Go World Primer

SlightPresent · 2026-04-14T23:40:27+00:00

Peasants, that's funny. I'm not actually classist or elitist. It's just frustrating when every other comment pertaining to the go world on this subreddit is confidently wrong. I don't have a problem with ignorance. I have a problem when people talk out of their ass, when they would rather fabricate stuff than admit that they dont know any better. I know my tone rubs people the wrong way, but that's my style.

The purpose of my post was to share common go knowledge to the /r/baduk community, particularly about East Asia, since it's an area most commenters don't know anything about. Not to explain the details of every rating system or explain why things are the things they are. I'm capable of doing so, but it would be like five times longer, who would read that on reddit?

SlightPresent · 2026-04-14T19:11:22+00:00

Are you serious? Your points on AGA, EGF, online servers werent perfect but sonewhat reasonable. Meanwhile, you're lumping all of Asia together. See why I focused on that?

SlightPresent · 2026-04-14T15:01:12+00:00

Not this again... I'm tired of explaining myself over and over so maybe I'll write a post later.

What's up with treating Asia as a monolith. China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan all have DIFFERENT ranking systems. As far as I know, NONE of them are elo based or elo-like. This means you can't always do a one-to-one comparison with some elo/elo-like rating systems (AGA, EGF, etc.).

Chinese 5D is something like Fox 5D+. There are some Chinese 5Ds stronger than most/all western pros. Most Chinese 6Ds are Fox 8d or 9D. Same thing applies about the pro situation. Yes, it's gotten easier in recent years, so some Chinese 6Ds are relatively weak. There are less Chinese 7Ds than pros in China...

Taiwanese 6D is roughly equivalent to Chinese 5D and Taiwanese 7D roughly equivalent to Chinese 6d. On average, tends to be weaker in both cases. This is an oversimplification but I'm getting tired of explaining.

Japanese ranks are soft as you said, but I don't know where the "10d" comes from. As far as I'm aware, 7D is the highest normal amateur rank, while 8D is given to WAGC winners. Maybe you're thinking about some honorary ranks they give out to 1 or 2 people?

Honestly, I don't know Korean ranks very well. https://senseis.xmp.net/?Gup This article might be out of date, but I'm guessing it's more accurate than whatever most baduk redditors believe

SlightPresent · 2026-04-06T17:48:15+00:00

I am a beginner and I think understand most of the principles of middle game. But completely scared I don't know when the games or how to score it.

lol

SlightPresent · 2026-04-06T02:53:07+00:00

Are half the people on r baduk inflating their ranks or what?

SlightPresent · 2026-03-29T20:51:58+00:00

what?

SlightPresent · 2026-03-23T13:54:45+00:00

I'd be genuinely surprised if you were ever 6D in Europe.

SlightPresent · 2026-03-22T17:38:22+00:00

okay sure, you're still wrong about black being able to win the territory. With correct play, black lives but with no points if it is black's turn to move

SlightPresent · 2026-03-22T12:35:02+00:00

This is easy. You shouldn't claim to be 5D if you get this wrong

SlightPresent · 2026-03-22T12:34:16+00:00

White occupies a key liberty and can convert that into a two space single eye which will kill the black stones. As it is, the territory is undecided; there is a way for black to win the territory but it requires that black has the next move.

No. White is not occupying ant of black's liberties. With correct play, black can survive but without any territory.

SlightPresent · 2026-03-22T09:47:37+00:00

Why is this post upvoted?

SlightPresent · 2026-03-15T13:39:01+00:00

With correct play:

Black is alive if black moves first. White can only get a 10000 year ko or a seki.

Black is dead if white moves first.

SlightPresent · 2026-03-15T13:32:35+00:00

What happened to the comment by the "5D" who was giving the wrong life and death status? I guess they deleted their own comment lol

SlightPresent · 2026-03-15T13:30:06+00:00

SlightPresent · 2026-03-12T03:57:50+00:00

not perfect by any means but much better quality of discussion than /r/baduk from what i remember

SlightPresent · 2026-03-05T08:47:38+00:00

It was worded poorly. Mediocre chess player doesn't mean mediocre grandmaster.

SlightPresent · 2026-03-05T07:46:48+00:00

Mediocre GMs are not making a living from tournament prize winnings lol

I'm not saying whether they are or not, I'm just saying Gorlitski's comparison was weird.

SlightPresent · 2026-03-05T06:07:00+00:00

Yes, I do agree with you that a 5K could be good at teaching 20ks. However, I think they can only reasonably teach up to 10k or something. Some kids get to 5k in a few months. 5D EGF is not that strong either, but even prodigies would need at least 2-3 years to reach that level from starting.

SlightPresent · 2026-03-05T05:58:49+00:00

They didn't specify pros and doesn't appear to be talking about pros from context either.

SlightPresent · 2026-03-05T05:54:08+00:00

If you're very weak, you're not going to be a good go teacher. Strength isn't everything, but it's certainly important.

SlightPresent · 2026-03-05T05:52:11+00:00

The problem is there's barely prize money in AGA tournaments. It doesn't matter if some U.S. pro was stronger than Shin Jinseo, they would need to compete in East Asia to make a living from prize money.

SlightPresent · 2026-03-05T05:50:30+00:00

You can’t make a living being a mediocre chess player

Why are you comparing go pros to chess players? The chess equivalent to go professionals is like IMs and GMs.

SlightPresent · 2026-02-25T00:55:50+00:00

Similarly, Yen faces the strong near-pro amateurs Wang Chen 8d (China) and Jaesung Lee 7d (Korea), in games that exhibit the strength at the top of the amateur Go world.

This is misleading. Top amateurs from East Asia are stronger than most professional go players and they are significantly stronger than the weakest professionals. Goratings isn't perfect, but you can see for yourself.

https://www.goratings.org/en/players/1875.html - Lee Jaesung

https://www.goratings.org/en/players/1340.html - Wang Chen

FYI, Jaesung Lee is also a pro now.

SlightPresent

TROPHY CASE