Hello, I wish to try and learn to read chinese characters, so that I will be able to study some chinese go books. I imagine this might be easier than learning the language completely. But I'm not exactly sure where to start. If anyone could offer any help on where I should begin, I will be most appreciative. (my reason for this is because chinese books are so cheap, even when delivered halfway across the world )

maybe start here: http://senseis.xmp.net/?ReadingNonEnglishBooks

Their grammar, and the way words are made is very different to English.

That said, it's no harder to look a Chinese word up by a radical than an English word by its first letter in a dictionary...

Relatedly, it's sometimes hard to tell which definition a word is being used and to say precisely what. Like, quite a bit harder than one European language to another, in my experience.

Learning a few like White, black, horse etc is pretty easy, though.

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Revisiting Go - Study Journal
My Programming Blog - About the evolution of my go bot.

What you need to learn as follow:

black 黑
white 白

first 先

dead 死
alive/live 活

good 好
not 不

and i think that's enough for problems books.

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长考出臭棋.

and yes, this is good

http://senseis.xmp.net/?BasicJapaneseForReadingGoBooks

this applys to chinese as well. Almost.

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长考出臭棋.

How do you know the radical?

Identifying the first letter of an English word is easy. It's the one on the far left
But when I try to find the radical, I guess wrong in at least 50% of the cases.

What I do for Japanese characters (I'm sure that applies to Chinese too) is to input it into a handwriting recognition software. The problem with that is I have to get the stroke order right, otherwise it won't recognize the character. But with a few simple rules, stroke order is not that hard...

Thank you all very much, this was very helpful.

ha, no wonder I've never been able to get that feature to work.

I'm a Chinese, maybe I can help you.

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Recommended a new Go server——http://www.wuzheng.org

Maybe you can begin with playing some Go on web, and chat with them(most of them can speak a little English).
You can find thousands of them at 无争围棋网(http://nostrive.appspot.com)

Also, there are some words you may need to know:

