The Seattle Go Center has relocated to the Phinney Neighborhood Association’s lower brick building after 30 years in the University District.
What is Go, you ask? Go (known in Japanese as igo, Korean as baduk, and Chinese as weichi) is a strategy board game that is a few thousand years old and still played according to the original rules. Go enthusiasts like to say Go is more complex than chess because it took computers 20 more years of development, a google server farm, and recent AI advances to be able to beat a world Go champion. Go is a game about containing territory, living in balance, and needing only one more point than your opponent to win.
You play the game by taking turns placing black and white stones on the intersections of a 19×19 grid, and after you play a stone, it never moves. Go’s basic five rules are simple (such as, players alternate placing stones, or you can never repeat a prior board state), from which an intense and deep strategic game emerges.
SGC’s Youtube channel has a short introductory video as well as a short introduction to how to play Go. The image above shows a nearly finished game, and probably you can see some surrounded intersections, contained by white or by black, that is the territory each will count to determine the winner.
Go is a traditional game in Asia and very popular in Japan, Korea, and China. It is like bowling or golf in that there are hours long tv shows showing professional games and commenting on them in real time. One famous player, Iwamoto Kaoru Sensei, was playing a title match in Hiroshima when America dropped the atomic bomb. He survived and wanted to spread world peace and cultural exchange through teaching Go abroad, and donated large amounts of money to do so.
Iwamoto Sensei built four Go centers around the world, and Seattle was very lucky to receive one of them. SGC’s original location had a large iconic sign that drew many people to SGC. The sign showed the Atomic Bomb Game a few moves before the bomb dropped. SGC is also lucky to be the last remaining Iwamoto Go center due to excellent stewardship, financial prudence, and strong volunteering membership during its first 30 years. People visiting Seattle from around the world have stopped in to see the Go Center.
Please stop by the Seattle Go Center at the PNA to learn more about the game of Go. Children always enjoy free admission, and your first 10 visits are free. SGC’s mission is to promote cultural exchange and teach Go, but SGC must charge some admission or membership fees to sustain its 501c3 public charity that depends a lot on public support. Their website lists our regular open hours and activities, but the best time to go is Tuesday evening 3-9pm (one of their directors brings fresh baked bread), and the next most popular time is Saturday afternoon 1-6pm.
