Go Board Game - 5 Simple Ways to Improve your Skills!

Maybe you already know this, but there are mixed opinions on the usefulness of learning many josekis. Let me tell you this though, learning the basic josekis is a must for improving go strength, and learning some advanced ones will give you the edge in your baduk games, especially at the kyu level. I can't begin to tell you how many games have been decided because someone memorized a joseki that the opponent didn't. The main benefit of learning josekis however, is that they will increase your reading ability and help you recognize good shapes.

Now, if you are a kyu player, here is my recommended way for learning joseki. First, you should get a good joseki book. I recommend 38 Basic Joseki

Next, you must memorize the Josekis you read about. The best way for memorizing joseki is to play them out on your own goban, or go board. By playing out a joseki everyday, you'll quickly see that you can remember a lot of josekis without looking in the Joseki book. You can find a guide for go equipment here: go equipment guide

It is also very useful to learn a few advanced josekis. By choosing these in your games, you can often win the game immediately.

Reading go books is very important for becoming stronger in the go board game. I've personally experienced that my own playing level has increased immediately after reading a good baduk book. You can find reviews for several books here: go book reviews. I believe that the reason why many players have a hard time getting past the 10 kyu mark, is because they don't read go books.

Watching baduk videos aren't as effective as studying go books, and shouldn't be a substitute, but watching tutorials on go is a good way of learning while being entertained. There's a lot of good baduk videos to learn from online. You can watch great baduk video tutorials for all playing levels at learnbaduk.com

When playing go online, the best people to play for improving your strength are those who are equally good, or a little better than you. You wont learn much by playing against weaker players. It is also helpful to find someone to review games where you have lost against a stronger player for no obvious reason. You can find plenty of people to review your games on the Kiseido Go Server. For more information about where to play go online, check out these: online go server reviews

You've probably heard this one many times before, but by doing life and death problems, you'll increase your reading ability much faster than if you skip them. They are not essential for getting stronger at the kyu level, but doing life and death problems a few minutes every day is a good way of becoming stronger in the go board game effectively.