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Harbinger01173430 ,

Why is that game named Five in Japanese if they have more than five pieces?

Baines ,

it is the number of people to ever have won the game

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

There is an incredible book called The Master of Go by Yasunari Kawabata, a Nobel-winning Japanese author. It's based on the true story of a master-level Go game that took six months.

I know that doesn't sound very interesting, but trust me. It really is.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_of_Go

HerbalGamer ,
@HerbalGamer@sh.itjust.works avatar

letsgooo

feedum_sneedson ,

These were the group at college with the collective smell playing Magic: The Gathering. I suppose mild autism, or what used to be called Aspergers. Never disliked them, but they were certainly different. I'm likely somewhere on the spectrum, and not just because "it's a spectrum", but it didn't quite manifest like that for me.

dreugeworst ,

Are you saying they were oddballs who happened to play magic, or oddballs because they played magic?

feedum_sneedson ,

I'm not sure how it could flow from the cards to the people, but I suppose they are magic. And there was usually a gathering. So anything is possible.

NigelFrobisher ,

I used to play MTG and can confirm the places I played almost always had that stale sweat smell.

papertowels ,

You know, I always associated dirty, smelly degenerates with magic until I started playing - (I validated that by being the dirty smelly degenerate 😉) it was interesting finding out that potentially due to the high cost of the decks, a good part of the playerbase actually really had their shit together. We're talking engineers, pediatricians, lawyers etc. who could afford to throw $500 down on cardboard. Enough folks were married that my wife started calling the place "husband daycare"

Of course the smelly smell still made an appearance, I was able to determine if a particular person was in the local game store (LGS) by smell alone, the moment I walked into the store.

Furbag ,

I wanted to learn how to play after watching a few dozen episodes of Hikaru no Go, but it's such an obtuse game. Chess I can understand, but Go has a level of strategy that my mind just can't grasp.

Sadbutdru ,

That's the great thing tho, the rules are very simple, anyone can pick up how to play. Then the strategy has so many layers that people can devote a lifetime of study to it, and it can become quite a psychological battle of wills between the two players in a way. But you can enjoy it right from the beginning without all that. And the handicap system means a game between players of very different skill can still be fun.
Man I need to get back into playing go!

s3rvant ,
@s3rvant@lemmy.ml avatar

+1 for Hikaru no Go

Bought a Go set and brought to chess club; that went well lol

Read the Janice Kim books from her Learn to Play Go series and played some online

In the end stopped playing from lack of local players; now I play various other board games instead

Beefcyclone ,

I'm here with my GO board game wondering why everyone has a block of wood and pebbles......
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/25d3bf0a-9458-4a85-8968-2f2141a15ca6.jpeg

gmr_leon ,
@gmr_leon@mstdn.social avatar

As others have mentioned, there's online-go.com for similar to lichess.org.

On Android there's Gobandroid, but it requires this for play against AI: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.ligi.gobandroidhd.ai.gnugo/

On desktop there's Sabaki:
https://sabaki.yichuanshen.de/

Haven't tried Sabaki yet, as I was using GoGUI running off GNU Go for a long time, but it's no longer in development.

cashews_best_nut ,
@cashews_best_nut@lemmy.world avatar

Also GNUGo on Linux.

aoidenpa ,

I used to play a lot in college. KGS was very popular and fun to hang around. Hikaru no Go anime is really good. Also there is a documentary about Lee Sedol vs Alphago games. Check them out. It's best to play in person so check out local clubs and tournaments. r/baduk subreddit is fairly active.

vaultdweller013 ,
@vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works avatar

Cheeki Breaki?

ace_garp ,
@ace_garp@lemmy.world avatar

Go / Wéiqí / Baduk is like the ocean, simple to understand near the shore, but unknowable and somewhat scary in it's greatest depths.

Games on a 9x9 board are faster and may help during early learning.

Tsumego are small contained Go puzzles, where there is one ideal solution to be found. (Gobandroid or similar)

There is a massive amount of knowledge at this website:

https://senseis.xmp.net/?StartingPoints

(All available under the Open Content Licence)

It is a humbling game. I know nothing about Go.

Lifecoach5000 ,

Gosh. Chess breaks my brain enough. I think I tried to tangle with Go for a bit after watching a doc about it but it was just too much for my feeble brain.

Maven OP ,
@Maven@lemmy.world avatar

I've been following a series of tutorials by Go Magic. They have a YouTube channel! The videos are extremely well produced and explain things super well!

Edit: I grabbed a link

rickdg , (edited )
@rickdg@lemmy.world avatar

Have you found the manga Hikaru no Go?

Maven OP ,
@Maven@lemmy.world avatar

I haven't found the manga but it was made into an Anime that's on Hulu right now. I was thinking of watching it when I'm bored some day.

joby ,

You should. It's a fun drama that inspired a lot of people to pick up go when it came to Western audiences.

Broken_Monitor ,

Great game, much like chess I have no one in real life to play it with and I lose interest quickly in playing random internet strangers, so it’s been quite awhile since I’ve touched it.

