What is your club's culture like?

[moyoaji]

I want to hear about what go clubs are like around the world. Post about what your club is like. If you want to just give a basic list of the player ranks and the name of the location that's good. If you want to take the time to describe a club meeting in detail I'd love to read about it. I'm trying to get a feel for what the clubs I attend could be doing differently or what I might expect if I ever venture to another club elsewhere in the world.

Feel free to share anything and everything about your club.

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I attend two clubs. The West Michigan Go Club and the Grand Valley Go and Chess Club.

The West Michigan Go Club is AGA approved and meets once a week on Tuesday evenings. We meet in a local grocery store on the upper east side of Grand Rapids. There is a small eating area near the deli and Starbucks mostly used by employees on lunch break. We pull together two or three tables and sometimes have a small 8 1/2 x 11" sign in one of those plastic upright cases that we put out to let people know who we are. We do have 3 club boards purchased from a local Korean store. They are simple folding boards with medium sized stones. Usually we play on the boards our members bring with them. We have never used clocks.

Our president founded the club because the Grand Rapids Go Club was no longer meeting. He has night classes recently so isn't able to attend as often as he would like. When we meet there are usually around 3-4 players. On some nights there are only 2. One week only one member showed up. Once there was 10 - that was our highest attended week. Last week, by some miracle, we had 8. Our strongest players are 2-4 kyu. We have never had more than three high SDK players in a single week. Our weakest regularly attending player is around 18 kyu. Few of these ranks are based on the AGA, most are guesses because tournaments are so rare in the area. We have sometimes taught new players, but usually it is just a few of us meeting to play games with our regular handicaps against one another.

The Grand Valley Go and Chess Club is an official student organization at Grand Valley State University. It is neither AGA nor USCF certified. It was once simply a go club, but when the chess club folded three years ago we took in their remaining 2 members, both of whom already attended our club. That first year as a dual-game club we only played chess on one meeting day. We were still very much a go club. That changed the next year. Our meeting location is the South Lounge of the student center. It is a moderate sized room with tables and chairs for lounging and studying. We usually take one of the long tables and set up games on that. Sometimes we will go to a different venue for another student organization to share our games, like when we attended a Japanese Culture Association event to teach go and shogi. Sometimes a school event will force us to a small room off to the side of our usual meeting space.

Last year we got much more serious as an organization. Not only did we begin playing chess more, we hosted our first Chess Tournament in April of 2013 and got school funding to purchase tournament chess boards and clocks. This year we used club funds to also purchase some go boards, a couple of shogi sets, and a xiangqi set. As a result of these purchases our games now look much nicer. We get a lot of comments from students passing by about our go games because the solid bamboo boards and yunzi stones make the game look more interesting. Our club meets twice a week. The first meeting of the week's time will vary from semester to semester, the second meeting is always on Friday at 5pm. The Friday meeting space and time is shared by another gaming organization on campus called "Alternate Realities" that plays a wide range fantasy games and role playing games including Magic and D&D. We have yet to host a go tournament for fear that we would only be playing amongst ourselves.

We usually get 4-6 people attending our meetings. Two of them are not very serious players. They mostly come to socialize and will play games here and there but don't try too hard. One of us is quite interested in western chess. He has risen rapidly in strength through study, becoming our strongest chess player after being beaten regularly by other members last year. He insists on playing with a clock and only plays 5 minute blitz games. He is the only member that uses a clock for his games. The other three, myself included, play all of the games. Two of us are most interested in go. One is most interested in shogi. We also get a member of the West Michigan Go Club to come out once a week. Our best meeting attendance was around 14 people for one of our chess tournaments. Our best meeting for go was when we had members of the West Michigan Go Club come out to a Tuesday meeting for the first time. That week we had 7 go players. When the club was just a go club we had some weeks with 6 players. On bad days it is just 2 of us. I don't recall ever having a meeting with just one member showing up.

[imabuddha]

[Abyssinica]

I don't go to a go club.


But I will someday!

[Boidhre]

Our Go club in Cork is a small affair. A mix of very new beginners mixed with some stronger ddks and sdks. Our local dan players can't make it often (to be fair, for one it's a 2 hour commute on a weeknight). It's friendly, the games are informal but due to the size everyone has normally played everyone else many, many times. I haven't been around much this year due to my wife working on club nights and me minding the kids. We used to have a weekend end meeting in a pub during the day but that stopped after one person moved away and life got very busy for two others.

[Ellyster]

Right now I'm going to the Go club at the University of Tokyo.

