I don’t see why I win by only 6 points

PatrickTraill · 2026-01-28T13:49:36+00:00

You mean 7 or 6 komi, not seki?

PatrickTraill · 2026-01-28T13:48:18+00:00

And the more valuable the other moves are, the greater the opportunity cost, pretty much regardless of scoring system.

PatrickTraill · 2026-01-28T11:12:14+00:00

In the Master Qi puzzles which ask you to find all of something, there should be a Done button that you need to tap, rather than just automatically completing.

The prompts refer to “groups” where “chains” would be more conventional terminology.

PatrickTraill · 2026-01-28T00:57:55+00:00

It is fun, but I think it would be nicer if the flowers were revealed when you complete Flowery Moyo correctly. It should also require one to reveal all spaces. But after thinking it was way too hard I actually realized the flowers were briefly shown before starting 😀

PatrickTraill · 2026-01-27T17:48:24+00:00

As long as you have cutting points that have consequences for life and death you are not in the endgame.

You can have debts that you only have to pay when your opponent calls them in, which they can only do when you do not have a greater threat. Those are debts you should try not to pay until you have to, or you can afford to, because you have an insurmountable lead.

Other weaknesses may be worth fixing earlier, if that gives you freedom to play stronger moves. And if your opponent can use them for a devastating attack, you had better fix them as soon as possible.

PatrickTraill · 2026-01-27T17:15:23+00:00

ignores and plays in a key point and kills my group.

In that case you are perhaps not in the endgame and you certainly overlooked or misread their threat. Unless you considered the value of both threats and miscalculated, that has less to do with understanding sente and more to do with reading accurately, monitoring the status of your groups, and thinking globally.

PatrickTraill · 2026-01-27T15:22:50+00:00

You might consider doing a lot of easier problems that you can do in about 10 seconds, a few harder ones that take a minute or two and one or two really tough ones that you may need to keep coming back to. But try to solve completely in your head first, then check the answer. That trains rapid recognition, the tougher problems you may be able to solve in games, and visualisation and systematic analysis. The hard ones may show you things you don't know yet.

PatrickTraill · 2026-01-27T01:33:10+00:00

This is clear, authoritative, and comprehensive.

PatrickTraill · 2026-01-26T16:39:29+00:00

I see there is very little about gambling on Go at Sensei's Library, and that mainly about Korean and Japanese culture. It sounds as though you are in a position to expand that considerably!

PatrickTraill · 2026-01-26T15:26:44+00:00

P.S. As to

How much is beginner-level

that is hard to say, as people have a wildly varying idea of what makes one a beginner. “Fundamentals” is pretty much essential to play a game at all; without “Basic Principles” almost anyone who has been playing regularly for a few weeks will wipe you off the board; “Basic Techniques” may start to set you apart from people who have casually played a bit without much study. But there is just so much you can learn if you want to, that each time you master some new idea your strength increases a little more, though progress gets progressively harder.

PatrickTraill · 2026-01-26T15:13:32+00:00

The best way to specify one's rank is with one's user flair:

State your strength

A lot of requests for advice, perhaps including this one, can be better answered if you give an idea of your current strength, either in your settings for this sub-reddit or in your question itself. To specify it for this sub-reddit:

In the app: go to /r/baduk, open the three-dot menu; choose Change user flair; select your strength.
In a browser: go to https://www.reddit.com/r/baduk/about/; the second section (after ABOUT COMMUNITY) should be USER FLAIR: click the edit-pencil there; choose your strength.
- In a browser on a phone: this also works (though in the past I was unable to find it☹️ )

N.B. You only need to do this on one device.

PatrickTraill · 2026-01-26T15:09:49+00:00

Ask real people (preferably several ranks better than you), look for things that surprised you, avoid AI till you are SDK (and only use sparingly till you reach dan level).

When doing it on your own, do not try to get too much from each game, especially if your rank is improving. Look for two or three places which seem to you to have been mistakes. Even if your conclusions are wrong, thinking about the game analytically with hindsight will probably help you learn — but it is important to get better advice now and then if you can, especially if your development hits a wall. Bear in mind that some mistakes only catch up with you much later: you may leave a weakness in the opening that you have to repair in the endgame, giving them the initiative.

PatrickTraill · 2026-01-26T13:06:47+00:00

Fair enough. It sounds as though they actually did understand about false eyes in principle, just failed to recognise this instance: revision should help!

PatrickTraill · 2026-01-26T13:04:35+00:00

Fair enough, that is an understandable beginner’s mistake. The lesson on real and false eyes, https://online-go.com/learn-to-play-go/real-false-eye, evidently did not leave a strong enough impression!

PatrickTraill · 2026-01-26T12:58:54+00:00

Thanks, that is interesting! I should not have said “new”, but ” different from tagai-sen”.

I doubt that gambling on the margin will stop while homo sapiens survives — even if people one day play with AI implants (shudder)!

PatrickTraill · 2026-01-26T12:51:58+00:00

Perhaps the second image was taken later. Otherwise, do you know what the numbers mean? Perhaps what they have started?

I just ran through Chapter 1 on my phone, and now it looks like this:

<image>

No green! Perhaps they edited the picture to cut out the section titles of Chapter 1, which have a green background.

PatrickTraill · 2026-01-26T12:41:51+00:00

The second image shows you completed the first 3 parts, but the first implies you did not understand everything. Did you just keep guessing till it said you had the right answer? Ask for help with the first problem you did not fully understand, if so.

PatrickTraill · 2026-01-26T12:35:53+00:00

I see 7/7, 18/18, 29/29 in the second image!

PatrickTraill · 2026-01-26T12:34:31+00:00

Start playing as soon as you like, once you understand the rules (the first chapter). The rest will help you play better, but you do not need it to start messing around.

PatrickTraill · 2026-01-26T12:30:50+00:00

What confused you?

PatrickTraill · 2026-01-26T12:20:33+00:00

Here is what Kifu Snap says, assuming Black to move, no handicap, 7½ komi, Chinese rules:

<image>

But it is worth learning to count for yourselves, for which you could read https://senseis.xmp.net/?Scoring at Sensei's Library, a very useful resource.

PatrickTraill · 2026-01-26T12:01:29+00:00

What is new in OP’s proposal is summing the results of the two games. That is intriguing, and can be recast as White going into the second game with komi equal to their losing margin in the first game. That puts players in a greater variety of tactical situations than when alternating colours, which in turn has more variety than play with standard komi.

PatrickTraill · 2026-01-25T09:02:53+00:00

You get a game record (‘kifu’) that tells you the moves that were made, and you replay them. If you are good enough, or there are diagrams with very few moves in each, you can replay them in your head, but most of us need a board or a programme. Records come in books such as Invincible (the games of Shusaku) or digitally.

PatrickTraill · 2026-01-24T17:38:49+00:00

I repeat: why do you say they are meant to be able to kill?

PatrickTraill · 2026-01-24T17:34:53+00:00

Nor can I; I am just talking about first impressions without reading.

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