What is the method of improving Go?

What is the method of improving Go?

Let’s start with the conclusion.

Whether you are a beginner in Go or a high-ranking player, you can improve significantly by picking up a study method that suits you and setting up a curriculum.

The study method you need to improve depends on your current strength.
The table below summarizes the necessary items for each strength.

The strength of Go is based on the strength of Tygem Go and Tencent Go.

Please refer to it.

◎: MANDATORY
〇: Give priority
●: What to do if you can afford it
△: Not required at this time

項目	10kyu~	1~9kyu	1danから6dan	7dan~
Tesuji	◎	◎	◎	〇
Tsumego	△	〇	〇	◎
game	◎	◎	◎	◎
review	△	△	●	◎
kifu	△	●	◎	〇
yose	△	△	△	〇

What I learned as a beginner to improve my playing skills

From beginners to double-digit class, learn the basics in a children’s Go class

It was at my grandfather’s house that I learned Go.
A year later, I attended Hikaru no Go School.

The contents of the Go class was there.

・15 minutes lecture.
・Free game for one and a half hours.

I only went there once every two weeks, and I spent most of my days at home not touching Go.

After about a year, my level has risen to 10 kyus.
It was sponsored by Nihon Ki-in, the largest association in Japan. I think my level was a good match for the 18 kyus on the net.

I went up to the 10th kyu, and I couldn’t win at all.
I went to the club every week, but I started to lose as soon as I reached the 10th kyu.

Honestly, I didn’t train so much, but I had a desire to do something.
From that time on, I started playing computer Go and started playing against AI.

I remember that AI was often annoyed because, unlike the children in the Go classroom, they often cut stone’s connection.
It’s a long time ago, so the strongest level was about five dans.

As soon as I started playing at home, I was able to overcome the 10-kyu barrier.

At this time, I only played when I felt like it.
I think it was about a game every two days.

Basic alive and death was the trigger from the single-digit class to 1-dan

Relatively soon after I passed the 10-kyu, I became 1-dan of the children’s Go class.
At that time, I was invited by a local person to go to the Go club.

I was in the second dan in the children’s Go class, and I started going to the Go club, and the master said, “Let’s start from 2-kyu”.
However, it is natural that the strength of the children’s classroom is not so strict. So, I was barely able to maintain 2-kyu.

In this way, I can face the reality that I do not have the ability of 1-dan.
In the Internet Go (Yugen no Ma) that I struck as a trial, I lost in the 5-kyu.

When I started going to this Go Club, I started thinking about what I needed to be a really strong player.

Here’s how I could improve.

As many game records as possible, you can line up the game records according to “How to Efficiently Arrange Go Game Records.”

I just liked the game record arrangement.
The feeling of arranging one hand at a time was like reading a novel. I remember arranging it with excitement as to where to hit next.

Even when I went to the Gokaisho, the place to play Go, he was a strange child who hunted the bookshelf, took out the books, and arranged the game records in the corner.
I often tell my uncles, “Let’s play! 』\ I was pulled out.

My favorite player was Cho U, so I arranged a lot of Cho U’s game records.
At the Gokaisho, I tried Cho U’s sword, and sometimes I tried to imitate the way the uncles of the Gokaisho.

Some swords suit me and some I didn’t like very much, but my winning percentage gradually increased as I tried them.
Since I was arranging the game records, I feel that the game that was closer to each other was better than the handicap.

Then, I was drawn to the fun of Go, and I was mainly studying kifu, but my strength in Go went up to 1 dan.
I thought that something was missing in addition to the game record arrangement to reach the first stage.

Around that time, I learned that Mr. Cho U, who I love, is good at Tsumego.

This is my favorite book.
And as I read through Tsumego, I realized that I wasn’t strong enough in it.

At that time, right after the graduation ceremony of elementary school 6.
In my spare time, I spent a lot of time on game records and basic Tsumego.

Only one month later and three months since I started going to the Gokaisho,
I was able to be in the first stage.

Step up from the first stage to the fifth stage

After becoming the first dan, I moved up to the fifth dan in half a year.
I only went to the Gokaisho once a week, so I remember winning with almost no loss.

I haven’t done anything special during this period.
Just like when I was a Kyu player, I continued to play basic Go and game records by myself.

Why did the winning percentage increase dramatically?

The answer is that first, you understand the basic life and death concepts.

“Tsumego is a basic combination-the most efficient study method for improvement.”
However, Basic Tsumego is the basis for all life and death during the game.

Even if you think about the life and death of a particular part, there is a big difference in judging the situation and the situation between those who know the basic form and those who do not.

I tried basic life and death to break through the first stage, but as a result, I feel that this was the fastest way to level up to higher ranks.

There is only one new thing I started at this time.
It is added to your game record.

I started recording the game of Go club in my notebook when I was about 3rd dan.
In the beginning, I couldn’t do it at all, so I gave up with 20 or 30 moves.

Even so, as I continued, the number of steps I could write increased.
One day, I was elated that Mr. Satei found and praised me.

