Go club

 Well, I arrived back in the US about a week and half ago. Things have been a bit bumpy getting re-established but not altogether bad. But the good news is that Louisville has a go club and I got to visit yesterday. It is pretty small. There were just 5 of us. Michael who is the leader of the club is a good bit stronger than me. We played twice, the first time on four stones and I resigned, the second on six stones and I won by about 40 points.

The other three players are good bit weaker. Michael said I could give them 9 stones. I played one game on 9 stones with Tommy. He played well but I was able to kill a group and he resigned.

Overall everyone seemed quite nice and the coffee shop is a pleasant environment. There were also a couple of chess players playing but that was unconnected with the go club. But I did get to chat with them a bit and told them about playing at the St. Louis chess club.

I think that is something I missed while I was in Taiwan. In Bloomington there was also a small club but in a way that was even smaller. There were really just two regular members Don and Paul. They had been playing each other every Friday night for years. I played with them a good bit and there were other people that would come sometimes. But it was pleasant. Obviously go (wei qi) is much bigger in Taiwan, and people were friendly but at the same time there was just a cultural gap. Also a lot of the people that play at clubs like that are quite a bit stronger than me. So basically it was really nice to be at a club where I felt like I could chat with people a bit more easily. It was also really nice be able to do some teaching. Tommy seemed to understand some stuff about the game but he seemed to avoid ko fights... so I was able to walk him through the process of his first real ko fight and that was really cool. It felt good that I was able to pass on some skills. People here obviously also knew about Hikaru no Go and we were able to talk about that as well. So it just felt like a nice pleasant place to play.

On the home front I finished playing through the supplemental games in Invincible, so I can chalk that up as a 100%. I started in on the games of Shuei by Fairbairn. I have still been watching some Nick Button videos and have been continuing my daily games. The Chess Dojo open classical tournament ended on a whimper rather than a bang because the week I actually came to the US obviously wasn't good and I agreed an unplayed draw with my oppo. The next week it looked like I would be able to play the last game of the tourney but my oppo cancelled at the last moment. So, oh well. I will continue to explore the gaming scene here in Louisville and will try to report on it as I go.