GO vs Family
I love my family—if you are fortunate to be part of a loving and nurturing family/tribal group, that is about as good as it gets. Still, GO is even better! GO doesn’t make me go to bed at a certain time, it doesn’t make me do the dishes. GO DOES nag me if I play too many video games. “Why are you playing Skyrim again? You’ll never be shodan playing Skyrim all day.”
GO doesn’t make me clean my room, either. But GO does want me to organize all of my GO books. “How many GO books do you need? Do you really need EVERY Yuan Zhou book? (“YES!”) At least get them all off the floor!” And, “You can get a 12-dollar bookshelf from Target you know!” Who has 12 dollars? I don’t work, I play GO!
Fortunately, it is even better than that because my family supports me when I play GO! That may have been part of my improvement over the years. My wife doesn’t mind if I sit in my room reading GO books, or attend tournaments or clubs, or sit in my room on-line buying GO books. Her motto is, “At least you don’t play pachinko.”
My daughters find it the least embarrassing thing I do. And if I do it in a room they’re not in, even better. My daughters even once got me a coffee mug that said, “World’s Most Embarrassing Dad!” on it. I mean come on, the Committee on Embarrassing Dads in Zurich didn’t even tell me I was in the running! What an honor.
My son is a whole different kettle of fish. He is significantly better than me—I’m AGA 2 dan, he is currently AGA 6dan (at least). I add the "at least" because as a proud parent I want the world to know he is probably even stronger than that. As someone who also plays GO, I know he is significantly stronger than that. The last time I beat him in an even game was 7 or 8 years ago. More recently, in 2022, we both made it to the finals in an Ohio championship tournament. He vs me. An even game, I came in second. I resigned at move 156 (I lost at move 5 or 6).
The downside to having a son so much stronger than me is that I am now incapable of giving advice or lessons to, like, kyu players, or anyone. The problem is, no matter what I might want to say, “In this situation, blah blah blah…” by the time I get to the second “blah” I’m doubting myself. By the end of all my “blahs” I usually blurt out something like, “Of course, I don’t know what my son would say about this position…I could be wrong…Man, I am BAD at this game…maybe I should stick to Skyrim!”