I have been playing Go with my friend (who has a Chess background) for a while now. We started on 19x19 boards but he found it really overwhelming and struggled. He wanted to switch to 9x9 and we have now played several 9x9 games.
These games are just for fun and I don’t think he has much intention of ever playing seriously, so it doesn’t really matter, but I feel like the skils developed playing 9x9 are really not all that applicable to a real game other than just basic life/death, some endgame stuff, etc.
I started on a full sized board, and I ran a successful club where we started beginners off on full sized boards, so I don’t really know how others do it. What do you think about starting beginners off on 9x9? When do you think they should transition to larger boards?
The skills developed on 9x9 are VERY applicable to a real game. I have been playing for 3 years and I still study life/death and endgame. I played only 9x9 until I reached 18 kyu on OGS. And then from 18kyu ask the way to 12 Kyu, I dominated in the corners but I had to learn the big board concepts during that time. Nothing wrong with doing it this way.