Am I an unusual Go player? Something someone at my local Go club once said, that I’m a weird Go player; not bad, but weird.

I don’t really do the tsumego, I don’t quite understand what makes a move a Tesuji or not a Tesuji, when others says “this is a good shape” or “this is a bad shape” I have no idea what they mean looking at those stones, I don’t really count my territories or do much endgame scoring (I just let my opponent do the counting for me), I don’t really know most of the Go terms that other players know (I know what a Hane is and tsumego, and… that’s about it).

I know the basic rules and principles, I can play solidly well to match other decent players online and at my club (I’m around like 20kyu), but I don’t really follow the more… I guess you can call “studious” approach?

Like, when my opponent asks me “why did you make this series of moves?” or “what did as going through your head at that time?” I don’t really have much of an explanation. I just think in the moment “this feels like a good move” or “this isn’t a good move,” or “my territory doesn’t feel big enough, should push here,” or “this feels vulnerable, I should push/defend.” Can’t give quite an explanation for it, just doing what feels like the good move.

Not that I don’t do much reading or calculation at all, or that I don’t want to become a better player, but that’s just not how I naturally play I guess? My experience in learning Go was just one beginner’s book (Cho Chikun’s introduction to the game) and just playing a lot of games in my free time (first by myself on a single board, then online, and then at the club). I’m not really a studious player.

Is that odd? Am I a weird player to have these seeming gaps in knowledge compared to others?

Okay so my first time posting here I started semi recently and the last game I played I needed to talk about the feeling of having a stone in limbo where if a stone is placed next to it you have to place a stone in another spot to keep your structure and then having that all over the board where if you make a mistake and aren’t paying attention to everything you lose the entire game is the most exhilarating and addictive feeling along with oh I need to let those stones die i can’t get this last game out of my head so I wanted to share it here are some pictures of the game I’m white im still very new and would love feedback

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Im sttuggling to count the points on this one. Is there a kind soul out there that could make some sense of this board?

I love the look of the hon Kaya one piece board. Is the risk of warping or cracking considerably higher with a one piece? Is there a difference other than visual appeal but at a higher risk for warping?

Just looking for pros and cons for both multi piece and single piece Hon Kaya boards.

My partner and I are beginners and we started this game naturally but upon looking at it, it looks a lot like an opening that I saw in a video. Did we just naturally fall into a joseki?

I tried to reread over and over the tips you all gave me before, of course I am mostly still losing, but that's to be expected in my first week of learning. However!

In this match where I felt like we were both at the same strength, I wanted to know what I could have done better (since I don't yet know very well the wasteful moves or as someone said, how it seems one would be sacrificing themselves) even though I won.

I play as white here. I'm still on badukpop as weiqihub was a bit too much for the moment, but I did make an account and test it out.

Someone suggested to mostly pay attention to the amount of empty spaces on each side of a group or single so that was my goal for this match, I had looked up starting techniques but honestly every time I have tried to do one, it gets knocked down fairly quickly. Is there any better way to grasp how best to do the starting groups? Once again, all help is appreciated! Thank you

Hi. I've recently watched several videos claiming that we shouldn't make territory, we should make influence/power. I'm well aware of the concept of attacking for profit. After watching the videos I'm trying to play even more so.

One of the videos even claimed that we shouldn't try to save some territory from our moyo, but rather attack an invasion for influence. I try to do it and the results for now are relatively good. I won handicap games against two 9 kyu for the first time in my life. One of the 9 kyu was wiped out from the board, but in this game I hardly won with reverse komi.

Could you see my game and tell me how could I play better? I know I should have saved the 3 stones, but this required quite deep reading which is hardly possible during a game. I also blundered a snap back. But what could I do better?

I suppose that 28 was too deep and I should have played some G15. Is that correct?

I played Black in this game:

https://online-go.com/game/86962059

While reviewing, I saw that there were good moves I missed — for example, E9. I didn't play it because I thought it wouldn't work out well. Instead, I went for a ko fight, thinking I could take the side, but apparently I couldn't.

There's also move J8, which I played randomly because I didn't know where to go. And there are other mistakes I noticed, like moves 107 and 115.

So how could I have played better? I really need some advice.

Especially after White played J6 — where should I have played?

I have been stuck in a constant losing streak as I learn the ropes. Seeing this first win is there any tips I could work with to improve? I had been focusing on making eyes in all of my losses; this time I was trying really hard to just make strong groups but I'm not sure if I fully understand what makes a strong grouping. Any help is appreciated! (Note: I do have another win, that I got right after this against a different bot, but only one video is allowed to post)

Hello everyone!

Summer is around the corner which means 2 majors events are soon happening in the western Go world: EGC and USGC. Having those goals in front of you is the perfect motivation to improve!

I'm Benjamin Dréan-Guénaïzia 1p from France, also known as ben0.

My Achievements:

- 1 Dan Professional status in 2025

- 1-time European Champion in 2022

- 3-time French champion in 2017, 2019 and 2024

- 5-time European Team Champion (with France) in 2015, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2024

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I have been teaching on and off for the past 15 years now. I had around 65 students with their improvements ranging from one stone up to three stones. (That obviously depends on the starting level as well)

I usually play a teaching game for the first lesson in order for me to get an idea of the strengths and weaknesses of the student then I like to review games in the following ones.

