What is the Open Study Room?

The Open Study Room is a online go community where people play, study and teach go in a friendly environment. Players of all ranks are welcome to share their go knowledge and passion. We welcome any kind of study session: Game review, tsumego, lecture, pro game study. Feel free to ask stronger users to review your games, or to answer a specific question.


What is the OSR league?

We believe that building a community where go players can play serious games with reviews at the end is a very good way to improve at go. Our league system encourages players to do so. Our league system is designed to encourage activity over winning, so even kyu players can still win prizes.


How do I sign up for the league?

All you need to do is to register on openstudyroom.org and confirm your e-mail address. Then you will have to wait for an admin to accept you as an OSR member. One should have played at least one game on KGS or OGS to be accepted. If it takes too long, ask an admin.


Is there a fee?

Not at all! Participating in the Open Study Room is and will always be 100% free. We believe it's very important for our community to remain as open as possible to any kind of go player.


When I login, I get the message: "Your account will be activated soon. Thanks for waiting!"

It's because you just registered and our team didn't accept you as an OSR member yet. We will check that you verified your email and that you have played at least one game on KGS or OGS. Feel free to ask an admin when it takes too long.


I already have an account, but I am not in the league. How can I join?

You can join a league directly on the league pages (results, info, ...). There you should see a "Join" button that will automatically add you to the league.


How do I know if I have the time/energy for the OSR League?

Our league is designed to reward the most active players, you gain points for playing games (even when you lose) so even kyu players can be at the top of the leaderboard. It also allows players to play according to their schedule, so there is no pressure to play if you are busy.

Most of the games are played casually and for fun, the word "League" makes it seem more serious than it is. The important part is for members of varying strengths to play each other. If you are interested in joining the OSR then you lose nothing by joining the league!


I am only [X] kyu. Are there any rank restrictions?

No! Anyone is welcome, from complete beginners to affirmed players. The goal of the league is to get players of any rank together to teach and learn.


What league(s) should I join?

  • The Meijin league last 3 months and allows all OSR players to be able to play together while rewarding the most active players. We recommend joining it if you want to play long serious games with other OSR members.
  • The OSR monthly league is a monthly league. We suggest aiming to play at least 3 league games per month, that way you will be automatically re-enrolled in the next monthly league. If you play fewer league games than this and wish to re-enroll, you will be able to do so manually on the league page of the website.

Since a game can count for multiple leagues at the same time players usually join both leagues.

  • Now we also have a DDK league, which consists of players between 30kyu and 10 kyu :),
  • a SDK league for players from 9kyu to 1kyu,
  • and additionally we have created a "Dan" league, for stronger players who are seeking a challenge ;)


Where do we play?

OSR members can play on two servers: KGS and OGS.

  • On KGS , meet in the Open Study Room which you can find under Social in the room list.
  • On OGS, feel free to join our group.


How to find a league game?

  • Live: Best way it to ask in our Discord about it. You can also start a game named "OSR" in our KGS room and wait for an opponent. It often helps to pm you group's friends telling them you are looking for a league game.
  • Schedule : You can also schedule your games with our game planning tool. It's an OSR exclusive that allows you to say when you are available, see who is available when and manage game requests easily. It even deal with timezones for you ! More info about it here.


What settings* are used in the OSR league games?

  • 19x19 board
  • Japanese time setting with at least 30 mins main time, 3x30 sec byo-yomi
  • 6.5 komi
  • No handicap
  • Analysis disabled when played on OGS
  • One of the players has to say #OSR or #osr during the game. You can read more on the league rules page.


*We are flexible about small mistakes in game settings if it does not affect the outcome. For example: if the participating players accidentally set the komi to 5.5 instead of the required 6.5, the result is B+20.5, and they are both okay with it, we'd allow the game to be put into the applicable league(s).


Can I win a prize as a league player?

Yes, thanks to the support of our teachers, friends and partners, it is possible to win a prize as a league player, for example


Where do we hang and chat?

The central place for OSR to hang, chat and ask for games or review is our OSR discord server. (Really, 95% of OSR activity happens there, so please join us!) Here, you can easily talk through chat or voice communication with the OSR team or members. Not only that, but discord is free and easy to use (discord can be used with any browser, or you can install the app here )


Does the OSR have a code of conduct?

Yes, you can find it here.


My game doesn't show on the website/I used the wrong settings:

Since we scrape the data for one player every 2 mins, it can take up to several hours for a game to appear on the website. If, after one day, the game is still not showing, best thing is to ask an admin about it in discord.


I like this project. How can I help?

There are many ways you can help the OSR project if you like to. Those includes:

  • playing in our leagues
  • keeping OSR friendly and active
  • Giving a couple $/€ so we can pay for the server and set up quality teaching.
  • Help us run OSR

You can find details about that here.


Who runs it?

OSR is run by a few volunteers trying their best to provide you a place to enjoy the game of go. We are doing it because we think the internet go community needs and deserves such a place. We depend on each player being active in our community. We need you to play games, give feedback and suggest ideas for this to work.

Current admins are climu, Aumpa, Korni and Fledermaus.

The OSR team would like to address a huge thanks to the all the members who have helped in the past: Alemitrani, AdamR, AdamReal, Behemoth, BoneSaw, CGBSpender, EdwinFirSelan, entravix, Ethelor, Farodin, HarveyCrichton, Kamelotusky, Korni, lose2learn, Og1l Rincewind, Reebaanee, SammyEyeballs, sesm444,. tsmcdona, WeiqoGO0 and Xhu98


How does this website work?

  • This website is written in python and powered by django.
  • To manage the content, we use the wagtail CMS along with the puput blogging app.
  • The forum is powered by machina and uses markdown .
  • The app managing the league is all homemade python/django.
  • This is a free software open source project under GNU GPL.
  • You can check-out our code in our Github.
  • You are very welcome to report bugs or help us implementing new feature.

Can I advertise with OSR?

Please contact admins in order to negotiate this. By default we do not permit advertising.


What is this cool picture on the front page of the website?

It's a picture of Yugen no Ma (幽玄の間), a special room in the Nihon Ki-in used for high-level professional matches. We are thankfull to Stépane Barbery, the photograph and bookwriter who allowed us to use his work for our website.