Full Private Lessons

What the full program includes

First steps

Inside a typical lesson

How we use the Kyu Dan System

Your access to the Kyu Dan System is included in this program. We use it as your main study framework, not just a library to browse.

• I assign specific lessons and clips that match the problems we see in your games.
• We choose openings, tactics, and variations that fit your style and current level.
• You get clear tsumego targets. How many problems, which type, and how to approach them.
• The workload is adjusted to the amount of time you truly have, not the time you wish you had.

Over time this creates a simple loop. You play serious games, we review them, you study targeted topics, then you bring those ideas back into your next games.

Questions between lessons

If you get stuck, you do not need to wait until the next session.

You can contact me when you:

• meet a position in your own game that you cannot understand,
• feel lost inside a joseki or variation from a review,
• are unsure whether a sequence is acceptable or too risky,
• are not sure what to focus on in your next study block.

A screenshot, SGF, or game link with a short note is enough. The idea is to keep your momentum. You should not be stuck on the same question for weeks.

Getting the most out of this program

• Bring honest games. Games where you made real mistakes are more valuable than games where everything went smoothly.
• Practice one or two ideas at a time. When you play, pick a small number of points from the last lesson and really try them.
• Keep your routine light but consistent. Fifteen to thirty minutes of focused study most days beats long sessions that you only manage once in a while.
• Ask when something feels fuzzy. Unclear concepts are normal. Staying unclear for a long time is what slows you down.
• Think in seasons, not in days. The goal is to build a way of thinking on the board that keeps paying off months from now, not only to fix one or two positions.

Quick reference

Contact

• Discord: zee7921
• Email: zeejyan@gmail.com

Your basic weekly rhythm:

• Play several serious games.
• Send one or more games to review.
• Attend your weekly lesson.
• Follow your study plan and reach out if you need clarification.

Short questionnaire before we start

1. Time and commitment

1. How much time per week can you realistically give to Go at this stage of your life.
2. Apart from playing and lessons, how much additional time are you willing to spend on review, study, and tsumego.

2. Study habits

1. Do you currently solve tsumego. If yes, how often and roughly how many problems.
2. When you study Go right now, what do you usually do. For example, videos, books, reviews, or mostly just playing.

3. Joseki and understanding

1. How do you feel about memorising joseki branches.
   Would you rather:
   • learn and remember many variations, or
   • keep memorisation light and focus more on ideas and direction.

4. Territory, thickness, and comfort zones

1. On the board, do you feel more comfortable when you have:
   • solid, clear territory, or
   • more influence, thickness, and potential.
2. Does it bother you when your opponent builds a very large moyo or very thick groups.
3. Does it bother you when your opponent seems to have more visible territory, even if you have strong thickness or influence.

5. Fighting style

1. Do you generally prefer to attack or to defend.
2. When both options are reasonable, do you tend to start a fight or step back and keep the game stable.

6. Your sense of being ahead or behind

1. In what types of positions do you usually feel that you are ahead.
2. In what types of positions do you usually feel that you are behind.

How to play your games while you are improving

How you play your everyday games has a direct effect on how much you gain from each lesson and review. If you follow the guidelines below, every game you play will support your improvement instead of reinforcing old habits.

• Use proper time settings. Play with at least 1 minute or more byoyomi setting. If your goal is to improve, avoid blitz games unless you are drilling with the help of AI review. You need enough time to think, to see options, and to apply what you are learning.
• Be selective about where you play. For serious training, play on servers other than OGS. On OGS, many opponents will let you escape with early mistakes because they do not clearly see them either. On more punishing servers, bad habits are exposed faster, which is exactly what you want while you are trying to improve.
• Use the estimation function on purpose. Aim to use the estimation function at least 20 times in a game. Any time you want to start a fight, invade, reduce, or expand, pause and estimate first. In many Asian Go communities, this tool is treated as normal training. It links your feeling for the position with the actual balance on the board. At kyu level, you will not estimate perfectly and that is fine. Your priority now is to improve your moves and habits, not to count like a professional player.
• Slow down every move. Spend at least 10 seconds on each move, even if it looks as simple as connecting against atari. This builds a healthy rhythm and reduces instant, impulsive moves. Ten quiet seconds are often enough to notice if there is a better idea or a hidden weakness.
• Anchor your hand so you do not click impulsively. When you play, keep something in your dominant hand. A bracelet, a fan, a pen, a small fidget toy, anything you like. Decide on your move first, then move your hand to the mouse or screen. This simple habit removes many careless clicks from your games.
• Do not get upset while you are learning. If your real goal is to reach dan level or higher, then a single loss to a random kyu player is not important by itself. Very often that loss simply shows you another weakness that was hidden before. Instead of being angry, treat it as useful information. Each exposed weakness is one more step that lets you climb higher than where you are now.

Two ways to play Go for learning

Once you are serious about improvement, it helps to be intentional about your games. Almost every training game you play can fall into one of the two patterns below.

1. Deep, careful games

In this mode, you play as if every move matters. You slow down, consider several options, and accept the pain of real mistakes. That sting is important. The more clearly you feel where the game slipped away, the less likely you are to repeat the same mistake in the future.

You should have at least one game like this in your regular routine. Think of it as your serious match of the day, where you try to apply what you have been learning with full focus.

2. Fast drills against stronger AI

The second mode is very different. Here the goal is to drill patterns and sharpen your instinct through volume.

• Play 10 to 50 very fast games against an AI that is about two ranks above you.
• Aim for one game in about five minutes.
• Only play the first 100 moves or less, then stop and start a new game.
• After every game, review briefly with the AI to see where the position collapsed and what the better direction was.

In the short term, this type of training can feel chaotic. Your sense of danger will feel less clear because you are moving quickly and relying on your first feeling. That is normal. You are building a large amount of experience in a short time. This kind of drilling is a common part of professional style training.

If you keep this up every day for at least two weeks, you usually reach a point where you can feel that a move is wrong or that a group is in danger even before you read everything out. When you return to normal time settings, the first few games will feel strange and slow, but after you adjust, you will notice that your instinct and awareness have improved.

A simple pattern to follow

For most students, a balanced routine looks like this:

• Play one serious game each day with at least 1 minute byoyomi.
• Whenever you have extra time, add short fast games against AI, up to 100 moves, and review them briefly with AI after each one.

Your careful games train discipline and clarity. Your fast drills train instinct and pattern recognition. Used together, they make each lesson and each review much more effective.

A note about losing and improvement

When you start to change how you think and play, it is very common to see a losing streak. This does not mean you are getting worse. It usually means you are disrupting old habits that were comfortable but limited, and you have not yet fully stabilised the new way of playing.

The habits that carried you to your current rank are not the same habits that will carry you beyond it. If you insist on keeping the same patterns, you may stay on a plateau for a very long time. When you begin to replace those patterns, your games can feel messy, uncertain, and even frustrating. You may feel that you no longer know what you are doing. That feeling is often a sign that you have stepped outside your old comfort zone.

So do not be discouraged if you lose more than usual in the early stages of this program. Take it as evidence that you are trying new ideas, breaking automatic habits, and allowing your game to grow. Our work together is to guide that process so that, after this uncomfortable phase, your new habits are stronger, clearer, and more stable than what you had before.