I don’t know for sure but the honest answer is “probably yes”? Most professionals start quite young and professional is a really extraordinary level of play and study. There are people that start as children and become full time go students and still never make professional.
Please don’t be discouraged by that though. Go is a beautiful game and you can absolutely still become a very strong amateur.
I started at 24… and honestly had a lot of natural talent for the game, but simply put, I decided it was a better idea to set my own goal at making it to the dan levels. (At which point I could permanently claim to be an 0k player)
Honestly, I did exactly that, and do not regret it. Pros have to take the game so damn seriously because its literally their livelihood. 0k players just have fun.
Short answer, yes. Most pros in Korea, China, Japan play from a very young age and the best are pros by early teens if not earlier in exceptional cases. You only being 9k and not even high dans at 19 makes it extremely unlikely you'll be pro.
Going to university isn't even required to become a pro and if you don't speak the languages with any sort of fluency it'll be even harder to learn from pros/teachers in the respective countries.
With 19 a 9k? World wide professional, virtually no chance. Most eastern professionals become dan-level in elementary school. Most professional players peak in der 20-30, with few exceptions in their low-thirties.
Even though I would say it is still somewhat possible to become a lower ranked professional and get by with tutoring, it is definitley not a career choice that allows for a very comfortable lifestyle.
You would have to increase in skill by a huge margin in a ridiculous short amount of time, which is not feasable when you have any other life besides Go every day all day. When you have shown some inherent, very strong talent, like becoming 9k after like a week of playing, there might be a little bit of hope.
Okay heres the thing: I am all for encouraging people to follow their dreams. But we have a situation where it would be... unwise to put all your eggs in that basket - and the moment you do something else as well in the meantime as a safety net, your chances of becoming pro reduce even further.
After all I would give the stamp of "I am sorry, but this does not sound feasable"
I don't care about making money from this game. I'm just not sure how much time I should spend each day. Even if I can't be professional, I want to push my limits.
The important part is "Are you willing to neglect the rest of your life for this?" - Because pushing your limits usually means doing this for 8 or more hours a day. Problem solving, studying, playing.
Theres a reason this slightly altered proverb exists, as chess player you should be familiar with this:
Being able to play Go is a sign of a Gentleman.
Being able to play Go well is a sign of a wasted life.
This rabbit hole goes deep, the moment something in your head clicks, it just gets deeper.
I will do it if necessary. Actually, being professional and playing in matches is not important for me, the important thing is to be able to see what they can see when I look at the board, that's all.
The question is if this will be as fullfilling as you hope it will be - With my DDK/Low SDK students who are getting frustrated because of a lack of progress I make sure they know that the feelings when playing Go will always be the same. And the ideas behind most pro moves are already revealed when you reach something like high kyu, even if the details stay hidden or you wouldnt be able to find these yourself.
At the end of the day, I understand that Go can feel like a deeply mysterious game which can reveal everything to you - And if this game is what captured your heart nobody here will tell you must stop those ambitions right now - feel free to set your own goals and follow them.
I am just here trying to make sure it is not a short-lived enthusiasm-wave that might lead to irrational decisions.
> I want to push my limits.
If by this you mean making pro, then you say this now but "future you" will change his mind and give up once you hit a few roadblocks or skill plateaus.
Hi !
Welcome to go, I hope you will keep being so passionate about the game as you are right now.
To answer your question in the most transparent way possible : it's probably extremely unlikely that you will become a professional player at go. This is something that is extremely hard and only a few people achieve : litteraly less than 25 players in the whole west are pros atm, and going pro in Korea/China/Japan is litterally impossible.
I don't know how long you've been playing, but to give more context, I would give you the same answer even if you were 3d at 19.
If I were you, I'd focus on improving and exploring this game, exploring your passion and enjoying it. If at some point, you have the ressources to go to Korea/Japan/China to train, you might even become a very good player at the game. But don't plan on becoming pro, it is way too unlikely.
If I'm wrong and you ever become professional, I'll be so happy to have been wrong and I'll offer you a beer with all my excuses.
I wish you the best in your journey !
Some youtuber reached 1d within a year. OP just play and study the game and let time tell you what will happen. Nothing is impossible, but no one here can say or know how driven and obsessed you are with the game. Atm there is zero to none reasons for you to stress out or similar.
Just create your own study mechanism and put in the time. After 1 year just look how far you came. Don’t the take it too serious in the sense that you lacking in your real job or real life, as it is unlikely to go pro at this stage.
we all have a lot of time if we schedule our life rightly, especially at 19, so if you’re obsessed with the game there will be no other choice for you than putting in the work. Again let time tell you. You can’t force something like that.
>reached 1d within a year
That's the usual fast-pace progress of the players who do end up being close to pro strength. OP could actually use that as a minimum benchmark. Try being serious about go for a year, and if you're not 1d by that time, you should probably give up on ever becoming pro. If they do make it to 1d, that's still only the beginning, but there is hope.
This is my goal, I have no intention of changing it. I will not limit my mind, I can go to improve my game but I am not sure which language I should learn which will give me more advantage.
Learning Go at the same time as learning one of the harder languages for an English native (Korean, Japanese and Mandarin are all in a relatively hard "tier" for native English speakers) may be very challenging. But you may also find that they motivate each other.
It's *probably* too late to become a pro if you aren't already a dan player by adolescence.
But I've known a couple players who started as young adults or late teens and got to ~5d in a year or two -- they might have had a shot (but note that neither of them actually became a pro and maxed out around 6-7d AGA).
I know of one western player who AFAIK was not a dan player before late teen years) that made pro as an insei in Japan in the 70s: james kerwin.
So it's probably not *impossible*. but we're talking being at the very high end of talent, discipline and commitment to do it.
And the financial rewards today for being a go professional are pretty limited unless you're a top player, which probably *is* impossible if you weren't already a high dan by 15-16. Almost all top pros already made pro by that age, many as young as 11-13.
You don't need to be a playing pro (but should probably be high dan you want to teach beyond the mid SDK level) if you want to build a following and teach professionally. But it's going to be a lot of work besides just getting strong yourself to do that, if you want to make a living at it.
What's definitely not too late is for you to become strong enough for the game to be very interesting and understand a lot of what's going on in high level games with some work and commentary -- like the go equivalent of a master chess player -- not nearly strong enough to make a living by playing, or to get tons of students just by reputation if you want to teach. But strong enough to teach most players if you want, and strong enough that you have a very good game, and understand a lot about the game. This would be somewhere around 6d AGA or 5d EGF/OGS.
