Girlfriend And Go

[zinger]

Though it's hard to make a contract on a minor suit.

Not any harder. It just scores less

[Marcus]

Though it's hard to make a contract on a minor suit.

Not any harder. It just scores less

I screwed up the joke. It's supposed to be it's hard to make game in a minor suit.

[hyperpape]

But it is harder to make a contract, if you exclude bidding 7♣ in random rounds. You bid a minor, they bid a major, and you have to go to the next level if you want to make a contract.

So it was alright, Marcus.

[Mef]

I think it's good to have some separate interests and some shared interests.

Agree.

You could try starting something that is new to both of you. If you both like games, I recommend bridge, it is fun, challenging, social, and partership-based. Clubs are generally easy to find.

Depending on where you're located, euchre can be a nice alternative to bridge, it's significantly simpler to learn , but still has potential for some strategy (you could think of it like 9x9 bridge). In the Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan area (I refuse to call it the Midwest) it shouldn't be too hard to find others who are interested, I don't know about outside of there though...

[tj86430]

If you both like games, I recommend bridge, it is fun, challenging, social, and partership-based. Clubs are generally easy to find.

When I played bridge actively, I witnessed many couples that played bridge together as partners to have terrible arguments over it (usually because one insisted on giving advice to the other, which was not received well and then the "discussion" expanded to other areas of life). I dont think it did any good to their relationships. Although I have no personal experience (my wife doesn't play, and neither do I nowadays) I would recommend against it.

[cyclops]

I'm shy to admit but I have kind off opposite problem. My wife urges me often to play backgammon but I'm not too much interested because she doen't make much progress in the game. She doesnt show much imagination, miscounts all the times, does a lot of thinking where no thinking is needed, stops thinking when it is my move and so on. Although we have played some hunderds of games the level remains the same. Me leading 300 to 50 by estimation.
It is not the problem that she is not smart enough but winning is for her not part of the game. For me it is. But it shouldn't be too easy.

[Maere]

Well, with all these men failing to interest their girlfriend/wife into the game, I feel like I have to bring some feminine point of view, of only so that Stefany won't feel too lonely in this thread ;-p

I've learned go together with my boyfriend. We were both curious about the game and went to a course for beginners organized by a local club. I bought a beginner book which we both read and we started playing each other on 9x9. But after a while I started studying seriously, while it was clear that Boyfriend didn't have enough interest to invest much time in the game. I managed to drag him twice to my go club but that was all. He just prefers to spend his free time differently than placing stones on a board.

As a whole, we have nearly no common hobbies. Most people find that peculiar, but it's fine. He supports me when I want to go to a tournament, or spend an insane amount of time writing a book. I support him when he's going to panama to build cisterns. We show interest and discuss our hobbies, but we don't share them, and we don't really feel like we have to.

As for the whole discussion "why women don't play more go", I think it's just the brainwashing. Girls are told that they're not analytical enough for things like maths, chess, and computers. They end up believing it so much they don't even try. As a computer engineer playing go, I suppose I qualify as chromosomal anomaly by these standards.

[cyclops]

thx Helel for reacting. Long time ago I bought the Playboy's book of Backgammon by Lewis DeYong. ( foreword by Hugh Hefner ). Understandably she didnt want to make dirty hands at it so she insisted to buy a second book: "The Backgammon Handbook" by Heyken and Fischer. She was willing to read it but it has only been accumulating dust on our bookshelves. I dont know the book you named, but I dont believe she would read it.
The problem is not so much that I want to beat my wife, but that I want to put on a good gamelike fight. A score like 99-101 is much more fun than a score of 50 - 200.
Finally it is a pity she doesnt like the doubling rules which are helpfull in shortening dull games.

[RazorBrain]

As for the whole discussion "why women don't play more go", I think it's just the brainwashing. Girls are told that they're not analytical enough for things like maths, chess, and computers. They end up believing it so much they don't even try. As a computer engineer playing go, I suppose I qualify as chromosomal anomaly by these standards.

I read somewhere that in Asia, many go players find it strange that go is more popular among the engineering and math crowds in the West, as this is supposedly not necessarily the case in places like Japan. Can anyone substantiate this?

As for me, I hate math, have never liked it, and I still look sheepishly at my girls when they ask for help with anything past basic algebra. (Hah, I graduated in English and work in corporate communications.) However, I do have a fondness for software engineering and technology, as I work in that sector. Perhaps I am worthy to be a Western go player after all

I think it is wonderful that the typical male/female go player model gets stood on its head now and again. BTW, two of my daughters play a little. We'll see if they stick with it.

[hyperpape]

I've heard the same thing about Go in CJK--it's just popular enough that it's not so associated with nerds.

I've had the same phenomenon, where my wife and I reach the point of mutual incomprehension, because I want to analyze a game and she's often happy to play casually. But even that's game specific--she plays bridge pretty intensely.

That said, games with a distinct imbalance of skill can still be fun. At least she's never complained about her ability to beat me in 10 straight games of scrabble. I think I can probably pick up at least 1 in 100--I've come within 10 points more than once.

Oh, I almost forgot my point: I don't think it's worth trying to push someone to play seriously. If you think there's an interest, fine, but otherwise, it's just one of the two decent ways to play a game.

[Suji]

Girls are told that they're not analytical enough for things like maths, chess, and computers.

I find this pretty amusing. About six-ish years ago, when I was a sophomore in high school, I finally came to the conclusion that we'd be so much farther ahead scientifically IF girls had been allowed to study math, physics, chemistry, and so forth. I'm in my, hopefully, last year of school to get my bachelor's degree in math and some of the smartest people I've met along the way were female. There's just a lot less girls in my math classes now than in high school.

Another reason I find this amusing is that I personally believe that girls are smarter than guys, and I'm speaking from the male side of the equation. I'm amazed at the insight girls can give when solving a math problem.

The only reason girls think that they can't do math, science, engineering, etc. is they're fed lies and stereotypes like Maere says. Girls are just as capable as guys in those subjects.

To hailthorn:
I wouldn't push it. Though if she wants to play a game that you don't like maybe you could work out some trade.

[palapiku]

I read somewhere that in Asia, many go players find it strange that go is more popular among the engineering and math crowds in the West, as this is supposedly not necessarily the case in places like Japan. Can anyone substantiate this?.

Interesting. I like Go for pretty much the same reasons that I like mathematics.

[palapiku]

Finally it is a pity she doesnt like the doubling rules which are helpfull in shortening dull games.

And why don't you add a doubling cube to Go while you're at it. To shorten the dull games.

[daniel_the_smith]

Finally it is a pity she doesnt like the doubling rules which are helpfull in shortening dull games.

And why don't you add a doubling cube to Go while you're at it. To shorten the dull games.

That would work well with bangneki. You flip the cube and the other person has to resign (and pay manbang) or the price per bang doubles... I would not want to play a game with that rule!

[hyperpape]

Palapiku, it may not be apparent from Cyclops' comment, but the doubling rules are a huge part of serious backgammon.