A General Thought Process of Go

Larger than 9x9:
Game starts:
B: 4-4, 3-4, or center
W: 4-4, 3-4, or attack B stone

3rd turn: take a side or attack

After the "big points" on the board are taken you either:
take territory from your opponent, exchange territory, or reduce enemy territory(not increasing your own).

Efficient learning should be: Memorize>Apply>Understand
You cant' expect to improve without knowing the basic rules of the game. And like every strategy game, you need to 'read ahead'. Foresight is one of the most important (if not the most important) skill for Go.

Some important things that you should know are:
Ko Rule
Life and Death
Seki (mutual life)
Sente
Sacrifice (a concept many fail to grasp)
Reducing
Joseki
Ladder (shouldn't be hard to understand)

My rule of thumb: Any stone(s) that is not critical to a bigger group is expendable. So don't hesitate to sacrifice a couple of stones in order to profit locally or elsewhere.

violaine

very nice introduction of basic concepts.

I would add that before big points you need to play urgent points. (if your opponent is frightening a kind of disaster for example)

we can say it in another way: "don't play with a knife in your back".