Hi, guys.

My name is Vladimir (KGS nick is also Vladimir) and I am from Belgrade, Serbia.

I started playing go about a year ago, when I did that intensively for couple of months. After that I got a daughter and stopped studying go completely.

Couple of days ago, I got back to KGS and to my obsession with this game. I played some games and found that I'm stable 10k rank there. I got that from pure play, almost without reading books, solving tsumegos or some system study, so I may be considered almost tabula rasa on all theory and studying methods.

Now, I have a job and a wife and a daughter, so I don't have so many time for go, but I decided that this time nothing will stop me from getting Shodan title (on KGS at least).

So, the goal is KGS rank of Shodan till May, 1st, 2014.

I've got goban, stones, books, flat internet, great will, but not so much time (30-60 mins per day) for studying.

A lot of you are far more experienced in go than me, so I would like to ask you to propose me a study plan, so I could reach Shodan level in a year max.


This topic is also going to be my journal of progress, I'll try to update it at least once a week.


Thank you in advance for your proposals.

Vladimir, shodan level means approximately 7 or 6 stones from pro.

With a job, a wife, and a daughter, it's not going to be easy.

"I want to make X-dan in Y period of time" is a popular theme in these discussions. ^(*)

To me, your goal sounds like an 8-year-old child saying,
"I decided nothing will stop me from growing 3 feet (91 cm) in 1 year."

Good luck.




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^(*) So far, of all these wishful declarations here on L19,
I don't recall any single one fulfilling their wish. 0% success. 100% failure.
If I've missed it, would someone kindly point out the thread where the poster succeeded. Thanks.

Thank you for this note.
There isn't a greater joy when you accomplish something people said is very hard/impossible
I suppose my IQ of 156 will help, I made it to 10k without serious studying.

On the other side, do you have some advices for me?

Thank you, once again.

Yes, and I wish you the best of luck. If you make it, great!

Yes, find a good pro teacher immediately.

As much as I appreciate the fact that you're trying to explain me how big is a burden I'm putting on my back, I would be much happier wiith some real advices/study plans and support.
Things you wrote are a little bit demotivational. Doesn't everybody in this go community want to have more stronger players around?
Thank you, anyway.

#1 tsumego, 2/3 easy-intermediate, 1/3 hard
#2 play a lot, faster time settings are better than slow
#3 review your games, get your games reviewed

My advice can be found here: http://senseis.xmp.net/?SoDesuNe

Almost three years ago I made my own Shodan-thread (viewtopic.php?f=48&t=977). Still not there, though =D (To my defense: I wasn't always devoted to study Go ; ) )

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

Thanx. I appreciate it.

Thank you. Your essay at Sensei's seems very helpful. I will analyze it in details.

On the side of your thread, always aim for stars with your spear. If you can't reach the stars but you hit the Moon, you hit the Moon, man! It's not a small thing.

Thank you once again.

It took me 5 years and 1144 games to reach shodan level in KGS. A friend of mine took 4,5 years and ~760 games. Suffice to say progression comes easy at first, but demands increasingly more training to get same results. To use sports analogy, progress from beginner to 10k is like progress from sedentary couch potato to being able to run a lap (400m) without getting exhausted. Progress from 10k to 1d is like progress from being able to run a lap without getting exhausted to running a marathon in under 3 hours.

Reaching shodan in 1 year is possible for children whose brains have greater learning capability compared to adults. I suppose it's possible for adults under professional guidance too. It will certainly be a challenge.

Thank you for this insight. It seems that everbody thinks it's impossible in given circumstances.
It only gives me further will to do it. I can only hope that that will will persist when I bump into first couple of walls.
But, on the other side, I'm not so much into titles and honours (ownership of Shodan title). I'm much more into all happiness and joy I will find onto that trip to become Shodan. So, even if I fail, I will still gain some fantastic experiences. So, it's really a win-win game.

1) Shodan in a year is a very popular goal. Most people fail at. Hence some naysaying. But if everybody could do it, it be a boring goal. Understand that you've got a tall mountain to climb, then stop worrying about it and start climbing. It is climable.

2) Reading is critical. There are two paths to better reading: the first is to play fifty thousand games so the patterns are all locked away in your memory, and you can just feel the right position. The other is to visualize novel sequences on the board. You'll want to train both and tsumego are a great tool for that. But given your time constraints, I suspect you'll have to rely a little more heavily on visualizing sequences on the board. Some people play for fun and don't want to work at reading deeply. You won't have that luxury: Every game be constantly imagining sequences. Work on visualizing faster, deeper and more accurately.

3) The other key to playing well is understanding the game. Don't reinforce strong stones. Don't chase your opponent into your territory. Etc. Etc. Review your games to try to find these sorts of wrong direction in play. It can be a big help if you can get stronger players to review with you. Let's say you win an even game by 2 points. Your goal is to be 10 stones stronger, at which point you could have won by 60+ points. Conversely, if your opponent was shodan, he could have won by at least that margin. Where did the two of you go so wrong?

4) I found it helpful to study professional games. Mileage varies. In my experience, it let me see how different a game I was playing at my level. Notice how fiercly every point is fought over, how big stretches of 4th line territory are never just allowed to form. Notice how flexible they are. By turn 50 we've often decided what's ours and what's our opponents, but notice how professionals create positions where they profit whether they solidify the territory or whether it's invaded.

