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Jump on in, the water’s fine: A first timer takes the Congress plunge

by Bethany Nyborg 18 kyu

 I attended my first US Go Congress seven years after I first learned to play, and yet I could count on the fingers of one hand how many times I had played against someone who knew what they were doing. Go came to Bedford, Virginia seven years ago when my brother and I watched Hikaru No Go, joined the AGA, and started a go club at the Bedford Public Library, which garnered us some coverage in the local paper (right). We learned very quickly that no one knew about the game. Our only option was to teach as many people to play as we could. As teenagers, we had more success teaching children than adults. I knew I would not live in that area for long, so my goal was to create a pocket of people who had heard of go. When the next person passionate about go came along, I wanted them to find their work already begun. Even though my dad’s new job was in Northern Virginia, I realized my obstacles had not decreased: I had just started going to college full time, and I didn’t have a driver’s license or a car. Go was put on the back burner for the next four years, but I always listed it in my top three favorite hobbies. Then I saw that the 2018 Go Congress would be at William and Mary College in nearby Williamsburg. With the support and blessing of my new husband (and a scholarship from the AGF), I decided to make this year’s US Go Congress my first AGA event. On the way to the Congress my nerves tensed as I wondered what people would think of my inexperienced, self-taught go.

I rarely played online because I was afraid people would think I was wasting their time by playing such bad moves. Still, I had positive experiences the three times I had been to an AGA go club, and I had high hopes for the Go Congress. Starting at registration, I met people who were as excited about go as I am and by the end of the first evening’s 9x9 tournament my fears had evaporated. I found that years of studying go problems on my own had given me important skills, and through the tutelage of good players I was able to improve my game in the areas that had intimidated me before. It did not matter that my game was lopsided going in, I was there to learn and improve. Much to my surprise, I came away with two medals, winning the 9x9 kyu championship and coming in second in my division at the Women’s Tournament. Every day I reveled in being surrounded by people talking about go and playing morning, afternoon, and evening. I achieved all my goals, made new friends and, armed with my AGA teaching certificate, I look forward to jumping back into promoting go in my community and creating new spaces for people to play.