Authors Note:
Sorry about the lack of paragraph indenting and spacing. I wrote this on my computers writing program and it didn't convert when I copied pasted it.
Don't judge my grammar or tense changes! I tried to keep it in the same tense but I kept messing up. Unless you want to go proofread and fix the whole thing for me, then don't complain. It's a story for fun anyway. :P
Lastly, yes I know many words are in here that a nine year old doesn't know but...come on...who really cares?
This was inspired because I was bored and I will be teaching a class of kids around this age group to play Go. So I thought it would be cool to write a story from their perspective. I know I'm not 7dan!! But I think if I ever continue this it would be good for the plot to have a 7dan play in top tournaments to inspire the kids. (I also would like to be 7dan someday so maybe one day it'll be true. ^.~)
Lastly, the names...I didn't really put to much thought into it. I used whatever popped into my head. Mr. Tom is short for Thomas or Thomson. (Thomas is my middle name.) Tommy is inspired from a 90's cartoon that is also short for Thomas. Randie...well I have no idea where it came from. It just popped into my head. Rodgers just fit so I went with it. You guys want names in the story, feel free to post them below.
Enjoy!
Chapter 1: Go
Today day was just like any other. I’min school and going through my classes in the usual way. For your information, I’m in the fourth grade, 9 years old. I’ll turn 10 this year and it’s a big year since I’ll hit the double digits! But that’s besides the point. My name is Randie Rogers. (Yes, I know you usually give your name first, but I’m excited about turning 10!) I’m an average boy in elementary school. My hobbies are writing in my journal and kick ball. I never thought writing in my journal would be interesting, but our English teacher said it would be good practice so she made us do it. (Who knew I would like writing down my thoughts.) As for kick ball, I consider myself the ace of the team. I mean, I can’t kick it very far, but I can aim it pretty well. As for why today is special, well today is when I discovered “Go.”
Let’s start from the beginning. At lunch my friend suggested I check out the Go club. At the time I thought it was an after school club that went places, but he corrected me and told me it was a club to play a board game called Go. It sounded pretty stupid at first, but this particular friend happens to be my next door neighbor and has been my friend for a long time now. I consider him the second best of the kick ball team. If it was anyone else who asked, I probably wouldn’t have gone. But since it was him, I decided to go take a look.
Oh, I should mention that his name is Tommy. I don’t know his last name because I don’t really care. He is also 9 years old. (I introduced his name first this time…happy?) Our parents are considering having a join Birthday party for the two of us this summer. Though I’m technically a month older than he is, they want us to turn 10 together. Anyway, his hobbies are kick ball, and apparently playing this Go game.
My class had just ended so I was heading to the computer lab where the club meets. Upon entering I was greeted by an older guy who looks like he is in his twenties. He was professionally dressed so I guess he worked there.
“Hello there.” He said. “Are you here for the Go class?”
I nodded to him and looked around to find Tommy. It was then that Tommy saw me.
“Randie!” He shouted as he ran over to me. “Mr. Tom, this is my friend Randie I told you about.”
Apparently they had talked about me in the past. According to Tommy, he originally invited me because his teacher said it was better to have a friend to learn and play with rather that just learn by yourself.
“I see. So your name is Randie? I am Mr. Tom, the Go instructor. It’s nice to meet you.” He said while sticking out his hand. I found it strange that an adult wanted to shake hands with me, but I shook his hand anyway and felt a little older. (I’m feeling that ten age already!) “Do you happen to know how to play?”
I shook my head no. This morning I didn’t even know what Go was. But after taking a look around I saw a couple kids playing a game on the computer. It looked like a grid board with black and white dots all over it.
“This is his first time playing Go.” Said Tommy eagerly.
“Hey…” I said, “I thought it was a board game. Why are those kids playing on a computer?”
“Ah,” replied My. Tom. “That is because you gain play stronger opponents online. While the game is originally played on a board face to face, to level up, many kids practice on an online Go server.”
