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?
This post is two years old so idk if you are still alive, but imo it makes sense for beginners to play on 9x9 until they notice almost all ataris and second line cuts, and know a bit about making living groups. I think it can be frustrating to ruin a 19x19 game because you missed a huge atari, but on 9x9 the game was almost over anyway