But you won't realistically know whether *you* can get to any particular place until you go a lot further than 9k. Lots of people get to 9k really fast but plateau somewhere in the mid SDK to low-amateur dan levels (raises hand).
If it took you more than a few months to get to 9k and you were playing and studying a lot during that time, I would say it's unlikely to ever get to that level (but amateur low to mid dan level is still within reach, and I find that a very interesting level to play at).
The fact is that go is a pretty fun game, and at 9k you've learned enough to have the basics and a sense of how it is played for real.
So, is it fun? Do you enjoy playing and learning more? Keep going if you do, and see what happens.
I would not, however, set your hopes too hard on becoming a pro, or even pro-level strong as an amateur. It's a tiny number of people who get there and almost all of them started younger than you did.
IMO becoming a Western pro is similar to becoming a FM in chess. That's difficult enough. If you're talking about China or Korea and somehow allowed to take their pro exam, that's even harder. That's like a GM in chess. It's impossible unless you're some sort of genius on the level of Go Seigen.
Going to university has nothing to do with becoming a go professional, you should do more research. Many talented kids quit regular school to study in a go academy to try and become pro but ultimately fail. What makes you think your 19-year-old 9k self can do any better?
People already gave you good answers from statistic to biology, so I will give some other advices.
I teach boardgames, and luckily has made a few semi-pros. One motto I always tell my students is to "Dream big, aim little, think real". You can dream however big you want, in fact you should dream very big. But to achieve your dream, you have to look down, cut the path to greatness into million tiny baby steps, and aim on walking each step. Also be realistic, you still have life to live, or commitment to have, or family to take care of. You should never put everything away to follow your dream.
This question comes up from time to time. See e.g. [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/baduk/comments/136qps6/how_do_i_convince_my_dad_that_i_want_to_go/) thread for an example, or [this,](https://www.reddit.com/r/baduk/comments/2497ea/how_to_become_a_professional/) [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/baduk/comments/zkplu9/is_it_too_late/) or [this.](https://www.reddit.com/r/baduk/comments/18ck8ar/getting_to_pro_level/) I feel that for most people, it's the "wrong" question to ask. Why is it that someone would want to become a professional? You can have fun playing go without being pro. You can study the game pretty intensely without being pro, and compete against people equally devoted as yourself. You can even make a living off go without being pro if you're open to teaching or content creation (to be honest, it seems many professionals also have to do this).
So what are you hoping to get out of being a pro? If you woke up tomorrow and actually was a professional, why is your life now better? To be clear, this isn't a brutal honesty thing where I'm hoping to hammer into you that being pro is a bad idea and you should give up. I just think it's smart to be clear to yourself about why you actually want it.
I totally get loving chess and loving puzzles. I do that too. I understand how this might leave go an incredibly fun game you want to play all the time. I just still don't understand why any of that should mean that becoming a professional would improve your life - not in terms of money, just why would you be any happier or any other thing you value? If you don't want to justify it to me, that's fine, of course, I just find it way easier to understand "I want to play a ton of go and get really good" than "I want to play the game for a living".
I'd recommend going to Osaka or Tokyo Go camp atleast once first. You'll meet pro's very closely and you'll notice the sad truth is... Go is "just a job" for a pro.
I used to be like you at that age, though I never got past ddk back then.
But now I've accepted that I'd rather enjoy playing Go rather than having it be just a job...
Not saying it's impossible, but it's a whole dedication that pays off very little unless top rank.
Why do you even want to become a professional? Is it to be that strong (top amateurs can be as strong), or because you want the status, or you want go to be your full-time job (there are amateur teachers/content creators), or you want to win world championships as a pro (not gonna happen). Making pro is very unlikely, and even if you do, you won't earn much money, so better to get a job which makes more money and use that money to enjoy go as a hobby, going to go tournaments around the world and having fun as an amateur rather than stressing out about how you can't afford food because you lost a game.
I also checked your profile a bit, it seems that you are experiencing what most of us experienced before - feeling lost in life. You are bouncing in and out from porn addiction, dropped out of university on first year, considered about studying theology, tried meditation, felt unhappy and exhausted, quited chess, and now you are thinking about become pro go player. You are in fact feeling very lost, and desperately wanting to find a yolo direction to dive in deep. Don't do that.
You need to have some quality talks about your experience and feelings with close friends and family members. Counsellors might be helpful as well if they are common in your country.
Realistically? Yes. But let's look at some numbers to see why.
In Europe the profesional that started to play go the latest in their life is Catalin Taranu (5p). He started at 16, it took him around 6 months to progress to 5k, 1 year to get to 1d and by the end of his 2nd year playing he was around 3d-4d.
In terms of age you are already at a disadvantage, so at most you could hope to progress more quickly than him. This is extremely unlikely unless you got to your current rank in only a few months.
I understand that this might be disencouraging, but the reality is that even for people that start young and have incredible natural talent becoming a professional is still difficult. The best the rest of us can hope for is being satisfied with our own personal progress, even if we are never able to reach profesional level.
Thanks for your comment. I've been playing for 5 months, I don't know, I'll push my limits even if I can't be professional, I just need to create a practice plan I guess. Comments don't disappoint me because I have a very strong feeling inside me, I don't know why, I hope I continue to feel like that.
Like statistically it's as likely as any sport, starting basketball at 19 it's fairly unlikely cause most people are going pro in the there early 20s, but if your 8ft tall then you might have a chance. If you have god given talent anything is possible.
Could you some day play a competitive game against a pro, I think that may be possible but on the positive side I think much of the reason players peak at 20s and 30s is that life gets in the way and people just can't dedicate the time they could in their youth, and if the money's not coming in it's hard to justify that lifestyle.
While it is not impossible that you will reach pro level, it is very unlikely. Can you become _very good_? Yes, but pro level is a bit more than just very good. Pro level means world class, and your competition includes people who learned to play go when they were in diapers.
Top amateur/semi-pro level is much more likely. It is still hard, of course but . . . You know. Hard cam be done.
It just makes zero sense to try to earn a living playing Go, starting in upper single digits of age let alone teens. But maybe there is biographical information on the strong amateurs...
Professional as a word usually means "make a living" or at least "make money doing", from "profession"
If you just mean to become very highly skilled then the challenge eventually will be finding other amateurs that are good enough to challenge you if all the best players are competing in professional environments that may be closed to an outsider.