Tommy nodded alongside the teacher. Apparently he knew this already and it was nothing knew to him. Well, if you can play it on the computer, maybe this game isn’t so bad after all. I like to play video games at home, but my parents won’t let me until after my homework is done. If I can just come here and play games, then I can just push homework until later. The club sounded better by the minute.
“Do you mind if I use a board to teach hime how to play?” Asked Tommy.
“Certainly,” replied Mr. Tom. “That is perfectly fine. After all, learning from a friend is much more fun than learning from an adult right?” He said half jokingly. Though I couldn’t argue. Adults can be intimidating at times.
“Great!” Shouted Tommy, “Randie, over here.” He said as he guided me to a desk with a small sized board on it. The board seem to be a 9x9 grid. As I glanced over at the kids on the computers I noticed that they were playing on a bigger grid.
“Why is this board smaller than theirs?” I asked while pointing at the other kids.
“That’s because it is easier to learn on a smaller board and work your way up to the big board.” Replied Tommy. “Right now I’m only 27kyu so I don’t think I’m ready for that size board yet. That’s why I am still on a 13x13.”
“Huh?” Was all I could muster to say. I didn’t understand a thing he just said.
“Ah, let me explain.” He said. “Kyu is a level that reflects your strength. 30kyu is the lowest and is someone who only knows the rules of the game. Then it goes up to 1kyu. After that is 1dan, which is like a black belt in Karate.” I only nodded since I was barley keeping up with him. “The maximum amateur rank is 9dan. Then you have to take a test to become a pro.” He then point to the teacher who is helping other kids. “Our teacher is currently 7dan, so he is really strong. No one in the whole class has beaten him yet. Even with the maximum handicap.”
“Not a single person?!” I replied shocked. Tommy merely nodded and then continued.
“The official board size is 19x19. But Mr. Tom said it was too big for beginner’s as they tend to get overwhelmed. So normally, you start on a 9x9 and then move up to a 13x13. After that when you feel ready, you can play on the 19x19. Though I tried it once and it was very confusing.” He said that last bit with a bit of a sad expression. I’m guessing he really wants to play on the big board but just lacks the confidence or skill to do so.
“Okay, well I don’t really care much about all that right now. Since I’m hear, can you just teach me the rules so we can play? Is it difficult?” I asked impatiently.
“Actually,” he said. “The rules are really easy. But since you have so many option it is a bit confusing.” I didn’t really get what he meant so I just waited for him to explain the rules. I just wanted to play, not hear a lecture. “So to start off, both players will get one set of stones. One player will play black, and the other plays white. Since I’m the stronger player right now, I will take white and let you have black. Black always goes first and has a little advantage.” I take the black stones from him and I was expecting rocks, but they are plastic little pieces that remind me of Mentos candy. Though I guess it would be bad to try and eat them. I’m sure they taste horrible.
I started to think to myself how funny it would be if I won on the very first game. He said black has an advantage, so it’s possible. But maybe I would feel bad if that happened. (Or maybe not.) I had no idea how wrong I was thinking that I actually had a chance…
“So the stones are played on the intersections of the grid. You can place your stone on any intersection including the borders and the corners. But it is not recommended.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because each stone you place on the board has “Liberties.” Liberties are like your life lines. The lines connected to your stones are called liberties. If your stone has zero liberties, then it is considered a dead stone and taken off the board.”
“Oh I see!” I said, “So if I placed it on the edge I would have less liberties since there are no lined outside the border. Even less so in the corner.”
“Exactly!” He exclaimed. I think he was happy that I was catching on since earlier it seemed like he really wanted me to like Go. “So if I place a stone in the center here, how many liberties does it have?” He asked while placing a stone on the center of the board.
“1..2..3…4. Four!” I said.
“Correct! Now if I connect a stone to it, the stones share their liberties. But stones are only connected through the lines. So if stones are diagonal from each other, they don’t share liberties. So if I have two stones connected in a row like this…” He said as he set up two stones next to each other. “How many liberties do they have?”
