Any GO/Baduk Players here? Anyone interested in learning?

@ronin3b said ^

Man, it takes forever to find a game in OGS.

the west just doesnt have the players

To be fair my personal experience in OGS is that for the longest time, it did appear nearly dead - in that it is tough to find a real-time game, especially if one is not willing to compromise on time settings, rank ranges, and so on.

But recently I discovered that there is so much activity on the server: there are so many correspondence tournaments, and possibly also ladders, going on.

I think the way the homepage is currently designed does not give justice to the very large number of active running tournaments, in favour of spotlighting a few select features (some of which not so popular!) such as the infamous "open challenge graph" (time settings vs rank difference), the host of "play against/review with AI" options, and so on.

that could well be. Though I have not given it much thought. It does not have near the base of players as the Asian servers, and even KGS is taking some people, even though that which is the original English server, is so looooong in the tooth, it is remarkable. PAnda net u still have to mark stones manually! I do think especially for stronger players they do not find a game quickly so migrate to an Asian server which keeps the problem going. But honestly it is as a platform one of the best options. I wish KGS would close so people would migrate to OGS. Also if they had some support from Asia it would improve GO in the West. But it is what it is.

@crankydragon said ^

PAnda net u still have to mark stones manually!

Its part of the game. I like that part, specially when playing in person. Not knowing the exact result just yet, very exciting when adding the stones in your opponent territory, or getting nervous when your territory shrinks when he puts the stones in. Not entirely sure why you imply its a downside.

@Alientcp said ^

PAnda net u still have to mark stones manually!

Its part of the game. I like that part, specially when playing in person. Not knowing the exact result just yet, very exciting when adding the stones in your opponent territory, or getting nervous when your territory shrinks when he puts the stones in. Not entirely sure why you imply its a downside.

I agree when playing live, counting can be exciting, adding the prisoners, and win/lose by a close score. But on Panda net it is simply annoying. and tedious. But your welcome to like it, if u wish.

I don’t understand this tsumego:

@crankydragon said ^

But on Panda net it is simply annoying. and tedious.

How is it tedious? There is the board, the pieces. If there is a piece or group captured, you just click on it and it gets translucid, if its the only one, or only group in your territory. the rest is automatically marked. If there are more, you just click on it and thats it. You do your territory, the opponent does his. Its not like you have to add stone by stone in your opponent territory, you just remove dead stones. The score is calculated automatically after that.

It should be very unlikely to have more than 10 stones/groups dead. So its just a couple of extra clicks. If you have more than that, then some one forgot to resign.

And you kinda need to keep that feature because it is indeed part of the game. You have to do that live.

@Alientcp said ^

But on Panda net it is simply annoying. and tedious.

How is it tedious? There is the board, the pieces. If there is a piece or group captured, you just click on it and it gets translucid, if its the only one, or only group in your territory. the rest is automatically marked. If there are more, you just click on it and thats it. You do your territory, the opponent does his. Its not like you have to add stone by stone in your opponent territory, you just remove dead stones. The score is calculated automatically after that.

It should be very unlikely to have more than 10 stones/groups dead. So its just a couple of extra clicks. If you have more than that, then some one forgot to resign.

And you kinda need to keep that feature because it is indeed part of the game. You have to do that live.

We disagree. Thats ok. I find it tedious on a computer to have to mark multiple dead stones and groups. I know how to count I do not need practice. And not long ago I had someone pass I passed, and he played, again!. When u both pass it is over. We had to play some more and still manually kill obviously dead stones. So each his own. U like it thats fine. I find the whole panda net interface antiquated, poor chat features, and u have to download it! ( I just played a game and won, and I had to mark 5 different stones groups as dead how tedious in my opinion) I think OGS is much smoother in comparison. I wont debate this any further really. Not much point. And that is not meant snarky.

@fallboss007 said ^

I don’t understand this tsumego:

Black if played out dies there is a false eye at the lone black stone. one can only live with a 3 space if it is your turn and u play in the middle so that u make two eyes. Hope that helps. :)

@crankydragon said ^

Also if they had some support from Asia it would improve GO in the West.

To be fair support from Asia to the west and (in particular Europe) is starting to happen on an unprecendented scale and more than ever before. I know that you probably meant it in the context of helping out one server in particular, but one must realise while they have more sponsors and a wider audience, their resources are not unlimited. It is quite niche there, too.

What I like is that they are starting to support the budding European go professional scene to begin with. Just a few months ago there were some initiatives like the Kagaribi cup, where Japanese pros from the Kansai Kiin played blitz games against a delegation of top Europeans. European professionals and other top players are being invited to study in the Far East on the regular. While this arguably makes little difference for a casual player in the west, it will trickle down at some point. Things are moving in the right direction, I think.

@crankydragon said ^

I don’t understand this tsumego:

Black if played out dies there is a false eye at the lone black stone. one can only live with a 3 space if it is your turn and u play in the middle so that u make two eyes. Hope that helps. :)

Ok maybe I understood is there a ko if white takes and if black wins it they capture the 2 white stones
Thx for the help :)

@ronin3b said ^

Also if they had some support from Asia it would improve GO in the West.

To be fair support from Asia to the west and (in particular Europe) is starting to happen on an unprecendented scale and more than ever before. I know that you probably meant it in the context of helping out one server in particular, but one must realise while they have more sponsors and a wider audience, their resources are not unlimited. It is quite niche there, too.

What I like is that they are starting to support the budding European go professional scene to begin with. Just a few months ago there were some initiatives like the Kagaribi cup, where Japanese pros from the Kansai Kiin played blitz games against a delegation of top Europeans. European professionals and other top players are being invited to study in the Far East on the regular. While this arguably makes little difference for a casual player in the west, it will trickle down at some point. Things are moving in the right direction, I think.

Those things will all help. Agreed. I think one of the best things was if we had a bobby fischer of GO. A non Asian Westerner who played at top level, the Asian countries would tune in for that, and increase interest. I do think if some of the Asian GO pro sites did use OGS and encouraged its use putting more strong players on there it would really increase its use and viability and increase interest in the west. For instance posting some of the tournaments live, and having tournaments etc there. But GO is not as popular in Korea for instance as it was not so long ago... Really only the top pros can make a living at GO, and there can only be so many GO YTbers.....