My game... and my play is too timid

[Kosh]

This excellent post by Issho (and others in the thread) might be of interest to you:

Hypothesis - Tips: The Main Difference Between TPK--DDK--SDK--Dan

tl;dr: Go is a game that is fundamentally about flexibility, reading and positional judgement. From these arise concepts such as exchange, urgency, big moves, thickness etc… Players across the spectrum have various degrees of mastery in these fundamental things. Having had a two year journey starting at the bottom of the TPK ladder to somewhat of a solid shodan player, here’s what I have come to learn about the rank ranges. Of course, these are my personal observations only. It is by no means …