We had six people show for today’s meeting including three beginners. Rob beat Nate in a six stone handicap game and me in a fast game to earn four Grand Prix points. Nate went on to beat newcomer Josh in a very close 13×13 game while giving nine handicap stones, earning three GP points total.
Here’s the game between Rob and Nate.
Tanuki no hara tsuzumi!
A total of six players showed up for the last meeting of the year, including a couple new members. Rob and I got to play for the first time in almost a month, and I got skunked pretty badly. There will be no meeting next Sunday (the 27th), but meetings will resume the first Sunday in January (the 3rd).
We also plan on running a tournament in February, probably the second Saturday (the 13th). Check here for updates and confirmation of the date.
In the New Year we’re also going to be scrapping the club ladder, which isn’t quite workable with the range of skill levels we have on a weekly basis at the club. It will be replaced by a point system – the Fort Myers Go Club Grand Prix. You’ll get one point for every game you play at the club (up to two games per week) and any games you play at a Fort Myers Go Club tournament, plus an additional point for each game you win. So if you play two games, and win one of them, you’ll get three points for that week.
The games will be regular 19×19 games with appropriate handicaps. For beginners who aren’t ready for the 19×19 board, you can count games played on a 13×13 board. At the end of six months, there will be a prize and trophy for the top players. Even weaker players can come out on top this way if they attend regularly and show improvement.
I’ve posted the record of the game between Rob and me in the extended entry.
With the everybody doing something for the holidays, the December meeting schedule is going to have a few holes in it. There will be no meeting this Sunday (the 13th), or the Sunday after Christmas (the 27th). There will be a meeting on the 20th if you need to get your go fix, and regular meetings will resume on January 3rd of the new year.
I’m also going to try to start posting problems (like the one on the right) on a regular basis. I’d love to hear your feedback.
If I don’t see you before then, have a nice Christmas!
"Sunday meetings are getting HUGE!"
Sunday meetings are going nuts! In addition to our usual regulars, we’re getting at least one new person almost every week. Yesterday we had three completely new people. We’ve also had a bunch of people asking about the club though the web site and passers-by inquiring about this mysterious game we’re playing. Several of the players at Rob’s chess club have also expressed curiosity about go and have started showing up.
I want to take a moment to encourage everyone to bring equipment with them to the meetings if you have it. Because we do have quite a few beginners who don’t have their own, we sometimes are at risk of running a little short. If you don’t bring a board you can’t complain if you get the crappy plastic one where the stones don’t stay put!
We took a some photos last week, I’ve posted a few below the fold.
Sunday meetings are picking up. We had six people show up, including a new member. We had a really broad range of skill levels, so there were some good match-ups for all.
Tomorrow will be that last meeting on Monday night. With only three or four people showing up, it’s just too hard to justify going all the way out to Borders on a weeknight.
We have been getting a few new people at the Sunday meetings, so those will continue. As a reminder, they’re at the Books-a-Million on US-41 between Boy Scout and Colonial from 12:30-4:30pm. Hopefully a weekend afternoon time is going to work out better for more people.
We had a couple exciting match-ups today, so I’ve posted a couple game records below the fold.