Improvement Question?

[Meiji]

I was wondering how long do people usually take to get to 1dan? I am aound 12k right now and was wondering. I also wish for tips on how to improev at my level ty all answers in advance

[Sverre]

It varies a lot. Some people reach 1 dan in only a year, some never reach it at all. I took about 6 years to get there. According to SL it took 3 years on average from playing in your first tournament to getting to 1 dan EGF, for the 4% players who got there.

At your level you should be playing a lot, but it's also a good idea to study some tsumego (eg. Graded Go Problems for Beginners and Tesuji), and watch some stronger players' games (eg. watch high dan games on kgs) for some ideas on how to play. Maybe read some theory books like the Elementary go series (attack and defense is especially recommended, but maybe a bit hard when you are still DDK).

[judicata]

x2 on what Sverre said. I suspect the most influential factor is time, and your use of the time if you have it (I admit having no scientific basis for this). That is, if you are able to study and play for several hours a day 4+ days a week, I have little doubt that most people would reach 1dan in less than a year. If you only spend 2 hours playing every saturday, you're progress will be slower.

You can also start looking at random KGS graphs, although that won't be precise, obviously, and rarely do you find a graph reflecting progress from DDK to 1 dan; although I hope mine makes it there sometime this year. Note, I started playing on KGS about a month or so after learning how to play:

[Meiji]

I play like 5 games a week haha not much time so am gonna say am doubting getting anywhere near there soon then haha and ok i will post some games on 19x19 but how do i do that?

[topazg]

I play like 5 games a week haha not much time so am gonna say am doubting getting anywhere near there soon then haha and ok i will post some games on 19x19 but how do i do that?

I've gotten away with playing an average of less than 5 serious games per month for my entire Go playing life. It doesn't make it impossible to reach dan ranks if that is your goal

[Sverre]

I play like 5 games a week haha not much time so am gonna say am doubting getting anywhere near there soon then haha and ok i will post some games on 19x19 but how do i do that?

5 games per week is more than I play

You can post games by using [ sgf] ... [ /sgf] tags (remove the spaces) and cutting-and-pasting the sgf text between them (if you play on kgs you can get your sgf files from the kgs archives).

[gaius]

These things are hard to say. I got from 5 kyu to 1 kyu in about 5 months (or so). Then, without reducing the amount of time I spent on go, it took two and a half years to get from 1 kyu to 1 dan.

judicata, don't say I didn't warn you

[judicata]

These things are hard to say. I got from 5 kyu to 1 kyu in about 5 months (or so). Then, without reducing the amount of time I spent on go, it took two and a half years to get from 1 kyu to 1 dan.

judicata, don't say I didn't warn you

Noted. I'm completely aware that this could happen - for me, if I hit such a wall, it will probably be at 2k or 1k. If so, I'll just be happy about having a good run and keep pushing forward.

[Dusk Eagle]

I took about 15-16 months to get from first game to 1k, and 8 months to get to 1d. I play less than 5 serious online games a week, but fortunately I've been able to attend some sort of Go club every week for most of my time playing, so I end up getting plenty of games there, as well as some very helpful teaching when I was weaker.

[mic]

I've gotten away with playing an average of less than 5 serious games per month for my entire Go playing life. It doesn't make it impossible to reach dan ranks if that is your goal

But you have probably done something else (e.g. reading books etc...)? And what do you mean by serious, in terms of time limits and face-to-face or online?

Cheers,
Michael

PS: topazg, I'll contact you in a few weeks regarding teaching, if you are still available?

[LordYunzi]

So you mean that DDK's should play a lot to get a feel for the game, watch experienced players to understand how it's done, but when you got a clou to the whole thing, it doesn't depend on quantity any longer?

[karaklis]

So you mean that DDK's should play a lot to get a feel for the game, watch experienced players to understand how it's done, but when you got a clou to the whole thing, it doesn't depend on quantity any longer?

There is no clear limit. In the beginning when you learn the game, there are many situations and patterns that will help you to improve your play. When your play improves, such situations will become rarer and alternative learning methods become more important. In some cases the methods complement each other, e.g. learning from tsumego or taking a teacher. These methods will help you to expose your remaining weaknesses better than by playing another bulk of games. Playing games may still be helpful to improve, but the efficieny of learning will be better by using other methods.

[emeraldemon]

I think the right question is not "how many months [years] to reach shodan?". I think the right question is something closer to "how many hours of study to reach shodan?"

[Redundant]

The proverb is 1000 games to shodan. In my case, it's pretty much accurate.

[LordYunzi]

Well, I am still waiting for my mind to reckognize the patterns from study in the game at all, hopefully that flaw will vanish after game 300+