> > I believe you COULD improve as fast as that young guy you are talking > about, but you would need to do serious study. Not read some books > while watching television, but putting yourself in a quiet room and > being totally focused. A 3 dan teacher would help enormously. >
Agreed. It took me a couple of years of casual play while writing a go program to get to 4 kyu, but I didn't get stronger until I started serious study, every day, solving life and death problems, and playing through professional games. It took a year or 2 of this to get to 1 dan, then I stalled again and couldn't improve. I took weekly lessons from a pro for 2 years to improve to 3 dan. Surprisingly, even though I very rarely play, when I do play, I still get 3 dan results, so there was some deep learning that doesn't go away. I was handicapped because I was 22 when I started. I think people who start younger improve much faster. It also helps to get good instruction right from the start to avoid learning bad habits that are hard to unlearn later. David _______________________________________________ computer-go mailing list computer-go@computer-go.org http://www.computer-go.org/mailman/listinfo/computer-go/
