the frig blig

Go players of all ages and stripes descended on Millersville University campus last night, including A and I who arrived around midnite. A fierce three-hour thunderstorm kept many attendees up during the wee hours.

This morning’s round one of the six-round U.S. Open tournament followed tradition by starting over an hour late. After a nice start, a bad decision cost me my first tournament game by resignation.

After lunch I attended Juan Guo’s review of kyu games; she was entertaining as always. Pointing to a group of black stones in the middle of the board Guo asked the audience ‘How do you kill a fish?’…the answer was, ‘not with your hands, but with a net’.

It seemed so wonderful, but then…as the go players advanced to the cafeteria for supper, who should arrive ahead of them but zillions of highschool cheerleaders. The go players were totally outnumbered. An ignonimous moment, but is it prescient?

What’s black and white and Zoka all over? Well if it’s monday morning then it must be the go gathering at Zoka Coffeehouse in Wallingford.

Go (also called weiqi in chinese and baduk in korean) is an ancient strategy game played on a board with a grid on it. Two players take turns placing black and white stones on the board, with the intent of capturing territory by surrounding it.

Zoka plays host to an informal gathering of amateur go players every monday morning. The go players find Zoka a friendly and comfortable place to scratch heads, drink beverages, and enjoy their favorite game.

In many countries it would be unnecessary to explain this popular game, but here in america it’s not as common and many people don’t know it. If you’re curious, most go players would be happy to explain how the game works. It’s very easy to learn, but due in part to that simplicity, it takes a long time to become good. Patience and planning are rewarded, but creative thinking can be too.

While it won’t stop the Bush administration from waging war and corrupting the government, it may be a rich and rewarding pastime for these troubled times. I say check it out.

Go, a game estimated at perhaps 4000 years old, has been played with slate and shell stones on wooden boards for millennia. Computers have been programed to play but thus far have never surpassed the rank of strong amateur. The biggest impact recently of computers on the go scene has been (1) the advent of internet-based go servers, which let people worldwide play each other 24 hours a day; and (2) the standardization of a file format for recording and subsequent reviewing of games called SGF.

Last April I discovered that a small software company Indigonauts was distributing a java implementation of a go recording program for cell phones. I’d been wanting such a program ever since I obtained my Razr V3, which included java. I downloaded it, and it worked, and I happily paid the 4.95 euros price Indigonauts was asking for their gome program.

Unhappily it turns out there are some features that are unavailable to phones without jsr75, phones older than midp2. Phones such as mine. Features such as saving to files outside of the java vm. Features that I want.

So this program gome has motivated me to upgrade my phone. I spent a little time researching what’s current and will be ordering my new phone soon (once I confirm with my service provider that I can migrate my sim chip, with their account, to the new phone).

And so we see how stones and wood help drive the economy of technology.

Q: What color did I paint the music room?
A: bianco.

Q: What books am I reading now?
A: Enclosure Josekis (Takemiya), Intuition (Fuller), Angle of Repose (Stegner), Book of Longing (Cohen).

Q: What is the vegetable equivalent of anchovies?
A: Olives.

Q: Who do I love?
A: Suzan.

Q: Which animals did we see on the islands?
A: Quick silent deer, swooping circling swallows, a soaring shrieking raven, a row of seagulls on the rooftop, sheep herded along the road by 3 black dogs, an unfortunate slug, a fiddler on the pebbly beach, a mysterious pet.

Q: How long is the wooden boat Peter is fixing and when was it built?
A: 50 feet, 1954.

I was fortunate to host bin7674 during his stay in Seattle. He is a 25-year-old Korean 9-dan ex-insei. It was his first visit to America. I attended all of his 4 lectures at the Seattle Go Center (the first 2 were about higher-level josekis, the second 2 were aimed at kyu players). I also had the pleasure of his beating me during simuls, as well as two personal teaching games. He gave me some good pointers, and encouraged me to play more games and faster.

We also attended three Mariners’ baseball games together. The best one was last Friday when the M’s Washburn shut out the Yankees 3-0.

It was a pleasure getting to know him, although our schedules didn’t always coincide (I work 40-hour weeks and go to bed by 10, while he frequently arrived home around sunrise after a night of beer and karaoke). He was surprised to see so many Koreans here, and thought Seattle should have better mass transit. I hope he returns to this country (maybe for next year’s Go Congress in Portland).

Floating Leaves (FL) is a tea house in Ballard. Wednesday night is ‘Game Night’ and I often stop by for a game of go. Last night I met CEG there and had a fun game, which I lost after failing to kill his stones which invaded my center moyo. It was an exciting fight nonetheless. T (another FL go player) mentioned that he just bought a 24′ sailboat in Everett and extended an invitation to CEG and me. This is a raincoat made from palm fronds, on the wall in FL. They were largely replaced with vinyl wear, but are experiencing new popularity as decoration in Asia according to proprietress S.

Nakayama Noriyuki pro 6 dan announced at the last US Go Congress that he would not be returning next year due to family health considerations. Nakayama taught, lectured and entertained at each US Go Congress. He will be sorely missed in coming years.

The sketch of Mr. Nakayama above is by my friend Akira Sato.

I have fathered no children but am currently the go instructor of 5 elementary-school kids — 4 4th-graders and 1 5th-grader. I know the subject about as well as any 8k go player, but have learned that knowing a subject does not mean I can effectively impart this knowledge to others. For instance: last Monday I gave my kids 2 tsume-go problems. It’s common knowledge among go players that studying life and death problems helps your reading ability and makes you stronger; I have seen this happen in myself. So giving my kids problems is a great idea eh? But I gave them problems #21 and #22 from Maeda Nobuaki’s book. For instance, here’s problem #21:
These took me 10 minutes to solve…and my kids couldn’t get them at all. Mistake! I should give them much easier problems. Just one example of how much I have to learn about teaching. Next class I plan to show them a joseki (they know none); maybe the taisha!

The Seattle Go Center hosted the 5th annual Iwamoto Kids’ Team Tournament last Sunday, Dec. 10. I was team captain for the Stevens Elementary team, who came in 4th. The kids had a great time; it was their first tournament. Here’s a couple of pictures courtesy of photographer Brian Allen:

I registered the Stevens Go Club to play in the upcoming Iwamoto School Team Tournament at the Seattle Go Center this coming Sunday. Our roster is:
1st Board: Dylan H
2nd Board: Isabel A
3rd Board: Elliot L
Alternate 1: Lewis C
Alternate 2: Hal V
Team Captain: Frank Brown

This will be the first tournament for all participants (except the team captain). The team is psyched, although the prospect of 5 hours is a bit daunting.