This April 8th through April 10th, the Seattle Go Center will be hosting an outreach event at the Seattle Center Fisher Pavilion. We will be located at the back left loft of the Armory. Hours will be from 9am-4pm. We hope to see you there.
News
The Seattle Go Center will be re-opening for in-person activities on Tuesday March 1st, 2022.
Upon re-opening the SGC will limit the consumption of foods and drinks to the outdoor patio until COVID-19 rates have declined further, and we will require visitors to wear N95 (preferred) or KN95 masks. With the windows open it may be chilly, so warm clothing is recommended.
We will still require visitors to be fully vaccinated and strongly encourage they be boosted as well.
As a reminder, up to three free face masks are available for every person in the United States, which can be picked up at participating pharmacies and health centers.
Here are CDC guidelines on how to use you N95 mask as well as their decontamination and reuse.
The SGC website now has a COVID-19 FAQ.
The SGC will continue to host its regular online meeting Tuesdays on Zoom.
Join Zoom Meeting(s): https://zoom.us/j/99377436701.
Please refer to the SGC events calendar for future notices.
This February the 19th marks 80 years since President Roosevelt’s signing of Executive Order 9066.
The Executive Order effected the forceable movement of nearly 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans from exclusion zones along the US’s western borders into relocation centers. Some two-thirds of those incarcerated were American citizens.
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This excerpt comes from Noriyuki Nakayama’s essay “The New Year’s Eve Disciple”, found in the book The Treasure Chest Enigma: A Go Miscellany (1984). Noriyuki was born on 3 September 1932 in Nagano Prefecture. In 1953 he became a disciple of Suzuki Goro 8-dan.
Nakayama first participated in the Oteai in January 1954. Nakayama, a non-insei, placed 8th, but as only the top placegetters are awarded professional ranking, he felt he had done extremely poorly…
***
The teaching game played over two years
This was the start of my long history of trials in the qualifying tournament. Every year, at the New Year, came the season I had to test myself.
In the following year, 1955, Homma Akio, Kudo Norio, Amano Masafumi, Kitamura Hiroshi, Tanimiya Teji and Sakaguchi Tadao all became professional shodan. In my final game I defeated Tanimiya Teiji and I shall never forget the tear which dropped from his face onto the go board just before he resigned. The loss made his score ten wins to five losses and he must have been afraid that he would not qualify.
In 1956 Tozawa Akinobu, Kitani Reiko, Hanadachi Masaaki, Otake Hideo and Honda Teruko gained the laurels. Young Tozawa (aged 15) won all 15 of his games.
In 1957 Sanno Hirotaka and Shirae Haruhiko made it. It looked as if my turn would never come.
Fourteen or fifteen is the age when one’s go strength increases the most rapidly. A 7- or 8-kyu boy of whom we had not heard one year would turn up in the qualifying tournament the next years as a 2-or 3-kyu — and, what’s more, he would qualify. Otake Hideo 9-dan was perhaps a typical example. My strength might go up a little in one year, but it would not begin to approach the high-speed development of those young geniuses.
On 31 December 1959 I was at Suzuki Sensei’s house to help him with some manuscripts he was writing. Suzuki was one of the very few professionals who were proficient at writing; a load of work that had to be finished within the year had piled up, and I had stayed over at his house for two days to help him.
The last of the work was polished off at about eight in the evening. I was waiting for the right time to take my leave when Suzuki spoke.
“We have nothing more to do this year. How about playing a game?”
The Seattle Go Center is looking to print some posters for the large windows downstairs and is open to community suggestions. Do you have a favorite game, or have you seen an interesting problem somewhere? Or maybe a go related piece of art? What about an interesting board position such as the rare hanezeki or “moonshine life”? Even comics or memes are welcome.
If you have something you’d like to share with us, please e-mail derek@seattlego.org with “poster” in the subject line.
The Seattle Go Center is now a mere 5-10 minute walk from the U District Station. Simply exit on Brooklyn & 45th, head north on Brooklyn, and then head west on NE 45th Ave.
With the last major changes for the Link Light Rail system having occurred back in 2016, you can be forgiven if you haven’t kept up with the latest developments. As of October 2nd, 3 new stations have opened on the Link Line 1, Including the U District Station, on Brooklyn Ave NE between 43rd & 45th streets. The other new Stations are the Roosevelt station, on 12th Ave NE between 65th & 67th streets; and Northgate station, on 1st Ave NE, adjacent to the Northgate Mall.
We are pleased to announce that Derek McGuire will be our new Operations Manager. He is in training now, and will fully take over Brian’s job by the end of this year. Derek will usually be at the Go Center on Tuesday nights, so feel free to introduce yourself to him if you are around.
Derek was born in the California Central Valley before serving in the USAF as a mechanic and an administrator. When stationed in England, he often played games with co-workers during lunch, and it was while searching for something new that he discovered Go. Fascinated by the simplicity of its
As of October 25, we will start checking proof of vaccination, as required by the King County mandate. At that time, people without proof will need to leave the premises. This does not affect our mask policy, and mask are still mandatory. On the positive side, proof of vaccination will allow members to eat food inside the Go Center in a limited form. Also the windows can now be closed depending on weather (Day time manager judgement).
Thanks for your patience and understanding through these rough times.
The Seattle Go Center is looking to hire a part time Operations Manager who can work 50 hours a month. Their current Operations Manager, Brian Allen, is planning to retire and concentrate on documentary photography. Brian will train the new manager in the fall.
The Operations Manager position includes paying bills, doing payroll, filling out tax forms, doing maintenance, supervising maintenance contracts, and meeting and coordinating with the Board. The Operations Manager should be familiar with the game of go, and passionate about sharing it, but they do not have to be a strong player. This is a paid position.
If you would like to help our unique institution in this important role, please contact Bill Chiles, Board President, for more information.
This August 1st, we will be holding a face to face rating tournament.
Registration is from 10:00am – 10:45am sharp, and first game will start at 11:00 am.
AGA membership is required; please check to see if your membership is current, and try to renew it online if it needs to be updated. More info on membership is at www.usgo.org.
If you have any questions, feel free to email programs@seattlego.org