Learning: - I personally like this guide: http://playgo.to/iwtg/en/ http://playgo.to/iwtg/en/ - If you use Windows or Mac, there's a very good software called

Learning: - I personally like this guide: http://playgo.to/iwtg/en/ http://playgo.to/iwtg/en/ - If you use Windows or Mac, there's a very good software called SmartGo. On Linux you might want to try "Kigo", from KDE. - Eidogo.com and Josekipedia.com are good for learning joseki. - For Android there's a really good app for exercises called "Magic Baduk Go". Some mini review of different servers: - online-go.com (OGS) is excellent, but is very new and not as active as other servers. Still recommended. - KGS if you are western is the thing. There are usually bots that are 24 kyu that you can play against if you are new to the game. - IGS might be good as well. - Tygem and WBaduk are very hostile to new players because of the high number of sandbaggers (dans that pretend to be 18 kyu). You can get it running on Windows or Wine. Books: - "In the beginning", "38 basic joseki" and "attack and defense" are probably the best books for starting on go. SmartGo has them, and this will save you the effort of reading complex diagrams. Instead you can have interactive embedded go boards. Equipment and playing offline: - If you don't want to commit to buy equipment, drop by a go club and try the game. Usually people there are very friendly to newcomers. - If you just want to commit to the real thing you can look for go boards and stones on Amazon. My personal favourite stones are the "Yangstone go stones", korean made durable glass stones. Other stones like Yunzi can be really fragile and shatter. Stones are the most important thing to start. - You can start off a printable 9x9 board for practicing, then play on 13x13 then 19x19. Starting directly on 19x19 is a bit difficult. Watching professional go games: - You can subscribe to Baduk TV, or watch their Youtube channel for free: https://www.youtube.com/user/onbaduktv https://www.youtube.com/user/onbaduktv - You can see latest game records (kifu) uploaded to gokifu.com Lessons: - Some people on KGS offer lessons. While this can be a bit expensive and they might be hard to find, it's a possibility. I did this for a couple of years and I went from 20 kyu to around 5 kyu.