I gotta hold the prime position at 21k before someone takes it 
well, not prime but composite and valuable
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Would be nice if the winner of a round was the one to suggest a game for the next round. This is something we did in childhood games. Of course, not a strict rule but a general guideline.
No one claimed 18k yet, so I’ll take it.
I had the impression black is some ranks better than white. At some moves black is showing some reading skills (like F19)
That leaves me with 16k? Wanted to say 17, but since you guys seem to be going for those unique numbers, that’s close enough 
Ehhhhh, don’t wanna be the sceptic, but I think this is one of those moves that might have been played because it kind of looks like the key point that can be seen in tsumego, rather than that it was actually really read out. Gosh, I am having a hard time reading that out (or am I that bad? ), there are much simpler solutions.
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I can’t believe that they are the same rank… Seems like a player is sandbagging.
Considering that they at least have some knowledge of the game, Id put them out of the TPK range.
Not being able to read out ladders and some ataris do strike me as odd.
Id say 18k
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Guesses:
| Kaworu_Nagisa | 23k |
| kickaha | 22k |
| S_Alexander | 25k |
| dangomango | 17k |
| BHydden | 24k |
| mekriff | 21k |
| flovo | 18k |
| AdamR | 16k |
| seminyoon | 18k |
(Interesting to see that nobody guessed 19k or 20k, I wonder why)
And the correct answer is:
21k!
Actual game: https://online-go.com/game/20455719
I specifically went with this one despite how recently it happened because I hadn’t seen any TPK games here.
Congratulations to @RubyMineshaft for being the first person to find the actual game who didn’t already submit a guess, and to @mekriff for posting the correct guess here!
And as per @S_Alexander’s suggestion, if either of you have a game ready, feel free to post it 
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Since I didn’t make a guess before confirming that it was one of your games, let’s say that @mekriff won this one 
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i think it was a trick question
many go servers abandon 19k+
many combine 19k + into beginner class or just start out from 18k
so theoretically the lowest rank is 30k but in reality, you don’t even see 20k+ ranks
I don’t think I’d call it a trick question. 20k-25k are legitimate ranks on our server and deserve representation in this game as much as anyone else.
The only tricky part here is that RedAgent’s rank fluctuates a lot and he is stronger in most areas than that 21k rank would suggest. His opponent’s play definitely looks to be around 21k.
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There is an insane difference in skill between a 20k player and a 30k player. Bigger than any other 10 rank gap if you ask me.
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In fact, this is the whole reason why we have started to refer to the group of players with rank below 19k with their own acronym. The 20k barrier (or thereabouts) is a massive leap in skill, typified I think by the person for the first time starting to see how the whole board works at a very basic level, rather than responding to plays locally and often wrongly.
I happened across this game in my travels and thought it was a great example of mid-TPK play. It starts off with players who know “corners first” and have seen what openings look like these days, but they cannot stop replying to each other!
At this rank, players seem to miss “huge” moves and “massive” ataris, while still showing that they known that things like push and cut can work.
I think that TPK->DDK transition seems to happen when the player has the basic mechanics of the game sorted, and has some grasp of how their moves might actually affect their score, globally.
At 25k, in contrast, players are still struggling with atari and even a basic idea of where to put the next stone. There are heaps of concrete ideas and techniques that you can teach to a 22k person to get them to 19k that you can’t even start talking to a 25k about.
(PS: I wish someone had the same amount of grasp of what you should teach to a DDK to get them to SDK! If anyone has ideas about that, please teach me! 
)
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when i turned from ddk to sdk it was all about playing stronger players then having them reviewed by stronger players{1-5k}, occasionally do some tsumegos(graded go problems for beginners)
i remember when i was 11k and won a 7k in an even game {that game i made random invasions, but i kept them light, went for some free forcing moves eventually made life}
after that game the road to sdk was easy because i knew i beated a 7k
it was partial mental thing, and partial skill
by believing you can be sdk first then have the proper amount of skills
to beat an sdk, all you need to do is play a good amount vs them, you’ll eventually beat them once
and once you’ve beated them in an even game, you’ll know for sure you can do it again, this is all a mental thing
also the most important concept to understand was “urgent before big”, it was mentioned alot in the reviews i got, so eventually it stuck to my head
the so called “urgent” was making sure my group live(base or 2 eyes), or denying opponents the opportunity to make easy life (opponents vital point is my vital point)
then big was pretty easy to understand
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The most important lesson I learned that caused me to transition was 2 parts: 1) Don’t attack to kill (I was doing this all the time at 12-15k, and very often dying for it), and 2) Attack for territory/influence.
