American Go E-Journal » Go Spotting

“There is a great show — The Life of Animals in Japanese Art — at the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC,” reports Gurujeet Khalsa. “It includes several depictions of go including this detail from an 1843 triptych by Utagawa Kuniyoshi.” The show runs until August 18 and is highly recommended if you are in DC this summer. “While you are here stop by the National Go Center and play some go,” says Khalsa.

David Bogie spotted these at the Scottish National Museum.

Ashes of Love (available on Netflix) is a 2018 Chinese television series based on the novel Heavy Sweetness, Ash-like Frost by Dian Xian. “In the last ten minutes of Episode 11, there is a scene of Jinmi playing Go with Run Yu, the God of the Night,” reports Greg Kulevich. “She plays two consecutive empty triangles and then declares that she has won.”

“I noticed this Numberphile video about the game ‘Amazons’ (and featuring the legendary Elwyn Berlekamp) uses Go stones to mark off borders during game play and makes a reference to Jujo Jiang 9p,” writes Daniel Gentry. “I have also had some success in using this game as a tool for teaching new players the value of controlling territory as a separate concept from attacking the opponent’s pieces.”

In the board game Gugong, set in 14th century China, Greg Kulevich reports, “players are trying to skirt the new imperial decree forbidding the bribing of government officials by exchanging gifts instead. One of those gifts is a set of Go stones and bowls.”

“The Untold Story: Internment of Japanese-Americans in Hawaii” shows internees at the Honouliuli Internment Camp playing go (5:01, 6:35, and 8:22), writes Gordon Castanza.

“Hiroto,” Dad said as he shook me awake. “Pack up your things. It’s time.”
My small suitcase was ready. I just had to put my Go set into it. Dad gave this to me when I was five, and the times we played were my favorite hours of the day.
From the story “Mono no aware” by Ken Liu, published in the June 2013 issue of Lightspeed and sent in to us by A. Wadja.

This story is also included in “The Final Frontier,” a recently-published science fiction anthology, edited by Neil Clarke. The story includes go as a metaphor for patience and larger thinking, writes David Bogie. “The Japanese protagonist, young Hiroto, makes sure his go set is among the few articles his family is allowed as they prepare to abandon Earth. While trying to teach go to a young American, Hiroto is told, ‘All the stones are the same…boring. There are no heroes in go!’ The story calmly unfolds into tragedy proving there are heroes in space.”

Go also features in “Shiva In Shadow,” by Nancy Kress (also included in “The Final Frontier,”), which takes place on a star ship visiting a black hole. “Go is proposed as mental and social training intended to bring two scientists closer together as the team attacks a quantum physics discovery,” writes Bogie. “This does not end well.”

On the season finale of Season One of Arrested Development (available on Netflix), Maeby Funke can be seen playing Go with her adopted Korean cousin “Annyong,” reports Greg Kulevich. The Go board they are using appears to be the mass market board sold in bookstores with small plastic stones. The board position is realistic for 20+ kyu players, which is probably the case. However, Maeby places a black stone, Annyong places a white stone, and then Maeby places a white stone, so they are not following the rules of Go.
In addition, six minutes into Episode 2 of the show ‘Humans’ (streaming on Amazon), “there is the end of a Go game and some following discussion,” reports David Doshay.

“Google has hosted an annual programming competition for the last 15 or so years in early April,” writes Adrian Petrescu. “This year, the registration page looked like this. By the way, I wonder if any AGA E-Journal readers recognize the position on the board? It’s not, as far as I can tell, any of the AlphaGo games against Sedol or Ke Jie, though maybe it’s one of the hundreds of Master games.”