I plan to do massive easy ones which I can solve in half a minute and a few challenging ones. So 100 won’t take too much time I guess
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Nice! I similarly will do a mix of lots of easy, some medium, plus a few hard.
If you are doing lots of easy ones and have access to complete collections, you might want to do a time trial like those listed here: Problem Book Grades at Sensei's Library
I aim to complete Graded Go Problems for Beginners vol. 1 by Kano Yoshinori (super easy ~ a few seconds per problem times 239 problems ~ 10 mins) and Elementary Chomego (easy but 900 problems!) as time trials. On their own they’re too easy to bother, but as a time trial they could offer a worthy challenge.
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Just a comment on the whole thing about wanting to make our own community strong rather then having players from other servers come here to fill up the area of dan players.
I would love for this to happen as a dan player myself it will give me more opponents (and other dans more opponents as well obviously.) I just want to point out though that a root of the problem for a lot of western players is mentality. “Maybe, if I solve this many problems and play 0 games or only correspondence I will get so-so stronger”. While improving may not directly require you to actually play the game. It is the fastest method to improving and a lot of western players sadly neglect actually playing live games and prefer to argue about what makes you improve and not improve (and then they spend years at kyu level because they are so stuck in there ways of improving instead of taking advice from people who actually made it.)
Sorry, if this comes out as an attack but it really is sad when you see so many players default to not actually playing for one reason or another and hide behind walls like “I improve with tsumego instead” or “I like correspondence more” I think if you really enjoy these things that is great :-)! Just expect the results to not be as appealing as you might want them to be compared to faster methods.
Which is one of the things that made the western dan challenge so great because it made people play as many games as possible which is the fastest method of improving putting yourself directly in the situation. It can be easy to solve a tsumego of much higher level but putting a tsumego of lower level in practice is a completely different ball game.
Just some advice to those who want to really make there way up the ladder.
EDIT: and for the record “How many games do you play a day?” When I was a kyu player? probably more then I can count at least 30-40 blitz games a day (I would recommend not blitzing obviously).
So far between february 15th and march 23rd I have had over 500 slow games.
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There is nothing wrong with encouraging people to do more tsumego, if they need a kind of incentive to do so. However I agree that doing 300 tsumegos won’t have much effect. 3000 maybe but don’t expect anything spectacular.
On the other hand I think that correspondence games are interesting too. Usually, live games on the internet are with too short time controls, and so are often won after a big mistake from one of the players, while in correspondence games, players have more time to think and make fewer mistakes.
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And, this was what I was talking about 
the “I need to jump and defend the…” nobody said there was anything wrong with encouraging anyone to do more tsumego. I am saying that as advice from an upper dan player that people should make sure they are playing and putting the things they learn into practice. Instead of always feeling the need to take offence when someone tells them to play.
I am just saying its slower then they might think and they won’t get the results they want if they are not playing. It is simply advice
As for correspondence its arguably a different game all on its own. While a majority of the website enjoys it (which is great). If that is the path we want to take that is fine. But, you also can’t expect to win correspondence and be say just an example 4d and then go to fox and expect to be such and such rank. As live games and correspondence are completely different worlds. Same for the player who plays live games they can’t expect to be such and such rank in correspondence.
For example I think I suck at correspondence the same way i suck at blitz as they are completely different worlds. Just like 9x9 and 13x13 2 completely different worlds and I can’t always expect the things I do in them to work the way I want them to in what the asian community considers the normal.
(And, some may say “well, were not an asian community” of course not but there is also no such thing as live correspondence games in person. If you show up at a live tournament and ask to make your move every few days trust me I don’t think they are going to allow that to happen.) A players ultimate goal (should) “SHOULD” be to improve at the core game. (I say this because the whole point of these challenges is to improve at the core game) They are using tsumego to improve at the core game. So they should make sure they are putting tsumego into practice of the CORE GAME.
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Sure, I agree 100% with your message, I was just thinking that some people on this forum feel they are not doing enough tsumegos and want to boost their tsumego count.
In my case I have probably solved about 20000 tsumegos in my life. Yet in a recent tournament game I thought a move threatened to kill, and my opponent was afraid to die and responded…
So much effort on tsumegos for that.
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I have actually probably solved less then 100. When I was a kid I couldn’t sit still long enough to do tsumego without hopping into another game of go so I gave up on them. I just started doing them as of recently myself.
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doing 300 tsumegos won’t have much effect
300 random tsumego on Weiqi101, no.
