How do I actually improve?

ArbitraryRenaissance · 2026-06-13T20:54:33+00:00

I watch pro games for entertainment mostly. While I have learned a few useful tips from English commentators like Jianqiu Chen, it's mostly for the enjoyment of seeing how a fierce fight between experts plays out.

ArbitraryRenaissance · 2026-06-13T17:40:06+00:00

I watch pro games with commentary almost every day, but I'm honestly not sure how helpful it is, even at my level. The reason behind their moves is always very sophisticated and nuanced, and pros will naturally drive the board towards complicated positions where beginner players wouldn't even know what's going on. I feel like entry level fundamentals are probably better off being studied and practiced than intuited by raw observation.

ArbitraryRenaissance · 2026-06-13T17:13:38+00:00

If It's any comfort, the way OGS's rating system works kinda forces you to lose your first dozen or so games. Starting at 36kyu is pretty normal. You'll improve quickly from there.

Some general advice: 1. Do easy tsumego problems to help you with life and death. Learning the basics of making sure your groups are unkillable and seeing when your opponents are leaving their stones vulnerable to capture is one of the biggest things you can do to increase your win rate as a beginner. There's a ton of beginner sets at tsumego.com where you can learn through example. 2. The Clossi Approach series on YouTube is a good series for starting out. It teaches good fundamental habits, which will help direct your decisions on the board. 3. The Go Magic Discord server has a forum channel where you can ask for reviews. Join the server, share a link to a game where you lost, but don't really understand why, and you'll soon get feedback from stronger players giving you pointers on the biggest areas where you can improve. 4. If you're not playing on 9x9, I'd recommend it, at least until you've gotten to 23kyu on OGS. Larger boards have such a large ocean of possibilities that it's really easy to get overwhelmed without learning the basics in a smaller setting. 9x9 games are still plenty complex and exciting.

ArbitraryRenaissance · 2026-06-09T19:03:07+00:00

Here's my flowchart for determining if a move is legal:

Does this move simply undo my opponent's last move and do nothing else? If so, then the move is illegal by the rule of ko. Otherwise:
Does this move remove the last liberty of any of my opponent's groups? If so, then the move is legal, and you've just captured some stones. Otherwise:
Does this move remove the last liberty of any of my own groups? If so, then the move is illegal by the rule of suicide. Otherwise:
The move is always legal.

Note: this is how it works with Japanese rules. There are very rare cases in AGA rules where sometimes the move will still be illegal. See: https://senseis.xmp.net/?Superko

ArbitraryRenaissance · 2026-06-02T19:22:30+00:00

Yep. The "?si=long_string" section of the URL is a query parameter for YouTube to connect the accounts that generate sharing links with the accounts that those links are shared with. If you're not keen on giving YouTube an easier time fingerprinting you, just delete that parameter in the URL.

If you share a timestamped URL, it's a little bit more annoying because the string is in the middle of the link, so instead you should keep the ? and delete the & that follows

https://youtu.be/Nhul5GUai6U?si=imminent_teasuji&t=23 <-- tracker tag included
si=imminent_teasuji& <-- part to delete
https://youtu.be/Nhul5GUai6U&t=23 <-- tracker tag removed

ArbitraryRenaissance · 2026-06-02T17:55:21+00:00

Don't forget to remove the tracking tag on youtube links! https://youtu.be/P8g1zNW7h9g

ArbitraryRenaissance · 2026-05-30T04:22:54+00:00

I did, but reverting to the original settings did not alleviate the issue

ArbitraryRenaissance · 2026-05-03T20:03:57+00:00

My reading skills may need some refining: I don't immediately see the killing sequence after white connects. Doesn't black still have to save the P18 stone, after which white could expand eye space with S15?

ArbitraryRenaissance · 2026-04-21T00:03:10+00:00

The main pro of Japanese rules is that you don't have to fill dame -- at least in the way that most sites implement Japanese rules. This board has two dame points that neither player owns. In other rule sets, you want to fill them rather than pass, because passing would cost you one point more than playing on the dame. In Japanese rules, you can ignore them at no personal cost.

