American Go E-Journal

Youngsters in San Diego were treated to go lessons from Ted Terpstra, the new AGA Executive VP, at a summer camp at the Japanese Friendship Garden on July 18th. “This week it was first and second graders, next week is third & fourth graders and then fifth and sixth the week after,” reports Terpstra. “It was the first time that the children had played the game; we started with 5×5 boards so they could get a feel for trying to surround territory and capturing. They had been exposed to go on Monday at camp when a couple of episodes of Hikaru no Go were shown on HULU. I used go sets and accessories from the AGF Class Room Starter set I just received for the La Jolla Library class I am teaching this fall. I also checked out several volumes of Hikaru No Go from the neighborhood library that the children eagerly read while waiting for the class to begin. I had wifi so I put up a game being played on KGS just to give the kids a feel for how a real game developed. It was great to see how quickly these children learned the game and exuded enthusiasm,” said Terpstra. – Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor, Photo by Ted Terpstra.