Many amateurs here talk about reaching pro level, and many other people entice them with courses designed to get them there. But here's the real way to do it.

1. Have a mother who is a top pro.

2. Go to a top pro's study group to play young pros

3. Study at home with AI.

4. Do 500 tsumego problems a day at home.

5. Spend over 10 hours a day on go.

That is the recipe of 14-year-old Kuwabara Itsuki who won his first game as a new 1-dan against Yokotsuka Riki, who himself not long ago leapt from 3-dan to 7-dan for winning entry to the Honinbo League.

Itsuki's mother is Kuwabara Yoko 6-dan, who some of you may know as Inori Yoko when she travelled to Europe before her marriage. She has won the Women's Honinbo, and is a pupil of no less than Kobayashi Koichi.

Itsuki revealed, in an interview before the game, that in the previous month he had done 15,000 tsumego problems. He didn't reveal how hard these problems were, but colleague Ando Kazushige 5-dan did say that the youngster's style is a fighting style simply because he has confidence in his reading ability. He has also been one of those who likes to use all his time to think, especially in the fuseki. He goes to Yokotsuka's study group, and what he has got out of that is some understanding of other fuseki strategies beyond his beloved komoku. He is now trying nirensei.

So, next time you make or hear a remark about becoming pro, there's a benchmark to judge it by. Success is a four-letter word.

Inheriting the ghost of a ancient igo master didn't make the list . . .

Don't forget studying 바둑 after you wake and before you sleep from the Nakamura family of igo!

I wonder what his success rate was with komoku. I also play it more often than starpoints, but in my case it's just to stick it to AI, haha!



In other words, be Korean?

Perhaps they have no choice