Life In 19x19

You have to be careful with those pickup games though. Maybe it's due to too many years in club life, but there seems to be a pattern of:

1: "Oh, you play?"
2: "I used to." = 1-3 dan
2: "A little..." = 3-4 dan
2: "Yes." = 6-8 dan
2: "I know the rules..." = 2k-2d

Bruce "Rank" Young

In Black Star Rising by Frederik Pohl there is an episode with a secretary playing Go with computer. And the name of her chief is Manyface. I wonder if this is an accidental coincidence with the Many Faces of Go.

TegaiS wrote:In Black Star Rising by Frederik Pohl there is an episode with a secretary playing Go with computer. And the name of her chief is Manyface. I wonder if this is an accidental coincidence with the Many Faces of Go.

Wow, cool find.

And thanks, I took that as a recommendation (I’ve read other SF by Pohl before), ordered the book from booklooker.de, a German store for used books, albeit the EN original, $7,67 incl. shipping.

Regards, Tom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRHdIScOMWQ

Eh, it appeared.

TegaiS wrote:In Black Star Rising by Frederik Pohl there is an episode with a secretary playing Go with computer. And the name of her chief is Manyface. I wonder if this is an accidental coincidence with the Many Faces of Go.

Why not ask Fotland?

1) TegaiS: Meanwhile I’ve read Frederick Pohl’s “Black Star Rising”, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, thank you!

2) This just in, via Go Onuyu on Facebook

There's a cool Go scene in Misaeng ep. 3 with cameo appearances by Yoo Changhyuk and Cho Hunhyun:

Last night, while zapping TV channels on the iPad, I saw a scene of Largo Winch II (released internationally as The Burma Conspiracy) where for a second or two there was a running game of Go to be seen on the table. Sadly, I wasn’t fast enough to make a screenshot.

From the opening credits of Kotoura-san: the man on the right is Kotoura's grandfather. No idea yet who the guy in the Jedi-colored kimono is, or whether they play during the actual show. We watched two episodes at our anime club meeting.It seems to jump back and forth between tragic and hilarious. (Like my Go skills!) Will be watching the rest soon...

EDIT: No go in the actual series, too bad.

Question (requiring "vote" of the group?)

How about MISTAKEN references to go? In other words, a character in a book is referring to go, knows it is a game played in Japan, but misunderstands what sort of game it is (thinks it is something like three dimensional chess).

Should we consider that a reference or not?

Notice that this isn't misunderstanding by the author but of one of her characters.

A reference is a reference.

Such references seem fine by me. After all, that's usually how go is referenced in America in real life. Everyone else thinks it's Othello or Chinese Checkers...

Nobody here already mentioned author Robert van Gulik?
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_van_Gulik.

Robert van Gulik is the author of a series of detective books about Judge Dee ('Rechter Tie' in Dutch or 'Meiro-no-satsujin' in Japanese). Go plays an important part in his books, primarily because they were based on (or were translations of) Chinese books. The English language series cover 17 different editions. He illustrated them himself, all in Oriental style.
Born in 1910, he was Dutch by birth, later to become ambassador in Japan. He lived in Washington, China, Inda and married a Chinese woman.

When I was young (looong time ago), I used to read them.
Perhaps it was the seed for my fascination for go?

People here heard of him or know his books?

Well then, in one of Donna Leon's books (mysteries set in Venice). The character is confusing go with 3D chess (thinks 3D chess is called go in Japan).

But odd, I don't remember go references in the Judge Dee books.

sybob wrote:Nobody here already mentioned author Robert van Gulik?
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_van_Gulik.

Robert van Gulik is the author of a series of detective books about Judge Dee [..]

Thanks, never heard of him before, now I ordered two of his books in a used book store