We should be around 25 people (but only a few come regularly) , we have 2 leagues, one of the strongest players that are KGS 7d and a second one for members thad need 3-5 handicap stones with them. After that we have some more people (inlcuding myself Japanese 1d) that are the weak group that goes from Japanese 3k to Japanese 2d (KGS 5k to KGS 3d maybe)

The club has meetings every day from Monday to Friday. We have a really small room in the university (no more than 10 people can be in there and with 6 is already crowded), so Fridays we play in a Go saloon, so more members can come. And some times (2-3 a year) we have training camps.

The club is really free-style, there is no schedule or activities... just go at any time, play with someone and go home whe you want.

[happysocks]

Go and Chess Club.

This made me smile. As did seeing Boy George in better times.

Interesting topic, heres hoping pleanty of people from all over the planet share thier "club culture." Thanks for sharing yours. Feel am still to weak to attend go club (lucky for me am in an area that has both go clubs and fairly regular tournaments) but if that ever changes will be sure to post here about my findings.

Only ever been to chess clubs so imagine it something like this but with go boards and stones:

Is this wrong?

[often]

The Dallas Go Club

We show up, we play go. Every Thursday. That's about it.

I am probably the most lax president there is. I don't really bother with "community awareness" at all. When people show up I do my best to make sure they get a good game and that we all make them feel welcome. But if they don't show up, I'm not going to go out of my way to see why they don't come back.

The most important thing that i've "learned" about running a go club is just to make sure that it is always there. As long as it persists people will come to it.

Is it a bad approach? I'm not sure. In the 10+ years i've been at the club I've seen countless players come and go with various "aspirations" and ranks. I've become disillusioned with the dreamers and people who claim strength without playing.

But everybody at our club is usually willing to play so long as someone wants to play. We are lucky to have a wide range such that the weaker players don't have to try and play someone super strong and get discouraged all the time. And I think that's about as much as anybody can do.

The only thing I wish we had was a dude who was always willing to teach new players. But that's a very rare thing, and to be honest, isn't always necessary. If someone wants to learn go, sometimes all they need to do is ask.

[DrStraw]

Go and Chess Club.

Interesting topic, heres hoping pleanty of people from all over the planet share thier "club culture." Thanks for sharing yours. Feel am still to weak to attend go club (lucky for me am in an area that has both go clubs and fairly regular tournaments) but if that ever changes will be sure to post here about my findings.

How are you ever going to improve if you don't go. That is not a valid excuse. I went to the club every week from the first day I was introduced to the game.

[Boidhre]

Feel am still to weak to attend go club (lucky for me am in an area that has both go clubs and fairly regular tournaments) but if that ever changes will be sure to post here about my findings.
Is this wrong?

I went to our local club about 4 days after starting (it helped that I asked if there was a club on the Ireland room on KGS and the person who ran it immediately PM'd me and convinced me to come). I got my ass handed to me on 9 stones by an EGF 7k who was the weakest player there apart from me. Yeah I was too weak to be a challenge to any of them but all of them started out at 30k too so they were more than happy to put up with my first few months until I could bring the handicap down to something more respectable. Do not underestimate how much it can help to have a stronger player there in person who can talk the game over with you after or even during. Plus, clubs are fun!

[happysocks]

That's awesome guys. You're probably both right. If can sort things out with my work schedule somehow would be good to begin going soon. Am sure it would be fun.

[HermanHiddema]

How are you ever going to improve if you don't go. That is not a valid excuse. I went to the club every week from the first day I was introduced to the game.

Yeah, but when you learned to play, the number of go servers could be counted on the fingers of one head.

But I agree with the sentiment. Visiting a club will improve your game, and you are never too weak to go to a club.

[skydyr]

I have two clubs I go to (lucky!), but I'm going to talk primarily about the one I am at more frequently.

This is the Nova go club in Arlington, VA. We meet in a room we rent from a church, in a wing that I think they use for sunday school and the like. We have a cabinet there where we store about 6-8 13x13/19x19 boards and one 9x9, along with many sets of ing stones. We usually have between 4 and maybe 15 people show up on Monday evenings, who range from rank beginners to about AGA 5d, on a regular basis, with stronger players than that making the rare appearance, but aside from 3-4 dan players who show up regularly, I'm one of the strongest regulars as a strong SDK. It's not the easiest to find, but I think the club is pretty welcoming to new people, and I've seen quite a few people progress from beginners at least to single-digit-kyu in the 2-3 years I've been going.

