Ang-Yue Go School Study Guide

A presentation of ways to study and improve at this very complex game.

Table of contents 1. Study material 1.1 Theory and Principles 1.2 Reading Skills 1.3 Knowledge: set patterns 2. Study plans 2.1 Beginners (30k to 15k) 2.2 Intermediate (15k to 1k) 2.3 Advanced (dan players) 3. Go programs 3.1 SGF readers/editors/organizers 3.2 Joseki/fuseki & pattern analysis 3.3 Various utilities 3.4 Go servers

1. Study material

We thought it would be relevant to first present the various study tools available. We chose to sort them according to which aspect of the game it allows to improve: theory & principles, reading skills and knowledge of fixed patterns/openings.

1.1 Theory and Principles

1.2 Reading Skills

1.3 Knowledge: set patterns

2. Study plans

Now that you know what you can study and where to find it, let’s see some possible daily and weekly schedules according to the level of play: beginners, intermediate and advanced players.

2.1 Beginners (30k to 15k)

2.2 Intermediate (15k to 1k)

2.3 Advanced (dan players)

3. Go programs

This list is not intended to be exhaustive; we simply decided to suggest some programs we think are worth trying. For a more exhaustive list of programs, see GoPrograms .

3.1 SGF readers/editors/organizers

• Multigo: This is a very flexible and powerful SGF reader/editor. It is one of the only programs handling other formats. Strongly recommended.
• CGoban: This is the KGS client and a SGF reader and editor. The variation tree in the program is very intuitive.
• Jacoto: This is a program to manage collections of SGF files, sorting them according to properties such as rank, handicap, name, date, etc. This is NOT a SGF reader; you have to specify a SGF reader in the settings.

3.2 Joseki/fuseki & pattern analysis

• SmartGo: This program builds joseki and fuseki databases from collections of games, allows opening many files/games at the same time, includes a problems solving engine and is a powerful SGF editor.

3.3 Various utilities

• SGFC: SGFC is a SGF syntax checker and converter. There is a web interface available and you can compile the sources (the windows binary provided on the website is not working).
• SGF Merger: Merges SGF files (creates a separate branch for each SGF).

3.4 Go servers

This is list is not intended to be exhaustive. See Sensei’s Library for a longer listing of go servers.

• KGS (Kiseido Go Sever): A large English speaking go community. This is the server on which we teach.
• DGS (Dragon Go Server): Turn-based go server.
• wBaduk: Korean server, English client available, connects to Chinese, Japanese, and Thai servers as well.