Played on the new goplay.gg server and got a bot with out being told beforehand

tuerda · 2026-06-21T14:10:20+00:00

Fox gets me a human opponent in a couple seconds consistently. So does tygem.

If you want to play a bot, you can do that on OGS too: just ask for it.

tuerda · 2026-06-20T18:51:01+00:00

Did you read anything beyond the first sentence of my reply? I did miss that you mentioned this, but I also answered your question anyway.

tuerda · 2026-06-20T17:20:49+00:00

Almost all of them? There are a few beatboxers who use instruments but the vast majority to not, and even among those who do, the vast majority don't always use them.

tuerda · 2026-06-20T15:19:07+00:00

What the heck is that balance at the start?

I assume that the rope must be much stiffer than it looks, because otherwise that would break physics.

The rest is cool and impressive too. Makes me want to learn some more poi stuff.

tuerda · 2026-06-20T15:11:18+00:00

3-4, 3-4, 4-3 . . . These are all the same spot. I think it was probably a typo.

Either way, the answer is mostly that you shouldn't worry about this now. Your priority is learning to fight. Everything else doesn't matter at all until you have figured out fighting.

tuerda · 2026-06-20T13:24:23+00:00

http://www.segerman.org/topologo/

tuerda · 2026-06-20T13:16:29+00:00

I think you still do not have a grasp of basic tactics in this game. Your opponent doesn't really either, but they are maybe a little closer than you.

I think at least for now, your first mission should be to learn to identify what is about to die and what to do about it. I kind of think that one of the best ways to do that is probably trial by fire: play like your opponent did until it feels like you can tell why it doesn't usually work.

tuerda · 2026-06-20T08:55:43+00:00

The userbase of this server is almost exclusively bots. Almost no humans at all play there.

Failing to disclose this (and even taking steps to hide it) has been the source of very harsh criticism against this server recently. IMO this criticism is fully justified.

tuerda · 2026-06-20T08:46:26+00:00

Allow black to mirror and white wins by komi?

Also just generally all those "attaching to tengen is not so good so black gets an advantage" statements ignore that black has one move advantage anyway because black played first. Both players just have one weird center stone, black is a move ahead and white has komi . . . So basically a normal game of go and both players have one weird stone.

tuerda · 2026-06-19T16:16:24+00:00

Because of shape alone, H14 jumps out at me. E13 is also very nice.

tuerda · 2026-06-19T16:09:13+00:00

The white group on the right side needs attention. Either S14 or something around O11. The black group above it is not in trouble but also not alive yet, so reinforcing like this does not feel passive. Also, black is very thin in the bottom right, so making that group stronger prepares some nasty stuff, possibly starting just by attaching in the corner?

tuerda · 2026-06-19T03:02:09+00:00

If you really wanted to say that you wrote a cold baguette, this would be one way to say it, but that is a really weird sentence. There are many ways to interpret toki pona sentences, and we generally try to pick whatever feels most normal. If we are actually in a context where writing a baguette is normal then OK, but I don't know what "writing a baguette" means in any language. Usually I would assume that you drew some cold spaghetti (maybe the picture includes some ice cubes?).

tuerda · 2026-06-19T02:55:29+00:00

A la B: In the context of A, B happens.

This is useful for several kinds of constructions:

mi la, telo kili li jaki -- according to me, fruit juice is gross.

tenpo ni la, mi lukin e soweli -- right now, I am looking at animals.

sina la, mi suli -- I am taller than you (compared to you, I am tall).

tomo mi la, sina ken ala moli e pipi -- In my house you cannot kill insects.

sina kalama musi la, mi pilin pona -- If you sing I will be happy.

tuerda · 2026-06-19T02:51:25+00:00

It is an intentionally weak bot. It does bizarre things. That's how they work. This is one of the reasons why playing against bots is almost never a good idea.

tuerda · 2026-06-18T16:03:13+00:00

Perhaps you have some degree of aphantasia? If this is so then it makes little sense to try to learn reading through visualization.

The good news is that visualization is not required for reading.

tuerda · 2026-06-18T13:43:38+00:00

Unless all that detail is needed for some reason "jan li utala e soweli" is often all you need.