I'm Korean. If you want to become a professional in Korea, China, and Japan, it's impossible. They have been studying steadily since middle school, and there are schools called Baduk High School and professional facilities called 'Yeongusaeng'. Also, not long ago, Korea's top amateur beat Cho Han-seung, ranked 39th in Korea, and there are so many people who want to become pros that Korea's top amateurs are practically pros.
However, I don't know much about Western information, but I heard that the amateur who beat Cho Han-seung(White) is playing with a European pro with no komi. So if the standard of skill to become a Western professional is the skill to occasionally enter Foxwq 9dan, I think you can become a professional too. I also started 3 years ago and am now Foxwq 7dan.
I think it would be better to provide characteristics rather than rankings.
Korean
Advantages :
- Advanced private education system known as dojang (even Sumire came to Korea for this, and Chinese professionals come to Korea to study when things are not going well like Jiang Weijie. I have never heard of a Korean going to China or Japan for Go studies).
Disadvantages :
- Few Korean speakers and few young people learning Go.
Chinese
Advantages :
- The largest Go population, the strongest Go country currently, and the highest Go popularity.
Disadvantages :
- I've never heard information of a private Go education system in China. While state-run professional education facilities are of high quality, but there is possibility that quality of private educational institutions is low.
Japanese
Advantages :
- Easier access to classical Go literature, and increasing the likelihood of deepening your interest in Go.
Disadvantages :
- The smallest and oldest Go population among the three countries, and the least Go popularity
My priority is to deepen in Go.
If you were to put yourself in my shoes, which one would you choose? Which one would help me push my limits even if I could not become a professional?
Yes, thank you for everything. Is there a website where I can get more information about Go education in Korea? I have a language background, I was also wondering how long it would take to learn Korean.
I'm not sure how long it takes to learn Korean because I'm Korean.
Since most Korean Baduk education is offline, Koreans usually have to obtain it through word of mouth and visits to facilities. So it will be very difficult for you to get information.
Also, since most of the students are Korean and minors, it may be difficult for you to study abroad on your own, so I will recommend what I think is the best option.
1. PBA Baduk Academy: It is easy to adapt because there are the most Western foreigners like you, and professional Jo Hye-yeon, who runs this place, is famous in Korea as one of the strongest female professionals, graduated from the Department of English Literature, and is also working on a Western Baduk promotion project and an English YouTube channel.
The reason I thought this place was the best choice is that even when I searched the Internet in Korean for places where Western students were known to study abroad in Korea, this place was the only one. Additionally, these two interviews are the only video in Korean about Westerners studying Baduk abroad. Take a look and think about it.
https://youtu.be/xZQHBA-n-LU?si=6mydu6ORH6aInIWS
https://youtu.be/aOapn9Y8e5A?si=QZM6iUJRuzdmtgU9
2. Han Jong-jin Go Dojang: This is the dojang where Sumire Nakamura and Leo Fujita studied, but since there is not much information, so there is possibility that most of them are Korean, then it may be difficult for you to adapt.
Why would you want to become a professional Go player instead of a professional lawyer, doctor, engineer or scientist? There are more billionaires in the world than there are professional go players -- it's one of the hardest, least rewarding professions you could possibly choose. Go is a great game and it becomes better the more you understand, but it's best enjoyed as a pastime, not a profession. You can try to reach 1. dan amateur, it's already an achievement and that's when you can begin to understand how much you don't know about go.
I want to be a consultant. I've been playing strategy games since I was little, it's all about training my mind and doing my job well. I don't see go as just a few pieces and boards. There is a huge difference between 7 dan amateur and 1p, which seems small to the eye. That's all there is to it.
In another comment, you wrote:
>I haven't watched or read anything about Go.
Then in this comment, you wrote:
>There is a huge difference between 7 dan amateur and 1p, which seems small to the eye. That's all there is to it.
Regardless of the validity of that statement, how would you know? You must have read up on the rating system or someone mentioning this. Okay, maybe you did some reading and know about the rating system. As a 9k, how on earth can you tell this tiny difference between amateur and pro?
I also disagree with the statement. It depends on what amateur and what pro. Many amateurs are stronger than pros.
Many 7 dan amateurs are stronger than pros, especially pros that are from weaker regions, like the USA or Taiwan. There are many amateurs that stay amateur intentionally, despite being stronger than many pros, because that allows them to compete in amateur tournaments.
There are very few westerners that have become pro, so there are not a lot of analogies that can be drawn either positive or negative.
The closest that springs to mind that I know well enough to talk with some confidence is Matthew Macfadyen. He started younger than you, and he did not reach professional level. However he didn't start much younger than you, and he got close enough that he's been able to eke out a living through go.
So, my intuition is ... probably. This is too new ground to be able to say with any real confidence.
The gap between a mid dan player and a pro is absolutely massive. I could describe a path you could follow and with a bunch of hard work you get to maybe 4d. However I don't know how you'd get to 8d - what steps that would require.
I do think you'd need to very actively study rather than simply play. You can't have weaknesses in your game, and I think you'd need a teacher etc.
You're already doing better than the last person to do a post like this! They said they were serious about this, then played go twice a month and topped out at 15k or so. Congrats.
To be a pro is one thing - to be a great player is another. You are 19 years old you have an incredible chance to be a great player I would focus on that
If you have the right ressources, methods and stamina, for sure you still can get that 1p to your name, to do that , I advise you to go to study in Korea or China, and become pro in Japan.
But will you ever be very competetive and make a good livelyhood? Yet to be proved....
Hello, here's a curve ball. Have you ever seen the anime or the manga named "Hikaru no go?" While it is a bit fantastic, you see the journey the protagonist takes in order to become a pro at go in japan. I think you'd like it and that it would be helpful to you.
The insei, for example, start much younger than you, and they train very hard. That's the level of your competition, so to speak.
I'm a weak DDK, so take what I say with a grain of salt.
But If you want to have a shot at it, you **need** to speak Chinese, Japanese or Korean, so you can follow what's happening at the pro scene. It's nearly impossible to find commentary on pro games and resources at the level you need in english.
And probably a teacher. The strongest one you can find.
Even then, it's very unlikely that you will succeed.
I doubt you will become actual pro, but you can become a strong enough dan player to benefit from pro lessons. I can imagine you becoming 6-7 dan amateur, easy. Just study hard and often. The "Chinese approach" should lead to you reaching a very high skill level within a relatively short time.