I debated for a few seconds and then said “Six!”
“Correct!” He said again. “You’re picking this up pretty fast.” I smiled getting excited that this was coming easy to me. The game looked boring and confusing at first, but maybe it wasn’t so bad. “So now that you know about liberties, let’s try playing a game of ‘Capture Go.’”
“Capture Go?” I asked.
“Basically in Capture Go, the first player to capture a stone or multiple stones wins. This uses half the rules in the real Go game.”
“Only half? So You’re saying I learned half the rules already?” I said to him dubiously.
“Yup.” Was all he replied. If this is half the rules, then this game is surprisingly simple. I bet I’ll catch up to him in no time at this rate. After that he explained to me some simple courtesies about the game. Apparently, it is respectful to wish your opponent a good game at the start and to thank your opponent for the game afterwords, even if you win or lose. He also said the teacher will get upset if we don’t clean up our mess when we finished, so we had to make sure not to forget.
Then we started to play. I had black and since black always goes first, I had the first move. Since this game was to capture your opponent and not get captured yourself, then just placing it anywhere other than the sides or corners should be fine. So I place my first stone in the center. After that, it was his turn to move and place a stone. It went on like this until someone captures someone. I was a little worried that if neither player got captured, then we would go on forever. But Tommy reassured me that it would not last forever because we eventually ran out of moves. So I simply took his word for it.
After seeing my move, Tommy picked up his first stone and placed it right next to mine, filling a liberty. Thus our battle on the board started. I picked up my next stone and place it right next to his. Now I had two stones filling his liberties which left him with only two left. Both of my stones had three. I had only played two moves but I was already at an advantage…or so I’d thought.
His next move came down in a unexpected place. I had expected him to extend his stone to gain liberties, but instead he played a diagonal move from his which was also in-between mine. Now he has two stones down to two liberties and they were not connected. He had just told me that stones do not share liberties unless they connect through the lines, but here he was playing a diagonal move. No wonder he wasn’t on the 19x19 board yet, he was killing himself!
I wasn’t about to let up there though just because he was playing a mistake. I was in this to win. Therefore my next move was to take another of his liberties. Afterwords, I was informed this situation was an “Atari.” To put someone into atari means to reduce them down to one liberty. So now one of his white stones was in atari and about to be captured. I was only one step away from winning if he didn’t see it. Thankfully for him though, he did and he extended out by placing a stone next to his. Now his stone had three liberties, so it became more difficult to attack. So I turned my attention to the other stone that one had two liberties and repeated the same sequence. I put him into atari and then he extended. Now both of his two groups of stones had three liberties. It was no matter to me though. I simply placed another stone to take a liberty of one of his two groups.
It was here that I saw a smile cross his face. He then picked up a stone and put my first stone that I placed into atari while extending his own group to gain liberties. I had forgotten about that stone and now it only had one liberty left. Thankfully I noticed it then so I extending to gain another liberty. But I was right next to his second group so I still only had two liberties instead of having three if he didn’t have stones there. He then placed a stone around mine again and reduced it down to one. So with no other move, I extended again. But he repeated the process, reducing down to one on the other side. I was confused as to what he was doing since I could still escape. So I extended again in the other direction. But the smile never left his face…
Once again he placed a stone from the first side, putting me once again into atari. It was then I started to notice a pattern. My group was starting to form a step ladder like shape. I was in atari so once again I had no choice but to extend. If I lost these stones then I would lose the game. I had no choice but to extend. But once I did, he would repeat the process and place on the other side I was running. It was a never ending pattern. I ran one direction, he blocked. I ran the other, he blocked the other. I had no way out. I just kept extending and extending and then finally I was forced to the edge of the board.