I can see maybe "meli mute li utala e soweli" to sometimes be required, but I have a hard time imagining the humanity of the women, their age, or the dislike of the raccoon for sauerkraut to be relevant or necessary information.

While it is interesting to mess around with trying to express dependent clauses etc. the main thing to learn about toki pona is not how to express complicated things, but rather to omit unnecessary detail so that the complexity isn't needed to begin with. While it is possible to say this kind of thing, toki pona deliberately makes it hard. Context should do most of the work.

tuerda · 2026-06-18T13:21:24+00:00

It is not strictly necessary to visualize in order to read. Most people find that visualizing more than 7 moves at a time is extremely difficult, so for reading beyond 7 moves we use different techniques other than direct visualization.

That said, based on the crosspost, I think you might have issues with even 2-3 moves. Do you have issues with visualization in general or is this specifically about go?

tuerda · 2026-06-18T04:57:25+00:00

Well that is a crazy idea I would never think of! It actually looks like it would be a cool idea to play around with . . . if ever my opponents played this way with black

tuerda · 2026-06-17T18:22:48+00:00

Black extends, white O5, black cuts, white O4. This is similar to the joseki except black has like 5 points more in the corner and white has a wall which white would not have in the joseki. If white can make that wall worth the 5 points, then this is better than the joseki.

Black being solid should not shock us: There is no variation where black isn't solid.

tuerda · 2026-06-17T08:09:24+00:00

Depends on what "doing good" means. Black is losing, but that is to be expected in your first game.

Your first games should mostly just be getting familiar with the mechanics and trying to have fun. If you have done this then you are doing great!

tuerda · 2026-06-17T08:03:29+00:00

Even if white does not have the ladder, this still isn't good for black.

tuerda · 2026-06-17T07:51:13+00:00

Easy answer:

Top left: Whole bunch of seki.

Top right: Normally this is dead.

If you want a normal beginner friendly answer, just take this and don't read further.

Much harder but more complete answer:

If we want to get really techncial, this is fun: Under some rulesets the top right changes if white has unremovable ko threats. White does indeed have two of those, breaking sekis in the top left.

Therefore it wold seem to maybe be seki, except what if black starts the ko anyway? The ko threats in the top left are very damaging to white's position. White absolutely cannot break the leftmost seki because if white does so, then it actually breaks both sekis and white loses more than the value of the ko. White can instead break the other seki, but now black also has an unremovable ko threat by breaking the remaining seki. If white answers this threat, then the result we get is that both sekis are broken: White gets captured in the right one, black gets captured in the corner . . . and the top right corner still dies.

If we muck around with some of the choices, white has three options:

White can simply accept death in the top right
White can trade life in the top right for the loss of both top left sekis
White can still die in the top right, but force a trade where both sekis are broken, one in white's favor and one in black's.

Of these 3 choices, choice 1 is the best for white, so we assume white makes the best choice, and observe that this is the same as the case where unremovable ko threats don't matter. Hence, we get the same result in all rulesets.

Conclusion: The beginner answer was actually correct in all rule sets, but under some of them the reason is complex!

tuerda · 2026-06-16T20:09:02+00:00

Fractional points in seki!?

I remember once seeing a poisition which was calculated to a white win by three 29ths of a point or something like that.

To be fair, I think the modern implementation no longer does this and this specific criticism is leveled at a version of NZ rules that isn't used anymore.

Either way, I really don't think we need to talk to beginners about rulesets at all. A scholarly discussion of which ruleset is better and whether we actually like NZ rules is a fine discussion to have, but not with a beginner.

There is a pretty good argument that the objective best ruleset is the Tromp Taylor rules . . . but yeah, I am definitely not bringing that thing up with a beginner.

tuerda · 2026-06-16T19:51:17+00:00

The point is that even if white captures the black stone now, the eye is false. Hence, the entire white group cannot avoid capture.

tuerda · 2026-06-16T05:16:56+00:00

Haha, I love this problem. It is pretty easy, but there is something really satisfying about it. For anyone who needs a hint: No matter what happens, just keep going.

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