Historical anecdote

[jts]

My grandmother knows that I'm a bit of a go nut, and she appreciates it for what it is, although bridge is really more her thing. At any rate, I saw her over the long weekend, and we had her reminiscing about the time when she was newly graduated and worked various places as a statistician. What I found striking was that she said off-hand, while talking about her time at Bell Labs, "Now that was a place where everyone played go." That made me curious, so I pressed her - what did she mean, a quarter of them played go? A third? No, she insisted, everyone at Bell Labs played go - although since she didn't like chess or checkers, she never tried to learn the rules herself.

That made me think. Perhaps Bell Labs was just a fluke (I've also heard that Princeton went through a bubble of Go enthusiasm at around the same time), but are there are large industrial concerns today of which you could say "Everyone who works there plays go"? I would say "no"; even tales of individual go players trying to find one other person to play go with at lunch seem few and far between. I think the facts on the last few decades are clear enough (face-to-face go expanding while online go flourishes), but is it possible there was a precipitous decline in the popularity of Go in the '60s or '70s that is the root of current whining about a lost golden age? Look at this chart of "everyday tastes":

http://jenniferdeppeparker.files.wordpr ... _lores.jpg

Was there a forgotten period when Go was as common in the United States as tweed? Or was there just an idiosyncratic cult of go players at Bell Labs?

[palapiku]

Well, that's Bell Labs... I'm sure you can easily find go players at Google Research.
Fantastic chart!

[hyperpape]

My mom said that she and my dad played go some during the 70s, but never has expressed interest in playing a game with me. I wonder how many super casual players like that there were.

[tundra]

I'm getting off-topic here, but I'm surprised that they rank bridge below charades ("The Game") in the social hierarchy.

While I've found I have no talent for bridge myself, it always struck me as being the premier scientific card game in the world today.

[hyperpape]

I'm getting off-topic here, but I'm surprised that they rank bridge below charades ("The Game") in the social hierarchy.

While I've found I have no talent for bridge myself, it always struck me as being the premier scientific card game in the world today.

I think bridge is much less popular nowadays. In the 40s, it was apparently played by 44% of American households. Nowadays, it's so skewed towards older folks that a good friend of mine was featured in the newspaper for playing bridge in the club while in middle school. His evaluation: "I'm not any good, but everyone is excited that I'm too young to have retired". In grad school, I started playing bridge on a weekly basis, and I think I knew more go players my age than bridge players, even excluding the friends I had made playing Go.

[shapenaji]

I think bridge is much less popular nowadays. In the 40s, it was apparently played by 44% of American households. Nowadays, it's so skewed towards older folks that a good friend of mine was featured in the newspaper for playing bridge in the club while in middle school. His evaluation: "I'm not any good, but everyone is excited that I'm too young to have retired". In grad school, I started playing bridge on a weekly basis, and I think I knew more go players my age than bridge players, even excluding the friends I had made playing Go.

I believe it's much less skewed toward the older populations in other countries. In 2008 at the WMSG, there were a number of countries in eastern europe with very young teams.

The Ukrainian bridge team was largely composed of younger players. (I also heard they actually got hauled in by the military police for streaking through the olympic village... Bridge players... who knew?)

[Loons]

Anecdotally, my brother works at a telecommunications engineery place and they have an active, in-house-ish go club very seperate from the city's go club (though the players aren't necessarily all software/electrical engineers). They were up to SDK strengthish.

[Joaz Banbeck]

Everyone? I don't believe it. Heck, even at L19, not everyone plays go.

[zaqxswcde]

Well, it's an obvious exaggeration, since she admitted to not playing herself.

[HKA]

Well, it's an obvious exaggeration, since she admitted to not playing herself.

I would argue it is a mathematical or logical exaggeration, but not necessarily a misstatement of the reality.

Like "must see TV" or "everyone is watching 'Friends' or everyone in the US follows football (American) and no one in the US follows football (real).

These are statements of cultural permeation. None are literally true, but they present a picture, in this case, a place where Go is quite definitely on the main menu, the group awareness is virtually total, even if the percentage of players is less than 100, or indeed, less than 50. It is like "Everyone is on Facebook" - not really, but many are and virtually all of us know what it is and the measure of interest in it.

I am reaching back before my time, but Bell Labs was where the New Jersey Open, our longest running tournament was born. Bob Ryder, a past AGA president, was the star of the group there, the first (I believe) Westerner to be awarded a 5 dan rank (back when 5 dan meant something) by the Nihon Kiin. At one time, Mr. Ryder could probably give every caucasian go player in the US 2 stones.

In recent years, the Go Congress has held a midnight madness tournanment. Though new as an official event, in reality the midnight madness competition began in the first several years of the Go Congress, and had only two participants - the late Bob Ryder and the late Harry Gonshor. In any year where the playing room was open all night, you would find the pair closing down the room, the last game being played. Invariably, one of them (particularly the near sighted Harry) would be bent over the board, searching for the next move. The other would, more often than not, be asleep, only to stir at the always dual purpose awakening click of the next stone. Then, the wakened player would survey the board, while the other would doze off. Many, many mornings they would be found, still pleeping and slaying when we entered the playing room in the morning.

[hyperpape]

The American Go Association Historical Book suggests that people started playing Go at Bell Labs in 1935.

[jts]

Thanks for all the thoughts. Interesting to know bell labs was one of the strongholds of American go. But it also seems, in the doc hyperspace linked, the aga did contract hugely around that time, as well.

I can't believe I didnt realize that if my grandmother didn't play go, then there was at least one person at bell labs who didn't play go! I'll have to berate her for her lies the next time I go up. I'm also getting suspicious of her claim that she trims the hair of everyone in town who doesn't trim their own. I'm going to have to get to the bottom of this....