A View from Abroad

A Brit's Go Adventures in America
August 18, 2003
by Francis Roads

American Go Player: "Francis! Good to see you! It's been a long time!"
British Go Player Francis Roads: "Since '99 actually, when I came to the San Francisco Congress."
AGP: "You should come more often."
FR: "When did you last come to a European Congress?"
AGP: "Europe? Ah, now, that's a long way."
FR: "Yes, it's much closer in the other direction."

I started my visit about a fortnight beforehand with a visit to friends in Manhattan. They leave me alone during the daytime to recover from jetlag, but in the evenings there were dinner parties and a well attended meeting of the Brooklyn Go Club. The venue for this rotates around members' homes. This one, hosted by my own hosts, Roy and Mary Laird, attracted over 20 players, and lasted until 1.30 am.

My hosts in Boston were go players Marvin and Katherine Wolfthal. Marvin is a trained classical pianist who now works in computing. So when we weren't playing go we had a fine old time discussing the music of Beethoven and Elliott Carter, who is still composing major works at 95. In the hospitable manner of US hosts they had arranged a barbecue in my honour, where I met several more of the Boston go community.

The Wolfthals live out in the sticks, so I moved on to another billet with musical friends closer to the centre. I had several evening musical commitments, and on two other evenings I was able to visit the local go club. This meets in the basement of a Social Security Office (don't ask). Boston is an old city of some charm. It's older, for example, than St. Petersburg. The Bostonians are very conscious of living in the birthplace of the Revolution. There's even a monument to the battle of Bunker Hill, which the rebels actually lost.

On to George Bush airport, Houston. From a distance, the city centre is an impressive sight. The cluster of skyscrapers rises from an otherwise flat landscape, and for once some thought seems to have gone into their design and relative position. Unfortunately I never had the opportunity to visit the downtown area itself, as public transport isn't the strongest point of the state of Texas, and I found myself more or less confined to the air-conditioned buildings of the university. This was the main drawback of an otherwise largely well-organised and enjoyable Congress.

The other drawback was the lack of a suitable cafe or pub-like place to sit and drink beer and play liar dice in the evenings. The best option was the bar of the on-campus Hilton Hotel. Why did the university have a Hilton? Because you can do degrees in hospitality or whatever there, and the hotel provides for those students what laboratories do for scientists.

There were about 260 participants in the main tournament, plus a goodly attendance of young players who had their own tournament in a separate room. That's one thing the Americans are really good at, involving youngsters in go. They have a head start, as so many of the young faces are oriental, and come from backgrounds in which go is as well-known as chess is in the European. Still, we may have lessons to learn from them.

There was a team of Chinese and Japanese professionals in attendance, including our friends Guo Juan, Feng Yun, and senseis Nakayama and Saijo. Amongst the amateur participants there was a contingent of Japanese visitors, a Canadian or two, a handful of Germans, and T Mark Hall and myself from Britain. So, hardly a very international event, but that has its advantages. The common language, and, perhaps more importantly, the common culture, leads to a very relaxed and friendly event with few disputes or misunderstandings.

There used to be a generally-held idea that US grades were a stone weaker than European. I think that the US grades are firming up now, and probably the difference is nearer half a stone. The AGA has been considering what powers its president should have of late. Some members felt that under their old constitution the president had too much power, so the new one has policy determined by a board of eight governors, some regionally elected, and then carried out by the president and other officers. So now while the president may advise, he doesn't actually have a say in decisions. It's my opinion that they've now swung too far in the other direction. Managing unpaid volunteers is a very different business from managing paid employees. It is far easier for volunteers to cause difficulties by resigning with immediate effect. I think we've got it about right in Britain; we likewise have a council of eight, but the president and other senior officers have a vote each, when votes are needed.

This wasn't my favourite US Congress, but that's not to say that I didn't enjoy it; just that the other five that I've been to were even better.

Now to poetry. The Bob High Memorial competition invites entries of go songs and poems. I won the song division in '98 and '99, so I decided to put in a poem this year, which came second. Here is the first prize entry, from my near-namesake Kris Rhodes, a Texan go player:

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