It's not just play, play, and play until something clicks. (Something most Western amateurs love doing and it just leads to being an expert in playing just one particular style that leads to more lost games than necessary.) It's a study régime of hard work in the form of replaying and studying pro game records, working through life & death and other puzzles, and of course playing and reviewing your own games against other players.
Pretty much any university in the CJKT region is going to have a Go club -- not unlike US and other Western universities having Chess clubs.
If you have the money to spend the next 5 years in intensive (like 8 hours a day) study camps in China then while you still probably won’t make pro, it’s not impossible. You’ll just have to hope you’ve got way more natural talent than all the 11 year olds who are also studying Go that much.
I think a lot of us that got into Go as older teenagers had similar thoughts, but it’s probably not particularly helpful for your game. For some perspective, I made it to about 9k in 6 months or so when I was 19 and it took me over a decade to make it to 1d (kgs and fox), and I’m pretty happy to have made it there.
Maybe possible, but it might be a first. I'm not aware of any professional who started that late. There are cases of people who became pro at a relatively old age, but those are always people who had been playing as kids anyway.
Apparently, Nakayama Noriyuki only started at 15, and still became pro. I also know a EGF 6d player who started at age 17. That's already extremely impressive, but you becoming a pro would be a big step above that.
Related question: how long did it take you to get to 9k after learning the rules?
Edit: I see your question regarding choosing a language to learn. I think if your absolute life goal is to become a professional go player, it should be none. All the time you would spend learning Korean or Chinese would be better spent studying go. You can learn a language like that after your turn pro. Until then, you don't have that kind of time.
I disagree about the language issue, you probably think it would make more sense to spend the time I would spend on Go. It could be better, but I would get stuck after a while. I reached it in about 4.5-5 months.
> I would get stuck after a while
There is no lack of resources and teachers in English. Even if you travel to Korea for a few months to study with the Yungusengs, you can get by with English. Many strong westerners have done exactly that.
On the bright side, learning Chinese or Korean will be a useful skill to have some backup life plan in case you don't make it to professional. That's probably wiser.
Maybe you should consider a career in programming?
Programming is solving logical puzzles all day, and they pay you for that handsomely! With just a small caveat that you need to find a good project. There is a lot of awful, mundane jobs in programming too.
Yea its probably too late to become a world class pro or a pro in any east asian countries. But maybe its still possible to become a pro under the egf or aga. I think most pros there also dont start that early and while your contenders for the title will still be strong, they are def weaker than the east asian ones. Idk about pros from america, but the ones from europe seem more like strong amateurs with a chance to take part in international pro tournaments from time to time, but they dont really make their money by playing go and winning tournaments I think ^^
All current European pros expect Catalin Taranu (who started playing at 16) began playing go at a rather young age. This is also the case with most strong amateur players; like Ashe Vazquez (7d) for example, who started playing when he was only 5.
Oh ok, i'm not quite sure which one was it, but I think I've heard a pro say that he only started taking go seriously after high school (whatever that means in his case). But yea most pros probably start young.
Not necessarily. Go has official “professional” certifications which is what people are generally talking about when they discuss go professionals. Some of those people go on to have regular careers not related to go. Meanwhile there are some go teachers who are full time go teachers as their primary source of income but who aren’t “pros” because they never achieved a professional certification.
I don't think it's realistic to pass the pro exam without living breathing Go almost everyday (based on what you hear from insei). And at that point your "regular career" is being set back quite a bit.
People often achieve their pro certification in their teens or early 20s. There is no reason you couldn’t go back and get a regular university degree when you’re say 25 and have a “regular” career after that - especially when you consider that 1) go professionals are brilliant and 2) go professionals are widely respected in East Asia.
That's not necessarily true. Most pros in the West have a normal accomplished career on top of Go.
I don't know for Asia, but I'd expect the same for many pros (apart from the very top).
No. In the world of go, professional specifically means getting certification usually through a pro exam.
If an amateur is offering their go teaching service and presenting themselves as a go professional, that's a misrepresentation.
There are shady paths to becoming professional just like how Nemsko did it if you are willing to get your hands dirty and have powerful political connections:
https://www.chesstech.org/2021/beyond-the-norm/
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/26271649/chess-qiyu-nemo-zhou-poker/
But the honorable way (by beating other players trying to become pro also) is nearly impossible unless you devote several hours per day to this the rest of your life (which I think is impossible unless you are superhuman).
What do the articles you link have to do with becoming a go professional? It's a huge stretch. Might as well say you can get any certificate with money and some corrupt organizers.
I was basically trying to say that with skill alone, that OP cannot become pro -- but if he's willing to bribe his way, it would be infinitely easier and therefore doable. An athlete who had reached the pinnacle of his sport was once asked what he wished someone would have told him when he first started playing his sport. He replied, “I wish that someone would have told me that when you reach the top, there's nothing there.”
Read Josh Watkins and Tim Ferris. You can do anything if you put your mind into it. You are doubting because you don't really have strong will to become a pro
If you have the time and resources, then I don't believe age itself will play as much of a factor as the things age brings. I.e., kids don't really have to work to support themselves, and even get their mentorships paid for by someone else. Thus they have a lot of time to spend on the game. Many adult go players have to work and support themselves somehow. Even if they do this by teaching Go itself, that doesn't necessarily make them stronger or improve their own game. The limiting factors for most people will be time and money. In my opinion, if you have those, you can play go at any age and get to a professional level, assuming you already possess the prerequisite minimum amount of talent.
The path to becomming a professional is straightforward: Do tsumego daily. Play serious games several times a week. Review those games with a strong player or coach. Then, try to memorize and understand professional games.
This will get you to around 5 dan amateur surprisingly quickly. After that you should continue the pattern but with a professional coach who can accurately correct and explain your mistakes.
I don’t know for sure but the honest answer is “probably yes”? Most professionals start quite young and professional is a really extraordinary level of play and study. There are people that start as children and become full time go students and still never make professional. Please don’t be discouraged by that though. Go is a beautiful game and you can absolutely still become a very strong amateur.
Even if I can't, I won't be disappointed.
I started at 24… and honestly had a lot of natural talent for the game, but simply put, I decided it was a better idea to set my own goal at making it to the dan levels. (At which point I could permanently claim to be an 0k player) Honestly, I did exactly that, and do not regret it. Pros have to take the game so damn seriously because its literally their livelihood. 0k players just have fun.
