The Go Player's Guide

THE GO PLAYER'S GUIDE TO ROCHESTER, NY
May 13, 2003
by Chris Garlock

Of all the go clubs I've played in over the last 18 years, the Empty Sky Go Club holds a special place in my heart. Although I learned go at the Philadelphia Go Club in 1985, it was Rochester where I became a dan-level player, and where I began my work as a go journalist. So it was a special treat to visit the rejuvenated Empty Sky Go Club last weekend. The club, in a sign of its new health, was hosting its first tournament in nearly a decade. Host of the 1991 U.S. Go Congress, the ESGC had organized an annual
tournament for several years thereafter, but had stopped when several key organizers (including, I must confess, myself) left town. The club formed in the mid-Seventies when a group of enthusiasts, including long-time stalwarts Bill Hewitt and Dave Weimer, began meeting in each other's homes. Bill, now the club's grise eminence, and retired from the Auto Club of America, dates the formal founding of the club to the arrival of a Dr. Kumazawa, a strong 2-dan amateur. The club began meeting regularly in Bill's
apartment and soon moved to Dave's house where the Tuesday night gatherings became a fixture for the next two decades, and which only ended when Dave, a professor of political science left to teach [at University of Wisconsin-Madison]. Down to a few hardcore players, the club reverted to Bill's place for a few years until the arrival of an infusion of new blood arrived in the form of a veritable posse of young students from the Rochester Institute of Technology, who had learned about the game through the Hikaru No Go anime series. Led by Greg Lefler and Jeremy Banzhaf, the young beginners proved avid students of the game and their go education has now been taken over by Thomas Hsiang, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Rochester and one of the top amateurs in the United States today (I had the pleasure of a lesson from him on Board 1 in the final round of last weekend's tournament; even five stones was not enough!). The RIT gang has taken over the Empty Sky Go Club, which now has status as an official club at the school (where the tournament was held) and meets three times a week at Java Wallys on the RIT Campus (in Building 6): Tues 7-12P, Thur 7-12P and Sat 7-12P.

Check out the ESGC website (including a veritable Rogues Gallery of photos of club members) at http://www.rit.edu/~mtskywww/ or email gll6624@rit.edu

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