Links
Go Servers
Go Servers allow you to play online and come in two flavours, real-time and correspondence. If your main language is English then there are three main choices of server for real-time play. IGS is the original go server, and still has a large population. Backed by PandaNet, the sponsors of the European Team Championship, it often features live relays of Japanese professional games. There are two other popular alternatives. Firstly Online Go Server (OGS) which has a modern HTML5 interface and is probably now the most popular choice for beginners. It has a channel for Irish players. Secondly there is KGS, which has faltered somewhat in popularity in recent years through its reliance on a Java client, but now it too has HTML 5 alternatives. There is an Ireland room on KGS (check Rooms > National > Ireland) where you can find Irish players. Dragon is still the favourite for Correspondence Go.
Europe – Tournaments & Ratings
If you feel like some a Go vacation in Europe, then a good starting point is the EGF Calendar. Every summer there is the two week long European Go Congress, and there are also the big Grand Prix events to consider.
All serious players love to check their Go Ratings (GOR). Based on the Elo system, they’ve been running since 1996. The excellent European Go Database site presents the ratings in graphic form and allows easy cross-referencing of players and tournament, and tournament table overload.
Go Community
- Discussion list for Irish Go players.
- Discord Server for Irish Players.
- Reddit and Computer Sub-reddit for Worldwide discussions
Go Software
Since the whole Alpha Go Thing, a lot of us probably want to get our hands on some high tech.
- lizgoban and lizzie are the current (2020) state of the art for game review
- Senseis Library has its usual broad slew of starting points
- There is also the usual awesome curated list on GitHub