and attack to be quite useful and easy to understand too.

Hope that helps!

[Kirby]

The hidden move go videos with Andrew Jackson are amusing - not sure how educational they'd be, but they are fun to watch.

[Sekibutsu]

Kind of bumping Noles' answer above, Nick was teaching a beginner class when he started recording his lectures and uploading the material to his youtube channel. If I remember correctly, more or less the same people were still there (taking the same class) at least 50 episodes later. Reasoning from that I'm pretty sure it's natural to watch his videos in chronological order, since that's the way he teaches his students.

That said.. I'd still suggest some elementary book or book series, they are usually structured a little better for beginners (and you don't have to watch a full hour about 4-4 joseki, then 3-4 joseki, then invasion etc). At first, maybe better to get the "round basics" down. After an elementary book he should understand much more from the video lectures as well.

Hope this helps.

[joellercoaster]

A while ago, I put together a playlist of his theory lectures for my own amusement - that is, not game reviews or hidden-move go or tsumego sessions. Some tactics, some wider ideas, some opening guidance.

Your friend might not enjoy the joseki ones too much (though the simplest end of the "must-know joseki" lectures might be interesting) but those are clearly marked.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... ORkBjkPeMP

[Ian Butler]

Thanks everyone for their input.

Obviously reading books is a lot better for your improvement than watching videos, but he asked for some videos specifically, so I try to give him that, then. I'm happy there is a rising interest in Go locally at my go club so I really want to stimulate that and not scare people away with books
Maybe a shape lecture would be most interesting.

Although Another member asked for a book and I lent him GGPB 1 and he finished it and liked it!

Cheers!

[EdLee]

Hi Ian,

Obviously reading books is a lot better for your improvement than watching videos

Not obvious at all.

Contrived extreme cases:
( a superb video beats a lousy book )
( a superb book beats a lousy video ), etc.

Of course, everything is not and ,
and it depends heavily on each person, etc.
We're talking about education -- no quick fix.

[Bill Spight]

Hi Ian,

Obviously reading books is a lot better for your improvement than watching videos

Not obvious at all.

Contrived extreme cases:
( a superb video beats a lousy book )
( a superb book beats a lousy video ), etc.

Of course, everything is not and ,
and it depends heavily on each person, etc.
We're talking about education -- no quick fix.

I suspect that Ian reads books interactively.

For me one advantage of videos is that there are no diagrams, so variations take time, and that allows the audience to think about the next move, and even to see a few or even several moves ahead.

Also, it never hurts to engage more than one sense. That's one reason it is good to read books aloud.

[EdLee]

Hi Ian, GGPB series is great!

For me one advantage of videos is that there are no diagrams...

For me, bonuses include:

- nostalgia

- squirming ^(*)
- tea-suji

- time-suji
- hisses, gasps, grunts, moaning, hair frazzling, facepalm ^(*)
- stoic in dire circumstances
- deft multi-stone pick-up

^(*)