Sounds like quite a goal, best of luck

So I assume the daily 3 hours of tsumego were so obvious that you didn't feel the need to mention them explicitly in your study plan?

Also looking at the strong players on KGS, blitz seems to be more popular amongst them (and would allow you to play more games in general).

And even assuming you are a strong 3d on KGS, I think reaching 7d by February would still be quite the brutal goal. I suppose it should be possible if you can study 24/7 and do an insane amount of problems/games, but seems pretty tough.

I don't need to do any problems. The reason we lose to pros is usually not reading, but making a different mistake. If I can play correct go the I can make it.

90% of go strength is reading ability. IMO you will need to increase your reading depth by about 1-2 stones per rank for every dan rank. From where you are now, that would mean at least 5-7 moves extra reading depth.

I really think spending time on life and death is useful if you are confident the rest of your game is pro level and your reading is holding you back. I have not seen a pro game where reading was so important. Anytime people usually say "wow pros are great at reading" it usually wasn't longer than 20 moves, but the IDEA was amazing. If you can have the idea.. The reading isn't the hard part.

I really think spending time on life and death is useful if you are confident the rest of your game is pro level and your reading is holding you back. I have not seen a pro game where reading was so important.

I really think spending time on life and death is useful if you are confident the rest of your game is pro level and your reading is holding you back.

How can you have pro-level fuseki and endgame (just to pick two) without pro level reading in those areas?

Actually, yose is strictly calculation based. Reading doesn't have anything to do with being good at yose (unless you make a mistake in one of your reductions). One of John Nash's associates was only a kyu-level player, but was able to beat profession 9 dans in yose because of his understanding of game theory. He would set up an endgame and play them first as black and win, then reset the board and play another 9 dan as white from the same starting position only to win again. If you understand yose well enough then you only need kyu level reading to do well.

As for fuseki, it is easy to work out where your first 10 moves should be. Unless your opponent wants to complicate things in the opening (which, against solid, time-tested fuseki is typically bad) you can play a professional level fuseki every game as a kyu player. I play the Low-Chinese almost every game. I know how it is supposed to be used and what the normal continuations are. I've also read The Direction of Play, so I have a fair idea of how to evaluate what part of the board should be the focus of my next move in the opening. My reading doesn't need to be that deep for me to make a move that a professional might play during the fuseki. There's a chance that if you took one of my games and put it next to a professional game, both after only 15 moves, that you couldn't tell a difference in skill. I once impressed a KGS 5 dan with my opening ability (if I remember right he said it was "spot on"), only to have him be very disappointed by my mid-game reading.

Good theory can sometimes cover up a lack of reading ability.

One of John Nash's associates was only a kyu-level player, but was able to beat profession 9 dans in yose ...

Actually, yose is strictly calculation based.

One of John Nash's associates was only a kyu-level player, but was able to beat profession 9 dans in yose because of his understanding of game theory.