Hello, Ms. Osawa, nice to meet you! I have seen you many times acting as the questioner in TV commentaries. You always ask the commentator the exact questions that we amateurs would like to have answered, so I am full of gratitude! Since you are so understanding, I have a question. Quite often when you want to apply to take part in a go festival or tournament, there' s a column for your go strength. I don' t know what my strength is. I often get the impression that my opening and tesujis and josekis are close to 1-dan level, but my life-and-death ability is near 10-kyu or mid-kyu. I have been enjoying playing go for a while, and recently it' s become more fun than ever, so I think I' d like to join a go class. I' m worried that if my declared strength is wrong, this might be unpleasant for the people who play me. I would be very happy if you could tell me of a method to measure my go strength and also tell me what level of strength is necessary to take part in go classes and tournaments. I' m sorry that my questions may be hard to answer. Please help me out. Please look after your health and keep enjoying your go career and your go-teaching activities. I look forward to hearing of your successes! Consultation Two : Mr. Ogasawara Hello, Mr. Ogasawara. Thank you for encouragement. Recently there seem to be more and more people who have played go only on PCs, so I think a lot of people will have your problem. Yours were the toughest questions I' ve had so far, so I thought for a long time; my answer has become a long one, so I hope readers will just skim it. As for how to measure your go strength, this is not possible unless you actually play. Please go to a go club and tell the manager that you don' t know what your strength is. No one knows at first what their strength is, so this is not impolite. If you then play a number of handicap games, adjusting the handicap each time, the manager may be able to tell you roughly what your strength is. Don' t worry if this is lower than what you had guessed. Go games end in a clear decision, so if you have the strength your rating will quickly go up. Next is the question about the level necessary for taking part in classes and tournaments. First of all, there are classes for beginners who have never touched a go stone before, so there' s no need at all to worry about your level. You are interested in joining a class. You may not have a clearly certified rating, but if you don' t like the idea of starting off by going to a go club, you could try going to a class for players aiming at 1-dan, since, apart from life-and-death problems, you are close to 1-dan. A player who knows the rules and knows how to count territory could play in a tournament. A rating tournament would also be good. There are tournaments and classes classified by level, so everyone can take part in the one appropriate for their level. By the way, ratings are a rough guide but are not necessarily reliable. There are differences among go clubs in different areas, and also in different countries. Japanese ratings seem to be a little slack. As a guide, a player who can play a professional on nine stones and win is 1-dan (though they may not actually play a professional). Playing on 3 stones would make you 6-dan. To repeat myself, at first no one knows what their strength is, so there' s no problem with admitting that you don' t know what your rank is. Please take part in various activities without worrying.