Can new go players achieve such level in a few months? Or most likely they came from KGS? Im wondering b/c I joined few months this year and I am hardly 20k. Am I stupid or what?
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I started this year in May this is my first server and May was the first time I’d ever heard about Go.
My current OGS rank is 13k but I can more or less play at the 10k level.
Everyone learns differently but I put a lot of hours into study (mostly YouTube through the likes of Nick Sibicky) but ultimately you should be playing for fun 
if you enjoy playing then don’t worry about your rank, if you want to improve then I’ve heard the best balance is 50/50 play and study (where study includes reviewing all of your games, doing tsumego puzzles and watching lectures such as YouTube)
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I was wondering a similar thing: OGS ratings were thought to be less deflated after the switch to Glicko-2, being a couple stones behind normal… But now I’m a 9k here while the style analysis webapp seems to think I’m ~2k KGS, which would be an extreme difference…
From personal experience and observation, if you put in enough thought and time, 2-3 month is enough for reaching 10k (especially under the new glicko system). But you will reach a point where you get stuck. People get stuck at different rank.
Children might improve faster than adult, I’ve heard story of extremely talented child (under 13) turning pro in 2-3 years.
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I found it head work to get to 20k. When I broke through to 19k it was a big deal for me: I had thought I’d never beat those scary 19ks !
So 20k is a real achievement… And you have already out-survived many many who dropped out without getting that far.
My experience was that there are a set of clear things that get you to about 19/20k. I wrote these here:. Your beginnings with Go?
You might like to make sure you have that covered.
After that, I had to take a new track in learning to make a fresh burst of progress. I did two things. First I soaked up dwyrin’s “back to basics” series on YouTube. Then I played in a fast correspondence tournament trying to apply that stuff. Playing lots of games in a burst, knowing you can’t really expect to win since you are the lowest rank and therefore aren’t worried whether every move is going to lose the game… Powerful learning environment.
Now I plateaued at 14k looking for the next key to a burst…
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@RubenScholz I looked up your account, you played 150 games but only did one review. Are you doing any kind of studying, like others suggested?
Becoming a SDK in a few months is definitely within reach for a kid attending a go school in Europe or in the US.
That said, you’re right, some players come from other servers, or, like me last year, are back to the game after a long absence.
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It is possible. I did that myself.
I reached 10k pretty quickly after i started playing go, maybe in just 5-6 months… But i used to do a lot of studying back then, i watched a lot of nick sibickys videos, read a lot of articles from senseis and reviewed all my games. All that because i was determinated on getting better
Then i stopped studying and my rank stagnated, in past 2 years i’ve gotten my rank maybe 4-5 stones higher 
So i don’t think gaining higher ranks have nothing to do with how long have someone played.
It’s all about putting effort on purposefully gaining a higher rank.
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