... go .. c'mo let's go GO

First of all ... wth is GO ? ... well im sure you anime fans out there surely know the anime
Hikaru no Go ...right?

well Go is basically a type of chess ... no pawn,rooks,knights in shining armour, uber flying Queen , King who is a pampered soul hoping to be rescued from being checkmated or that sort of thing...

NO ... Go is a tactical game , which relies heavily on territorial expansion in order to advance in the game ... it is called weiqi in chinese , baduk in korean and Go in Japanese ...as well as many other names that i can't even begin to comprehend mainly cuz i don't know any others ... i'll use the Japanese name since 1] its easier to type ...2 letters only ba haha and 2] Japanese terms are more "song" to use XD

Go is played on a 19 X 19 lines wooden board [standard size] or also called Goban with white and black stones also known as go-ishi .There are also the 9 X 9 and 13 X 13 versions for beginners ... 19 X 19 is considered for advance players ...

Go is an ancient game that originated in China, with a definite history of over 3000 years, although there are historians who say that the game was invented more than 4000 years ago. Its name comes from the Japanese name Igo, which means "surrounding boardgame".

In Go , each player tries to exert more influence on territory than his or her opponent, using threats of death, capture, or isolation. Although at heart an abstract strategy game, Go has variously been said to be a symbolic representation of war, colonization, settling a frontier, capturing market share, having a debate or a lively discussion in a specialized language, and probably many other concrete situations.

hmm... i got exposed to Go when the manga Hikaru no Go came out ... but that was just a mild interest... it did get me signed up to panda.net tho , where many pro Go players now reside ... i signed up for that site like 3 or 2 years ago ... and after a few games i quit .. not because i lost or anything XD ... cus my friends at that time didn't want to play Go haha ... so i resigned.

Well why speak of something so long past ?
cuz apparently that spark of interest got ignited again on the day christ was born ... on the 25th of December , Christmas ....

that day , i went out with a couple of friends , namely Kevin Lo and Azam,whom i haven't seen since spm finished ... to Pizza Junction where we dined on pepperoni pizza , mexicano pizza and ...kanana pizza ? [i made the name up... its actually Banana-kaya pizza la lol] till 9+pm .... the kanana was okay lah .. a bit too sweet for my liking tho ... and there was a free gift too ! A GingerBread Man ! ... its still alive too ! i jz remembered it ..lolz~ Anyway Zam brought along a book ... or rather a guide on how to play Go ... and said that he was looking for Go players in Kuching ...

So in the end we ended up over my place and played /learned bout Go till well past 2 am ... yea 4 hours + of staring at the board .... by heck i din't even understand the terms they used ... so i read the book a bit ... to get to know the basic rules of gameplay ... although its a simple game ...the posibilities are endless so it becomes damn hard ... for such a simple game ...

All in all its a bit like "titik" or dots that most Malaysian kids have played in their primary school days .. except you don't depend on "eating" your oponent rather you depent on tricking your opponent and expanding your territory... and i have to admit XP i suck at Go haha ... but more games and digestion then i'll get better aye ?

Anyone frm kch wanna Go ? leave a msg on this blog ! if we get enough players we just might start a Go association in Kuching so that we can have a chance to go to other countries like japan ,korea or etc to play in international championships ! seriously !

and lastly ... what am i gonna do with the gingerbread man ? lol ... .... .....