After I placed my stone on the edge, trying to escape his grasp and gain another liberty, I noticed that even after I had extended, I only had one liberty. I was still in atari with no where left to run. He pushed me all the way from the center of the board to the edge with every single move he played. I couldn’t believe how he’d done that. I tried to think back, but there was no way out. Every move I was about to be captured. Every move was about to be game over. How could I have escaped?!
It was then that he placed his stone down, capturing all of mine that had now become a large connected line of stones. Picking them up with a smile on his face he declared “Looks like I win.” He then bowed his head slightly and thanked me for the game while I just stared at him with a dumbfounded look on my face.
“What just happened?!” I thought to myself. This had concluded my first game of this mysterious game Go.
Today day was just like any other. I’min school and going through my classes in the usual way. For your information, I’m in the fourth grade, 9 years old. I’ll turn 10 this year and it’s a big year since I’ll hit the double digits! But that’s besides the point. My name is Randie Rogers. (Yes, I know you usually give your name first, but I’m excited about turning 10!) I’m an average boy in elementary school. My hobbies are writing in my journal and kick ball. I never thought writing in my journal would be interesting, but our English teacher said it would be good practice so she made us do it. (Who knew I would like writing down my thoughts.) As for kick ball, I consider myself the ace of the team. I mean, I can’t kick it very far, but I can aim it pretty well. As for why today is special, well today is when I discovered “Go.”
Let’s start from the beginning. At lunch my friend suggested I check out the Go club. At the time I thought it was an after school club that went places, but he corrected me and told me it was a club to play a board game called Go. It sounded pretty stupid at first, but this particular friend happens to be my next door neighbor and has been my friend for a long time now. I consider him the second best of the kick ball team. If it was anyone else who asked, I probably wouldn’t have gone. But since it was him, I decided to go take a look.
Oh, I should mention that his name is Tommy. I don’t know his last name because I don’t really care. He is also 9 years old. (I introduced his name first this time…happy?) Our parents are considering having a join Birthday party for the two of us this summer. Though I’m technically a month older than he is, they want us to turn 10 together. Anyway, his hobbies are kick ball, and apparently playing this Go game.
My class had just ended so I was heading to the computer lab where the club meets. Upon entering I was greeted by an older guy who looks like he is in his twenties. He was professionally dressed so I guess he worked there.
“Hello there.” He said. “Are you here for the Go class?”
I nodded to him and looked around to find Tommy. It was then that Tommy saw me.
“Randie!” He shouted as he ran over to me. “Mr. Tom, this is my friend Randie I told you about.”
Apparently they had talked about me in the past. According to Tommy, he originally invited me because his teacher said it was better to have a friend to learn and play with rather that just learn by yourself.
“I see. So your name is Randie? I am Mr. Tom, the Go instructor. It’s nice to meet you.” He said while sticking out his hand. I found it strange that an adult wanted to shake hands with me, but I shook his hand anyway and felt a little older. (I’m feeling that ten age already!) “Do you happen to know how to play?”
I shook my head no. This morning I didn’t even know what Go was. But after taking a look around I saw a couple kids playing a game on the computer. It looked like a grid board with black and white dots all over it.
“This is his first time playing Go.” Said Tommy eagerly.
“Hey…” I said, “I thought it was a board game. Why are those kids playing on a computer?”
“Ah,” replied My. Tom. “That is because you gain play stronger opponents online. While the game is originally played on a board face to face, to level up, many kids practice on an online Go server.”
Tommy nodded alongside the teacher. Apparently he knew this already and it was nothing knew to him. Well, if you can play it on the computer, maybe this game isn’t so bad after all. I like to play video games at home, but my parents won’t let me until after my homework is done. If I can just come here and play games, then I can just push homework until later. The club sounded better by the minute.
“Do you mind if I use a board to teach hime how to play?” Asked Tommy.
“Certainly,” replied Mr. Tom. “That is perfectly fine. After all, learning from a friend is much more fun than learning from an adult right?” He said half jokingly. Though I couldn’t argue. Adults can be intimidating at times.
