This August 6th, 2022 is the 77th anniversary of America dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Our generous benefactor, Kaoru Iwamoto 9p, was playing a Honinbo title match game with Utaro Hashimoto about 5 miles from the impact site. The blast disrupted the last day of their three-day game, and though windows were broken from the blast, nobody in the playing room was badly hurt. Later in the day, they restored the board state and finished the game. Only later, as they walked to their host’s house, did they get the terrible news of what happened as refugees were fleeing the center of Hiroshima..
Iwamoto Sensei’s wartime experiences motivated him to continue to share and teach the game of Go as a pathway for international understanding.
The SGC will be hosting weekly lectures aimed at helping SDK players reach the Dan levels.
These lectures will take place between 7pm and 8pm, Tuesday evenings in the SGC tatami room, and be given by Haichen Zhu, amateur 7-Dan, and experienced teacher.
All members are welcome to attend.
For more information, please e-mail us at operations@seattlego.org.
Beginning Wednesday, August 3rd the Seattle Go Center will host a four-week course aimed at young beginners. It will cover the rules and basic strategies for the game of Go. Those 18 and under are invited to participate for free, but anyone with a membership or day pass is welcome.
The course, run by Chris Wells, will be Wednesdays, August 3rd, 10th, 17th, & 24th from 4:30pm to 6:00pm at the Seattle Go Center (700 NE 45th St 2nd floor).
Participants are encouraged to plan on attending all workshops, as each will build on the foundations of those that came before, but complete attendance is not required.
If you or your child is interested in participating, please let us know in advance by e-mailing programs@seattlego.org.
We will be at at the University District Street Fair on May 21-22, 11am – 7pm. Located at University Way NE & NE 43rd ST. I could still use some volunteers to help set up earlier, 9am, and more in general. Please feel to reach out at programs@seattlego.org, or just visit our booth to voice your support.
We will be retuning to the University District Street Fair, and we are looking for volunteers to help us spread the game of Go on May 21 and 22. To Volunteer or learn more about this event, Please email programs@seattlego.org.
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.
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.
This February the 19th marks 80 years since President Roosevelt’s signing of Executive Order 9066.
Go stones believed to have been used at the Minidoka War Relocation Center
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.
(L to R) Noriyuki Nakayama 7-dan, Suzuki Goro 8-dan, and Suzuki Tsuna 5-dan at a party at the Nihon Ki-in to celebrate Nakayama’s promotion to 5-dan in 1981
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.
