American Go E-Journal » Your Move: Readers Write

Strongest Go Clubs? “Can you tell me where the strongest go clubs are in the US?” asks Joy Craft. “I live in CA near Stanford University and want to know what cities in the US have serious clubs with professional players.”
Jie Li 9P has been showing up at the Greater Washington Go Club lately, the Seattle Go Center routinely hosts pros and strong players, and we hear that very strong players show up at clubs in LA and San Francisco as well. If other clubs have strong players attending, email us at journal@usgo.org. Club contact info is online here.

“First 20 Hours” Redux: “In the book “The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything…Fast” by Josh Kaufman, there is a whole chapter devoted to Go in a nutshell,” reports Vincent DiMattia.
See our 6/18 report Expert On “How to Learn Go in 20 Hours”

“As another fan of Pentangle, John Renbourn and Bert Jansch, let me add my thanks to that of Steve Burrall for bringing their love of go to light,” (Go Spotting: Brit Folkies Bert and John 7/14 EJ) writes Michael Goerss. “I’ve got their CD on order (already have all the old Pentangle 33’s on CD) and the Yamashita now, too.  But in terms of music, don’t forget the Japanese jazz group Hiroshima.  They had a CD titled Go, with a cover featuring an empty go board.  I can’t speak to how it relates to the game, but I like the music.  Jazz koto, what could be better?”

“This issue (7/21 EJ) gets filed under ‘How Cool Is This!?'” writes Jean de Maiffe. “Pairing go and music satisfies two of my longtime pleasures, and as an old go teacher, I am especially delighted with the children’s day camp information. Three cheers for go organizers and go teachers everywhere!”

“Lawrence Ku is absolutely right,” writes Bob Barber, “the E-Journal is the way to advertise (Go Classifieds Work 7/1 EJ). “I listed my goban, and got five nibbles. And sold it within the week. Sounds like I should list my books here, too.” Send your go classifieds – always free! – to us at journal@usgo.org

Loving Power: “I love the Power Report,” writes Keith Arnold, who also says that he remembers that Ms. Kitani Toshimi (“Promoted to 2 dan after 38 years” in 6/23 Power Report) “attended the second US Go Congress in 1986.”

Go Classifieds Work: “As a longtime AGA member, I have been blessed to learn so much from the community, and also to give back,” writes Lawrence Ku. “Busy with school the past few years and for many years to come, I decided to part with much of my large collection of go books, which have been collecting dust on my bookshelf, most of them read but still in great condition. With the help of the AGA’s reliable American Go E-Journal, I was able to post this list in the classified section and thus pass on to new owners the knowledge and enjoyment I have gained from over 100 books. If any of my fellow go players need to part with their books, equipment, or other go-related items that would benefit their peers’ study of the game, I strongly urge them to take advantage of the EJ’s classified section.”
Send your go classifieds – always free! – to us at journal@usgo.org

Not So Fast, Mr. Kaufman: “A glaring error in Josh Kaufman’s chapter on go in ‘The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything… Fast!’ (Expert On “How to Learn Go in 20 Hours” 6/18 EJ) underscores the danger of ‘fast learning’ espoused in Mr. Kaufman’s book,” writes Daniel Chou 6D. “The go chapter lists Chinese characters for go in both traditional and simplified glyphs. However, there is a typo in the simplified glyphs that translates to ‘Restroom Board Game’!? A mistake like this undermines Mr. Kaufman’s credibility for his method of learning go quickly,” Chou says. “Kaufman criticizes Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘10,000-hour to mastery’ rule-of-thumb and asserts that few people would commit to that level of effort. He claims that anyone could learn the basics of any subject quickly by applying the methods described in his book. But if he could not even get the Chinese characters for go right, why should anyone continue reading to learn the basics of go in 20 hours? Although I am excited that a popular non-fiction book devoted an entire chapter to go, I wish Mr. Kaufman and his editor spent a little more time on due diligence to fact-check the Chinese characters for go.”

Fotland’s Freebie: “Many Faces of Go creator Dave Fotland has created Igowin, a great little freebie that plays on a 9×9 board, and, when you get to the 1-2 dan level, is difficult to beat,” reports Peter Freedman. “I think it’s strength goes up to 5 dan.” Download Igowin here .

American Ing’s New Website: American Ing reports that they’re moving to a new web page. The Ning website will go down July 1st.