GO - !!!! Amazing Game!!!

So, every time I say that I love playing Go, people just look at me like: WHAT??? "Then I say: Go, the Board Game... IGO.... no???". So people say: "mmm..." and then some say "AHHHHH I know, I know!!!..." Other say: "I don’t know that game".
Well, this happens because is a little rare that people knows and play this game, at least people I know. First, is Asian Culture game, if you are not into the Asian things, of course you will never know. Second, is a game where you have to think AAAA LOOOTTTT... (like chess) so not everyone likes those kind of game. And third, you will never see a Go Championship on the TV (except of course if you live in Japan...). Is like one of my friend’s reaction after I told I was going to a see a Go Championship: "But man... that’s like going to a Chess Championship, is boring!!!".

But, but the game is AMAZING!!! Is one of the hardest games I have ever seen, I even think that is harder than Chess, because is way more big with way more possibilities. So is just an amazing game.

To explain really quickly, the board is a 19x19 matrix, and there’s white and black stones (Is not Othello!!) The final Idea is to get as much territory as you can. Uff... and there’s like 6 rules, and that’s it! Image how many possibilities you have... approx. 4,63×10¹⁷⁰ possible positions (thanks to wikipedia for this info and the pic).
People say that an exact game has never repeated and probably never will.

So this year World Amateur Championship was held here in Tokyo, and one friend of mine from CR came. (Yeap, there is an International Go association in CR) I went two days only because I had class, but I enjoyed a lot. I met a lot of people from different countries, and very interesting people! There was a Chinese kid of 13 years old, that was 7DAN… and he was the one the won the thing!!! So he is now 8DAN (this is the maximum for an amateur)…13 years old… ufff… come on I’m 25 and I hardly get to 9Kyu. Amazing, amazing… the first 3 places where for the Asian people, China, Korea, and Japan, as usual. But there is a lot of strong players from other parts of the world, for example Argentina is like 5 or 6 Dan… to get to that you really need aaaa looottttt of training…

Well I did have a lot of fun! I learn some things, and will keep playing. I recommend this game to everyone, because is good training for the brain. Help you learn how to think and to see opportunities not that obvious situations. And it relaxes me… but of course I’m a weird guy…

This picture, dosen´t have anything to do with the Go thing, Is just me really wet. I forgot my umbrella in the LAB, so I had to go from my apartment to the LAB with out anything...

This is the Score Board of the Championship! Like 68 or so players...

That is the "Arena" of the game...

May be you can´t see him, but in the back and near the corner, theres Cajiao (my friend, and is not Adam, is his brother)

I need proof that I was in there.

This is a map for a old books store, is suppose that they have a lot of Go books... So if anyone wants to come.

This is in the station near the Nihon Ki-in (The Go Assosiation), people fishing... it looks fun!

At last day of course there is a picture session!! jajaja, that Japanese lady was really funny, because she was screaming to all the contestands to look at her camera, and to move here and there, but in Japanese!!! jajaja... so no one understood what the hell she wanted... it was a mess. But at the end they did it.