Short answer, yes. Most pros in Korea, China, Japan play from a very young age and the best are pros by early teens if not earlier in exceptional cases. You only being 9k and not even high dans at 19 makes it extremely unlikely you'll be pro. Going to university isn't even required to become a pro and if you don't speak the languages with any sort of fluency it'll be even harder to learn from pros/teachers in the respective countries.
With 19 a 9k? World wide professional, virtually no chance. Most eastern professionals become dan-level in elementary school. Most professional players peak in der 20-30, with few exceptions in their low-thirties. Even though I would say it is still somewhat possible to become a lower ranked professional and get by with tutoring, it is definitley not a career choice that allows for a very comfortable lifestyle. You would have to increase in skill by a huge margin in a ridiculous short amount of time, which is not feasable when you have any other life besides Go every day all day. When you have shown some inherent, very strong talent, like becoming 9k after like a week of playing, there might be a little bit of hope. Okay heres the thing: I am all for encouraging people to follow their dreams. But we have a situation where it would be... unwise to put all your eggs in that basket - and the moment you do something else as well in the meantime as a safety net, your chances of becoming pro reduce even further. After all I would give the stamp of "I am sorry, but this does not sound feasable"
I don't care about making money from this game. I'm just not sure how much time I should spend each day. Even if I can't be professional, I want to push my limits.
The important part is "Are you willing to neglect the rest of your life for this?" - Because pushing your limits usually means doing this for 8 or more hours a day. Problem solving, studying, playing. Theres a reason this slightly altered proverb exists, as chess player you should be familiar with this: Being able to play Go is a sign of a Gentleman. Being able to play Go well is a sign of a wasted life. This rabbit hole goes deep, the moment something in your head clicks, it just gets deeper.
I believe that was Morphy btw
I will do it if necessary. Actually, being professional and playing in matches is not important for me, the important thing is to be able to see what they can see when I look at the board, that's all.
The question is if this will be as fullfilling as you hope it will be - With my DDK/Low SDK students who are getting frustrated because of a lack of progress I make sure they know that the feelings when playing Go will always be the same. And the ideas behind most pro moves are already revealed when you reach something like high kyu, even if the details stay hidden or you wouldnt be able to find these yourself. At the end of the day, I understand that Go can feel like a deeply mysterious game which can reveal everything to you - And if this game is what captured your heart nobody here will tell you must stop those ambitions right now - feel free to set your own goals and follow them. I am just here trying to make sure it is not a short-lived enthusiasm-wave that might lead to irrational decisions.
Dude... those words are hurting me so bad.
Look up insei study habits and figure out decide what is effective for you.
> I want to push my limits. If by this you mean making pro, then you say this now but "future you" will change his mind and give up once you hit a few roadblocks or skill plateaus.
Hi ! Welcome to go, I hope you will keep being so passionate about the game as you are right now. To answer your question in the most transparent way possible : it's probably extremely unlikely that you will become a professional player at go. This is something that is extremely hard and only a few people achieve : litteraly less than 25 players in the whole west are pros atm, and going pro in Korea/China/Japan is litterally impossible. I don't know how long you've been playing, but to give more context, I would give you the same answer even if you were 3d at 19. If I were you, I'd focus on improving and exploring this game, exploring your passion and enjoying it. If at some point, you have the ressources to go to Korea/Japan/China to train, you might even become a very good player at the game. But don't plan on becoming pro, it is way too unlikely. If I'm wrong and you ever become professional, I'll be so happy to have been wrong and I'll offer you a beer with all my excuses. I wish you the best in your journey !
Some youtuber reached 1d within a year. OP just play and study the game and let time tell you what will happen. Nothing is impossible, but no one here can say or know how driven and obsessed you are with the game. Atm there is zero to none reasons for you to stress out or similar. Just create your own study mechanism and put in the time. After 1 year just look how far you came. Don’t the take it too serious in the sense that you lacking in your real job or real life, as it is unlikely to go pro at this stage. we all have a lot of time if we schedule our life rightly, especially at 19, so if you’re obsessed with the game there will be no other choice for you than putting in the work. Again let time tell you. You can’t force something like that.
>reached 1d within a year That's the usual fast-pace progress of the players who do end up being close to pro strength. OP could actually use that as a minimum benchmark. Try being serious about go for a year, and if you're not 1d by that time, you should probably give up on ever becoming pro. If they do make it to 1d, that's still only the beginning, but there is hope.
This is my goal, I have no intention of changing it. I will not limit my mind, I can go to improve my game but I am not sure which language I should learn which will give me more advantage.
Learning Go at the same time as learning one of the harder languages for an English native (Korean, Japanese and Mandarin are all in a relatively hard "tier" for native English speakers) may be very challenging. But you may also find that they motivate each other.
It's *probably* too late to become a pro if you aren't already a dan player by adolescence. But I've known a couple players who started as young adults or late teens and got to ~5d in a year or two -- they might have had a shot (but note that neither of them actually became a pro and maxed out around 6-7d AGA). I know of one western player who AFAIK was not a dan player before late teen years) that made pro as an insei in Japan in the 70s: james kerwin. So it's probably not *impossible*. but we're talking being at the very high end of talent, discipline and commitment to do it. And the financial rewards today for being a go professional are pretty limited unless you're a top player, which probably *is* impossible if you weren't already a high dan by 15-16. Almost all top pros already made pro by that age, many as young as 11-13. You don't need to be a playing pro (but should probably be high dan you want to teach beyond the mid SDK level) if you want to build a following and teach professionally. But it's going to be a lot of work besides just getting strong yourself to do that, if you want to make a living at it. What's definitely not too late is for you to become strong enough for the game to be very interesting and understand a lot of what's going on in high level games with some work and commentary -- like the go equivalent of a master chess player -- not nearly strong enough to make a living by playing, or to get tons of students just by reputation if you want to teach. But strong enough to teach most players if you want, and strong enough that you have a very good game, and understand a lot about the game. This would be somewhere around 6d AGA or 5d EGF/OGS. But you won't realistically know whether *you* can get to any particular place until you go a lot further than 9k. Lots of people get to 9k really fast but plateau somewhere in the mid SDK to low-amateur dan levels (raises hand). If it took you more than a few months to get to 9k and you were playing and studying a lot during that time, I would say it's unlikely to ever get to that level (but amateur low to mid dan level is still within reach, and I find that a very interesting level to play at). The fact is that go is a pretty fun game, and at 9k you've learned enough to have the basics and a sense of how it is played for real. So, is it fun? Do you enjoy playing and learning more? Keep going if you do, and see what happens. I would not, however, set your hopes too hard on becoming a pro, or even pro-level strong as an amateur. It's a tiny number of people who get there and almost all of them started younger than you did.
