I know there are other tsumego databases out there, but my intent here is just a little different.

First of all, I'm not a big fan of the goproblems.com interface. I don't feel that the automated problem/solution method makes a lot of sense (in terms of practicing to get stronger).

Secondly, I think a system that categorizes problems needs to be made available.

I'm not sure about the legality of "stealing" problems from other places, especially when it seems to me that a good number of problems would be out of copyright (if any copyright does indeed exist). This collection will use a unique categorization and any copyright due to a "collection" status is nil. Problems in this database will not be taken from any English language references, however.

In terms of the categorization of problems, I'm proposing the following database:

Tsumego-DB
type		enumerated	Type of problem (Tesuji, Shape, Joseki, etc)
difficulty	float		Average rank of player with level 2.
sgf		string		sgf contents of problem
25k		integer(1)	Level 1, 2, or 3 problem at KGS:25k
20k		integer(1)	Level 1, 2, or 3 problem at KGS:20k
15k		integer(1)	Level 1, 2, or 3 problem at KGS:15k
12k		integer(1)	Level 1, 2, or 3 problem at KGS:12k
9k		integer(1)	Level 1, 2, or 3 problem at KGS: 9k
7k		integer(1)	Level 1, 2, or 3 problem at KGS: 7k
5k		integer(1)	Level 1, 2, or 3 problem at KGS: 5k
3k		integer(1)	Level 1, 2, or 3 problem at KGS: 3k
2k		integer(1)	Level 1, 2, or 3 problem at KGS: 2k
...

The Level categories are defined as:

Level 0	No Data
Level 1	Problem where you find the move in under 10 seconds.
Level 2	Problems that require some thinking, but are solvable within 1 min.
Level 3	Problems that are too hard to solve or take a very long time.

I'm not sure on the interface yet. I have a choice of using Javascript and PHP which might be a bit on the slow side, or I can attempt to create a stand-alone program that will read from and write to an online database.

One of the most important aspects of Go are the problems that help you get stronger. For some information on how to study Tsumego (and get stronger) I wrote about an interesting idea in my BLOG that actually is (similar to) a valid (and good) method of study! See Benjamin Teuber's "A Guide to Become Strong."

Because Benjamin's info STRONGLY suggests that you not look at the answers to any tsumego, I've cancelled any plans of making a Tsumego problem interface. Instead I would like to make a collection of Tsumego that's based on level and ability (similar to a past Blog of mine).

For now, I'm going to list a bunch of Tsumego problem links with respective difficulty levels (approximate, of course). These will be classified by: Rank and Difficulty Level 1, 2, or 3 (as given by Benjamin Teuber). I'd like to have an approximate rank range for each level of difficulty. Some help may be required (for anything that has a question mark).

Part of the Malweth-network.