Star of the show: “Sad news (Ben Lockhart: 1993-2019) from a wonderful NYC Go family,” writes Peter Armenia. “Ben was an accomplished and passionate Go player, as well as a friendly and inquisitive soul. Whenever he showed up at our meetings or tournaments he was the star of the show. He left us way too early, but he left us with an inspiring example of how to live life following your passion and how to face mortality with insight and dignity.”
Razor-sharp pursuit of the game: “When I think of Ben, I am sopping wet and wearing only a towel,” writes Keith Arnold. “Perhaps I should explain. Several years ago, I headed back to my dorm room to get ready to emcee the Congress Banquet. The last thing I did was check the Lightning tournament results and, with an hour till the banquet, I was in the Dan final, but the other semi-final had yet to take place. So, I happily intended to declare myself the winner.
After showering, I dripped my way back to my room. Almost immediately, there was a knock on the door. I will never know how he figured out which room was mine, but I opened the door to find Ben and a friend, Go set and Ing clock in tow. He announced that he had just won the other semifinal and was here to play the Lightning final. I am sure I hesitated, but in short order I found myself soaking down onto the dorm room carpet to play with the gangly teenager. This was the only game I ever played with Ben and I have no record of the 18 minutes we spent on the board, yet it was enough to etch Ben’s essence on my mind forever.
I mean only Ben would have done this in the first place, with his single-minded, if slightly off schedule, pursuit of the game. And he loved our lightning game, laughing at himself for an early mistake, bearing down after, with a stream of self-revelatory commentary one can only appropriately hear in a lightning game. His focus was amazing, as was his comfort in his surroundings; he found nothing strange about sitting on the floor opposite this middle-aged man clad only in a wet towel. The game was the thing. Ultimately, his youthful enthusiasm and growing strength overwhelmed both my groups and my hopes. After some hasty dressing, I was soon handing this force of nature the Lightning tournament trophy.
And I am so glad, so very glad to have been able to do so, to reward this young man, who should have had so many other victories. In many ways, we could not have been less alike, and yet we shared an absolute love for this game. Yet while I labored to a gentleman’s ‘C’ in the rest of my life to conserve what focus I could for go, that was not Ben’s way. I will always envy and admire his razor-sharp pursuit of the game, tirelessly learning and playing and also teaching. It is sad that we will never know how far he could have gone, but we can take great solace in knowing he went absolutely as far as he could have gone in the time he had, and I know that would make him smile.
