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Note: this was sent out to classes before the program started. Both Sasha Orr and Bill Cobb very generously allowed me to use their writings from various articles to be incorporated here. Use whatever parts of this letter as might be helpful to you.

DEAR PARENTS;

This year, your child will have the opportunity to learn to play Go; the oldest and most complex board game in the world.

Go is a strategy game that is played on a grid of intersecting lines. Two players alternate in placing black and white stones on the board with the aim of surrounding territory. The intertwining patterns of black and white stones becomes extremely complex and requires study and concentration to play well. No one has ever become a master of this game who has not learned it as a child.

The game provides and opportunity to develop a host of useful critical thinking skills. It has extraordinary potential for practice in problem solving and for developing a flexible and open-minded attitude. Players are motivated to seek creative plays that will combine attack and defense for maximum efficiency, thus developing appreciation for the complex and interconnected consequences of various possibilities. Japanese studies show that Go improves connected thinking ability in children. Play requires both left brain (analytical) and right brain (intuitive and artistic) concentration.

Go is an natural addition to the math curriculum. Our fifth grade curriculum requires understanding patttern recognition and geometric shapes. Learning shape sequences and solving game problems are ideal in acheiving this objective. The game also provides excellent practice in imagining and recognizing abstract patterns and in learning to engage in precise analysis. Another part of the math objective is touched as students willl learn to recognize a logical sequence and understand if/then statements of cause and effect. As the class participates in game analysis on the demo board, they will learn to place points on x-y grid co-ordinates as an introduction to graphing equations. For these reasons and more, Go is included as a part of education in many parts of far eastern countries where the game originated and has been valued for thousands of years.

Go is a significant intercultural experience. In ancient China, Go was one of the Four Accomplishments that were required of nobility before they could be considered properly civilized, the other three being poetry, painting, and music. At the point of his death, Confucius regretted not having spent more time on the game. In China, Korea, and Japan, Go has a respect and popularity on a par with major sports events here. There are magazines, newspaper columns, 24-hour television programming, and professional tournaments with purses in the hundreds of thousands of dollars devoted to the game. Professional Go players enjoy prominent celebrity status. Learning about Go gives one a window of understanding Eastern cultural norms.

One could argue that Americans involved in business and governmental relations with Far Eastern countries could become more effective by learning to play. As reported in Business Week, for some years the Darden School of Business at the U. of Virginia required all of its students in its Masters program to study the game. After an ill-fated trip by President Bush to Japan, the New York Times (1-6-92) stated that if President Bush had gone thinking in terms of Go instead of chess, he would have acheived far more. How much Go training is utilized in economis strategies is illustrated by Miura Yasuyuki, a prominent Japanese business executive, who recently published his memoirs as " Go: an Asian Paradigm for Business Strategy." In additions to its value in understanding Eastern mind set, we will be learning many Japanese terms and expressions used to describe various aspects of the game.

We will be introducing students to play on the IGS, the Internet Go Server, and other internet Go sites. Your child will be meeting players from all over the world, and will be taught lessons in intercultural etiquette. Students will learn to communicate politely and directly with their opponents respectful of cultural variations. In the past. we visited and played games with people on every major continent except Antarctica!

Go is an effective tool in developing positive social skills. firstly, etiquette is considered and essential part of play and will be covered in the classroom. Because of the nature of the handicapping system system in Go, the focus is on the quality of the game more than winning and losing. Thus, players have an interest in improving each other's play as well as their own, and are in as position to enjoy new insights that are discovered in a game, even if the new insight results in a loss. Go encourages the development of patience in players. Not only must one learn to wait patiently for the other to play, but in order to play well, one must exercise patience and flexibility in play strategies. Go is a game which rewards balance over aggressions and greed, typified by negotiated settlements in which both parties experience some gain.

All this is a game that is intriguing and fun. If you find your child (or you) becomes interested in pursuing the game beyond the classroom, instruction is available with local teachers. Just like learning to play a musical instrument, becoming a strong player takes systematic work and study. Also, the Ann Arbor Go Club, which meets weekly on alternating Sunday afternoons and Thursday evenings at Border's Books, welcomes young players. During the year, the AAGC puts on tournaments with special sections for kids, and also hosts visiting professional Go players who will come into our classrooms. For information on instruction or club meetings, please call or email me. In the summer the AGA Summer Go Camp for Kids is a wonderful experience. Kids from all over the country come to have a week of camp fun and learn from professional players. A video about Go Camp is available.

There are computer programs available to play Go against your computer. A free one for beginners is available that can be downloaded from http://www.smart-games.com/igowin.html. There is a new interactive web site on which you can learn the game basics through a series of lessons. It's at http://playgo.to/interactive/welcome.html.

Finally, if you are internet connected, your child can play go online. Go is one of the games available on msn.games and also yahoo.games. The following site: www.kiseido.com wiill provide the software to play on its site and has many players.To play on IGS, you will need to download client software. It's a bit complicated, but the telnet address is: igs.joyjoy.net.
I look forward to working with your children. Please don't hesitate to call with any questions or for further information.

Susan Weir (phone number and email)