At some point, someone donated a ton of go world magazines, from maybe the early 80s through the early 2000s, and they sit in the cabinet for people to peruse when they're not playing, if they're the odd one out or just feel like it. Most of the time, everyone just plays go, but occasionally we'll play variants of a sort, like rengo, simul games, lottery go, or one-colour go. On a really busy night, we'll run out of room and send a few people to one of the other rooms we're allowed to use.

In terms of financing the club and paying the rent, officially there's an annual membership fee of perhaps $20 a year or so, but I haven't seen it collected in a few years. Most of the funds come from holding tournaments, of which we have about 6 local ones a year, and the entrance fees for those. The tournaments used to get about 40 people each, but recently this has dwindled somewhat and is more often 20-30.

We'll also get some people who normally go to the greater washington go club to stop by occasionally, but that club is in Maryland as opposed to Virginia, so it's generally a bit farther for them and they don't come as often. That club is the other one I go to, which is older and has nicer equipment, but seems to have spottier attendance, which they are trying to fix. I suspect part of it might be that their meeting day is friday evening.

[ShinFlash]

Right now I'm going to the Go club at the University of Tokyo.

We should be around 25 people (but only a few come regularly) , we have 2 leagues, one of the strongest players that are KGS 7d and a second one for members thad need 3-5 handicap stones with them. After that we have some more people (inlcuding myself Japanese 1d) that are the weak group that goes from Japanese 3k to Japanese 2d (KGS 5k to KGS 3d maybe)

The club has meetings every day from Monday to Friday. We have a really small room in the university (no more than 10 people can be in there and with 6 is already crowded), so Fridays we play in a Go saloon, so more members can come. And some times (2-3 a year) we have training camps.

The club is really free-style, there is no schedule or activities... just go at any time, play with someone and go home whe you want.

Hello,
I am currently in Tokyo and searching for a friendly go-club.
Do you have to be a student at the University of Tokyo to go to the go club or is it open to anyone ?
KGS 7d sounds nice, because I am searching for strong players and I heard it is hard to find them in regular go clubs in Tokyo.

[BaghwanB]

I run the Fiery Rain of Go Stones club in Denver.

Usual attendance is around 6-8 players a session. We meet on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Sundays of each month at a restaurant (Mercury Cafe) that has graciously hosted us for 7 years now. Players ranks run from around mid-teens kyu to low dans (with an occasional perk around 4d showing up).

And... we play go... No clocks (though I bring one in case someone really wants to). If you are there the whole time you can get around 3 full-board sized games in usually. No dues, no fees, equipment provided (though a few folks bring their own) and we've left a few "house sets" at the cafe in case anyone happens to be there at other times and wants to play or show off the game.

I haven't done much promo lately, but we do appear on the cafe's event calendar and we are in the local paper's "club" listing section. I feel if we had just a few more regular attendees (even like 2-3 more as an average) I'd organize some short lessons or game reviews but with usually 3 games going most folks are busy just playing.

Bruce "Kyu Kyu Kachoo" Young

[goTony]

Our Club is small and informal.

We play every other week currently at a Pizza place. A core handful with several players coming and going. A typical night can have 2-9 players. We welcome and are willing to teach when we play. Our strongest player is a new member and previous player probably 5kyu.

Posters around town have attracted a few players one of which looks committed. We have taught a number of players and introduced the game to about 30 people. I am the most committed member and resident evangelist. I joke I am a born again GO player.

We have had a movie night and plan more with egg rolls and saki. We have no dues or official membership currently. I believe one can get strong using the internet, but the personal side of playing live is a much fuller expression of the game. While we are informal I do try to teach some etiquette early on. Only touch a stone when you are ready to move, no playing with stones, or other distracting behaviours. I also teach it is good form to always wish your opponent a good game and thanks after. We play by Japanese rules and start total newbies with a 5x5 board, sometimes we start with capture GO.

On a personal note I generally try to point out after a game where a person played well especially for beginners to encourage them.

Oh and no eating pizza and playing with my Yunzi stones!!!! I hate greasy stones!

Plans (or dreams) for the future:

1 Using the newspapers free events listing.
2 A mini tourney for the fun of it a couple of players have mentioned it.
3 Getting the newspaper to write a special interest on the game and GO.
4 Having an outreach especially for younger players at the local library.
5 Our own GO and game site with coffee, or beer and pizza by the slice.... It is ok to dream!

I encourage players who have a club in the area to play with them. It is fun playing with real people and stones.