Taken from
https://forums.online-go.com/t/repost-t ... t-hard/789Which was taken from somewhere else. Original author's name is lost I think?
Anyway, I took the above and fixed the language a bit so that it doesn't sound so broken and unreadable. Hopefully sharing this here is going to be of assistance to somebody
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I saw many friends in the forum complaining that they can't make progress. I will share my self-learning experience from Tygem 2d to 8d with you in the hopes that it will help you.
Before going into details, I have to point out several things about study quality and study will.
1) Study quality
Regardless of whether you're doing tsumego or playing games, without quality it's insignificant. There are many internet players who've played thousands of games, but still stay at kyu level or low dan. This is because of study quality.
2) You should know the right way
If you study properly, you can avoid detours. I play Go since the late 1980's and I've had many detours and wasted alot of time. I remember holding a joseki dictionary and memorizing the contents. I could repeat every variation from memory and I got alot of self-satisfaction from it. Some years later, after I improved, I realized that it was a detour and that I wasted many years.
3) Strong will to study
To be a tygem 8d is not hard, but you need to sacrifice alot of time. If you use all off-hours on the game, It'll take 3 years at most to get from Tygem 2D to 8D. If you don't want to sacrifice too many off hours, 5 years at most.
When you wake up, you are thinking go, even when you visit your friends house youi also take a go book. When you're idle, you're holding a go book. Do such things then 3 years later you must be an 8D.
There are three main domains of study.
1) Do Tsumego
2) Play Games
3) Pro Kifu
About tsumego:
It is extremely important for Tygem 2D and these two points should be emphasized.
1) Quantity
When you encounter a tsumego book, just buy it even if it's an easy book. You can keep it for your kids or your students. You should have two copies of the classical tsumego books, one for everyday use and one for for referencing.
2) Quality
Don't go through the tsumego books only one time. You should do them repeatedly, until you clear every variation in your mind. Even that is not enough, clearing it slowly and clearing it in 10 seconds is different. (Basically, repeat tsumego books many times, always making sure to read out all the variations even in easy problems. Never skip the reading).
Two usual wrong ways to do Tsumego:
a) Not clearing all variations in your mind, just decide the answer by your intuition. It's a critical mistake in your calculation!
b) One-sided reading. You didn't check/find your opponents strongest answer.
I recommend a method for doing tsumego. Maybe it helps.
Before you do tsumego, prepare a pen and paper to record your mistakes. There are three general types of mistakes.
a) You think you were right, but you checked the answer in the book and it's different. Find the reason why you were wrong. This is an effective way to improve your calculation and make it more thorough.
b) You can't calculate the result. Don't check the answer until you solve the problem. If it takes too much time, leave it and move on to another problem. It means you're still not ready for it.
c) You think the author might be wrong. This is possible. You can consult other players.
The above are principles of doing tsumego. Let's talk about the essential points.
You must choose a proper book for you. Don't go for a very hard book. If you can only solve 10-20% then abandon it. You should choose a book in which you can solve 60-80% of the problems and then do it repeatedly until you can easily solve (clear all variations) more than 95% of the problems.
I think the proper tsumego books for Tygem 2D are:
Lee ChangHo tsumego (volume 1 to 6)
http://senseis.xmp.net/?LiChangHoJingjiangWeiqiSihuo81Lee ChangHo tsumego
Lee ChangHo tesuji (volume 1 to 6)
http://senseis.xmp.net/?LiChangHoJingji ... iShoujin39Lee ChangHo tesuji
After you finish the 12 volumes, you are above Tygem 4D. Although the author was not Lee ChangHo, the books are good and they contain almost every usual tsumego and tesuji that you'll come across in a real game.
Another book that's goodas well is Weiqi Tsumego 1000 Problems
http://senseis.xmp.net/?WeiqiLifeAndDeath1000Problems74it fits from beginners to amateur 3D.
And a set named Weiqi Tsumego Training (
http://senseis.xmp.net/?WeiqiLifeAndDeathDrills) (three volumes: junior, intermediate, senior), the senior volume is for amateur 6D and pro players, ignore it. The other two volumes contain about 2000 problems, a few of them are a bit hard. After my student finished the two volumes, he progressed from Tygem 5k to 4D.
Weiqi_Sihuo_Xunlian
If you finished all the books above(about 4500 tsumego problems in total), I think you can stay at Tygem 6D.
After you finish GuanZiPu(
http://senseis.xmp.net/?GuanziPu), you can get up to Tygem 7D.
Tygem 7D is a barrier, calculation and comprehensive power are needed. If you want to jump to 8D, do Tianlongtu (I can’t find it on xmp.net), in my opinion Guanzipu’s problems require one clue, but to solve Tianlongtu’s problems you need find several right clues and compose them together, maybe this is the difference between pros and amateurs?
If you're done all the above tsumegos (about 7000 problems), your calculation is already ahead of common amateurs and not far from real amateur masters. You can stay at 8D.
Of course, you should calculate tsumegos but not learn them by heart.
About playing games:
Let's talk about quality first. A match is the contest of the two players' move fficiency. You should force yourself to play the most efficient moves. This is the only way from 2D to 8D.
If you look at random steps throughout the game except the opening (first 10-20 moves), and then compare efficiency every 10 moves, we can see that they are different. The side that has high efficiency will win the game.
One match has about 250 moves in total. In about 200 of the moves you need to compare efficiency (not opening and endgame), so if you want to win you should collect tiny benefits from every move in the game.
The rest is meaningless, and there's no content about watching the kifu of the masters.
Here's my translation of another 6D's advice.
1. The foundation of weiqi is calculation. Doing Tsumego is the best long-term way to improve.
Some beginners always think their opening is weak and they spend too much time learning the opening. When I played with them I never felt their opening was weak. The problem was that whenever the stones touched they collapsed soon. Opening theory doesn't work for them.
Remember, calculation is the foundation of Weiqi. It's the most important thing. The so called calculation means imagining all the variations of both sides on the board. You imagine variations on the goban.
The best way to improve calculation is to do Tsumego and Tesuji. Even pro players do them often.
As for the opening, I think that it's meaningless for beginners. If they know where the big points are, that's enough.
http://senseis.xmp.net/?BigPoint1. About Joseki.
Joseki is the best move in a local situation. Of course the best is always changing and some joseki's change every year.
The beginner doesn't need to memorize too many joseki, two or three star point joseki and three or four komoku(3-4) joseki is enough. In many situations your opponent doesn't follow the joseki. Then you should deal with it in your own manner and after the game learn the proper continuation from a joseki book (
www.josekipedia.com)
Joseki is strange. I know some amateur 5D's that never memorize josekis. So for amateur players what determines the victory is in the middle game, not in the opening or the endgame.
That's why Tsumego and tesuji are so important.