It's been a while. Apologies for not updating sooner; I tend to get distracted. A while ago I voiced some frustration with the OGS website, much of which involved the behavior of other players. I've been playing more and more there, and I have to say that despite some niggling shortcomings, OGS is awesome. It is browser based, so there's no separate programs to download or install. It has the best interface I've yet seen for a computerized Go game. It also does have a community that is very open and accepting to newcomers, with high ranking players who are willing to teach. I've learned not to spend too much time in the general chat room, though; the remarks there tend to be very disparaging at times. Sportsmanship is also a mixed bag, but that could be in part due to differing cultures in many cases. The handicap system also appears to be a little broken. It's probably not a good idea to use it for tournaments. All in all, this is a site that I can
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OGS and the Mini Tournament of Doom
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I recently discovered a website called Online Go Server (OGS) that seems friendly toward beginners. I thought it did, anyway. It doesn't seem like too many people want to play handicap games, nor games against provisionally ranked (read: new) players. It doesn't help that I apparently screwed up when I told OGS to give me a provisional rating of 15k. I honestly had no idea what I should be ranked at, I was just using the ranking that the Little Golem website gave me. Which is apparently what *they* use for a provisional rating. Most tournaments at OGS don't seem to allow provisionally ranked players, so I figured I'd start a small tourney of my own to get some games under my belt and find out what my ranking really *should* be. The trouble with this idea is that half the people who signed up didn't even bother showing up to play. The one opponent who did show up managed to blow me off the board pretty easily. I doubt he even worked up a sweat. For some reason we
Andrew no Go
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Go is a strategy game that I learned the rules for many years ago. I never really learned to play well, though, as I had no one to teach me the finer points of the game. I'm focusing on the game again with an eye toward learning those things that the rules of the game don't teach you. I suck at Go, but I aim to improve. The zillion dollar question is: how???