World rankings? “Janice Kim’s interesting reflections on ranks made good reading,” writes Bill Saltman. “What might also make good reading would be the first-ever (to my knowledge) chart which correlated amateur from 30 kyu to 9 dan, country by country, go-server-by go server. How does a German 1D compare in strength to an American 1D? What does 5k on KGS equal on Pandanet, or the AGA or French, Russian or Japanese rankings? And where would AlphaGo Zero fall if compared to professionals? Many questions; are there any reasonably quantifiable answers?”
Go study abroad? “I’m a self-taught high kyu/low dan recreational player based in Baltimore, and may be taking a professional break soon to travel, among other things,” writes Greg Lysko. “As part of that, I was thinking of trying to study go outside of the US, possibly in either Korea or Japan, for 1-2 months later this year. Are there programs available/easy for English speaking foreigners to sign up for in either country?”
Janice responds to “Philosophical Reflections on Go”: “Enjoyed this piece by William Cobb,” writes Janice Kim. “It did make me think: I don’t see go as being like death, as an analogy of equal weight to other go analogies. I think go is a conversation between two people, not like a conversation between two people. This has a ripple effect through the ages, even though I personally end. So maybe one could say, go is a connection point between the monads, not like the end of one of them.”
Email journal@usgo.org with your responses and/or suggestions.