300 tsumego from a proper planned collection like the chomego, though, is more instructive. That way, the reading training comes together with shape education.
At the extreme end of this, I think a beginner (TPK) can perhaps gain as many as three stones, or even five stones or more by doing the first 300 problems of the elementary chomego set.
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Thank you @Runite for the tips (That’s Runite [4d] to the rest of you, so listen up!!).
It seems there are two schools of thought. Most pros recommend mainly tsumego, though some (including, notably, Lee Sedol) recommend mainly lots of fast games and review them. I guess the real answer is, a mixture of both is probably important? What do you reckon Runite? And what do you have to say about reviewing your own games?
Personally, I find tsumego really helpful. I go through periods of doing lots and then not so many. But when I do lots - I mean many 10s of problems a day - it’s weird! I can almost feel myself getting stronger as I do them. And then when I combine that with games as well, then I find I spot ways to invade and live, or some killer tesuji, etc in games more easily / more often.
As for correspondence, I much prefer to play live as I consider that “proper” Go; but in the end I mainly play correspondence due to time constraints (work, kids, etc).
On a related note Re this:
I agree in principle - good to play more games. However, in my case, they were nearly all blitz because that’s all I had time for. Obviously, live is better than blitz (for improvement). But is blitz better than correspondence? Maybe they both have their merits…?
And finally, Re this:
I agree completely. That’s partly why there is a column for number of rated games played during the challenge 
P.S. Re this that just came in:
I am inclined to agree with this, although I don’t know for sure. Ask me again in May! 
And this:
Well, let’s hope we have some TPKs sign-up so we can test this theory
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I actually heard this as well. Especially recently like on fox if you play there in the upper level 8d-9d they play 15 second per move games. I don’t like it but it seems to be the trend.
I review all my games :-). Some of them I even run AI for a day or two before looking it over. But, there is not a single game I play that I don’t review.
I think tsumego is helpful because it improves your instinct ability as long as people do lots of them alongside playing I think people will improve even extra fast.
I have been dragged a bit into the correspondence world I don’t like it but I really wanted to participate in these “title tournaments”
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Extra fast! Sounds like a good idea
Another great tip. Thanks 
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Completely agree about reviews. Put aside the strongest players, I would encourage review with another human like your opponent or a stronger player, much better as just looking the AI analysis.
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I think reviewing with another person can definitely be beneficial as it makes it easier to pay attention and encourages you to look through more then what you would have doing it alone.
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I’M ALL IN BABY, WOO HOO LESsS GOOOO!!! 3001 TSUMEGO FOR AVRIL!!! (poke @terrific kappa)
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Yes I did get some benefit from doing tsumegos, especially the first 1000 ones. I continue to practice, mainly because you can do them anywhere and almost anytime, whereas to play a slow live game you need to have 1 hour during which you won’t be disturbed.
However after a certain point, tsumegos don’t have much effect anymore. First because knowing how to solve problems doesn’t mean you are aware during your game that there is a problem to solve, or that you strive enough to solve it during your game (see the example in my previous post). And second because other skills than life and death need to be practiced as well.
That Runite managed to reach 4d without doing a single tsumego is remarkable. However he started as a kid, so his experience may not be reproducible by older people (I started go in my mid-forties).
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I actually its actually common practice that when you are a kid you tend to just slam your head on the game rather then stop for tsumego. I think its only when someone runs into a wall is when they start to feel like they need to look for alter methods of improvement. (Some hit this wall earlier in the ddk stage and pick up tsumego). But, there are a lot of people who don’t hit any walls and pretty much smooth cruise to 1d until they actually struggle enough to start considering tsumego or other methods. I didn’t even hit my first wall until solid 4d on KGS
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I’ve raised my target to 2000. But as mentioned my tsumego diet will be mostly easy and very easy ones. Graded Go Problems for Beginners 1+2 will be amongst them. My real goal isn’t the 2000, it’s 50 hours. That’s roughly 2 to 2.5 times of what I spent recently.
I’ve already prepared a spreadsheet for keeping track and installed a counter app on my smartphone for easy counting. Guess you got me motivated! 
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3 days to go, so time to bump this thread.
Join us in this most anti-social activity of staring at black and white patterns for hours without any human contact! What else could be more fun???
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Thanks for the bump
This is gold. I did the same, tested it out, and it’s the best way for sure
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staring at solarized patterns for hours without any human contact?
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