Life In 19x19

Playing first capture with (plastic wrapped) candy might be fun for elementary-aged students. You could use two colors of Starburst, for example. Then the capture is doubly rewarding (I win! + I get to eat that!).

Just a thought.

Drew wrote:Playing first capture with (plastic wrapped) candy might be fun for elementary-aged students. You could use two colors of Starburst, for example. Then the capture is doubly rewarding (I win! + I get to eat that!).

Just a thought.

Funny, who knows it may work. : )

I played three color GO with a boy and his dad recently. They both had lots of fun, especially attacking the stronger player me. I think three or 4 color GO is fun for little kids.

bahkana wrote:Tekesta,

Thank you for the suggested alternatives. I avoid doing the long explanation right away, especially with younger kids. The reason being that the longer it takes them to actually start playing, the less interested they will become. The best method I have used to getting kids interested is to give them a 1-2 minute explanation of the super basics (intersections, liberties, non-moving pieces) and get them playing first capture right away. Instantly starting to play really gets kids excited. If they are interested in learning more I start going into the longer explanations you talked about. After they've gained a bit of experience I start going into the thought process bit. The biggest problem I have run into with this approach is I end up with students who have no interest in playing the full game yet and simply like playing capture on larger boards. They just keep capturing stones until they stop and the one with the most stones in their cup wins? I still feel like it is worth while though as, once the kids mature a little, they can always move on to playing the full game later. The reason this happens is mainly because you end up with players who don't like the idea of thinking and don't grasp the importance of strategy yet. Young kids are often impatient and quick to give up if they feel something is too hard.

In that case just have them play on a 7x7 board and use Mentos(Registered trademark) in 2 different colors as stones. Play normal Go, but omit the pass rule, even if the kids start playing on their inside liberties, also known as territory. The side to first run out of all liberties loses the game - and the Mentos. (This way the kid who lost will pay attention to the game and soon enough get to eat all the Mentos!) Of course, the side that wins gets to eat all the Mentos remaining on the board after the game. Any tasty snack with the requisite shape. such as bite-size sugar cookies, will do just fine if Mentos are not available. The good thing about this is that after a while the kids learn when to stop playing, namely when the only thing that can be done is to play on one's own inside liberties, also known as territory.

Strategy is not something the beginner has to learn right away. In fact, beginners ought to grapple with tactics first before starting to learn about strategy, for strategy is a set of long-term objectives that are realized through a sequence of multiple tactical exchanges. In other words, the fighting comes first, then the how-to-do-the-fighting. With enough experience in the application of tactics, the beginner will soon have enough info to begin forming strategic pictures in his/her mind.

The idea of studying and training in Go is to automate the thinking process until it becomes intuitive. In other words, the right move will come to mind with only a moment's thought. If you study the game during off-hours, when playing a game things will proceed much more quickly than if no study was conducted. This can be compared to the sports player exercising the body outside of practice games and tournament games so that he/she has a body ready to react quickly and effectively to the rigors of a hard-fought practice or tournament game. In the same manner study, practice, and refinement of skill in Go makes it easier for the Go player to deal with even the most difficult situations that may arise during play. Hon'inbo Jowa once said that it is better for the beginner to play what comes naturally than to sit in front of the board and spend a long time pondering every move. With constant study, practice, and refinement, the beginner will notice how much faster his/her thinking becomes when playing.

I do have a number of students at the Go Club currently. We are planning two tournaments but most of the players will not be able to play as I want it to be full games on the 9x9. As for getting the students studying games or tsumego, the same issue of not wanting to slow down and think make this practice nearly futile. The more mature players do fine in this aspect and utilize the books I have available or play full games. No matter how structured I make the club, I will not be able to have it run without me as there needs to be adult supervision at all times for school activities.

That indeed is tough. You will have to begin teaching the other educators and some chaperones how to play Go, at least at an elementary level. This way there is not so much pressure on you to lead the Go club.

When playing hockey, one has to learn several things before being able to play. The first one is skating, the second one is swinging the stick and hitting the puck with it to get the puck to go where you want it to go. So, yes, study is part of the game, even with low-brow games such as hockey and football. There might not be any reading out of a book, but one still has to practice skills in order to become any good.

Or... let's look at hunting game. To hunt game, one needs to practice several skills. Using a weapon, such as a hunting rifle or bow & arrow, to kill game, determining the seasonal habits of different game animals, determining availability of game through observation of seasonal and environmental changes, among other things.

In similar fashion, the Go player has to learn tesuji and life & death to kill groups or to save them, be familiarized with the characteristics of different openings, determine when there is a change in phase, such as from opening to middle game, observing changes in the balance of territory between Black & White on a whole-board basis, among other things.

Studying games is a bit beyond the ability of the beginner till he/she has been playing on 19x19 for some time. When I first began playing Go, I was unable to make sense of most of the contents of the Go books in my collection. It was not until I began to replay games, do exercises (tsumego), and play practice games that I was able to make sense of what is explained in them. For the time being, just replaying game records from start to finish, move by move, is more than sufficient, even for those who may not like doing life & death and tesuji exercises. (Tsumego is still a rather exotic-sounding word for most North Americans, so I prefer to use the word exercise to refer to tsumego.)

I have lots of physical materials to play with so getting the materials isn't the challenge. The main reason to look into technology is to add a barb to the hook for the new generation that grew up in this "always online" environment.

Some kids may look to Go as a way to tune out of the forever-online environment of our times. In fact, there are emotional and social issues that cannot be effectively addressed by online culture. An off-line culture is needed and the game of Go can provide this. It is often said that Go is a great way to make friends. The mark of a really good Go player is that he/she is humble and willing to help with the improvement of one's Go skills.