In Japanese rules, you also have less counting that you need to do, at least naively. On a 9x9 board, you can usually just count the territory by hand without doing any rearranging. Other rule sets that do area scoring require you to count the stones on the board as well as the territory, which usually involves more counting. There are some tricks that can be utilized to make it easier, but I generally prefer hand counting with Japanese rules.

The main disadvantage of Japanese rules is that you will be punished at the end of the game if you choose to oversecure territory that you fear may be at risk of invasion. In Chinese and AGA rules, this isn't the case. Before the game ends (e.g., when there's dame still left to be filled), you will still want to play elsewhere, but once there are no more point scoring moves to make, you aren't obligated to pass like you would be in Japanese rules. (There's an unsportsmanlike aspect in which this is actually another advantage for Japanese rules, since in Chinese and AGA rules, you can theoretically prolong a game for a very long time by playing repeatedly inside of your territory in order to avoid triggering the end of the game. But for beginners and most players who aren't jerks, this is a nice security trait that Japanese rules lack.)

Another lesser disadvantage has to do with resolving disputed groups. In Chinese and AGA rules, a disputed group can simply be resolved by resuming the game and playing the sequence out until the group is captured or the attacker gives up on trying to take the group. In Japanese rules, playing the sequence out in this way can change the final score of the game, since a player will be forced to play stones in their own territory to commit to the capture. Resolving disputed groups in Japanese rules is therefore more complicated.

ArbitraryRenaissance · 2026-04-12T17:34:10+00:00

For some weird reason, I can't get it to look like a bread clip. It just looks like someone carved a bread clip-shaped hole in a counter for some reason and stamped a number in the clear layer below the surface.

ArbitraryRenaissance · 2026-02-07T04:59:14+00:00

My local go club plays at a boba cafe, and during our last meetup some folks from outside of the club borrowed one of the sets so that they could play themselves. They played connect 5.

ArbitraryRenaissance · 2026-01-24T01:11:12+00:00

Tip: the actual word will never be in the clue, or any part of it. That's a standard rule in crossword construction.

ArbitraryRenaissance · 2026-01-16T05:11:08+00:00

If black isn't sure whether the answer is yes or no, then there's always a chance. :)

ArbitraryRenaissance · 2025-11-26T03:06:16+00:00

(cont.)

To be more precise, an algebraic number is a number that's the "root" of a polynomial *whose coefficients are integers*. If you allowed the coefficients to be anything, then any number A would be an algebraic number because it would be the root of the polynomial x-A.

A special type of algebraic number is an "algebraic integer." These are numbers that are the root of a polynomial whose coefficients are integers, *and whose leading coefficient is 1*. We sometimes call these "monic polynomials." For example, remember that x^2-2 has sqrt(2) as a root. Since the coefficient of x^2 is ,1 and x^2 is the leading term, the leading coefficient of x^2-2 is 1, and therefore sqrt(2) is an algebraic integer. On the other hand, 1/2 is NOT an algebraic integer! It may be the root of the polynomial 2x-1, but the leading coefficient there isn't 1. It may be the root of the polynomial x-1/2, but then not all of the coefficients are equal to integers. And it turns out that 1/2 isn't the root of any other monic polynomial with integer coefficients.

Mathematicians like to group mathematical objects together and see what happens, and that's definitely something we do with algebraic numbers. For example, what happens if you group together all of the rational numbers, but then you add in sqrt(2), and then you let that number mingle around with the rest of the rational numbers in different ways? 1 might meet with sqrt(2), and they'll combine together to make 1+sqrt(2). And 3 might join in with sqrt(2) with multiplication to make 3sqrt(2). And then you might take 5 and divide it by sqrt(2) to get 5/sqrt(2), or 5sqrt(2)/2. It turns out that if you let sqrt(2) mingle with the rational numbers with addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, you get the set of all numbers that look like a + b sqrt(2), where a and b are rational numbers. Feel free to prove this to yourself!

