A strategic board game with black and white stones, measuring reading ability, positional judgment, and game management from opening to endgame.
On a 19x19 board, two players alternate placing stones to secure territory. Simple rules yet astronomical positions demand reading, positional judgment, opening strategy, middle-game fighting, and endgame precision. The kyu-dan system quantifies skill across 4,000 years of strategic heritage.
You know the core rules: placing stones, capturing, self-capture prohibition, ko, and territory counting. You can finish a game on a 9x9 board, attempting basic tactics like capturing isolated stones. Your focus is still local, concentrating on connecting your stones and taking your opponent's.
What Comes Next
If you've checked off most of this list, you're ready for the 14-10 Kyu (Elementary) stage, solving basic life-and-death problems and practicing reading on a 13x13 board. Kageyama's Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go suggests playing actual games on a 9x9 board and reviewing the results to build effective foundational skills.
Comprehensively maps the kyu-dan ranking system from 30-kyu through amateur 9-dan and professional 1-dan to 9-dan, serving as direct anchoring for 7-level proficiency boundary design.
Describes DDK (double-digit kyu), SDK (single-digit kyu), and dan-level behavioral profiles and typical error patterns, directly informing checklist item design for each level.
A 7-dan professional explains Go fundamentals in progressive stages, providing authoritative reference for learning progression from L1 basic rules through L7 Go philosophy.
DTI analysis of white matter neuroplasticity in long-term Baduk players. Structural changes in frontal, cingulum, and striato-thalamic pathways correlate with reading depth and proficiency stages, providing cognitive evidence for L4-L7 checklist items
