So today my uncle came over for a visit. I started to play a game of Go by myself and the thought of teaching him crossed my mind. Then I remembered the times when I first tried to teach and I failed... Since then I have read "Go as Communication" and I felt prepared to teach him. He asked about the history of the game and I went over the stuff that I drilled into my head when people first started asking about the game: 4000 yrs old... China... Pros= $... worlds oldest, still played board game.... etc, I am sure you guys know all of that from informing curious people. So I started on a 9x9 and taught him "capture go" as was said in the book. We came across ko and I went over that, too. Finally he asked, "Wait, so if I have two spaces in my group of stones, then is it safe no matter what?" and I was soooo happy that he recognized that pattern. To show him the importance of that I captured a group the had 1 eye and 1 false eye. He got annoyed and demanded a rematch. We began to play again and half way through I told him about Center/Side/Corner stone to point effeciency. Then I told him the real rules (points from intersections, not stones) and explained komi. In the last match we played on a 13x13 and he "won" by 3.5 points. I gave him a Go introductory booklet from my club and he left after that. It turns out he's going to China in October and he said that he's determined to get better and beat someone there. I can't wait to see how he progresses!! Here are some pics of our second 9x9 game: Uncle: *Hmm, will this work??* I am getting a couple of stones to show him about ko =D
So my friends who take the game seriously have started porgressing quickly. They are aroun 12 kyu and they've played for about 8 months. There were two 12k and one 4k at the study session besides me. I am around 8k. We read some books, watched some HNG, played some Halo 3 XD/ go, and then we went to the Dallas Go Club (A future article over this club is coming soon!). Here are some pics from the session:Michael 4k (left) and Jonathan 12k playing a teaching game.*Imagine intense stone place as in Hikaru No Go* The game finished up as Jonathan and Michael reviewed over the tape (yes we filmed it). It was intense XD haha.
So we didn't place to well in the Ing Youth Championships, but we still got a prize. Since we entered two teams from our school club we recieved twice the prizes =D We got $150 prize money and two wooden boards. Pretty Nice eh?:*These are with my yunzi stones from YMI, not prize set of stones*The last one was taken from inside of a bowl ^^ I thought it would make for a cool shot.