“Great!” Shouted Tommy, “Randie, over here.” He said as he guided me to a desk with a small sized board on it. The board seem to be a 9x9 grid. As I glanced over at the kids on the computers I noticed that they were playing on a bigger grid.
“Why is this board smaller than theirs?” I asked while pointing at the other kids.
“That’s because it is easier to learn on a smaller board and work your way up to the big board.” Replied Tommy. “Right now I’m only 27kyu so I don’t think I’m ready for that size board yet. That’s why I am still on a 13x13.”
“Huh?” Was all I could muster to say. I didn’t understand a thing he just said.
“Ah, let me explain.” He said. “Kyu is a level that reflects your strength. 30kyu is the lowest and is someone who only knows the rules of the game. Then it goes up to 1kyu. After that is 1dan, which is like a black belt in Karate.” I only nodded since I was barley keeping up with him. “The maximum amateur rank is 9dan. Then you have to take a test to become a pro.” He then point to the teacher who is helping other kids. “Our teacher is currently 7dan, so he is really strong. No one in the whole class has beaten him yet. Even with the maximum handicap.”
“Not a single person?!” I replied shocked. Tommy merely nodded and then continued.
“The official board size is 19x19. But Mr. Tom said it was too big for beginner’s as they tend to get overwhelmed. So normally, you start on a 9x9 and then move up to a 13x13. After that when you feel ready, you can play on the 19x19. Though I tried it once and it was very confusing.” He said that last bit with a bit of a sad expression. I’m guessing he really wants to play on the big board but just lacks the confidence or skill to do so.
“Okay, well I don’t really care much about all that right now. Since I’m hear, can you just teach me the rules so we can play? Is it difficult?” I asked impatiently.
“Actually,” he said. “The rules are really easy. But since you have so many option it is a bit confusing.” I didn’t really get what he meant so I just waited for him to explain the rules. I just wanted to play, not hear a lecture. “So to start off, both players will get one set of stones. One player will play black, and the other plays white. Since I’m the stronger player right now, I will take white and let you have black. Black always goes first and has a little advantage.” I take the black stones from him and I was expecting rocks, but they are plastic little pieces that remind me of Mentos candy. Though I guess it would be bad to try and eat them. I’m sure they taste horrible.
I started to think to myself how funny it would be if I won on the very first game. He said black has an advantage, so it’s possible. But maybe I would feel bad if that happened. (Or maybe not.) I had no idea how wrong I was thinking that I actually had a chance…
“So the stones are played on the intersections of the grid. You can place your stone on any intersection including the borders and the corners. But it is not recommended.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because each stone you place on the board has “Liberties.” Liberties are like your life lines. The lines connected to your stones are called liberties. If your stone has zero liberties, then it is considered a dead stone and taken off the board.”
“Oh I see!” I said, “So if I placed it on the edge I would have less liberties since there are no lined outside the border. Even less so in the corner.”
“Exactly!” He exclaimed. I think he was happy that I was catching on since earlier it seemed like he really wanted me to like Go. “So if I place a stone in the center here, how many liberties does it have?” He asked while placing a stone on the center of the board.
“1..2..3…4. Four!” I said.
“Correct! Now if I connect a stone to it, the stones share their liberties. But stones are only connected through the lines. So if stones are diagonal from each other, they don’t share liberties. So if I have two stones connected in a row like this…” He said as he set up two stones next to each other. “How many liberties do they have?”
I debated for a few seconds and then said “Six!”
“Correct!” He said again. “You’re picking this up pretty fast.” I smiled getting excited that this was coming easy to me. The game looked boring and confusing at first, but maybe it wasn’t so bad. “So now that you know about liberties, let’s try playing a game of ‘Capture Go.’”
“Capture Go?” I asked.
“Basically in Capture Go, the first player to capture a stone or multiple stones wins. This uses half the rules in the real Go game.”