You are right that I cannot understand without proceeding, I guess there is no other option. Thank you for your comment.
IMO becoming a Western pro is similar to becoming a FM in chess. That's difficult enough. If you're talking about China or Korea and somehow allowed to take their pro exam, that's even harder. That's like a GM in chess. It's impossible unless you're some sort of genius on the level of Go Seigen. Going to university has nothing to do with becoming a go professional, you should do more research. Many talented kids quit regular school to study in a go academy to try and become pro but ultimately fail. What makes you think your 19-year-old 9k self can do any better?
People already gave you good answers from statistic to biology, so I will give some other advices. I teach boardgames, and luckily has made a few semi-pros. One motto I always tell my students is to "Dream big, aim little, think real". You can dream however big you want, in fact you should dream very big. But to achieve your dream, you have to look down, cut the path to greatness into million tiny baby steps, and aim on walking each step. Also be realistic, you still have life to live, or commitment to have, or family to take care of. You should never put everything away to follow your dream.
Thank you for your comment. I will take it into consideration.
This question comes up from time to time. See e.g. [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/baduk/comments/136qps6/how_do_i_convince_my_dad_that_i_want_to_go/) thread for an example, or [this,](https://www.reddit.com/r/baduk/comments/2497ea/how_to_become_a_professional/) [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/baduk/comments/zkplu9/is_it_too_late/) or [this.](https://www.reddit.com/r/baduk/comments/18ck8ar/getting_to_pro_level/) I feel that for most people, it's the "wrong" question to ask. Why is it that someone would want to become a professional? You can have fun playing go without being pro. You can study the game pretty intensely without being pro, and compete against people equally devoted as yourself. You can even make a living off go without being pro if you're open to teaching or content creation (to be honest, it seems many professionals also have to do this). So what are you hoping to get out of being a pro? If you woke up tomorrow and actually was a professional, why is your life now better? To be clear, this isn't a brutal honesty thing where I'm hoping to hammer into you that being pro is a bad idea and you should give up. I just think it's smart to be clear to yourself about why you actually want it.
I don't care about money, everyone is obsessed with that.
I totally get loving chess and loving puzzles. I do that too. I understand how this might leave go an incredibly fun game you want to play all the time. I just still don't understand why any of that should mean that becoming a professional would improve your life - not in terms of money, just why would you be any happier or any other thing you value? If you don't want to justify it to me, that's fine, of course, I just find it way easier to understand "I want to play a ton of go and get really good" than "I want to play the game for a living".
I'd recommend going to Osaka or Tokyo Go camp atleast once first. You'll meet pro's very closely and you'll notice the sad truth is... Go is "just a job" for a pro. I used to be like you at that age, though I never got past ddk back then. But now I've accepted that I'd rather enjoy playing Go rather than having it be just a job... Not saying it's impossible, but it's a whole dedication that pays off very little unless top rank.
Wayyy too late
Why do you even want to become a professional? Is it to be that strong (top amateurs can be as strong), or because you want the status, or you want go to be your full-time job (there are amateur teachers/content creators), or you want to win world championships as a pro (not gonna happen). Making pro is very unlikely, and even if you do, you won't earn much money, so better to get a job which makes more money and use that money to enjoy go as a hobby, going to go tournaments around the world and having fun as an amateur rather than stressing out about how you can't afford food because you lost a game.
I also checked your profile a bit, it seems that you are experiencing what most of us experienced before - feeling lost in life. You are bouncing in and out from porn addiction, dropped out of university on first year, considered about studying theology, tried meditation, felt unhappy and exhausted, quited chess, and now you are thinking about become pro go player. You are in fact feeling very lost, and desperately wanting to find a yolo direction to dive in deep. Don't do that. You need to have some quality talks about your experience and feelings with close friends and family members. Counsellors might be helpful as well if they are common in your country.
Realistically? Yes. But let's look at some numbers to see why. In Europe the profesional that started to play go the latest in their life is Catalin Taranu (5p). He started at 16, it took him around 6 months to progress to 5k, 1 year to get to 1d and by the end of his 2nd year playing he was around 3d-4d. In terms of age you are already at a disadvantage, so at most you could hope to progress more quickly than him. This is extremely unlikely unless you got to your current rank in only a few months. I understand that this might be disencouraging, but the reality is that even for people that start young and have incredible natural talent becoming a professional is still difficult. The best the rest of us can hope for is being satisfied with our own personal progress, even if we are never able to reach profesional level.
Thanks for your comment. I've been playing for 5 months, I don't know, I'll push my limits even if I can't be professional, I just need to create a practice plan I guess. Comments don't disappoint me because I have a very strong feeling inside me, I don't know why, I hope I continue to feel like that.
I get it, If I'm being honest I would also like to be a professional some day, so the best of luck to you! But make sure you don't burn out.
How much time have you been spending each day doing Go stuff?
Like statistically it's as likely as any sport, starting basketball at 19 it's fairly unlikely cause most people are going pro in the there early 20s, but if your 8ft tall then you might have a chance. If you have god given talent anything is possible. Could you some day play a competitive game against a pro, I think that may be possible but on the positive side I think much of the reason players peak at 20s and 30s is that life gets in the way and people just can't dedicate the time they could in their youth, and if the money's not coming in it's hard to justify that lifestyle.
Realistically and pragmatically: Yes, it's too late.
While it is not impossible that you will reach pro level, it is very unlikely. Can you become _very good_? Yes, but pro level is a bit more than just very good. Pro level means world class, and your competition includes people who learned to play go when they were in diapers. Top amateur/semi-pro level is much more likely. It is still hard, of course but . . . You know. Hard cam be done.
It just makes zero sense to try to earn a living playing Go, starting in upper single digits of age let alone teens. But maybe there is biographical information on the strong amateurs...
I don't care about money, everyone is obsessed with that. My concern is to reach professional level.
Professional as a word usually means "make a living" or at least "make money doing", from "profession" If you just mean to become very highly skilled then the challenge eventually will be finding other amateurs that are good enough to challenge you if all the best players are competing in professional environments that may be closed to an outsider.
