What is your Goal in Go?

[cyclops]

My goal is drinking tea with the granddaughter

[Uzziel]

My goal in Go is to play a strong respectable game in every game I play.

[Uberdude]

I suppose a vague goal of mine is to beat Matthew Macfadyen in the British Championship title match. But as he has retired from competitive Go that's not possible any more so I'd have to settle for beating whoever else is competing, which would be great but not quite as satisfying as beating the undisputed king of British Go. Andrew Kay, this year's champion who won against a weaker field excluding Matthew and a few other top players, has said much the same.

[Splatted]

On the subject of beating people, one of my biggest goals has always been to beat Illuck and Uberdude (Sorry guys). I started playing go on OGS and they both stood out as players near/at the top of the ranking whom I would never be as good as, so if I ever do became good enough to beat them it would be awesome.

[Phelan]

I have two goals: A personal one, to reach 1 dan, and a national one, to get my country's go level to the point where we can have high dan teachers almost everywhere in the country.

[otenki]

I have different goals which more or less all come down to the same things.

General goals:
- Enjoy go and people surrounding it.
- Be able to someday pass go on to my children (don't have any yet).

Strength goals:

Maybe they seem a bit optimistic (since i'm only 11kyu EGF atm) but one has to set its goals possitively right

- Be at the higher rated players of our go club (that means reaching 1D EGF)
- I want to be able to solve the tsumego book Weiqi 1000 life and death problems completly, getting to about 3D EGF should do it ? (http://senseis.xmp.net/?WeiqiLifeAndDeath1000Problems)
- Reach Tygem 8d

My ultimate goal:
- Beating Kato Masao with 6 stones (although its not possible anymore since he passed away so i'll have to find another pro with the same spirit )

Cheers,
Otenki

[Trebuchet]

Short term: I'd like to make 20k.

Long term: Someday I'd like to make SDK. I don't expect I would ever surpass that.

[Phelan]

Short term: I'd like to make 20k.

Long term: Someday I'd like to make SDK. I don't expect I would ever surpass that.

Everyone makes 20k. You just have to keep playing, I think.
Won't guarantee you SDK, though. There was a barrier there that I had some trouble getting by.

[LocoRon]

Short term: I'd like to make 20k.

Everyone makes 20k. You just have to keep playing, I think.

Well then, perhaps that's just another way of saying "my goal is to keep playing."

I really like that he posts some honest, achievable goals...

[Phelan]

Short term: I'd like to make 20k.

Everyone makes 20k. You just have to keep playing, I think.

Well then, perhaps that's just another way of saying "my goal is to keep playing."

I really like that he posts some honest, achievable goals...

Heh, if you want achievable goals, then mine is getting to 5k on KGS, after my last break. I've gotten there before the break, but am having trouble getting back there again. I know I can do it, but would probably have to focus much more on Go than I can afford to right now.
Both of the others were long term. Like lifetime long term.

[Trebuchet]

Everyone makes 20k. You just have to keep playing, I think.
Won't guarantee you SDK, though. There was a barrier there that I had some trouble getting by.

Thanks. I'd like to think so, but my progress is dreadfully - painfully - slow.

For a more esoteric goal, I'd like to get good enough to actually appreciate Shusaku's games. I bought a copy of Invincible and while I know I will never even approach his genius I'd really like to understand it.

[thirdfogie]

I'm still having fun deconstructing the picture in the Camel advert.

To be like this man, from a Camel cigarette advertisement from 1976:

http://www.usgo.org/files/pdf/go_1976_camel_ad.pdf

The young lady carrying the tea has her eyes on the board. Perhaps she is also a Go player.

Both Camelman and Ancient Sage have sleeves with very wide openings. These are not suitable,
unless one's aim is to rearrange the board with each new play.

[EdLee]

Both Camelman and Ancient Sage have sleeves with very wide openings. These are not suitable,
unless one's aim is to rearrange the board with each new play.

Umm, they had solved this problem thousands of years ago (see Hikaru ).
In addition to Go, people also wore these huge sleeves when they were having meals and doing brush calligraphy.
(Of course, given the choice, I'd rather not have the huge sleeves when I'm playing Go today. )

[Javaness2]

If memory serves, I have had the following goals
To reach 15 kyu
To reach 2 kyu
To qualify for the Irish Championship league
To win the Irish Championship
To make a 50% score in a 'World event'
To make 1 dan
To publish a newsletter for the IGA
To make 2 dan

I don't think I have a particularly attractive next goal.

[TheBigH]

How many have of these have you achieved?

I might adopt the same list, substituting "Australian" for "Irish". Although considering how long it's taken me to even achieve the first one (15kyu) the others are probably a pipe dream.