The congress season is almost upon us. I just came across a version of go that may make a pleasant diversion for congressmen and women - one that can involve lots of people, even pros, in congress. (Maybe I should rephrase that.)

The game I saw was possibly the most high-powered game of go there has ever been. Sakata had just become, in 1964, the first player to be joint Meijin and Honinbo. This called for massive celebrations, and included was a special kind of relay game in public and on NHK tv. The teams were White and Red, and the men in Blue were Segoe, Kitani and Hosokawa. The commentators were Sakata, Go Seigen and Fujisawa Hosai.

The teams had nine men each but two were designated as manager and coach. Eight were the top players of the day - the likes of Hashimoto Utaro, Takagawa, Rin Kaiho, Otake, Fujisawa Hideyuki and so on. The managers were famous go writers.

Rather than the usual turn-taking, the coach pro and manager together had the job of deciding who played next. The only constraint was that no player could make more than 20 moves in all but he could have several different turns. 281 moves were played in all, so nearly everyone got a decent at-bat.

The manager had one extra role. The usual time limit was 40 seconds a move, but at three points in the game he could call for a three-minute thinking period.

The name is actually my own, but it seems likely that there was a baseball model in there somewhere. No doubt readers can suggest some extra angles, but bags I to be the one to trash the water cooler.

Hmm, they did something like this at US Go Congress last year. I'm pretty sure they called it baseball Go too... maybe somebody else who as there can remember