What makes them 9-dan?

[tenuji]

I bet all of these characteristics are true of 1-dan pros as well.

It would probably take an actual professional to tell us what really distinguishes 9ps from 5ps or 1ps.

There is a new Chinese book written by Kong Jie where he explains 13 of his own games from recent international tournaments which he had won in 2009 and 2010. I would definitely think that this author qualifies to offer some insights on what makes a 9p a 9p. Of course you would need to read Chinese to get the most from the book.

You can read about the new book on my blog here.

Wonder what it will take before English publishers will start jumping on goldmines like these.

BTW, I believe that 9dans are really aliens from outer space, possibly the same ones that invented Go and gifted it to us earthlings. And that all will be revealed in the not too far distant future. The truth is out there..

[TMark]

BTW, I believe that 9dans are really aliens from outer space, possibly the same ones that invented Go and gifted it to us earthlings. And that all will be revealed in the not too far distant future. The truth is out there..

But the lies are in your head.

Best wishes.

[tenuji]

But the lies are in your head.

Hmm, that sounds just like what an alien would say. See you are 4dan. Perhaps really 9dan but trying to blend in?

[tundra]

There was a post on the old GoDiscussions forum - possibly by Araban, though I don't quite remember - that described some study of the brains of professional vs. non-professional go players.

It found that professionals' brains really are different - IIRC, they contained more of something called "white matter".

However, the study left open more questions than it answered. For example, how did these brains compare with those of say, very strong chess players? Could this "white matter" be a by-product of go study, or was the amount of it determined by your genes? The study size was also rather small to be generalizing to all professionals.

But it does suggest the possibility that professionals have some advantage, some innate quality of their brains, which hard work by the rest of us cannot hope to overcome. But more studies would be needed to settle this.

[SoDesuNe]

But it does suggest the possibility that professionals have some advantage, some innate quality of their brains, which hard work by the rest of us cannot hope to overcome.

I think it was just the opposite point. White Matter grows while steadily doing Tsumegos and Go-related stuff over years.

[topazg]

There was a post on the old GoDiscussions forum - possibly by Araban, though I don't quite remember - that described some study of the brains of professional vs. non-professional go players.

It found that professionals' brains really are different - IIRC, they contained more of something called "white matter".

However, the study left open more questions than it answered. For example, how did these brains compare with those of say, very strong chess players? Could this "white matter" be a by-product of go study, or was the amount of it determined by your genes? The study size was also rather small to be generalizing to all professionals.

But it does suggest the possibility that professionals have some advantage, some innate quality of their brains, which hard work by the rest of us cannot hope to overcome. But more studies would be needed to settle this.

I went and got hold of the study following that post, and it was pretty interesting. I posted a couple of comments back then on some of it, particularly some of the interesting gender divides, but it did look like a pretty good preliminary indication that a lot of the increased White matter could be considered strongly associated with Go study in their formative years.

What that actually means in practice is limited. For one thing, they didn't see whether or not similar White matter could be generated by those that started studying in their 30s, to a lesser degree or not. Not within the scope of that paper of course, but it's still an unanswered question.