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"Go ahead: Players establish another club dedicated to ancient Chinese=20 game" http://www.syracuse.com/living/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-1= /1038649309281421.xml by Frank Herron, Syracuse, New York Post Standard, Monday, December 2, 2002 -- CNY section, page D-1 ---------- Go ahead: Players establish another club dedicated to ancient Chinese game = Many board-game players in this country are bypassing Go.=20 They don't know what they're missing, says Mark Brown.=20 Brown, a philosophy professor at Syracuse University, has been playing Go=20 for more than 40 years. He and other local players of the ancient Chinese=20 game are launching a third Go Club (Ithaca has one).=20 A group will gather at 7 p.m. today in the dining area of the DeWitt=20 Wegmans on East Genesee Street. They hope it's the first of weekly=20 sessions.=20 They will do battle on wooden boards, marked with a grid of 19 horizontal=20 and 19 vertical lines. Players alternately place white or black "stones"=20 at grid intersections. The goal is to encircle empty territory and=20 opposing stones.=20 That's why the Chinese word for the game, often written "wei-chi" or=20 "weiqi," means "surrounding game."=20 The origins of Go disappear into the mists of ancient China, about 4,000=20 years ago.=20 The beginnings of the Go Club at SU also disappear - into the mists of the = mid-20th century.=20 "It may even go back before the war," Brown says, meaning World War II.=20 Brown heard of Go while he was in elementary school in the Oswego County=20 town of Mexico in the 1940s. His father was preparing a talk on the=20 development of the atomic and hydrogen bombs, and one thing caught the=20 youngster's attention.=20 He noticed that the scientists who were working at Los Alamos, N.M.,=20 played Go for recreation.=20 Years later, while an undergraduate at SU, Brown began to play the game.=20 In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he ran into a number of employees at=20 the General Electric plant in Liverpool who played the game during their=20 lunch hour.=20 The game is deceptively simple, he says. While the basics might come=20 easily, the number of stones and number of moves can be dazzling. On=20 average, at any point in the game, a Go player has can pick one of about=20 240 moves. That's about eight times the average moves available to a chess = player.=20 Brown has seen players come and, well, go in his 40-year connection with=20 the SU Go Club.=20 Participation has ranged from about 30 to two, he says. Nowadays,=20 on-campus participation hovers near the lower end.=20 One person who's been involved with the SU club for about 30 years, Anton=20 Ninno, is launching the Go club at Wegmans.=20 Ninno, who teaches technology to teachers for BOCES, says he wanted to=20 find an easily accessible place with ample parking.=20 But he's quick to say he doesn't want this new meeting time to draw people = away from Brown's meetings on campus. "When it comes to Go, Mark Brown is=20 The Man in this town," Ninno says.=20 =A9 2002 The Post-Standard. Used with permission. =5F=5F=5F=5F=5F=5F=5F=5F=5F=5F Anton Ninno, K12 Tech Integration Trainer Voice: 315-431-8407 E-mail: aninno@cnyric.org=20 6820 Thompson Road, Syracuse, NY 13221=20 OCM BOCES http://www.ocmboces.org/=20 NYGPS http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nygps/=20 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=- All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law. To change your LM_NET status, e-mail to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL 3) SET LM_NET MAIL 4) SET LM_NET DIGEST * Allow for confirmation. LM_NET Help & Information: http://ericir.syr.edu/lm_net/ Archive: http://askeric.org/Virtual/Listserv_Archives/LM_NET.shtml LM_NET Select/EL-Announce: http://www.cuenet.com/archive/el-announce/ LM_NET Supporters: http://ericir.syr.edu/lm_net/ven.html =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-