That Old Black Magic

Well, it's Halloween and for me that means training day. I've prepared a short instruction and exercise for teaching one of my classes tonight. I broke the lesson into three parts: a) a brief introduction to the board, history, and materials used for playing, b) the two rules of basic play (atari & ko), and lastly, c) ponnuki, the game of capture as a practical exercise.

On the home front, i've been in contact with others a bit more frequently thanks to the Dragon GO Server (DGS) and have, at the very least, improved my game slightly. Twitter has become an annoyance unfortunately.  My attempts to use it for constructive means have faltered, and for my uses the GO Servers and blogs are much more user friendly and relevant.

But i digress, the purpose of this post was to address the allure of GO. GO is a game that requires like minded people to pursue. Alone, players develop individual playing styles. Together they adapt and grow to address each others weaknesses. I myself am a defensive player, but thanks to largely blogger, have studied enough life and death problems to deal with invasions with some skill.

Advances not withstanding, my own passion for the game has waned a bit. Whether it's because of the constant research, or the lack of players, i cannot tell, only that the game's lost that old black magic. The hook that's kept me playing. We'll see what the week brings...