“Only half? So You’re saying I learned half the rules already?” I said to him dubiously.
“Yup.” Was all he replied. If this is half the rules, then this game is surprisingly simple. I bet I’ll catch up to him in no time at this rate. After that he explained to me some simple courtesies about the game. Apparently, it is respectful to wish your opponent a good game at the start and to thank your opponent for the game afterwords, even if you win or lose. He also said the teacher will get upset if we don’t clean up our mess when we finished, so we had to make sure not to forget.
Then we started to play. I had black and since black always goes first, I had the first move. Since this game was to capture your opponent and not get captured yourself, then just placing it anywhere other than the sides or corners should be fine. So I place my first stone in the center. After that, it was his turn to move and place a stone. It went on like this until someone captures someone. I was a little worried that if neither player got captured, then we would go on forever. But Tommy reassured me that it would not last forever because we eventually ran out of moves. So I simply took his word for it.
After seeing my move, Tommy picked up his first stone and placed it right next to mine, filling a liberty. Thus our battle on the board started. I picked up my next stone and place it right next to his. Now I had two stones filling his liberties which left him with only two left. Both of my stones had three. I had only played two moves but I was already at an advantage…or so I’d thought.
His next move came down in a unexpected place. I had expected him to extend his stone to gain liberties, but instead he played a diagonal move from his which was also in-between mine. Now he has two stones down to two liberties and they were not connected. He had just told me that stones do not share liberties unless they connect through the lines, but here he was playing a diagonal move. No wonder he wasn’t on the 19x19 board yet, he was killing himself!
I wasn’t about to let up there though just because he was playing a mistake. I was in this to win. Therefore my next move was to take another of his liberties. Afterwords, I was informed this situation was an “Atari.” To put someone into atari means to reduce them down to one liberty. So now one of his white stones was in atari and about to be captured. I was only one step away from winning if he didn’t see it. Thankfully for him though, he did and he extended out by placing a stone next to his. Now his stone had three liberties, so it became more difficult to attack. So I turned my attention to the other stone that one had two liberties and repeated the same sequence. I put him into atari and then he extended. Now both of his two groups of stones had three liberties. It was no matter to me though. I simply placed another stone to take a liberty of one of his two groups.
It was here that I saw a smile cross his face. He then picked up a stone and put my first stone that I placed into atari while extending his own group to gain liberties. I had forgotten about that stone and now it only had one liberty left. Thankfully I noticed it then so I extending to gain another liberty. But I was right next to his second group so I still only had two liberties instead of having three if he didn’t have stones there. He then placed a stone around mine again and reduced it down to one. So with no other move, I extended again. But he repeated the process, reducing down to one on the other side. I was confused as to what he was doing since I could still escape. So I extended again in the other direction. But the smile never left his face…
Once again he placed a stone from the first side, putting me once again into atari. It was then I started to notice a pattern. My group was starting to form a step ladder like shape. I was in atari so once again I had no choice but to extend. If I lost these stones then I would lose the game. I had no choice but to extend. But once I did, he would repeat the process and place on the other side I was running. It was a never ending pattern. I ran one direction, he blocked. I ran the other, he blocked the other. I had no way out. I just kept extending and extending and then finally I was forced to the edge of the board.
After I placed my stone on the edge, trying to escape his grasp and gain another liberty, I noticed that even after I had extended, I only had one liberty. I was still in atari with no where left to run. He pushed me all the way from the center of the board to the edge with every single move he played. I couldn’t believe how he’d done that. I tried to think back, but there was no way out. Every move I was about to be captured. Every move was about to be game over. How could I have escaped?!
It was then that he placed his stone down, capturing all of mine that had now become a large connected line of stones. Picking them up with a smile on his face he declared “Looks like I win.” He then bowed his head slightly and thanked me for the game while I just stared at him with a dumbfounded look on my face.
“What just happened?!” I thought to myself. This had concluded my first game of this mysterious game Go.
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