What a delightful surprise to have so many folks show up for our game!
We had our full complement of Hungarians: Attila, Lajos, and Tamas; the ever-reliable Fred & Ginnie, and even our own mad Romanian, Dan Micsa. Jeff Ehrlich came with our new friend, Yuyin Chen and we were even graced by the presence of Mr. Stephen Schneider. Arriving a bit late, but always welcome, was Bart Lipofsky and we got a surprise visit from Eric Lavigne, home from school for the weekend. Finally, it was good to see Greg Grant show up for another game.
Lots of Go playing...
We seemed to gather a bit of interest from several passersby and then lovely young Maggie Peskey, who had showed some interest in our game a couple of months ago, dropped in with her boyfriend (who was not so lovely, but quite pleasant). Additionally, Cat Holmes and her son, Dane, seemed to be avidly watching the action at our two very full tables. So I took the four of them aside and we parked on the floor for some Go lessons. Although Cat's son, Dane -- a chess player -- seemed interested, it was Cat who showed a real spark for the game and began catching on to some of the basic strategies remarkably early! With the four of them ganged up against me on a 9-line board and a 5 stone handicap, they managed to beat me quite soundly in a couple of demonstration games. I hope we see all of you at one of our sessions again!
Although there was a lot of good Go played Saturday afternoon, I feel compelled to mention Eric's game against Dan. Dan is a 3-4 dan player and arguably the strongest player in our club (if Jake Seo came more regularly, I could be talked into changing my opinion, but...). It was not all that long ago that Eric showed up at a meeting, interested in this "new" game and eager to learn. The next time we saw him, he arrived with a home-made board with 181 scooped-out holes which used black and white marbles instead of stones. (Although incredibly ingenious and showing tremendous initiative, I DO NOT recommend this solution as a reasonably-priced alternative to the more traditional board and stones!) Anyway, the point being that in a very short time, Eric has improved tremendously and will soon become a force to be reckoned with in our little, Go-playing circle. With a 9-stone handicap, Eric lost to Dan by only 30-some stones. By comparison, I have played Dan with a 13-stone handicap and have managed to lose by over 100 stones! In a few short months, Eric is already a much more accomplished player than I have become in several years. Kudos to Eric.
It would be nice if this meeting established a precedent, since it seems that the more people at the games, the more fun the session is. So, all I can do is encourage all of you who might have been considering coming out to take the plunge and visit with us on one of our 1st or 3rd Saturday sessions. I don't think you'll regret your decision.
Hope to see many of you at our next game,
george
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