I think a thing that made a huge impact for me was finding a program full of life and death puzzles. It really helped to drill in what a “dead group” looks like, and helped me judge when to abandon a part of the board or continue fighting for control there. Unfortunately that was 15 years ago and I no longer remember the name of that program.

Otherwise I always found the idea behind influence on the board to be very powerful, if difficult to define. I always noticed that good players tend to start by putting pieces all around the board, generally hovering on the third or fourth line away from the edge. Even if they wont fight for those spots later, just that small presence is enough to disrupt how their opponent will play and gives an edge in defending or attacking that area later. I’m a novice player who hasn’t played in a decade so maybe its not great advice, but spread out early! I think it really helps. It makes it a lot easier to claim territory and also just push into your opponents, and hopefully they eat up a lot of space trying to defend that.

Jilanico ,
@Jilanico@lemmy.world avatar

Lose your first several games quickly.

Maven OP ,
@Maven@lemmy.world avatar

My main opponent right now is my boyfriend (who is also learning the game with me). Nothing we've done has been particularly quick in any sense.

Jilanico ,
@Jilanico@lemmy.world avatar

That was the advice given to me from my teacher so just passing it along :) I think it means all the options can be overwhelming, so don't overthink it and just play without hope of winning. You'll soon get a feel for what good moves are.

He also lent me a book that helped, so consider doing some reading. I wish I remembered the book's name. There is also this site: https://senseis.xmp.net/

Y'all should also play against other opponents/AI. Intermediate level opponents will help you to grow.

It's an amazing game. Glad y'all found it :)

TheAlbatross ,

Oooooh I'm so jealous, I cannot convince my man to play with me. It's nice to learn with someone at the same level as you.

Edit: The adage I was told was "To learn go, lose your first hundred games" with the modern addition of "quickly". For what it's worth, I lost my first 57 games on OGS. It is a good way to learn.

Jilanico ,
@Jilanico@lemmy.world avatar

Thanks for the actual quote! 👍

The_Picard_Maneuver ,
@The_Picard_Maneuver@startrek.website avatar

What app should I download (on Android) if I want to try Go? There are a lot of them, and I have no idea where most of the playerbase is.

Maven OP ,
@Maven@lemmy.world avatar

I was hoping someone would comment on this actually. Every android app I've tried has been riddled with ads to the point of being impossible to play.

If someone has a good one PLEASE let us both know!

The_Picard_Maneuver ,
@The_Picard_Maneuver@startrek.website avatar

Yes please! This was the obstacle that kept me from trying it a couple of weeks ago. Ideally I'd love to find the equivalent to chess.com (or lichess), but for Go.

Maven OP ,
@Maven@lemmy.world avatar

Maybe one day I'll get fed up and make one myself

joby ,

online-go.com is the closest I know of.

monotremata ,

Just adding a reply here to direct you to my other comment, which summarizes some of the options.

https://kbin.social/m/comicstrips@lemmy.world/t/791813/-/comment/4808661

Maven OP ,
@Maven@lemmy.world avatar

Thanks!

joby ,

Just go to online-go.com in your preferred browser. It works great on mobile. There's a large collection of puzzles to do. Those are user submitted, which means the quality varies, but some people have put together some pretty good sets that work as tutorials for beginners.

OGS is the most popular server outside of Asia, and has a nice social side with chat rooms and... clubs? I don't remember their name for it, but you can join groups for finding teaching games, groups for people in your geographic region, etc.

I don't log on often these days, but I love teaching new players. Feel free to add me as a friend there (and maybe dm me here so I know to look). My name there is nomadfarmer.

monotremata , (edited )

I used to use KGS, but that was mostly on the computer, though I know they also have an Android app. That was several years ago, though. My friend who still plays does so mostly on Pandanet via Android.

Those are both for multiplayer, of course. For single player, a while back I used Gridmaster along with a build of LeelaZero, and there are various apps that offer Go problems, including one my friend likes, but I have forgotten what he told me it was. I think it might be Tsumego Pro, but I'll have to ask him again next time we talk.

Edit: Dragon Go Server probably deserves a mention as well. That's a site for, basically, postal games via email, and can be accessed entirely via a web interface. It's not as popular as the sites with faster time controls, but it's kinda nice for playing a leisurely game with a busy friend.

hooded_squid ,

I use "Sente - Online Go" and really like it. It shows as early access but I haven't found any issues with it. It connects to the OGS server so you can play against bots of varying difficulty or normal online matches.

The_Picard_Maneuver ,
@The_Picard_Maneuver@startrek.website avatar

Aha, this might be what I was looking for! Is OGS the main platform for online Go?

TheAlbatross ,

OGS is very popular among western players, but there's no one "main" go server globally.

milicent_bystandr ,

I used to use gobandroid off f-droid, but these days I use crazystone: I like its ai for casual play (and I usually only play casual!). It does seem to have a deep love for talking home with no explanation when it starts up though, so on Lineage I just disable its internet permission.

Online-go is good but I haven't really gotten into playing against strangers on the internet: I feel I should take it more seriously when I'm against a real person!

Wish I had people offline to play with sometimes though.

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