Life In 19x19

gorogue wrote:You'd think there would be more places to play online easily.

There are!

gorogue wrote:You'd think there would be more places to play online easily.

If KGS is giving you trouble try these.

http://pandanet-igs.com

http://www.tygemgo.com

or try ☯GS — Online Go Server http://www.online-go.com, that’s pure HTML5, no Java needed

KGS is great for beginners but this time of year there are not a lot of lower level players if your looking for a more even game.

BrandGSX wrote:KGS is great for beginners but this time of year there are not a lot of lower level players if your looking for a more even game.

Is the number of beginners different in some months?

Yeah. Spring break happened and summer vacation coming up warm weather in general less people online.

As always if anyone here ever sees me on KGS and wants a friendly game let me know your from lifein19x19 and we can play and learn together. Be prepaid to answer questions if I have them and I will do the same. Especially beginners. I know how hard it is to find someone to help out a first if your only place to play is online.

Anyone have advice on analyzing your own games for a beginner player? I'm trying to figure out what my mistakes were, but it just seems like with stronger players my mistake was that I couldn't see 25 moves ahead.

gorogue wrote:Anyone have advice on analyzing your own games for a beginner player? I'm trying to figure out what my mistakes were, but it just seems like with stronger players my mistake was that I couldn't see 25 moves ahead.

Set goals when you play. OC, the ultimate goal is to win the game, but there are subgoals along the way. Then see how well you did in accomplishing those subgoals. If you did not succeed, see if you can figure out why. Even if you do not figure it out, it is worth the effort.

Good luck!

gorogue wrote:I couldn't see 25 moves ahead.

If you can consistently and accurately read 25 moves ahead, you can beat 95% of the people here. Did you mean 2-5 moves ?

Get your serious games reviewed, here or on KGS, etc.

EdLee wrote:

gorogue wrote:I couldn't see 25 moves ahead.

If you can consistently and accurately read 25 moves ahead, you can beat 95% of the people here. Did you mean 2-5 moves ?

Get your serious games reviewed, here or on KGS, etc.

I know they aren't actually reading 25 moves ahead, It just seems that way sometimes (e.g. I'll think an invasion should be killable and my opponent ends up making it live and my position collapses). Of course, there are also more simple tactical mistakes I make that you only need to see a few moves ahead to execute, but I'm better at finding those kinds of mistakes when I go over a game I played.

Have your serious games reviewed, here or on KGS, etc.

Thanks for everyone's help. I think I've seen the writing the wall at this point and I'm giving up Go in search of a different hobby (lots and lots and practice doesn't help me get below 30kyu, supposedly absolute beginner level, on OGS) but it's nice to know there's such a great community of helpful people here!

Hi GoRogue, You're welcome. Come back any time.

It's not uncommon for beginners to be a bit lost when starting to play 19x19 games. Why not focus on smaller board sizes for a while? (9x9 then 13x13)

Try to play against igowin. It's free, it won't judge you if you make mistakes, once you are more comfortable playing 9x9 then focus on 13x13 for a while.

Do not use OGS to measure your strength as a beginner as 30k there is very broad and includes many stronger players. Some (e.g. Bill) will say beginners shouldn't worry about rank but I can understand wanting to see a number changing to give feedback and encouragement of progress (I did and still do). Try KGS instead, though the beginner ranks there probably aren't as meaningful as they were a few years ago due to fewer players.