Essentially I read Attack and Defense and applying it pushed me over to SDK
But probably equally important is direction of play, knowing what moves are biggest, and what moves are really very slow. Some have said that my reviews coming in and showing them just how many slow moves they were making in their game was really useful, and ofc it’s not something you can ever finish learning, but SDK is when it really begins to matter, and before that can give you a lofty advantage over many other DDKs
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For me (I feel I’m on the cusp of SDK) it was all about recognising strong and weak groups. Every move, considering if stones I thought were in one group still were, how many groups I and opponent have, which are strong (have or can make 2eyes) and which are weak (not clear where eyes are coming from). Then help your weak group/attack opponent’s weak group, ideally both at once. Don’t worry about killing so much as staying alive/strong. Pay attention to cutting and getting cut and how that leaves the groups. And if all your groups are strong then it’s probably ok to make a new weak group of needed. If you already have a weak group then don’t make another one.
Now how to get past 9k I don’t know!
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I guess I’ll throw my pen’orth in before the conversation’s moved. I see things like this:
Triple-digit kyu play is a discussion of sente and basic life-and-death. It’s not really a discussion of territory since players often win and lose by over a hundred points.
Double-digit kyu play is a discussion, as teapoweredrobot says, of the strength and weakness of groups. The players have to decide what needs defending, what can be attacked, how to respond to such an attack, and what stones can, should, and / or must be sacrificed or aided.
Now, let’s focus in on the journey from 9k to 5k. It is not about joseki knowledge. 95% of the joseki I use and play against are as follows:
3-3 invasion simple territory & wall variations; 3-3 invasion simple double hane; 4-4 keima away & attach underneath / retreat; 4-4 kick; 4-4 one-space pincer & 3-3 invasion (one variation for each direction); 4-4 pincer & jump out; 3-4 low approach & pincer, press (or just the press); 3-4 low approach & kick; 3-4 high approach, attach underneath (with varying tenukis). These ten-ish joseki are all the ones you need to make it to 5k in my opinion, though there are a number more which I am pretty sure you would naturally pick up at some point on the voyage, and there is of course no harm in learning as many variations as you want.
Low-SDK is really a discussion of shape and basic positional judgement. You need to become familiar with shapes like solid lines of two, three and four stones; keimas, one and two-space jumps, small and large tables, dog and horse heads, and various combinations of these. The contest is in which player can run or settle with the most efficient shape, conceding the least profit to the attacker. Reading is not very important, especially if you study common corner shapes. Sente can still be a matter of dispute but the argument is more sophisticated, with the tenuki’ing player largely aware of the risk faced.
At dan level, or perhaps the high reaches of SDK, it seems to me that the object of discussion becomes reading, counting, and timing. Sente becomes much more nuanced, with more use of kikashi exchanges. Dan players often become more “stubborn”, insisting on confrontation and fighting in order to get a little bit more from the position.
And professionals? I find their play varies wildly. Some professional games are very hard to understand because they quickly become mired in dense fighting and complicated sequences. Other games, like this recent one I found some time ago (http://ps.waltheri.net/database/game/78784/) seem simpler – this is because positional judgement and counting have taken a greater role.
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If only Go players counted 17, 18, 19, 100 then TDK would be a natural thing!
(I loved the breakdown through the ranges of play: really insightful and true-feeling)
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Come on, don’t let the guessing game fizzle out. Suggest a game!
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@mekriff is meant to be posting the next one but if he doesn’t post it soon I guess @RubyMineshaft should post the one he has
How about this one. 12m + 5x30s
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8 kyu
Reasonning
They seem to be fighting over small things fairly often, but they also can read when they made a mistake and don’t insist too much and try to get forcing moves instead, which I don’t think DDKs do much.