And so did Manfred Wimmer, first western professional Go player at all in Japan with the Kansai Ki-in at the age of 38(!). He even became 2p.
Though I guess you'll never make it to the top then ^^

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

GAAAAAH!!! Those words burn... I feel ashamed now, thx to you

Finally slept. It has been a while. I don't know if I'm stronger, but my first game went pretty well. Won by 31.5 points against a 6k. My rank isn't "stuck" like some people suggested. I see it more like a test. I got to prove without a doubt that I'm better than a 6k before getting my 5th kyu. I'm almost there, in 2-3 days, I'll be 5k.

Do whatever you want, but don't take Manfred Wimmer as someone to emulate. Better shoot yourself or just take a better role model. Seriously.

What's wrong with Manfred Wimmer?

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be immersed

Kirby,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manfred_Wimmer
http://pokspace.goverband.at/essays/wimmer_e.htm

He became pro - as a western Go player and at late age. I think, that's the only thing that really matters in respect to the thread title.

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My "guide" to become stronger in Go

Just beaten a 3k without handicap. Guess I'm getting stronger, even though I'm "stuck" at 6k. I'm climbing towards my fifth kyu, but it takes some time.

I feel like my go has changed. I don't play like before. Hopefully, it's a change for the best and it's a sign I'm getting stronger.

Slowly but surely, as they say...

We should play sometime, if you catch me on KGS. Surely beating me a few times will be a good learning experience.

I'd also like to play you, before you get too strong for me. Let me know when you can play.

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a1h1 [1d]: You just need to curse the gods and defend.
Good Go = Shape.
Associação Portuguesa de Go

Finally got Attack and Defense (the book). Should help me a lot since I always seem to have trouble in the middle game. Hopefully I'll be better after reading it.

Seems like Speedchase will be the rotten egg

Best of luck on your journey to become pro. I too would like to play you.

I started reading Attack and Defense. I can feel my approach about the go changing. However, I've now fallen into this transition phase. I'm usually able to completely destroy my opponents at the beginning of the game, gathering insane territories very easily. I take the lead and then one of my groups die and I lose... Yay...

I guess I'm too aggressive. Let's keep on studying and see what happens with that. Let's hope that the "defense" part of the game will help me out.

a sphere of influence or a framework is not the same as territory! though this isnt explained in attack and defense, it is very vital that you see this difference.

consider san-ren-sei opening. this is not territory but a small framework, lots of holes to invade. you can use it to make actual territory or make it big enough that the opponent needs to invade and you profit from that.

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admin of the ASR league and KGS admin

5k KGS!!! (Thank god) I don't see much of a difference from 6 to 5k... So far, 4 wins and no loss as 5th kyu. Let's see how long I can keep this perfect record.

I told you you would get there earlier than me.

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a1h1 [1d]: You just need to curse the gods and defend.
Good Go = Shape.
Associação Portuguesa de Go

Congrats!

At this point, I'm sure you could probably go toe to toe with me, and I hesitate to say I'd come out on top.

If you see me on KGS, let's play!

Played against a 1k today. Lost by 10.5 points... What a shame!

Since speedchase was mocking me due to my poor tsumego ability, I buyed 1001 Life-and-Death Problems by Richard Bozoulich. Interesting book. I just begun and I got a success rate of 93,75% (after 64 problems). The other book I got is Tesuji by James Davies. This adds up to my "collection" of Attack and Defense (James Davies), getting strong at the endgame (Richard Bozoulich) and A dictionary of modern fuseki korean style (don't remember the author)

School has begun (again) and I'm already starting to feel more tired. However, my will of winning came back when I lost my league game yesterday. The 4d who reviewed admitted he would have resigned after the 40 first moves. Of course, I was on the losing side. I help on and fought throughout the game, slowly catching back. In the end, I counted the territories and noticed I was ahead by 0.5-1.5 points! I started playing defensively, seeing my lead getting bigger. Finally, we both pass and I notice I miscalculated the territories and I lost by 6.5 points... This defeat gave me the kick in the butt I needed to start improving at full speed.

After reading a little about tesujis and life and death, I played some 5 kyus and I completely annihilated them. The three games I played were won by at least 100 points. I'm getting much stronger and it feels refreshing to see my level going up. I don't know if I was plateauing until now, but I'm definitively taking steps forward.

After life & death, let's focus on tesujis. I don't have a decent enough reading to get through the little problems in the tesuji book, therefore, L&D are comming first, to cure what is probably my biggest weakness.

Hope I'll be back again with good news in the next entry

P.S: If you know some good books, please let me know! I'm looking especially for fuseki/L&D books.

For life and death books, Yi Ch'ang-Ho's Selected Tsumego books are excellent. You can find them in the mohsart.se store (if they are available currently). I'm also drilling through Graded go problems for beginners. Don't get the title wrong, book 3 is pretty acceptable for my level (maybe you'll find it too easy, I don't know). If you are a rock hard for tesujis... Get Segoe & Seigen's tesuji books. They're awesome.

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net