Hello, all you Go Junkies! As I write this, Evanston Go Club’s 2024 Chicago Rapid has concluded. With over 110 players signed up, this event marks this year’s most popular Go tournament in North America, second only to the U.S. Go Congress. We saw matches from the DDKs first experiencing the game to showdowns between experienced Dan-level players vying for top prizes! This tournament showcased how the enduring love for this ancient game thrives in today’s world. As a media team volunteer, I was intrigued to see how Go resonates with players across different skill levels. I spoke with several people to see their takes on several issues which I feel are key to me. One common concern among players is the notion that tournaments are only for the highly skilled, which can be intimidating for newcomers. A key question I asked several people was if they preferred tournaments over casual play. The overall reception was that while playing in tournaments could be fun and advantageous for your development as a player, it can also be stressful to play on that competitive level. Just ask Alex Ehrlich 17K, the 2nd place winner of the 17-18 kyu division. She prefers casual play over tournaments because of how stressful tournaments can be. My good friend Alicia Mclean 16K (known as Ally to her besties) embraces the thrill of tournament play. Of all the people I’ve played with over the years, she is someone who embodies the heart and soul of the Go community. When asking her about her preference between casual and tournament play, it was apparent to me that while she “ feeling like there’s something at stake” when playing ranked matches, she is very much a social butterfly who makes friends with whoever she plays with (myself included). I interviewed highly skilled players like Ellie Spohr 1D, who you may recall returned to competitive play last year in the 2023 Chicago Rapid. Ellie attests casual play was better, stating that tournaments were nerve- wracking and that she wasn’t “super suited to tournament play,” believing it was only a necessity due to not having many opportunities to play in person otherwise. Even Shawn Ray 3D, a known professional Go player and creator of the popular web app Tsumego Dragon, has stated that he prefers casual games at times because they are essential to “keep motivation up.” This is a man who lives and breathes Go, even lucky enough to make a career of teaching it to other people. He has also played competitively a lot, so he understands the need to take a step back and appreciate the game’s beauty through relaxed matches. That isn’t to say that tournaments don’t come without great experiences. Ellie in particular mentioned that “it’s fun when you win” in tournaments. The best moment for her last year was beating Nathan Chan 1K and Devin Fraze 1K, both strong players. Even without placing, she could take comfort in her own victories and demonstrate just how much she loves playing Go. Shawn has a preference for the experience of the U.S. Go Congress, which is understandable given that it’s a week of playing Go, enriched with seminars and lectures. I’ve got half a mind to try and take some vacation time just for that! And when Alicia played in the DDK division in Colorado a few months ago, she once again mentioned the impact the game has made on her social life. Her exact words were, “What is a friend but a stranger you haven’t met yet, especially in the Go community?” Indeed, the thing to take away from what Go is like in the modern world is that whether in the competitive scene or casual play, there is no bad blood whatsoever. The overall theme is that the Go community is one of love and mutual understanding, where not even rank and prizes can throw people off the edge. That’s right, it’s nothing like “The Queen’s Gambit.” Finally, there was one last question which I don’t feel got answered thoroughly enough in my last article. I wanted to get some comments seeing what people thought about the live-vs-correspondence debate and got nothing. That was a little disheartening in my opinion, seeing as this was an issue very near and dear to my heart. I wanted to see if some people prefer live games versus correspondence, and the results were more than satisfactory. Alicia finds that correspondence games improve her strategic thinking by giving her time to plan responses without the pressure of an opponent watching her every move. Ellie also mentioned that while she prefers playing face-to- face the few times she gets the opportunity, she “mostly learned online” and tends to play better online than in person, stating that there was something about the way she sees the board online than in person. To clarify however, she was referring to playing live games online, and that the extended time controls when playing correspondence is not ideal. When I asked Shawn this same question, he asserted “playing live is actually playing the game”. While he recognized how correspondence is convenient for people who don’t have the time but still wanna play Go anyway, he obviously had misgivings about the act of not facing your opponent directly while playing Go. Before starting my games in the Rapid, I finally got a chance to play with Ellie Spohr 1D after talking about doing it for months. She didn’t play regularly on OGS, so it would have been difficult otherwise for me to play with her. I can honestly say it was worth the wait, and it probably wouldn’t have been as enjoyable playing online via correspondence for that particular first game with her. As someone who’s played both in tournaments and casual play for more than some time now, it was refreshing to hear the many opinions on these important topics. When I go to my Go Club, the West Suburban Go Club, in Aurora on Kirk Road, I play maybe 2-3 games a day for about 2-2.5 hours. And those few hours are some of the most peaceful hours of my life. Whenever I have a few minutes to myself, I catch up on moves in my correspondence games and try to gain an edge over my opponents after leaving them alone for a bit. The takeaway is that these new ways to play Go have reinforced that passion is the only true barrier to pursuing what you love. Perhaps this is why this deceptively simple game—easy to lose, challenging to master, and often difficult for outsiders to grasp—continues to endure to this day. We live in a world more connected than ever, and the social isolation of social media thankfully hasn’t seeped into the Go community. If there’s anything I want to say to any new or potential Go players, it’s that this community is one of the most accepting of any I have ever been a part of. As a friend of mine likes to say, “I love the friends I’ve made.” Join us, and you’ll become one of those friends, too. This is Kartik Saraf 18K, hoping you enjoyed this read as much as I enjoyed writing it! Feel free to share your thoughts and I hope to see you guys at the next tournament! Happy reading and viewing!
