EPT
+ Show Spoiler [What is Go?] +
Go is a board game played on a large grid where two players place black and white stones in order to capture as much territory on the board as possible. I will be comparing it to chess, but it is much different for many reasons... for one, chess usually has ~20 available moves, whereas go has hundreds (but most of them wouldn't be good at any one moment).
The purpose of this blog is to give some guidance to people who have never played Go but are interested in getting started. Popping in and playing a random 9x9 without knowing how to play will be a pretty depressing experience (unless you are Abydos1 lol wtf dude). These are the steps I recommend you follow in order to feel prepared to start gaming with us.
1: Watch Hikaru no Go
If you are into anime then this is a very good idea. Not only is it an awesome anime, but you learn a lot about go if you pay attention (such as the japanese vocabulary which is a bit overwhelming if you just hop on a go server). Even if you just watch a couple of dozen episodes, it will give you a pretty good idea. This step is optional (but I bet a large percentage of go newbies were inspired by this anime haha).
2: Try the Go tutorial
As linked to in the sports&games thread, http://playgo.to/interactive/TOC.html is a great way to get down the basics. It's recommended by virtually everyone I've spoken to. You don't have to do it all in one sitting, but it's not as long as it might seem at a glance.
3: Play IGOWIN which is 9x9 (small board) vs the computer
Some people disagree on how useful this is, but I found playing some igowin a great (albeit frustrating) way to get over some very basic mistakes, and to learn some tactics near the wall (edge of the board). I'm not sure how much you should play this before you head off to the internet, but for comparison I can get to approximately 8-10 kyu before I can't beat the computer. You don't need to get that far in order to be able to come game with us online though.
4: Come watch us
Come hang out and observe games. We are in #tlgo on the same server as #teamliquid and have a little room on the kgs server. Once you have downloaded the client from http://www.gokgs.com/ log in as a guest using the nick you want. In the menu after you log in there will be instructions to register that nick to an e-mail address. Then use rooms->new rooms->teamliquid to join us.
If you have any questions about getting started with Go, ask them here. If you have general questions about go, head over to the sports&games thread (linked to at the top).
For an encore I will put a few vocabulary I learned from Hikaru no Go (it's from memory; experts feel free to correct/improve this)
nigiri: The process of randomly determining who is black and who is white (there is a similar procedure in chess; if you want to see how its done watch Hikaru no Go).
komi: handicap points awarded to the player who doesn't get to go first to make the game even (chess does not have this, hence the advantage of playing white). Depending on what country you are in, komi could be 5.5 or 6.5 or 7.5 moku for a 19x19 board.
moku: one square of territory on the board... capture as many moku as you can.
ko: a rule/situation where capturing a stone would return the board back to the state of the previous turn. This move would allow for an infinite 'back and forth' of the same two board positions with nothing improving. The tutorial can show you examples of this and explain why this progression of moves is illegal.
joseki: moves during the opening commonly conducted by good players (similar to chess; but less important for a newer player in go)
sente: similar to tempo in chess; a player has sente if they are making moves which force the opponent to respond, and don't allow the opponent to do the same
