Go players are coming up with creative ways to keep playing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The National Go Center in Washington DC is “working to set up both formal and informal offline play,” reports Gurujeet Khalsa. “We have a room on the KGS Go Server where anyone can go. For those of you already familiar with KGS, if you sign in, go to the Rooms Menu, then Room List, you will get a pop-up menu to select a room. Our room is under Clubs on that menu. Click on Clubs and then scroll down to National Go Center.”
There’s also a National Go Center presence on Discord, the free application that many gamers use for voice communication and text chat. It is a good supplement to KGS. KGS has a voice option but the quality is somewhat spotty. Click here for the NGC Discord. “Folks can meet and play informally on KGS anytime,” Khalsa adds. “We’ve been having discussions with the Seattle Go Center and others and are looking at some inter-league type play as well.”
Meanwhile, in New York City, organizer Peter Armenia has created a Gotham Go Group – Manhattan group on OGS (Online Go Server). “So maybe folks can meet there on Tuesdays and Wednesdays to keep as much normalcy in these less than normal times as possible,” says Armenia. “I don’t normally play go online, but I will try to be there to get a game with some familiar faces.”
Armenia adds that “Some folks are talking about getting a KGS Gotham Go Group room going. If that happens I will let you know.”
And this just in from Jonathan Hop: “I just wanted to drop you guys a line and let you know I opened my new site.” The subscription service provides full access to the video library, go problem sets, and a dashboard to track your progress in different skills. “It’d definitely give people something to do while we’re all practicing social distancing!” says Hop.
Got go news? Email it to journal@usgo.org!