坏味bad aji
死子captured stones
味消destroying aji
味道potential
空角empty triangle; compare guzumi
恶手bad move
打吃atari-a stone or stones will be taken in the next move. Often used as a warning, like "check" in chess.
厚味thick,thickness
显示手数match with set number of moves
盘面5目胜a win by 5 pts on the board i.e. without komi
打吃后的吃子capturing after a series of ataris
征hat, cap
读秒time where X no. of moves must be made in Y amount of time
接不归capturing the tail of a group
長生eternal life i.e. super ko in Ing terms
锦标赛championship match
挑战者challenger for a title
中盘the middle game
中国流Chinese fuseki
中盘胜winning by resignation
超大飞a grand knight's move; four horiz and one vert or vice versa
骗着trick move.
单官an intersection owned by neither opponent; a liberty
段the ranking above kyu and below professional dan; generally 1 – 7 (or 9); 7 is high
团子dumpling
冲断pushing and cutting
封blockade
布局the opening portion of a game
围棋go
棋盘a go board
棋合go bowls
五子棋five-in-a-row; a game played on a go board, the first player to get five in a row wins.
后手a passive move; a move which does not need to be answered
后中先a gote move preparing a sente followup
愚形bad shape
逆先手a gote move that deprives the opponent of a sente move
半目half a point
半目胜负a game decided by half a point
花六flowery six the dead shape; a rabbity six
看花劫flowery ko; a one-sided ko
扳a play diagonally from one’s stone and orthagonally from the opponent’s
半眼half an eye i.e. needing another move
夹pincer,clamp
反夹counter pincer
快棋fast/lightning go
早活living quickly
象眼playing to split at a diagonal one space jump
象飞diagonal one space jump, same as zoi tobi [zoe tobi???] and chikiri tobi弱weak
下手weak,weaker player
退drawing back
低low
拆extension
宽wide
紧气劫a real ko
本因坊holder of the Honinbo title; traditional Japanese go families
星star point; handicap point
细棋lots of intricate situations scattered throughout the board
活棋life
一间one space i.e. jump
一间夹one-space pincer
一间拆one-space extension
一间封角one-space corner closure
一间跳one-space jump
一局棋one game
一级one kyu
地territory
实地the balance of territory
和棋a tie
实利actual profit
序盘opening game
定石a standardized set of plays resulting in both players having near equal positions; a set sequence.
定先playing with black in all games
上手skillful,stronger player
墙wall
盖to cover. boshi
胜winning
胜负winning or losing
压pressing toward the edge
假眼false eye
乌龟不出头crane's nest
韩国棋院The Korea Baduk Association
完败complete defeat
复盘post game analysis
轻棋light
废子junk stones i.e. not worth defending
肩冲shoulder
单先手one sided sente
接牢solid connection
形(good) shape
大夹compensation
小飞a knight's move; placing a stone two horizontal and one vertical (or one vert, two horiz) from another stone
形势不明unclear position i.e. possibly even
形势判断positional judgement
浅消reduction
棋院a go institution; a go club
气合fighting spirit
严厉severe
棋道way or spirit of go
棋谱diagram or record of a game
有利的一着forcing move
胜着game deciding move
断cut
扭十字crosscut
出头head extension: one further than the horse's hed/neck, or in English, Nessie's neck
棋圣go saint: Honinbos Dosaku, Jowa, or Shusaku; the holder of the top title in Japan
棋士professional go or shogi player
小目the 3-4 point
伤wound, defect
贴目the 3-4 point compensation
凝形overconcentrated or heavy
尖黑子black stones
急所urgent point
劫[kou, variant of kyou]
劫争ko fight
劫材ko threat
曲bending
曲四bent four in the corner
输losing, loss
模仿棋mirror go, mirroring play
万年劫ten thousand (i.e. “innumerable”) ko
眼eye
有眼杀无眼a group with one eye beats a group with no eyes
眼形eye shape, same as gankei
赌棋gambling go, so much bet by point
证书rank diploma
见合two points of mutual equivalence: if a player plays in one, the opponent can play in the other
目外3–5 point
模样a widespread net where a player hopes to make territory
瞎劫invalid ko threat
向小目komoku facing komokus [necessarily same color]
妙手brilliant move
雪崩avalanche (joseki)
投降resign. see toryo
点playing inside a group to prevent two eyes from forming
二连星parallel 4-4 point opening
二线the second line
连板bane
二眼two eyes
猜先routine to decide who goes first
刺peep
大飞a large knight's move; three horiz and one vert or vice versa
大雪崩large avalanche joseki
大场a large fuseki point or extension
大飞挂角large knight corner approach
三连星three star points in a row
三间高夹three-space high pincer
三间夹three-space pincer
双活a stalemate in one section of the board: play by either player will result in loss of stones, so neither player moves in that area.
僵棋stalemate; a local situation where if either player moves, the other will take, so no move is made
先手the initiative; a move which needs to be answered
死活life and death
四劫four kos
白子white stones
初段first dan level
手谈a name for go: go allows conversing with the hands, not with the mouth终盘the closing stage
终局the end
高目the 5-4 point
脫先ignoring a move and playing elsewhere
手筋a tactical move; a critical move
俗crude, inelegant
俗筋bad style
渡a linking move
薄味thin, weak
天元the center point
次序sequence
急所a difficult point in the middle game where strategies have to be read out

_________________
Recommended a new Go server——http://www.wuzheng.org

by the way,

无争围棋网 mean: a Go website without striving

无: No
争: Strive, dispute, disagreement
围棋: Weiqi, the name of Go in China
网: Website

无争，like Wu weihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_wei,is an important concept of Taoism (Daoism), that involves knowing when to act and when not to act.

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Recommended a new Go server——http://www.wuzheng.org

Tianzuo's list is amazing.

That said, I speak Chinese but I can not read it. I have and use many Chinese problem books on a regular basis, and language has never been an issue.

hi, tianzuo

Can you please explain the weiqi term 调子? It seems a particularly difficult concept to understand accurately in English.

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http://tchan001.wordpress.com
A blog on Asian go books, go sightings, and interesting tidbits
Go is such a beautiful game.

I think this word comes from Japanese
ちょうし(調子)が　いい　
ちょうし(調子)が　わるい

I think when people say 調子　is not good, it usually means the pace isn't good or the taste isn't good. I may need to be a dan level to explain this as I don't understand much the 調子 of playing yet...

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长考出臭棋.

Bad taste is normally bad aji.

My guess as to the typical usage of such a term in this context is when a sequence is played out without either side particularly suffering directly, but one side is looking at the position and very unhappy about the potential left in it for his opponent - the sort of position where you want to patch up, but not quite badly enough to take gote just to do so.

The important usage is as momentum. Newton's balls. You play a move that induces a reply from the opponent which in turn makes you play on a point you were going to have to play anyway. You have, in other words, inserted a forcing exchange in your favour before submitting to being forced yourself.

It's usually been seen in Japan as the mark of a 5-dan player. The Chinese usage is borrowed from Japan.

The choice of "momentum" as a translation is not fixed in English, but as the definition of choushi is "ishi no hazumi", which means "a groups's momentum", it probably should be.

The word has other uses even in go. One common one is to say a player is in good form.