Go Ranks: Kyu and Dan
Go measures playing strength with a ladder of ranks. Beginners start in the kyu grades, which count down as you improve; crossing the top of the kyu grades you reach the amateur dan grades; and a separate professional scale sits above that. Roughly, one rank of difference is worth one handicap stone.
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Kyu grades: beginner to intermediate
New players begin somewhere around 25–30 kyu and improve toward 1 kyu. The counter-intuitive part is that the number goes down as you get stronger: 10 kyu is stronger than 20 kyu, and 1 kyu is the strongest kyu grade. Reaching a lower kyu number is how beginners track real progress.
Amateur dan grades
Just above 1 kyu the scale flips and starts counting up: 1 dan (often written 1d) is one step stronger than 1 kyu, and amateur dan grades continue up to about 7 dan. These are strong club and tournament players. Here a higher number means a stronger player — the opposite of kyu.
Professional dan
Professionals use their own separate scale, written with a "p" — from 1p up to 9p. A professional 1 dan is far stronger than an amateur 1 dan; the two scales are not the same. Turning professional requires passing extremely competitive qualifying tournaments, mostly in China, Korea, and Japan.
One rank, one stone
The neat thing about the rank ladder is that it lines up with handicaps: two players who are three ranks apart can have a fair, close game if the weaker one takes a three-stone handicap. That is what lets Go players of very different strengths enjoy real games together.
Frequently asked questions
- Is 1 kyu or 1 dan stronger?
- 1 dan is stronger. Kyu grades count down toward 1 kyu; the next step up from 1 kyu is 1 dan, after which the numbers count upward.
- What does kyu mean in Go?
- Kyu is the beginner-to-intermediate portion of the rank ladder. Higher kyu numbers are weaker, so you improve by moving from, say, 15 kyu toward 1 kyu.
- Are amateur and professional dan the same?
- No. They are separate scales. A professional 1 dan is much stronger than an amateur 1 dan, and pro ranks (1p–9p) sit well above the amateur ranks.
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