I started playing about 2-3 weeks before turning 40. It’s been a year and I’m at 5k. Though that’s almost exclusively from playing 9x9 correspondence. I only started 19x19 correspondence recently. I do well against people around this level. What I notice in AI analysis is strong opening from joseki. Then things go very poorly for me while the board is still fairly empty. But then my opponent makes a bad move where strong fighting skills on a fuller board from 9x9 let me go in for the kill and I win.
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It sounded like a fantastic puzzle, and one that I wouldn’t get bored of. I’m beginning to see how much of an understatement that is… I’d heard of go before but never had any awareness of what it was. I’ve just won my second game 
! Maybe by accident.
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Hey there!
I started learning Go a little past my 40s and now I am currently at 25K! So keep up your good work and you will improve like me! 
Now, wait a minute… Just kidding. I just started to learn this week… Although I am very much into lots of different kinds of games, and I probably know the basic “rules” of Go for a long time, but I never played. The only game I dedicated some time was Chess.
Another note I’d like to share: I am really astonished with the complexity of Go. The more I try to beat Leela Zero (probably 3 dan), the more I feel how deep the game goes. I don’t mean to brag or be arrogant, please forgive, but just that to compare the things I did with my life, I’ve always did well and much better than average in school, college, university, anything, like a prodigy child, and now 40+yo and I can’t beat a small phone in a simple game where all I need to do is place some colored stones, oh boy, that is really strange…
I makes me wonder how deep it really is… And that is consistent with the common sense. Centuries of history and interest. One of the hardest games for AI to master (my research field today is AI), and so on… I published here in this forum the accomplishment of the researcher Tromp who managed to count the number of Go positions and it is huge… All of that should raise you a flag that the game is far beyond anyone’s imagination…
But you really don’t have a clue before you start playing it, and you start seeing how there are always paths that a most skilled opponent take that you didn’t consider. When your opponent put a stone on the board, it is like “wow” and “what can I do now?” every time…
When you set up a board with 9 stones of handicap for you in a 9x9 board, and you see your opponent gaining terrain at each move, and you lose in the end, you start wondering if you are a retard or something. But this is just spoken as a light joke, don’t feel pity for me. It is not about me, it is about the game. Because I am really a happy person, happy with myself and my history, and as I said, when I recall my childhood, and all the good stuff I was able to do thanks to sharpness, loving family and luck position in human history (no wars, etc.), I know the problem is not me, I know and I deeply appreciate more than anyone how the Game of Go is profound.
I’ll never be a “dan” (not because I cannot, but because I don’t have the time to invest). That doesn’t mean I cannot appreciate the game and the journey. No matter if the journey will be only from 25k to 23k hahaha… (kidding again… I’m sure I can beat 22k)
So, all that said, don’t worry about age, just enjoy the ride! Good luck!
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Probably the main difference between a 20s and a 50s is their ability and speed to read deeply into complex patterns. On the other hand, 50s can be a little more conservative (as in real life it happens to them) and less aggressive on the goban when - instead - they should be more brave in certain situations. This can affect obviously their growing rate. But I believe strongly in the concept of kaizen.(continuous improvement) not only in go but in any aspect of human being.
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I started at 44 and 5 years later, I am 3k OGS and 5k EGF. Still slowly improving.
I did spend a lot of time, solved about 20000 tsumegos, played 2000 games, worked seriously on about 10 books.
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To put a bit of sun in the sky of the latest years of life we are going sooner or later, it’s possible to play very good very late.
Fujisawa Shuko won a title at a time no one would have expected.
I had a old master 80yrs old who was rated 6d Chinese (which is a very strong rating for very few players) and who was still traveling around to play tournaments.
I want to add that becoming a Dan player is already quite a challenge for younger beginner, unless you are a child with good coach.
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That’s quite impressive, with good balance between different support.
Are you going to keep it? I dunno about how much go culture is brought by 2000 games in fact, but i would suggest maybe a bit more books now… If this is not your plan yet ofc
My plan for the future is
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Study tesuji. I have already worked on the books by Davies and Bozulich, as well as “graded go problems for dan players vol 2” but I feel that’s not enough. Tesujis are like basic go vocabulary, if I want to improve further I need to learn them explicitly. So I am currently working on Shuko’s dictionary of basic tesuji (only bought 2 volumes so far).
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Commented games. Learning lists of words is useful but not enough to learn a language, you also need to study literature. I’ve got the book “relentless” but haven’t got past the first game yet.
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I forgot to say that I have taken some online courses and will continue to do so (at a light pace).
No idea if this will lead to further improvement in terms of rank, but hopefully it will at least improve my understanding of the game. Anyway the good thing about starting late is that I am not comparing myself to super-fast improving young players, so if I never reach dan level I won’t be disappointed.
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Besides keeping up with your balanced training, there is a big amount of go culture to digest starting in the highest SDK ranking (usually not advised before) so yes your ideas seem fitted with that.
I first encountered Go when I was in my mid-30s living in Seattle. I had a few friends who played it, and I got intrigued. However, there wasn’t anyone around to teach me, or play teaching games. I bashed my head against GnuGo and stayed stuck between 25-20kyu for many years, because I didn’t know how to learn.
My first big turning point with Go happened in 2016 around the Lee Sedol / AlphaGo games - when I was 45 years old. Watching Michael Redmond’s commentary helped me understand the game in a different way. It also gave me the push to get over my shyness, find OGS, and start playing against other people online. Since then I’ve slowly ranked up to about 10kyu, but - again - it’s been really slow going. Go has always been a side hobby rather than a primary pursuit, so I go back and forth in terms of how much time I dedicate to it.
Still, I continue to enjoy playing and learning, so we’ll see how far we get.
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i started playing last year, mid 40s.
i fluctuate between 12k and 14k on OGS, after about 1400 total games.
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I started in 2016 when I was 42. I’ve reached 2 kyu on OGS but I am stronger at 9 x 9 and weaker at 19 x 19, stronger at correspondence and weaker at live games. I am persistent and I keep at it, playing games and solving tsumego regularly.
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