So some people think that some of my problems are too easy and dissatisfactory. I hope you don’t feel that way. But if you do, then I’d like to explain why I do that.
First it takes time to learn new things.
Learning one tesuji can often take a month. “I know this problem” is not good enough. You have to be able to do that in your real game regardless of how complicated a situation is. Even if you’re drunk, you should be able to play that without thinking. (I’m not suggesting that you should get drunk and play Go. You shouldn’t. ) If you didn’t play that in my lesson or in your game, that means you lack basics. If you think my problems are easy, I have to ask you to be patient. If you cannot patiently solve easy problems, you will not be able to solve harder problems. I could give you a 6dan problem relating to a tesuji, but you won’t learn it because of the following reason.
Second you have to learn things step by step.
I know most Go teachers teach 6dan tesuji or pro level tesuji to kyu players, even 15 kyu or 20 kyu players. But that’s not a good way to teach. In fact, it’s impossible to learn a 6dan tesuji and to be able to play 6dan moves continously without learning 4 kyu tesuji, 1 dan tesuji, 3 dan tesuji, and 5 dan tesuji. You have to learn these things step by step. You also improve the ability to read many moves.
If you’re a 6dan, I expect you to learn at least 20 moves easily. I also expect you to know lots of 6dan tesuji and shapes. If you cannot read 20 moves easily, and if you do not know 6dan tesuji and shapes, you cannot see a danger ahead of you. Then it’s really dangerous to try a 6dan tesuji. It’s like flying a jumbo jet even though you just started learning how to fly..
I explained the importance of learning things step by step on my blog; http://kazsensei.seesaa.net/article/396285189.html
The other day, I was commenting on a 4dan student in his mid-20s, who started playing Go at the age of 16. He is much, much stronger than most of my Go students. But he made some mistakes about not hitting the head of the two stones. He knows “hitting the head of the two stones”, and he knows how important this tesuji is. Yet, he couldn’t see them in two of his games in the middle of a game. In the first game a situation was rather simple, and in the second game a situation was very complicated.
People often don’t see an important tesuji especially when there are many stones and things are very complicated. Even if you’re a 4 dan or a 5dan players, it’s still not easy.
Why?
Answer: They haven’t practiced basic problems a lot.
How are they able to see that?
Answer: Learning basic problems once or twice is not good enough You have to solve them repeatedly with regard to that tesuji. Then they can try harder problems and solve them repeatedly.
( I sometimes suggest an opening in which that tesuji comes up often. But this doesn’t work for all tesuji. But the fact is that the more he plays that tesuji in a real game, the more easily the tesuji will become part of him. )
Only then will they recognize a particular tesuji even in a complicated situation.
I can present a 6dan tesuji, for example a 6dan Indiana Jones tesuji, but that will only be harmful to you. So I won’t do that.
The good news is that you don't have to learn 4dan or 6dan tesuji if you want to become a 1dan or 2dan.