The secret to improving high-ranking players is online games

We have been steadily winning since the first dan, but the slump came when we reached the fifth dan.

About half a year after I became 5th dan for the first time, I was in a state of winning and losing in 5th dan.
It’s hard to win, and I can’t play my go.

I was thinking.

At that time, Go club’s master said, “If you are satisfied with the 5th dan, you can’t do it.”
He brought me to a person.

The child was the same age as me and was a seven-dan child who used to go to the Go club.

I didn’t know because I had never participated in the tournament. At that time, I was regularly winning as a junior high school student prefectural tournament champion and was at the top level in adult tournaments. It seems like that.

I was 5th dan, but I decided to hit each other first.
I was surprised at the difference in level.

I am shocked and want to be stronger! I thought.

The first thing I started with was the Internet Go.
I felt that to be stronger, I needed to train in a place with many strong people.
[Related article] I seriously summarized the recommended Go games and Internet Go sites

The power of the game at that time was two steps on YUGEN NO MA.
There aren’t many games, but thanks to the training I gained through online games, I became enthusiastic about my daily studies.

When I crossed the 4th dan on YUGEN NO MA, I went from the 5th dan to the 6th dan level at the Gokaisho.

The difference from the 6th dan to the victory of the prefectural tournament is Tsumego power

In my first year of high school, I was in the sixth dan at the Go club.
When I became a high school student, the tournament level went up once, but I was still 13th in the prefectural tournament.
I lost the first round in the adult tournament that he participated in for the first time.

If I couldn’t keep up, I would join the teacher’s Go class.
It was a Go class opened by a former Chinese professional teacher.

The teacher said, “I’m not strong enough.”
At the Go club of the temple I was attending, there were many people with a gentle Go style due to the influence of Mr. Satei, who values ​​Gori, and I was aiming to win Go without fighting.

However, I realized that I needed strength to reach a higher level, so I worked on Tsumego.

Taking advantage of the one-and-a-half-hour commute time, I created a daily quota table.

Even though I had 100 questions about Tsumego, I memorized the answer because I was repeatedly solving the same book.
It took me three weeks to get the books. I couldn’t use Amazon because of my parents, who hate mail order, so I just tried to get the books I could.

It is important to solve Tsumego repeatedly, but it is more important to solve many types.

If you can use mail order, please do not miss 5 selections of Tsumego that can easily become stronger. Please refer to “>” and so on to solve Tsumego.

On holidays, I go to the Go class and discuss it with my teacher.
In the afternoon, I went to the Go club to review many Kifu.
However, unfortunately, there were too few opponents at the Gokaisho, and most of them started playing online Go.

One year after continuing such a life, I have come to the top of the prefectural tournament.

The most important thing during this period was to train Yomi’s power.

When it comes to Go, it’s hard on the ground, it’s said to be solid, and it’s called Go.
Honestly, I felt that the style of chess wasn’t decided.

However, I consistently felt that Yomi’s power in the game was stronger.
It is less likely to lose in a reading game such as a capturing race or a joke.

From winning the prefectural tournament to becoming a professional shogi player

As I wrote a little in Yuki’s profile, I started going to a famous dojo right after entering university. I did.
I was a little famous in the countryside, but I was an ordinary person when I came to Tokyo.

Some children are much younger than me, but very strong.
At this dojo, I was able to learn what it means to be strong.

This is also the one who suggested, “Three breakthroughs when you get sick in Go.”

At this dojo, we did the following to become stronger.

The first is to train Yomi with Tsumego.
The most different consciousness between high-ranked amateurs and graduate students is Yomi’s training.

Tsumego is monotonous and troublesome to think about, and it is rare for people to like it.
Most people don’t want to get into it and tend to avoid it.
However, it is Yomi’s power that is directly linked to the game. If you become a prefecture representative class, you will experience it enough.

At the dojo, the problem of Tsumego was distributed every day.
Occasionally, I asked more than 1000 questions a month.
I also participated in the 1650 question challenge a month.

The Tsumego that was issued was eight recommended Tsumego from the first stage. The book introduced was the main one.

The second is to compete with rivals.
At this dojo, classes were divided according to the students’ strength, and they often competed not only in league games but also in their daily studies.
For example, Tsumego has always instilled a competitive spirit, such as ranking by score and scoring other people to find the wrong move.

By competing and studying this way, I realized that there was another party, and I want to be stronger. I do not want to lose! The feeling was even higher.
It created an atmosphere of studying naturally, which probably led to the strength of the dojo students’ feelings toward Go.

Such an environment is an advantage because there is a special place called a dojo, but in fact, you can create it yourself.
On the Internet Go, you can chat and make friends naturally, and they will lift you like your rivals in the dojo.

The point is to step into the friendly competition group from yourself actively.

What is the Go improvement method for beginners to high-ranking players?

So far, I have introduced how to improve Go based on my experience.
I’ve written a lot of ways to improve, so let’s summarize it at the end.