4) Find time. Your daughter will only be young once, so don't let Go steal time with her. But there are lots of free moments in a day you can think about Go. Stuck in traffic? Last half hour of the work day and nothing pressing? Before you fall asleep? Review what you've read. Remember games you've played. Imagine a simple opening position and read out variations. A good one to try is visualizing a common corner position, like an L+1 group. Read out how to live or kill. Now add or remove a stone. repeat. Not having a board, this can be a good trick for cleaning up your ability to visualize positions.

5) Use your time well. You've got a finite amount of time to accomplish your goal. If you're playing a game, concentrate. If you're reading a book, really focus on absorbing the information. If you're doing tsumego, make sure you're looking for the answer and not just staring into space. If you're going to keep a journal here, be brief. Sometimes writing your thoughts down can help crystalize them, but if you just want to brag or complain or write, ask yourself if that time isn't better spent reviewing a game.

Congratulations on your journey to shodan. Just focus on playing like a shodan and you'll get there in no time. Would a shodan reinforce here just in case, or would he read out whether the group lives? Would a shodan be happy getting 15 points of territory from this thickness, or would they find a bigger use of it? Mostly, though, enjoy. That feeling of insight where something clicks and you improve a stone is beautiful. We only get so many moments of improving while playing go, so savor them when they arrive.

This is great. Thank you very much for your time and effort invested into this post.
Also, thank you for support. I appreciate it very much.

Given your progress to date, shodan in a year is quite feasible.

There are many ways to get there.

Ed Lee's advice is good. Get a pro teacher.

As for study, a comprehensive approach is good: Opening, middle game, endgame; life and death, tesuji; joseki. Pro games have everything.

Play stronger players. Preferably dan level. Preferably at inadequate handicaps, one or two stones less than normal. Review your games.

Good luck!

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

Not so much impossible as very hard for most people to do when they don't have a wife, job and kid taking up a lot of their time. You're just taking a tough goal and making it much harder for yourself.

With young kids, you won't be able to get as many games in as other people usually. The guys I know who made very, very fast progress did it by playing an awful lot of games every day. You don't have this option, so you have to figure out other ways of increasing your go strength. The standard answer usually is do a lot of go problems when you can't be playing games. Fitting problems into your day with young kids is much easier than fitting games because go books can be put down and come back to when you've a chance but if you're playing a live game against another person online you don't have this option. But if all you do is solve problems and not get game practice in you won't achieve good results normally. So you need to find times when you can play. Unfortunately, if your daughter are like my kids that means free time late at night when I'm not mentally in the best place to be playing go, but we have to work with what we get.

Thank you for those words.

Do you guys mean a pro-level teacher or a teacher who teaches for money? And why should one be picked above the other at 12k level?

I almost think that, at least for now, a pro teacher would be a waste of good money. To be honest, I would not worry about a pro-level teacher until at least 1d level, if even then. Better to either find a ama-low-dan-level player who agrees to provide some instruction (for fee or not.) A 1d-ama friend can easily help you out to reach 2k or so without even knowing it, just by play and advice, and as fast or faster than a formal pro-level lessons. Just my opinion.

As for game reviews (here, on GTL, etc.), play malkovich, play a lot of stronger players, and when you find one willing to give pointers and analyze after the game - hold on to that guy like gold!

PS>
As for a 'study plan'... Just an idear, you understand.

STAGE 1.
I think at the 12k-10k level, and after longer absence from the game (and with many distractions like house-stuff), I think the best for now is to just play serious games for now, until you have firmer grip on things and reach maybe 5k or so... With 60 min per day its hard... but I would say - play a game, as slow as you can (45min total, in your case maybe) - then spend the remaining 15 min going through the moves, alone or if you can with the opponent. Or with a stronger friend. If you have time to read - do some l&d, tesuji, and maybe some openings... but do not agonize about it too much. Read why in bathrrom, on the bus, whenever... no need to agonze over it for now, just get exposed to ideas. I would say: 3-6 months for that.

Finding a nice club in your area with people you can meet and play and study with would be invaluable!

STAGE 2.
On top of that...
After you reach 5k or so, dig more seriously into some books - joseki, l&d, stuff like that... Do not worry too much about 'theory', I think, although if you find time it would be great to read up on that as well, especially opening theory.

STAGE 3.
On top of that...
Then do some endgame study and dig more seriously into 'theory'.... All the time playing serious games, of course, whenever you have time.

STAGE 4.
Enjoy your new-earned and hard-won KGS-1-dan status and bask in the glory that is Go.

As a general rule, I would also do as chess players do - keep the record of all your games (easy with mostly internet play) and go over old(er) games periodically, to see if you can spot any more comment-worthy moves then before. It can help if you actually do make comments right there within the SGF as you review games. You can put dates by the comments you make, and then when you re-review, put dates there too, so you can see how your approach and ideas change... It will help you clarify where you used to make thinking mistakes and make it easier to weed those out.

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Vladimir, everyone else gave you already good advise, but I just wanted to say something about the demotivational post here: don't even listen to it. Shodan is actually a perfectly reasonable goal, and in fact, it isn't really that strong. Besides, you're already 10k, so you're not starting from zero. Just put yourself to it, and see where it takes you. Good luck.

Exactly!!!

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- Bantari
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WARNING: This post might contain Opinions!!