I think the lessons I have learned this year from the Go Club are:

1. Serious elementary students are rare, especially when around their friends.
2. Quick and dirty introductions are a great way of getting younger kids interested, or at least informed about the game.
3. Keep it fun; if you can keep your less serious students playing some version of Go, you will have a chance to snag them once they are ready to get to business.
3. a. Have options. Different play modes such as King of the Hill or Rengo helps keep kids from getting too bored when they aren't ready for real games.

Obviously I would prefer to have more players serious about the game, but I will take fun for now as long as I can keep them on task long enough. I'm looking forward to having the summer off from Go Club to get things re-organized and planned for next year. I'm thinking of talking with some of the coaches and teachers to see how their practices usually go for school activities.

Looks like you have a good program in place. It has the potential to become something greater.

Go need not be a game for scholars. It can also be rather light-hearted, despite the skill it demands of its practitioners. As with anything else, constant practice is needed in order to become proficient. Then again, when something is fun, it doesn't really feel like practice, doesn't it

Elementary schoolchildren usually have challenges of their own off the goban. I imagine they would like to forget or at least reinterpret these challenges when they sit in front of the board to play. (When I was an elementary student, looking at books was one of my favorite pastimes, at least to forget the challenges I faced as a kid growing up.)

There are different versions of the game of Go, with different rulesets. E.G., sunjang baduk and Ancient Chinese Go. There is also hasami shogi, a Japanese board game played with Go stones and 9x9 board, but the stones go in the spaces, not on the intersections. It is even possible to play checkers using stones and a 9x9 board. Also, when you have the chance you can bring in some strong Go players to give your kids a real challenge.

I'm not trying to be mean but if I was that age (and at my current age too) those posters look horrendously cheesy. That seems to be pretty common among Go themed art.

For the folks who say "Go, like chess, can never be 'cool' " -- they should watch the documentary "Brooklyn Castle", about an inner city school where the chess club is the largest extracurricular -- the school president is also a top player in the chess club, which meets *every day of the week*

There's a trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOFtm_XlNjo

you can watch it on netflix, etc. I found it pretty inspiring. These things are possible.

I think those posters look great, btw!

elementc wrote:I'm not trying to be mean but if I was that age (and at my current age too) those posters look horrendously cheesy. That seems to be pretty common among Go themed art.

Not as cheesy as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1rwwUYdkDg .

Hello bahkana and others,
How's the situation at the moment?
Perhaps you want to give us an update on the go club and yourself, how you handle affairs currently. I am anxious to learn if you were able to keep the youngsters interested, perhaps even attract new ones. Or has interest vanished over time? Either way, I am interested.

We started a go club for children one and a half year ago.
Difficult to keep them (and their parents!) interested. Nevertheless, we now have 7 children as young members, which I think is quite an achievement. We hope to grow on that, but I reckon 'turnover' will be high. How's your experience with that?

I feel that Aji's quest (and the printable brochure introducing Go) might be helpful for OP. Just going to leave this here.
http://home.earthlink.net/~inkwolf/Inkw ... Quest.html

sybob wrote:Hello bahkana and others,
How's the situation at the moment?
Perhaps you want to give us an update on the go club and yourself, how you handle affairs currently. I am anxious to learn if you were able to keep the youngsters interested, perhaps even attract new ones. Or has interest vanished over time? Either way, I am interested.

We started a go club for children one and a half year ago.
Difficult to keep them (and their parents!) interested. Nevertheless, we now have 7 children as young members, which I think is quite an achievement. We hope to grow on that, but I reckon 'turnover' will be high. How's your experience with that?

Hello Sybob,

Congratulations on getting such good numbers!

The Club is still going, albeit quite small. We tend to get a bunch of kids at the beginning of each year and lose most of them within a few months. This is almost entirely due to Sports. This is a very small school and with that most of the athletes in one sport are usually in all of them. Meaning that they're only available for the first couple months of school before Football season starts. We have two High School students yet, and we've had a good number of our HS team graduate. So our turnover is quite high, but everyone who has left is another seed. A decent number of people in the school now know what Go is, even if they've never played. This particular school isn't necessarily the best place to start a club like this, considering they haven't even had a chess club in at least a generation or two. All of our youngsters have since stopped, but these were all due to other activities such as sports or dance teams. I haven't done another drive for young players yet because of not knowing how long I will remain at this school and the low retention is a bit disheartening at times. If I'm still here next year, I'll do another push at the upper Elementary level by doing first-capture introductions with a few classes again.

Good luck!

Koosh wrote:I feel that Aji's quest (and the printable brochure introducing Go) might be helpful for OP. Just going to leave this here.
http://home.earthlink.net/~inkwolf/Inkw ... Quest.html

I love Aji's Quest and have shown it to members in the past. Great little web comic.

Thank you for your update bahkana.

Today, we presented go during a fair. Not to attract club members, only to show it, get people incl. youngsters interested (the game is not very well known over here). Only some people take the time to learn the very basics, but there were also some children which tried their first game. I always find it fun and interesting to see that the stones are so inviting that they immediately want to play. And some were surprisingly good for a first game. Just to show the joy this game brings.

xed_over wrote:I remember reading somewhere, someone wrote a paper on the educational benefits of the game of go. Maybe someone else will remember where it is and provide a link.

Maybe you meant this?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4023088/

This scientific article shows that children with ADHD show significant brain changes and improvements if they play go over some time.