igo online

Kisedo Go Server. Talking about it, I want to mention the appreciation for the person behind it, William Shubert, his work is great !

Well, there are some people, that made some servers, put computers together and made a sort of Go club out of it, so that a visitor can easily play Go there. Just that this meeting place, is .. huge, anybody from anywhere is welcome, Japan, USA, France, Indonesia, New Zealand, Romania, Afghanistan and the list is much much longer.

One big advantage of KGS server, is that you can actually play on your WEB BROWSER, directly. If you do not have much of internet access, just from a computer club, then you do not have some special software that you were supposed to use to play igo, Just go to a well known URL, and start playing.

As you can see there, you are required to pick a nickname for yourself, or if you want to use your name, you are free to choose. For the first time, You do not have an account, so you can pick the desired name, and click the guest button, then you entered to play Go Weiqi online on internet. If you want to make an account, then After you log in with GUEST, you will be informed about how to register your name:

But why register ?
Well, if you plan to play Igo for a longer time, which you Probably will, as they say, Go server IS addictive, then it would be good for you to have your games saved, and to see your rank evolution, your own up and downs. Then you will be very used with your account, and you will feel AT HOME, not just a GUEST.

So, I hope you made an account on KGS !

Well, there are some facilities on the server that you cannot access directly, such as Upload your Picture. This is ONE reason, out of many others, to think about downloading a software.
WMS alias William Shubert, made this Java based software, CGoban2 that is designed specially for KGS, and also has other features like SGF editor. Actually it is the best SGF editor I found on this large internet, rather easy to use, create, edit your games. So yes, you kind of neeeed to have it..

Now that you have an account, you also have the software, iGO ahead, try some games. Your rating will appear after some games.

Rating.. hmm, a delicate problem. In igo, the players are having a rank, depending how good they play, and it goes as follows:

from 28 kyu to 1kyu amateur
Shodan (first dan) amateur
2 dan - 7 dan amateur
then

1 dan Professional
2-9 dan Pro.

There is also a 10 dan honorific title, like Meijin or Honinbo, that only one player can have it for one year.

A very beginner has, sure, around 28 KYU. not Perfectly 28 because it quite depends on the place to play, on country or other reasons. For example, on other servers, beginners are at 30 KYU.

Well anyway idea is that you will get better by playing, actually by reading these pages you already start moving on the loong ladder of Weiqi. How far you will go, depends on you, only on you. My idea is that EVERYBODY has a place on this ladder, Just that if you want more, you need to do more, but well, this is life isn�t it.

Some interesting observations has been made, regarding some levels that generally are more difficult to pass, partly psychology, partly because of information and understanding Igo.

In the book called Lessons in the fundamentals of Go , Kageyama wrote that there are (at least in his experience), 4 main bottlenecks player go has to go through:

1st- 12-13k
2nd- 8-9k
3rd- 4-5k
4th- 1-2k

And sure, for the dan players, all the way probably is difficult, add a little bit of wisdom every time.


	Little Golem I found this place a short while ago, with help from the Timisoara Go club on internet. That time, I mailed the club on Go groups yahoo, and i announced them about ItsyourTurn, that you can play some Igo via email. The reply was also an invitation, to use a more complex site for web gaming, called LittleGolem. What is this about ? After registration, that only takes a few minutes, you can find many information about what to do and how to do. There are the so-called Monthly tournaments, Championships, and Rated tournaments that anybody can enroll in. The Little Golem, is a server for playing games online, not only GO, but also Chess, Amazons,Reversi, played by ..email. How to do ? you start a game, say IGO 19x19, then, a board will appear and you can choose the place you want to place the stone. after this, you have an option to SEND the move, it will go directly to your opponent. Then, your opponent will be announced by email, that it is His turn to play. Sounds fun, right ? Each player has time like 240 hours to place a stone, and when he does, there will be 36 hours added to his time. If you really run out of time, sure, you lose. The interesting part is that you can compete in tournaments, 4-5 people in a group, these tournaments start as soon as 4-5 people of almost same Igo rank submits to it. Yes, or Amazons, or other games. So, you can easily play in tournaments, it is fun, and interesting, but One game, might last long, long time, months. Yet, one cannot say that he missclicked in this case, right ?

		Sensei �s Library Here is a great place where you can find plenty of information about igo, It is NoT a site where you can play, but to read, and also great feature is that you can edit the pages, in case you have more information, or you want to place your comments. The site is built by the visitors, who make a new page there, and other add many things inside. Whether you have some questions about Igo, check them there first. I did the same, I was wondering about Igo ranks in different countries click, and the rank that IgoWin is giving you, click.

GS

Internet Go Server, quite strong on our internet, many player chose to go there, and it �s level is high. It is surelly a good place to start, and to practice, Just you download a software, like Panda-Egg that Igs offers, and connect to their server with it. Suddently you can play if many,many people, just pick somebody from the large list of players online, and you send them an invitation to join your game. Then you can play rated games, and you can find players of your strength. One good thing on IGS online is that some main events such as important games from tournament are transmited live, you can watch and learn, or kibits with other players that are watching same game. It is quite a good place to play Go. Well, this server is free like basically all the others, just it is not free for Japan. And since right now I am living in Japan, my account was cut down. But if you live outside Japan, I do recommend it to you, as well as KGS. (Yes, I can play on Kgs, and there you have a club-like feeling, not as much people as on Igs, but sure a great place. And besides, I like Java so it is good for me).

Start in IGS here, I linked the page regarding accounts and introduction to online go game server.

Besides Panda, (which you can find it for free download here), there are also other softwares,free, that do same thing, connects you to IGS server to play Igo online.One that I liked a lot, Java based, is called gGo, and.. Ya, it is nice ! you can download it free here.

I also liked TanGo, with this one you can connect to other Go servers in same time, and also has some good feature inside.

As for people ..that do not have hard disk drive, there is a software that is small sized, so you can also keep it on a floppy disk, and needs no instalation, launch it directly. It is called ViziGo, ant has also a nice interface.

Speaking of softwares, I need to mention here about Igowin, well, it is NOT for play online, but you can play against your computer, it is a 9x9 and it keeps track of your rating. Quite fun to play, easy download, easy instal. Maybe this is the best thing to start with, play a few games with it, and the Igo rules will be cemented in your mind. Ah, I almost forgot to link to it.

These softwares are made for developing the game of go, and we, the users are thankful for the people who worked for it !


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