Well, even without the Hungarians (who were in Hungaria visiting their familias) we had a pretty good turnout for the first meeting/game of the year at the Space Coast Area Go Association.
Of course, Fred & Ginnie made the long trek from Daytona. And then Jeff Ehrlich brought Yuyin Chen from the distant southlands of Vero Beach. Yuyin had learned the ancient game in his ancient homeland of China while in college, but has not played in quite some time. Based on his demonstrated proficiency, it shouldn't take him long to quickly become one of our better players.
Bart Lipofsky and the ever-elusive Mr. Stephen Schneider were also there to round out the "regulars."
Then, we had a number of interested passersby who stayed to watch and learn. Caroline Draper is a self-admitted game player, a lovely lady who stayed for some instruction and seemed genuinely interested. We also had Liv Torkelsen who watched some games and got a brief introduction from Fred, as well as
Josh Krupnick and Morgan McGee. Hope to see you at our games on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays of each month. We are happy to teach and bring new players into our fold of Go habitue's.
Then, for icing on the proverbial cake, Andre Beckus showed up! Andre is a co-worker of Steve and me at the Space Center who we have introduced to the game while he was working there as a co-op from UCF. Now that he has graduated, he's coming on board as a full-time employee and has relocated to Brevard County, so there's really no excuse not to see him at more of our games. Welcome, Andre!
Anyhow, why not make a New Year's resolution to drop unimportant things like work, family, and social obligations and make a point of coming out to play Go with a bunch of nice folks who don't really fit into society very well but are a swell bunch of people to spend an enjoyable Saturday afternoon with? Give us a try!
Hope to see you all soon.
george
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