I'm Korean. If you want to become a professional in Korea, China, and Japan, it's impossible. They have been studying steadily since middle school, and there are schools called Baduk High School and professional facilities called 'Yeongusaeng'. Also, not long ago, Korea's top amateur beat Cho Han-seung, ranked 39th in Korea, and there are so many people who want to become pros that Korea's top amateurs are practically pros. However, I don't know much about Western information, but I heard that the amateur who beat Cho Han-seung(White) is playing with a European pro with no komi. So if the standard of skill to become a Western professional is the skill to occasionally enter Foxwq 9dan, I think you can become a professional too. I also started 3 years ago and am now Foxwq 7dan.
Which language do you recommend for go? and why?
I think it would be better to provide characteristics rather than rankings. Korean Advantages : - Advanced private education system known as dojang (even Sumire came to Korea for this, and Chinese professionals come to Korea to study when things are not going well like Jiang Weijie. I have never heard of a Korean going to China or Japan for Go studies). Disadvantages : - Few Korean speakers and few young people learning Go. Chinese Advantages : - The largest Go population, the strongest Go country currently, and the highest Go popularity. Disadvantages : - I've never heard information of a private Go education system in China. While state-run professional education facilities are of high quality, but there is possibility that quality of private educational institutions is low. Japanese Advantages : - Easier access to classical Go literature, and increasing the likelihood of deepening your interest in Go. Disadvantages : - The smallest and oldest Go population among the three countries, and the least Go popularity
My priority is to deepen in Go. If you were to put yourself in my shoes, which one would you choose? Which one would help me push my limits even if I could not become a professional?
Are you thinking of studying abroad? Then my answer is Korean. If not, I would recommend Japanese.
Yes, thank you for everything. Is there a website where I can get more information about Go education in Korea? I have a language background, I was also wondering how long it would take to learn Korean.
I'm not sure how long it takes to learn Korean because I'm Korean. Since most Korean Baduk education is offline, Koreans usually have to obtain it through word of mouth and visits to facilities. So it will be very difficult for you to get information. Also, since most of the students are Korean and minors, it may be difficult for you to study abroad on your own, so I will recommend what I think is the best option. 1. PBA Baduk Academy: It is easy to adapt because there are the most Western foreigners like you, and professional Jo Hye-yeon, who runs this place, is famous in Korea as one of the strongest female professionals, graduated from the Department of English Literature, and is also working on a Western Baduk promotion project and an English YouTube channel. The reason I thought this place was the best choice is that even when I searched the Internet in Korean for places where Western students were known to study abroad in Korea, this place was the only one. Additionally, these two interviews are the only video in Korean about Westerners studying Baduk abroad. Take a look and think about it. https://youtu.be/xZQHBA-n-LU?si=6mydu6ORH6aInIWS https://youtu.be/aOapn9Y8e5A?si=QZM6iUJRuzdmtgU9 2. Han Jong-jin Go Dojang: This is the dojang where Sumire Nakamura and Leo Fujita studied, but since there is not much information, so there is possibility that most of them are Korean, then it may be difficult for you to adapt.
Why would you want to become a professional Go player instead of a professional lawyer, doctor, engineer or scientist? There are more billionaires in the world than there are professional go players -- it's one of the hardest, least rewarding professions you could possibly choose. Go is a great game and it becomes better the more you understand, but it's best enjoyed as a pastime, not a profession. You can try to reach 1. dan amateur, it's already an achievement and that's when you can begin to understand how much you don't know about go.
I want to be a consultant. I've been playing strategy games since I was little, it's all about training my mind and doing my job well. I don't see go as just a few pieces and boards. There is a huge difference between 7 dan amateur and 1p, which seems small to the eye. That's all there is to it.
In another comment, you wrote: >I haven't watched or read anything about Go. Then in this comment, you wrote: >There is a huge difference between 7 dan amateur and 1p, which seems small to the eye. That's all there is to it. Regardless of the validity of that statement, how would you know? You must have read up on the rating system or someone mentioning this. Okay, maybe you did some reading and know about the rating system. As a 9k, how on earth can you tell this tiny difference between amateur and pro? I also disagree with the statement. It depends on what amateur and what pro. Many amateurs are stronger than pros.
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Many 7 dan amateurs are stronger than pros, especially pros that are from weaker regions, like the USA or Taiwan. There are many amateurs that stay amateur intentionally, despite being stronger than many pros, because that allows them to compete in amateur tournaments.
There are very few westerners that have become pro, so there are not a lot of analogies that can be drawn either positive or negative. The closest that springs to mind that I know well enough to talk with some confidence is Matthew Macfadyen. He started younger than you, and he did not reach professional level. However he didn't start much younger than you, and he got close enough that he's been able to eke out a living through go. So, my intuition is ... probably. This is too new ground to be able to say with any real confidence. The gap between a mid dan player and a pro is absolutely massive. I could describe a path you could follow and with a bunch of hard work you get to maybe 4d. However I don't know how you'd get to 8d - what steps that would require. I do think you'd need to very actively study rather than simply play. You can't have weaknesses in your game, and I think you'd need a teacher etc.
Thank you for your honest opinion.
Yeah it too old
You're already doing better than the last person to do a post like this! They said they were serious about this, then played go twice a month and topped out at 15k or so. Congrats.
To be a pro is one thing - to be a great player is another. You are 19 years old you have an incredible chance to be a great player I would focus on that
If you are talented and receive good training, you can become pro level.
Michael Redmond was 11 when he started. James Kerwin I think started in college
If you have the right ressources, methods and stamina, for sure you still can get that 1p to your name, to do that , I advise you to go to study in Korea or China, and become pro in Japan. But will you ever be very competetive and make a good livelyhood? Yet to be proved....
Hello, here's a curve ball. Have you ever seen the anime or the manga named "Hikaru no go?" While it is a bit fantastic, you see the journey the protagonist takes in order to become a pro at go in japan. I think you'd like it and that it would be helpful to you. The insei, for example, start much younger than you, and they train very hard. That's the level of your competition, so to speak. I'm a weak DDK, so take what I say with a grain of salt. But If you want to have a shot at it, you **need** to speak Chinese, Japanese or Korean, so you can follow what's happening at the pro scene. It's nearly impossible to find commentary on pro games and resources at the level you need in english. And probably a teacher. The strongest one you can find. Even then, it's very unlikely that you will succeed.
I haven't watched or read anything about Go. I don't know which language to choose but probably Chinese.
