Life In 19x19

Hello everyone, greetings from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I just got introduced to Go ~2 months ago, and I've been looking online for resources to improve, so here I am! Can't wait to dive in and get some more practice. So far, I've been learning from my roommate who is ~6 kyu. He has me on a 9x9 board learning basic shapes and attack/defense.

My first epiphany about learning at Go:

"Go is the game I play when I want to lose and feel good about myself" - Since even when I lose, I can use it as an opportunity to get better. It has definitely been a useful tool for addressing my own fear of losing, and the desire to not want to do soemthing unless I can be good at it.

In any case, I will end this by saying I can't wait to start contributing, and please bear with me as I make all the blunders along the way to becoming a better Go player

Welcome to L19!

Welcome.

Hi hi. Do you guys still have the annual Vancouver tourney at Crystal Mall? I miss going to those.

Howdy, and welcome!

Hello from Vancouver!

Welcome to L19!
I have always wanted to learn more about the Go scene in Vancouver. You will have to keep us informed of your progress and the places you find to play. If you ever come down south, look us up at The Seattle Go Center. We have several seminars and tournaments throughout the year that are worth a train trip to the states.

Redbeard wrote:I have always wanted to learn more about the Go scene in Vancouver. You will have to keep us informed of your progress and the places you find to play.

You could just ask me. I think I already wrote about this at some point. Basically, the Vancouver go scene is dismal, apart from university clubs at UBC and SFU.
On the other hand, there's a tournament this weekend!

palapiku wrote:

Redbeard wrote:I have always wanted to learn more about the Go scene in Vancouver. You will have to keep us informed of your progress and the places you find to play.

You could just ask me. I think I already wrote about this at some point. Basically, the Vancouver go scene is dismal, apart from university clubs at UBC and SFU.
On the other hand, there's a tournament this weekend!

I can't really speak for the scene in Vancouver, since I just started playing. However, it will be nice to contribute now that I've started. Can you tell me more about this tournament?

Sure. I'll send you the details in private.

It's so hard to find people to play regularly up here since I moved to Vancouver. It's really been annoying me how we have a large playerbase, but no regular clubs besides the one that meets... like... twice a month, and two school clubs that meet during most peoples' work hours.

I guess I'll see you both at the tournament on Sunday.

Oh snap, I think I'm the second closest player to Palapiku on IgoLocal.

O snap

There have been several heavily Chinese-oriented go clubs. They all closed down. It's strange that the nearby Seattle has a much better go scene, given that we probably have more players. I don't think we ever had a "culture-agnostic" go club outside of the universities.

palapiku wrote:O snap
It's strange that the nearby Seattle has a much better go scene, given that we probably have more players. I don't think we ever had a "culture-agnostic" go club outside of the universities.

A big part of the current Seattle scene is due to Iwamoto Kaoru and the Nihon Ki-in purchasing a building and dedicating its use as a Go club. However, the scene started in a Seattle coffee shop and grew from few players a week to a group large enough to be noticed by the Nihon Ki-in. Dedicated people from that group like Chris Kirschner and Frank Fukuda convinced them to open a Go Center in Seattle and many people have worked hard over the years to keep the center open and self-sufficent. The only reason we have a Go scene is Seattle is because we want it bad enough to create it and show up every week to keep it going.

It sounds to me like you guys need to start a new Vancouver Go Club. Why not find a centrally located coffee shop and pick one day a week to play? Even if only two or three show up each week it's a start. Advertise the club on IgoLocal and the AGA website and more people will come. Eventually you will have a Go scene that others would be envious of.

sounds like a great plan! if you do start a club: please send me details; i have a friend in vancouver hwo'd surely attend...

A new club just opened in Richmond, by the way. The address is Unit 3010, 8888 Odlin Crescent - at the Pacific Plaza mall. The hours are Tue/Wed/Thu 2:00PM-9:00PM, Fri/Sat/Sun 12:00PM-9:00PM. That's right, six days a week!