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Comment by sz | Hacker News Reader

I learned how to play in Taiwan and it's become my favorite board game.

I'm not very good though. Do you have any suggestions for improving?

1. Play lots of 9x9 games against a stronger opponent:

2. Study tsumego (life and death) problems. By study, I mean keep replaying the same positions until you can identify the sequence to live (or to kill) immediately. Study problems slightly more difficult than your own rank (maybe 1 or 2 stones). Do this for 15 minutes every day for 6 months and you will be quite strong.

http://tsumego.tasuki.org/?page=tsumego

http://senseis.xmp.net/?BenjaminTeuber%2FGuideToBecomeStrong

3. Replay master games. Don't merely click through games on the computer. Get a board. Get stones. Feel the stones in your hand and think about where you would place each move. Try to discover, for yourself, why the master played the move.

http://www.kiseido.com/Game.htm

4. Study fuseki theory and master fuseki player games:

http://senseis.xmp.net/?TakagawaKaku

  Do this for 15 minutes every day for 6 months and you will be quite strong.

  http://senseis.xmp.net/?TsumegoLounge

It's not at all clear from this page how you actually get to the puzzles. (Which sound like fun.)

Updated with more relevant links. Also, tsumego is a Google-friendly word. (Unlike Go, which is now a programming language, too. Fortunately there is baduk and weichi.)

Thanks. That led me to this page:

  http://senseis.xmp.net/?ProblemsAndExercises

Which contains links to actual puzzles.

I would remove the playing 9x9 against igowin. It will do more harm than good. Play them in KGS, or in a play-by-email style in Littlegolem.net or Dragon Go Server, all against real persons.

It is (2) that got me. It just takes too much time that I've never had.

I'm probably 14 kyu.

I'm in Taipei at the moment -- don't suppose you have any suggestions for a Go club to go to?

See ludwig's comment:

http://igolocal.net/

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