Hello.
This is a short description of how I came in contact with the game of Go
and how it influenced my life. I hope you will find it interesting.
If not, just don't read it. :)
I started playing Go in around 1980, give or take a year. I was still living in Poland at that time, in Katowice. I remember, I was then a dedicated chess player, and spent a lot of my free time brooding over chess books with board and pieces close at hand. It was fun, and provided me with mental stimulation I craved. Well, to be fair, I was into a lot of games, chess being just one of them. I played what I could.
I first heard about Go from my neighbor. He used to be a strong chess player, but then discovered Go and made a switch. He tried to interest me in Go for quite some time, but somehow I dodged that bullet and used whatever excuses I could to avoid learning to play it. I am still not sure why... maybe because it looked so much different than most of the "western" games I played.
When I finally gave in and looked at the game, it was a love at first sight. Chess and all other games were forgotten, and all I could think about was playing Go. It helped that there was a regular Go meeting in the club located on the last floor in the same building I lived in. Convenient.
The strongest player in the club was then Jan Lubos (then 1d, although he made it to 4d fast), and I followed him like a lost puppy. I am not sure what he thought of it, but I consider him my first Go sensei. He tended to take some perverse pleasure from whopping me on 9 stones. But then he would always take time to sit with me and explain what happened, and teach. He was always very patient and understanding, a great teacher. I was very thankful to him. I still am. Thanks, Jan.
The first Go board I had was a paper-and-plastic set I borrowed from the said neighbor. I did not have a clue about Go (other than knowing the rules), but I was putting the flat plastic "stones" on the paper with vicious abandon. If was fun.
My first book was photo-copy of Kageyama's "Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go". I went through it page-by-page, not really understanding much, but working my way through nonetheless. Some things stuck in my mind. I remember reading about the snap-back... Just a few days after I won a game from a much stronger player due to it (I took 9 handi, of course)... funny thing - I had no clue why I won that game. I captured a large group by killing the connecting stones in snap-back... but he let is stand, and I was wondering for days why he didn't simply take my snap-back stone. Do-oh! :)
When the Go-playing neighbor permanently left the country, I inherited his extensive collection of Go books. He had every single book which was published in english at that time. It is a core of my Go library to this day. I also inherited some Go equipment, a board or two, glass stones. No more paper-and-plastic! Yay! :)
For my first tournament I had to travel to Warsaw, which was the capitol of Poland. The journey, by train, was almost the whole night, from what I remember. They were organizing the weekend tournaments every month there, if I remember correctly. I think these were the only tournaments in Poland at that time, other than the country championships. Everybody who was anybody in Polish Go was there... which was not many. About 100 people played actively Go in Poland at that time. Big crowd. :)
In any case, so I played along, going to an occasional tournament, trying to interest my classmates in Go (with mixed success), and honing my own skills. By the time I finally left the country, in 1982, I was about 5k.
From Poland, I emigrated to Italy. I spent almost a year there, but I did not get a chance to play Go. I hardly even spoke the language, so almost the only people I associated with were polish immigrants, like me. None of them heard about Go... and I did not have the energy to teach them.
From Italy I went to Germany. I spent a few months in Munich, but then I moved to Clausthal-Zellerfeld. There used to be a club there, once, but it was inactive, most of the players moved out to follow their respective careers, and so on. In terms of Go, it was a waste-land. I haven't played a game of Go in about 3 years.
Then, in around 1986, the late Klaus Helf (1k) moved in to Clausthal and started working on restoring the old Clausthaler Go club. Of course, I immediately jumped on the band-wagon, and together we flushed out a few of the older players into the open. They ranged from about 4k to 7k or so. I remember I ranked myself as 2k then, so I was the second-strongest player in the club. I know, I know, I left Poland as 5k and without playing a game, gave myself 2k. But I read and studied Go a lot during these years, and it seemed like I could hold the rank well.
My Go life became active again. We had regular meetings, and traveled to tournaments around the country. I made it to 1k and then to 1d, becoming the strongest player in town. Ah, how proud I was. I have never been the strongest "anything" anywhere before. I almost insisted people call me "Sir". Just joking! :)
In about 1987 I moved from Clausthal to Goettingen, to attend the university there. There was a rather strong Go club in Goettingen, with such players as Wolfgang Isele (5d, who just took the german championship a year or so back) and Gerd Mex (2d). We had regular meetings once a week in a local pub, and another also once a week at Gerd's place, for the stronger players, per invitation only. This is where I reached the 2d level.
I spent countless hours at Gerd's, played countless games, drunk countless bottles of beer, and smoked countless cigars and cigarettes. I still remember these days fondly. Thanks Gerd for giving me this opportunity to know you and for opening the door to your house for me.
In late 1989 it was time to leave Germany for Canada. I moved around the country for a while, finally settling in Toronto. I first visited the Toronto Go club around 1992, give or take. So it was another long break from Go for me, 3 years. I did not have time (or energy) to study the game during this time, so my level suffered a little. When I finally started playing again, I could hold a Canadian 2d rank.
I remember, the Toronto Go Club was meeting downtown, in a small Community Center on Church Street. The place was closing around 10pm, I think. Which left us, the Go players, stranded. So some of us used to go to a nearby pub for some more games, and beer. Never forget the beer. Rengo games are more fun after a few bottles are emptied, trust me. :)
Well, the good times did not last long. I was attending a university at that time, and soon there was no time for Go between studying and working. So I stopped going to the club, and stopped playing the game. Was hard, but it had to be done. Life took precedence.