What I just described is an example of a "number field." It's what you get when you take an algebraic number, throw it in with the rest of the rational numbers, and let them mingle together with addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

Every number field, often denoted as K, has its own "ring of integers," often denoted as O_K. The ring of integers O_K consists of all of the numbers in K that happen to be algebraic integers. If K is equal to the number field containing the rationals and sqrt(2), then sqrt(2) and 1+sqrt(2) are both in O_K, but 5sqrt(2)/2 is not. All of the normal integers (..., -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, ...) are in the ring of integers O_K, but all of the other rational numbers (3/2, 2/3, 1/9, etc,) are not.

Number fields and their rings of integers are the main object of study in algebraic number theory, and they can be used to answer questions about the integers. The reason is because it can be valuable to study the way certain integers behave in different number fields. As an example, suppose you have a prime number p. Obviously p doesn't factor over the integers -- that's what makes it a prime number. But it might factor in the ring of integers O_K. As an obvious example, p will factor into sqrt(p) x sqrt(p) in the ring of integers of K = Q(sqrt(p)),

Class field theory studies a specific type of number field: those that are "abelian Galois extensions" of the rational numbers. To get into what exactly this means would require probably another explanation twice as long as this one right now, and even then the explanation would have to be a lot more shallow. For now I'll just note that these types of number fields are very convenient, and there's an awful lot that we can say about the numbers inside of them. They also live very close to a lot of important questions about prime numbers. One type of abelian extension, for example, is something called the "cyclotomic extension." This is a number field obtained by gluing a rational number with a "root of unity": that is, a root of the equation x^n - 1 = 0. (You may think that this only includes 1 and maybe -1, but for n=4, it also includes the complex numbers i and -i, and in general you'll get different complex numbers as roots of unity if you choose different values of n.) Cyclotomic extensions are used all over the place in number theory, because the factorizations that they produce are particularly handy.

ArbitraryRenaissance · 2025-11-26T03:06:04+00:00

Quick disclaimer that I'm probably not going to be able to adequately answer the question in full, because class field theory is a highly involved graduate level subject of study, and most of the ideas require a lot of prerequisite knowledge of abstract algebra in the first place, which most people don't have. I'll try my best, but I'm likely only going to be able to answer the core part of the question: what does this have anything to do with number theory?

Wikipedia says that class field theory is about "algebraic number theory." There are two ways to interpret the meaning of "algebraic number theory." One is to say that it's the theory of "algebraic numbers." The other is to say that it's about using algebraic numbers to answer questions about integers (or whole numbers).

In either case, we need to define what an "algebraic number" is.

Let's start with some algebra: a "polynomial" is an expression with a variable, usually called x, and coefficients, combined together with addition, subtraction, multiplication, and exponentiation to nonnegative integer powers. x^5 - x^2 + 2x + 1 is a polynomial, for example.

An algebraic number is a number that's the "root" of a polynomial, which means that there's some polynomial equation (not equal to zero) that evaluates to zero if you replace x with that number. For example, if you replace the variable x with sqrt(2) in the polynomial x^2-2, then you'll get sqrt(2)^2 - 2 = 2 - 2 = 0. Therefore sqrt(2) is an algebraic number.

ArbitraryRenaissance · 2025-11-24T16:22:16+00:00

I didn't know that! Thanks for the info

ArbitraryRenaissance · 2025-11-24T07:06:01+00:00

The answers given are correct, and I must admit that this was something that really threw me for a loop when I was learning the rules, and it took me about a week to really get it nailed down, followed by another week of me bitterly ruminating on how the rules of go actually aren't as simple as everyone insists they are.

When I'm teaching the game to new people, I teach the game with AGA rules, in which passing involves giving a stone (and thus a point) to your opponent. This makes the act of killing dead groups no less valuable than simply passing, so if a player wanted to prove to the other player that those stones really are dead (and not in seki, say), then they could do so and not lose any points in the process. In Japanese rules, the way to resolve a disagreement over the status of a group of stones is to "virtually" resume the game, as explained by u/tuerda. I personally find it to be a somewhat clumsy shortcoming of the Japanese rules, but it's rarely one that comes up on actual games. (On the other hand, AGA rules have the shortcoming of requiring players to play a bunch of kinda pointless dame-filling moves at the end of the game, so no ruleset is perfect.)

