| FAQ

As you probably gathered, it does not work like that otherwise everyone would be doing it.

As discussed in chapter 5, a stone that cannot survive is counted as a prisoner anyway (even if it remains on the board). Unless the stone is threatening some real harm or capture, your opponent can in fact just ignore the move and get an extra point for the prisoner you just gave him. If you then want to argue the stone is alive, the game position may be played out, but the score is then counted from the original position after the two passes, not the played out version.

You are probably talking about "seki", in which case neither player gets nor loses any points for those groups (under Japanese scoring). It is further discussed in chapter 12.

There are, but it does not really matter most of the time. The result is usually the same no matter what rules you played under. If you are super curious, check out the basic differences here.

It is a rule stating that a group in a certain position is dead (under Japanese scoring) even though it may not look like it at first glance. It causes a lot of confusion that comes from not exploring the position and a confusion of terms. It is best explained on a board.

Check out the example situation here.

Yes and no (mostly not). This is a common misconception and a pet peeve of mine. The above statement is true ONLY under very specific conditions. When all stones are safe, all borders finished and every last neutral point (dame) taken, then (AND ONLY THEN) yes. But at this point it is usually too late to change anything (it makes scoring disputes much easier though).

Until the game arrives to this point playing inside your own territory or losing a stone costs you a point under both rulesets. While Japanese rules specify that these actions are -1 point for you, under Chinese rules, you just do not get the extra point that you get for any alive stones elsewhere on the board because both territory and the surrounding stones count for points. The result is the same; you are one point short.

As a tradition we use an old Japanese ranking system.

Kyu (k for short) - is a "student's" rank. It starts at a high number (most commonly 25k, but it can differ) and as a student grows in strength, the number decreases - 1k being the strongest kyu rank.

Dan (d for short) - is a "master's" rank. It starts at a low number (1d being the lowest dan rank - following immediately after 1k) and 6d usually being the strongest dan level. Sometimes these are called amateur dan to differentiate from professional dan levels.

Professional dan (p for short) - is a "master's" rank that is recognized by some of the professional organizations. In other words, playing Go is their job. They are usually even stronger than amateur dans, but the skill level can vary. Pro ranks start at 1p and the strongest obtainable level (not counting honorary titles) is 9p.

These claims are rather hard to verify, but there is probably some truth to them. As far as we know, Go is the oldest board game still being regularly played today (in more or less its original form).

For the longest time, Go was the only remaining game in which computers were unable to beat top human players (and not for the lack of trying).

This changed with the advent of neural networks and a program called AlphaGo (by Google) that managed to beat one of the very best players at the time (Lee Sedol) 4-1 in March 2016. Since then the strength of Go programs has been unsurpassed by humans.

It is traditional to play the first move in the upper right corner (from your perspective) of the board. This way a player symbolically bows to their opponent (White is traditionally the stronger player) and makes the most expected second move (upper left corner) easy to play. This habit is still common, even in online play.

If you first need to gain some confidence before playing real humans, it is of course fine to test yourslef against a bot in a game or two. Most Go players, however, agree that it is not a good idea to play them for long. Most servers are full of complete beginners just like you, and many have strong players willing to help you out. Just play them. It is much more exciting, much more fun, and a much better learning experience as they can also give you feedback.

My personal answer is whenever you want to. You can switch right now if you like, but there is no rush! It is important to realize that a lot changes on the big board. It is a much longer game, and there are many more possible moves to think about. If you are still having trouble with some of the basic concpets (like recognizing atari), it does not make much sense to introduce new troubles for yourself and spend 30 minutes on a game you are not yet completely sure how to play.

You probably do not want to hear this, but many players never reach dan level. For others it varies a lot.
But to give you a general idea, it would be quite impressive (but not unheard of) if you reached dan level within a year.