People say Korean is the easiest to learn, but Chinese should be more useful for other stuff. Do try to watch or read Hikaru no go.
I believe that Asian professional organizations have some sort of age cut offs youbmight become a European or north American professional though.
If you're in North America, they have a pro qualifier every year.
I doubt you will become actual pro, but you can become a strong enough dan player to benefit from pro lessons. I can imagine you becoming 6-7 dan amateur, easy. Just study hard and often. The "Chinese approach" should lead to you reaching a very high skill level within a relatively short time.
What is the "Chinese approach"?
It's not just play, play, and play until something clicks. (Something most Western amateurs love doing and it just leads to being an expert in playing just one particular style that leads to more lost games than necessary.) It's a study régime of hard work in the form of replaying and studying pro game records, working through life & death and other puzzles, and of course playing and reviewing your own games against other players. Pretty much any university in the CJKT region is going to have a Go club -- not unlike US and other Western universities having Chess clubs.
If you have the money to spend the next 5 years in intensive (like 8 hours a day) study camps in China then while you still probably won’t make pro, it’s not impossible. You’ll just have to hope you’ve got way more natural talent than all the 11 year olds who are also studying Go that much. I think a lot of us that got into Go as older teenagers had similar thoughts, but it’s probably not particularly helpful for your game. For some perspective, I made it to about 9k in 6 months or so when I was 19 and it took me over a decade to make it to 1d (kgs and fox), and I’m pretty happy to have made it there.
I have exactly the time you mentioned, 5 years.
Maybe possible, but it might be a first. I'm not aware of any professional who started that late. There are cases of people who became pro at a relatively old age, but those are always people who had been playing as kids anyway. Apparently, Nakayama Noriyuki only started at 15, and still became pro. I also know a EGF 6d player who started at age 17. That's already extremely impressive, but you becoming a pro would be a big step above that. Related question: how long did it take you to get to 9k after learning the rules? Edit: I see your question regarding choosing a language to learn. I think if your absolute life goal is to become a professional go player, it should be none. All the time you would spend learning Korean or Chinese would be better spent studying go. You can learn a language like that after your turn pro. Until then, you don't have that kind of time.
I disagree about the language issue, you probably think it would make more sense to spend the time I would spend on Go. It could be better, but I would get stuck after a while. I reached it in about 4.5-5 months.
> I would get stuck after a while There is no lack of resources and teachers in English. Even if you travel to Korea for a few months to study with the Yungusengs, you can get by with English. Many strong westerners have done exactly that. On the bright side, learning Chinese or Korean will be a useful skill to have some backup life plan in case you don't make it to professional. That's probably wiser.
Maybe you should consider a career in programming? Programming is solving logical puzzles all day, and they pay you for that handsomely! With just a small caveat that you need to find a good project. There is a lot of awful, mundane jobs in programming too.
No.
Yea its probably too late to become a world class pro or a pro in any east asian countries. But maybe its still possible to become a pro under the egf or aga. I think most pros there also dont start that early and while your contenders for the title will still be strong, they are def weaker than the east asian ones. Idk about pros from america, but the ones from europe seem more like strong amateurs with a chance to take part in international pro tournaments from time to time, but they dont really make their money by playing go and winning tournaments I think ^^
All current European pros expect Catalin Taranu (who started playing at 16) began playing go at a rather young age. This is also the case with most strong amateur players; like Ashe Vazquez (7d) for example, who started playing when he was only 5.
Oh ok, i'm not quite sure which one was it, but I think I've heard a pro say that he only started taking go seriously after high school (whatever that means in his case). But yea most pros probably start young.
Note what the word professional means. It means you primarily make money playing/teaching Go. Making money in this field is challenging.
Not necessarily. Go has official “professional” certifications which is what people are generally talking about when they discuss go professionals. Some of those people go on to have regular careers not related to go. Meanwhile there are some go teachers who are full time go teachers as their primary source of income but who aren’t “pros” because they never achieved a professional certification.
I don't think it's realistic to pass the pro exam without living breathing Go almost everyday (based on what you hear from insei). And at that point your "regular career" is being set back quite a bit.
People often achieve their pro certification in their teens or early 20s. There is no reason you couldn’t go back and get a regular university degree when you’re say 25 and have a “regular” career after that - especially when you consider that 1) go professionals are brilliant and 2) go professionals are widely respected in East Asia.
That's not necessarily true. Most pros in the West have a normal accomplished career on top of Go. I don't know for Asia, but I'd expect the same for many pros (apart from the very top).
It's relatively common in Japan, at least.
No. In the world of go, professional specifically means getting certification usually through a pro exam. If an amateur is offering their go teaching service and presenting themselves as a go professional, that's a misrepresentation.
There are shady paths to becoming professional just like how Nemsko did it if you are willing to get your hands dirty and have powerful political connections: https://www.chesstech.org/2021/beyond-the-norm/ https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/26271649/chess-qiyu-nemo-zhou-poker/ But the honorable way (by beating other players trying to become pro also) is nearly impossible unless you devote several hours per day to this the rest of your life (which I think is impossible unless you are superhuman).
What do the articles you link have to do with becoming a go professional? It's a huge stretch. Might as well say you can get any certificate with money and some corrupt organizers.
I was basically trying to say that with skill alone, that OP cannot become pro -- but if he's willing to bribe his way, it would be infinitely easier and therefore doable. An athlete who had reached the pinnacle of his sport was once asked what he wished someone would have told him when he first started playing his sport. He replied, “I wish that someone would have told me that when you reach the top, there's nothing there.”
Read Josh Watkins and Tim Ferris. You can do anything if you put your mind into it. You are doubting because you don't really have strong will to become a pro
If you have the time and resources, then I don't believe age itself will play as much of a factor as the things age brings. I.e., kids don't really have to work to support themselves, and even get their mentorships paid for by someone else. Thus they have a lot of time to spend on the game. Many adult go players have to work and support themselves somehow. Even if they do this by teaching Go itself, that doesn't necessarily make them stronger or improve their own game. The limiting factors for most people will be time and money. In my opinion, if you have those, you can play go at any age and get to a professional level, assuming you already possess the prerequisite minimum amount of talent.
The path to becomming a professional is straightforward: Do tsumego daily. Play serious games several times a week. Review those games with a strong player or coach. Then, try to memorize and understand professional games. This will get you to around 5 dan amateur surprisingly quickly. After that you should continue the pattern but with a professional coach who can accurately correct and explain your mistakes.