overture2112 Wrote:Usually it's the opposite. Since the game tree is so large, you cannot analyze even a few moves into the future without resorting to heuristics and your intuitive/heuristic processing is sorely undeveloped as a beginner, thus most beginners will quickly find themselves spending a great deal of time thinking about useless moves in far too much detail.

For that reason, some people consider it rude when a novice "wastes" time like this (although in my experience most people who opt to play with a beginner are kind enough not to voice their irritation). Deep analysis of moves should be reserved for studying life or death problems and understanding joseki, the knowledge of which will help you use less time to make smarter decisions during actual games.

Obviously there's times when people need to stop and think about a move during matches too, but for beginners, that time is almost always after the match has ended and the players are reviewing the game (which is the perfect time to quickly play out possible moves with each other).

EDIT: Tip: You can spend all the time you want on your moves when playing against bots and they won't mind at all

I think I know what you're saying. I've found that once I've learned from my mistakes then the less time I need to think about what to do in certain situations so as not to repeat those mistakes. The friend who introduced me to this game actually said to me, "You think too much." Now I think I understand what he meant.

I would guess that another annoying thing about beginners like me is we don't necessarily know when to resign.

wahnfrieden Wrote:@overture2112 great insight, thanks. Because of that problem, would you recommend those kinds of Go servers that are not usually played "live," with both players active at the same time? So that you're not wasting someone else's time by thinking too long.

That may be exagerating the issue; just error on the side of choosing your move quickly rather than blindly hoping a long, brute force analysis will gain you insight (but _do_ remember that part of the game so you can review it at the end of the game with the other player).

I'd rather recommend, in order, 1) play against comps 2) read a lot of http://senseis.xmp.net/ to learn some basic joseki and really common life or death problem patterns 3) going to a Go club and playing against whoever is willing 4) see if people will play teaching games with you on KGS or other online servers 5) start serious study of Go and play people on KGS et al a lot.