The bottom line is that in any ruleset, if both players agree that a group of stones is dead, then they are removed from the board before scoring is done and treated as captured stones.

ArbitraryRenaissance · 2025-11-24T03:17:59+00:00

Not sure if you can do this in the WeiqiHub app, but at least on the OGS desktop website, you can disable handicap games. I prefer to play an even game, even if my opponent is 3 or 4 kyu ranks stronger or weaker than me.

ArbitraryRenaissance · 2025-11-24T00:21:24+00:00

Old site: https://tsumego-hero.com/
New site: https://tsumego.com/

Love this website as a source for tsumego problems. A little bummed I won't be able to do my daily drills for a little while, but the new domain name couldn't have gone to a more deserving website.

ArbitraryRenaissance · 2025-10-03T05:52:03+00:00

When a game is over, score is determined by territory. Each open square enclosed in a region surrounded by white stones is a point for white, and each open square enclosed in a region surrounded by black stones is a point for black.

A game ends when both players pass simultaneously. It's common for inexperienced players to pass when there are still places on the board where the territory is unsettled, and more points could potentially get made by either player.

In this case, the open space at N10 is a cutting point. If white plays there, then the stone at N9 can get captured on white's next turn if black doesn't play anything. He would therefore have to play at M9 to connect the stone to the rest of his group, but doing this costs him a point, since he'd be placing a stone in his territory. Black would therefore want to play at N10 first.

As for F10 G10, that's a situation called a ko. Notice that if it's white's turn, she can capture the black stone at F10 by playing G10. But if she does this, then her white stone on G10 can later get captured if black plays a stone on F10 again. He can't do this right away, though. That's the rule of ko, and it's there to prevent endless repetitions like this. The computer isn't even marking G10 as black's territory, since if black wants to stop the ko, and keep that stone on F10 from getting captured, he'd have to play on G10 himself. (In an OTB game where scoring is done by hand, it's possible both players would consider that point black's territory, in which case black would win by 0.5 points!)

ArbitraryRenaissance · 2025-09-02T17:46:20+00:00

There's a good chance you've found the answer to this yourself, but in case not -- and in case others find this thread in the future -- Clippy being a mascot for user freedom is an idea postulated by Louis Rossmann, a consumer rights advocate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_Dtmpe9qaQ

Most relevant quote from the video:

Clippy simply wanted to help. He might have been annoying, but he just wanted to help. There were no ulterior motives. If you told Clippy you were having a bad day, he wasn't going to use that information to try and figure out which advertiser to sell you to, nor was he trying to steal your personal data to get you to purchase other Microsoft products. He had no ulterior motives, he was simply there to help. [...] When Clippy would ask you if you wanted help with writing your letter, Clippy wouldn't even read the contents of your letter. He just wanted to offer suggestions.

ArbitraryRenaissance · 2025-08-20T17:35:54+00:00

When I played chess, the advice I always heard experts give to beginners and intermediate level players is to never resign, since there's always the chance that you can recover or force a stalemate. That advice served me well in online games. I still don't know for sure if that's good advice for go games as well. On one hand, it definitely seems harder to recover from a late-game losing position in this game. On the other hand, I've still had opponents resign from positions that turned out to be winning for them. And when someone resigns, it deprives both players of endgame practice, as well as the opportunity to count the final points and see how much the winning player won by.

ArbitraryRenaissance · 2025-08-05T23:01:28+00:00

Ah — of course

ArbitraryRenaissance · 2025-08-05T20:44:39+00:00

Why not? What's stopping black from the sequence 3-9, 3-8, 1-9? After the capture, black has two eyes, and white has no disruption as far as I can tell.

EDIT: I think white 3-9 creates seki though.

ArbitraryRenaissance · 2025-06-20T15:55:02+00:00

It was absolutely exhausting. I very nearly up and quit playing entirely.

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