??!

Let's see your fun-o-meter.

6k seems to be a natural barrier for many self taught.

After that, playing more is just ingraining more of the same (bad) habits into your game. You need to assess your game critically and go to great lengths unlearning those bad habits and implement new tactics. From what I have observed, most players who are blocked at the 6k level:

- hardly ever consider alternatives and just play whatever their (poor) instincts tell them to do
- don't really know what the balances are in terms of stability and development
- have no sense of direction, the sides and corners are not related, there are just familiar patterns here, there and everywhere
- groups will live or die contrary to their nature
- emotions or numbness take the upper hand

all of this may be just as true for the level where I am stuck. I'm merely hinting at some aspects of the game where drastic change may be called for.

Good luck