In 1996 I moved to Phoenix, Arizona, to finish my degree. This is also the time I have "discovered" internet and my first Go server - the Microsoft Gaming Zone. Oh, what fun that was. Pretty soon I also found out about IGS and NNGS (which unfortunately does not seem to exist anymore.) I discovered rec.games.go and flamers and trolls of the "server wars". It was all so exciting, I just dived in...
I could sit and play or read for hours, forgetting about the whole world. Like a traveler after a week in a sandy desert presented with a bottle of cool water, my joy was boundless. I was "in business" again, part of the Go community.
I still missed face-to-face play, but internet was a pretty good substitute. I think I put so much energy in on-line play that I went up at least a stone without even noticing. I think that by the time I left Phoenix later the same year I arrived, I was already playing like a 3d. But I will never know for sure, since I preferred the rating-less servers like MSN to the more serious ones like IGS. Just more fun this way, when you don't constantly run into jerks worrying about their rating more than about being polite.
I left Phoenix and moved to San Diego in late 1996, when I landed a job there. One of my first pleasures was to buy me a brand new computer, invest in an internet connection, and continue the great adventure which, to me, is Go. I played exclusively on-line for about 2 more years, I think.
In summer 1998 (if I remember correctly), I found out that the creator of NNGS, Erik van Riper, lived in San Diego, like me. It did not take me long to organize a real-life meeting (as opposed to on-line meeting.) I remember that day like it were yesterday... Scorching hot sun... me leaning against my car in front of Toys-R-Us in Mira Mesa, dressed as I described to him, holding a booklet like it was prearranged... like in some great spy story, lol. All so we could recognize each other in the crowd. And then there he was... jeans, long hair, and all. Hi, Erik! ;)
We decided to go to a near-by Starbucks coffee shop to have a game or two. I gave him 2 stones, I think, and won a couple of games. I was so nervous, my hands were shaking. My first face-to-face games in years!
Next week, Erik took me to the local Go club, at Twiggs coffee shop in Hillcrest. There I met most of the local players. And there I realized, with great surprise, that I was 4d! Quite something, no? I also visited some other Go meetings in and around San Diego... but I liked the Twiggs the most, and so this is where I started showing up, every Monday.
The San Diego Go Club at Twiggs was not a big club. Maybe 10 or so "regulars" with another 6 or 8 occasional players. Frank, 6d, was the strongest amongst us all. It seemed like I was the deputy, the second-strongest. Frank has a great grasp on the theory of Go, I think, and he certainly can explain it better than anybody I met before or since. We sat for hours with him giving a "lecture" and us all listening intently. It is these "lectures" and a lot of Frank's personal teachings that I credit for my final jump to (rather weak, but nonetheless) 5d. Which happened around 2002. Thanks, Frank. I hope to play you and listen to you again soon.
Around 2002 (or was is 2001?), Frank stopped regularly coming to Twiggs for one reason or the other. And with him vanished some of the other strong players, me included. Sad... I know. And I do feel guilty, a little. Truth be told, there was one 2d left at Twiggs, followed by a bunch of kyu players, and that was that. Other than letting him trash me on 3 or 4 stones, there was not much challenge left for me at Twiggs. So I, once again, became on-line-only player.
I still occasionally go to Twiggs. Maybe once a year. Maybe less...
Playing on-line is easy. Too easy. You meet a lot of weak players, a lot of escapers and cheats. Computers are too distracting. Its too easy to play in one window, while reading rgg or something in another.
It is hard to take on-line Go seriously, as seriously as face-to-face play... Its not impossible, mind you, but it takes more dedication and discipline. I did not have the discipline. My games were fast-paced affairs, played mostly against much weaker opponents, and played while I was doing something else at the same time as well, sometime a whole bunch of "something else". And, year after year, my playing level declined. I played weaker and weaker.
I would be lucky to be able to call myself 3d now, maybe even 2d. I can still rise up to the occasion and play like a strong 4d (or weak 5d) in short spurts... for a single game or so... But soon the lack of serious practice forces me to lose concentration and slip into my weakling-mode.
But don't get me wrong. I don't much regret it. I had so much fun fooling around on the servers, changing my user names, sneaking up on my friends as somebody else, coming up with outrageous "personas"... Was great. I would do that again... as a matter of fact, I will. Lol.
Every now and then I promise myself to go back to serious play, get my rank back, be "respectable". Show all these newcomers what I'm made of. Don't let those new enthusiastic 2ds push me around. But then, I realize that I simply have too much fun not worrying about ratings or about being serious or "respectable".
So I keep going the way I go, down, step by step. I consciously avoid playing seriously... sometimes (often?) even to the point of consciously avoiding making serious moves when I play. Winning or losing does not mean a lot to me anymore, as long as the game was exciting. And if I have to make a silly move or two to make it exciting, I seldom hesitate. This probably brings my on-line playing level to about 1k or so, but so what? It is so much more fun this way, honest. And... it is actually nifty to be weaker. Easier to find a good game.
When I was a nominal 5d, whenever I went there were only a few, if any, players who could give me a good game or teach me. And that was a drag. And people kept expecting me to play well, every time, each game. I was beginning to become somebody people looked up to, and I was not comfortable in this role.
Well, no matter...
I am me, and this is who I am.
And this is what makes me happy. :)