Go Lessons

The opening has a wide range of possibilities, but a lot of them can lead us down the wrong path. Let's go over a checklist I've used in the past to help guide me in picking the right move. This checklist is all about weeding out urgent moves vs. big moves, and narrowing down where the important parts of the board are.

Target Rank: 4 kyu to 1 kyu

10 min audio

Being able to dictate the flow of the opening is powerful. Playing out a sequence and having it end on your turn allows you to craft the opening that works for you. Today we'll see a good example of this where sente vs gote means a LOT of points

Target Rank: 4 kyu to 1 kyu

12 min audio

Have you heard the term capturing race or the Japanese term "semeai" before? It's where two groups are locked in a do or die battle. They seem complicated, but at the end of the day they're about counting liberties and seeing who has more. Let's learn about them!

Target Rank: 19 kyu to 10 kyu

9 min audio

Sometimes our stones just don't have the liberties to get away even if we try to run. We can also make use of this if our opponent finds themselves in such a situation. Shortage of Liberties, or as it is often so poetically called "Connect and Die" is a useful technique to learn and something that DDKs must watch out for.

Target Rank: 19 kyu to 10 kyu

9 min audio

Today we'll focus more on how to defend cutting points. Cutting points are areas where our opponent can get in the way of us connecting all of our stones. Cuts can be devestating so protecting against them is paramount. Let's practice.

Target Rank: 30 kyu to 20 kyu

15 min audio

In Go we can actually make it such that our stones cannot be captured no matter what our opponent does. They're immortal! The concept is called "two eyes" and it may have actually come up in your games of Capture Go without you even realizing it. Let's learn this most fundamental of Go concepts today.

Target Rank: 30 kyu to 20 kyu

11 min audio

Capture Go is a wonderful version of the game for two reasons: 1. It makes it easy to get started and anyone can play Capture Go. 2. Once you get the hang of it, Capture Go sort of naturally morphs into the regular game of Go. But how do we know the game ends? How do you KNOW what constitutes territory?

Target Rank: 30 kyu to 20 kyu

14 min audio

There are a few named openings in the game of Go, not as many as there are in the game of Chess, and the "Mini Chinese" opening used to be pretty popular back in the era of dominance by Korean professionals. Let's find out what this opening is and how to use it.

Target Rank: 15 kyu to 7 kyu

14 min audio

The Chinese Opening has been around for quite some time, and is another formation where we try to gain an advantage by claiming one side of the board as our own, inviting our opponent in and then attacking them for profit. We'll talk about the high and low Chinese and introduce the strategy.

Target Rank: 15 kyu to 7 kyu

17 min audio

The end of a game of Go seems straightforward, but so often it isn't. There are a lot of shenanigans where you can wring out just enough points to win, if you know the shapes to look for. Let's practice some interesting end game positions where a well placed tesuji can net you some points.

Target Rank: 9 kyu to 1 kyu

7 min audio

What starts off as a fairly run of the mill game turns into an interesting struggle in the center for power. A lot of common invasion shapes make an appearance in this game, and both players are dancing around powerful tesuji their opponent's could employ against them.

Target Rank: 9 kyu to 4 dan

19 min audio