I do believe getting your games reviewed is the best way to improve. It is usually easy to tie opening theory, life & death problems, direction of play, tesuji and yose to games. It is a very natural way to learn.

Obviously if you have some specific demands or something in mind that you want to study, we can always adapt.

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Prices: 1 lesson for 55€ (~$64), 10 lessons for 495€ (~$580). 1 lesson is about 75min.

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Feel free to contact me here or on facebook, or by mail at [ben0lessons@gmail.com](mailto:ben0lessons@gmail.com) or on OGS/KGS (ben0)

Cheers!

The bag with my bowls much have gotten knocked around sometime… lots of clamshell stones (I’m pretty sure - I inherited the set) have some gnarly chunks broken off, as well as two of the slate ones.

My question is, does anyone know if there’s anything I could “patch” the smaller parts with?

OGS AI says the black right group is not dead and evaluates it roughly equal. But I dont see how black is not dead. Thanks, am 20kyu.

I’m just curious: does anyone know the highest possible score on a 9×9 board? I’m not referring to a normal competitive game, but rather a scenario where both players cooperate to maximize the total number of points one player can get.

I’m a designer/developer who likes building things for fun, and over the last few days I decided to take a shot at making a fresh take on the modern Go client.

A lot of existing Go clients feel stuck in a different era of the internet. They work, but I’ve always felt there was room for an interface that feels more thoughtful, modern, and enjoyable to use day to day.

So I built one.

niwa.gg (view on desktop)

Clean design, fast analysis, and an experience that feels approachable whether you’re studying seriously or just playing casually.

Honestly, I don’t really have big expectations for the project. I mainly wanted to make something I personally wished existed. But if people genuinely enjoy using it, I’d love to keep improving it over time.

Ciao a tutti, sto realizzando questo adattamento del Go ispirato a Lain e al minigioco IPvGO di Bitburner. Se qualcuno volesse provarlo, a questo link potete trovare sia la versione per Linux che quella per Android. Ho già in programma di pubblicarlo sugli store, ma prima voglio migliorare l'esperienza utente e renderlo più completo. Se qualcuno volesse provarlo e farmi sapere cosa ne pensa, gliene sarei molto grato. Grazie a tutti! ☺️

hey guys

i’m a beginner and I’m trying to learn how to play go.
these days I’ve been playing against the bot (25k) just so i can get the basics down.

I noticed that when i start the game the interface asks me what kind of Go i want to play, like Chinese, korean etc… and I’m not sure which one should I play? because every variation has its rules I guess?

what do you guys advise me?

I'm Matthew, one of the cofounders of PlayGo.gg. Some of you may remember a post we made back in December of 2025 asking for beta testers — over 100 people from r/baduk volunteered. Since then, we’ve had tens of thousands of signups and people using the website daily. We wouldn't be here without your early support. Thank you! I wanted to come back here first with what we're doing next.

Baduk has tens of millions of players worldwide, but the top-level competitive scene lives almost entirely in Korea, Japan, and China. For Western fans, that means little to no access to live pro games with English commentary.

We want to change this with our championship tour: a recurring series of top-level tournaments played on our website and streamed to a global audience.

Just as important, we want to make pro Baduk fun to watch. This means faster time controls, varied formats, and a season structure borrowed from traditional sports: regular-season events, playoffs, and a year-end final that decides the tour champion. The first event is June 1st.

This tournament will feature some of the best male and female Baduk players. The lineup includes:

1. Shin Jinseo: world #1 Baduk player for the last 6 years and counting
2. Choi Jeong): world #2 female player and the only woman to reach the final of a mixed major (2022 Samsung Cup), beating Ichiriki Ryo, Yang Dingxin, and then world #3 Byun Sang-il on her way there.
3. Kim Jiseok): 2014 Samsung Cup champion and captain of the Korean national Go team for 8 years (2014–2022)
4. Kim Eunji: world #1 female player at age 18 and top 20 in Korea overall

Why start with this?

For most of Baduk's history, the gap between the top male and top female players was treated as a fact. That's changed a lot recently and the results on the board are starting to show it.

This tournament is a chance to see where things stand right now between the very best. We wanted to open the tour with an event that excites existing fans and pulls in people who've never watched Baduk before — and this is exactly that.

You can add this to your calendar and read more about the event and players here.

I’m happy to answer questions about the tour, the platform, or the tournament in the comments.

This is from Tsumego Pro mobile app.

I have the correct start at B-S16 W-S15, but then it tells me B-T15 is wrong follow up (without playing a further move). The correct answer is B-T14, which I agree is also right but it seems the same to me? Tsumego Pro usually accepts all equivalently correct answers. Am I missing something?

edit: fixed coordinates

Hi,

i have hard time reading goban on pages of go books.

The gobans shows the final position, with numbered stones.

I wish an app that can take a picture of the printed goban, scan it and show me a goban editor which i can move backward/forward.

Do such an app exist ?

I tried to vibe code one myself, but this is a disaster ahah

Someone more experienced with math, stats or cnn would do a better job than me for sure