Pick up "Tesuji", "Life & Death" and "Attack & Defence". Use "Tesuji" and "Life & Death" to learn the how and why of basic go tactics and to prepare yourself to study problems in general. Keep "Attack & Defence" for when you are ready to learn how to actually play go on a strategic level.
Pick up the "Graded Go Problems for Beginners" vol 1 - 4. Pick up "1001 Life & Death". Pick up "501 Tesuji Problems". If you play games and grind through most of this material, your strength will be around 5 kyu by any standard and rising. "Attack & Defence" will be here now to help you climb to the gate of the dan ranks and begin crushing your way upwards.
I'd consider Ishida's "Dictionary of Basic Joseki" to be the definitive guide to how to think about corner patterns. The updated edition, "The 21st Century Dictionary of Basic Joseki" is much more up to date but suffers from shallower analysis and a narrowed scope. Dip into those books when reviewing your games and for regular study. Combine that with collections of professional games, commented and otherwise, to develop your sense of the opening and early to late middle game.
I love to read go books (I own or have owned nearly every book on that page, as well as books from many other publishers...) but all the periods where I've increased in strength the most have been when I've played games and worked go problems on a regular basis. Still, "Attack & Defense" and those 3 volumes of joseki were instrumental for my progression from the weak end of single digit kyu up to 1 dan.
Play games with low time limits (something like 5 - 10 minutes main time and 5 x 30 s overtime) and play a bunch! Ask for reviews on the KGS Teaching Ladder (a discussion room on the server), if you can get a good teacher or two to help early on you can figure out what the game is about with less pain.
I've followed your advice and have been playing quick 9x9 games on KGS while I'm working through the first "Graded Go Problems for Beginners" book. Thank you.
Do tons of tsumego. There are a variety of websites and smartphone apps for this.
Play a ton of games. At least 50 9x9 games, then transition into 19x19. Play fast games at first. You don't have the intuition or knowledge to read 25 moves in when you're only 20kyu (ladders might be an exception). I ripped through 30 games in a week and dropped from 9 to 5 stone handicap against gnuGo a while back.
There's a ton of books, but it helps to be cognizant of what you really need. In the early stages "Graded Go Problems for Beginners" is pretty good, as is "The Second Book of Go". Then there are a few titles in the "Elementary Go" series that are quite good. http://senseis.xmp.net/ is a tremendous reading resource.
Videos:
baduk tv (some free, mostly paid)
baduk movies (some free, mostly paid)
http://www.youtube.com/user/nicksibicky (tons of free, not super duper structured though)
Honestly, put in the time. Look at your games, especially your losses. Analyze the bejesus out of them. KGS is quite good for getting others to review your games too.
And, of course, with Go you have a nice progression from learning to play on the 9x9 board for tactics, the 13x13 board to begin learning strategy, and the 19x19 board to play the real game. And thanks to the handicapping system, you can play much stronger players with both of you playing your hardest and both with a chance to win.
I'm not good to give quick Go learning tips but I think it's interesting that the general consensus is that Go and Chess quire significantly different "mindsets". Both are games of perfect information but it seems that the greater complexity of Go yields quantitatively different requirements for good play - in Go, people teaching generally talk about having the right attitude, avoid "greed" and similar "fuzzy" criteria.
I wonder if it is still the case that Japanese Chess (shogi) is also considered "too hard" for AI. I'm by no means a proficient shogi player -- but found it a refreshing "variant" of chess. The main difference from chess, is that the board is 9x9, and crucially, that you get to play captured pieces.
I like the idea of Go, but I'm afraid it's a little too simple for my tastes...
If you begin playing Go, you will find that strategic complexity go well beyond most people's ability to calculate so simple mostly applies only to the rules.
Anyway, I think games wind-up being hard to program when one is allowed many moves each turn. Go allows hundreds of potential moves and it is not easy to prune the tree or estimate the relative situations. I remember Shogi being described as similarly hard - I think the re-played captured pieces might be what makes the tree explode.
Oh, I absolutely know go is a complex game, I was talking about the "surface simplicity". It does appeal to me, but at the same time it strikes me as being too bare bones to really be enjoyable -- for me.
Maybe it's just that I think board games should be played on a proper board, with tactile feel of the pieces -- and I don't know anyone that play go (or shogi, for that matter) where I live. Also the main reason I don't play chess -- I can't really say I enjoy any of these games as computer games/internet games.
When a computer is involved, I fell I might as well play something with complex rules that leverages the computer, like Planetside ;-)
I'd suggest the list here [0]. And I'd add a couple of my own notes:
- For replaying pro games, it's actually far easier than it sounds. I'd suggest to pick a pro with a "peaceful" playstyle: Shusaku, Shuwa for old go, Lee Chang-Ho or Go Seigen for more modern games. Try not to copy their opening/ joseki blindly, but getting a feeling of the conventional/ good shape in play is always good. Strong players with a aggressive play style and lot of brilliant moves can be a bit hard to follow.
- There is the smart go apps for iPad, which is very useful for both tsumegos and game replay (it has a large collection of games)
- I'd suggest the book "Lessons in the fundamentals of Go" by Kageyama Toshiro. I'm not sure if the book is out of print, but it helps a lot to get a sense of the game (ie. all those "fuzzy" criteria as joe_the_user mentioned).
A lot of videos and guides aren't hugely useful until post <10kru since you are still mastering the very basics such as move order, counting liberties, basic structures.
Still videos are good. There are dozens on youtube "Bat's lectures" are one I follow (He's a 2Dan American) "Youtube user dywrin" also https://www.youtube.com/user/gocommentary gets an honorable mention he's very useful but is no longer making videos.
The biggest piece of advice I can offer is learn joseki's, and not only learn them. But learn to punish when people don't play properly, this will easily push you into single digit kru.
a few long intense sessions will do more for you than many single games. you need to play over and over again, ideally with a stronger player, right in a row. not once a week. do it 8 hours in a row. if you can do it several or many days in a row, that's even better.
play small games as a beginner or if you don't have time. 9x9 and 13x13 are good.
get an account on KGS and engage with the community there.
and yes read the various books. kageyama's fundamentals is great, but it really depends on your personality.
