Still meeting for the holidays!

Just a quick reminder that we meet every single Sunday, and that includes the 27th of December! Hope to see everyone there! You can show off your new Go equipment that you got for Christmas :)

Ziggy's Healthy Grill Changes Format

Recently Ziggy's Healthy Grill changed from an order-at-the-front place to a full-service sit-down restaurant. As of now, they're still letting us use the back room, but there is a big "RESERVED" sign on the door, and the door that lets us keep an eye on the front door is closed permanently.

So the bottom line is that if you're new and showing up, just walk to the back room that says RESERVED on it. We'll be there, even if you can't see us when you walk in!

Ziggy's goes rated!

Ziggy's has always welcomed rated games, but for the longest time, no rated games were played. Now we have enough regulars that there is interest to play more rated games, so each month we are going to have an informal "tournament" that spans the entire month.

So far here are the standings for September. Please note that the tournament is ongoing throughout the entire month, so the more often you show up and play rated games, the higher a chance you have of winning the monthly tournament!* :)

If you're an AGA member (or want to become one), come on out and join us. Also, for a limited time, the AGA is permitting us to sign up first-time members for the low low rate of $15 (normally $30). Note the rated games and the membership are completely optional! If you do not want to play rated games or particiapte in the tournament, you can still show up, play an unrated game or two for free, and have a great time!

New rated games 9/7/08:
Carey (5k, W) v. Keith (10k, B) - 5 stones - W+R
Mike (14k, W) v. Oliver (15k, B) - 0.5 komi - W+T

Current standings for September:
Carey - 1 game
Mike - 1 game
Keith - 0 games
Oliver - 0 games

*Of course there are no prizes, but at least there is no entry fee and you get a chance to improve your ranking! Plus you get gloating rights, which everyone knows is more valuable than gold.

Meeting Thursday this week but not Sunday

We had great success at West Gray last week, so we're going to meet again. Same address, same time (see last blog entry).

However, because of most of our regular members are attending the Houston Go Club Spring Tournament, it is one of the rare occasions where we will not have a Sunday meeting this weekend!

I hope everyone has fun at the tournament!

Impromptu Meeting, Cafe Express West Gray, 4/17 at 7:30pm

Looks like we have enough interest with the people we've talked to. For all you people who just can't make it out Sunday morning, please join us at Cafe Express at 1422 W. Gray this Thursday (April 17th) at 7:30pm for an informal meeting of Go. Bring a board if you have it!

When you get there, just look for the people with the go boards :)

~Carey

Houston Go Community

After looking and seeing that Houston has 4 Go clubs listed on AGA, none of which are really active (online). While some clubs may have some internal mailing lists or phone trees, there hasn't been a single website to address all the Go players in Houston. I thought I would try to remedy that by putting up a message board for people to discuss go-related activities in the Houston area.

Check out http://careyj.com/houstongo/ . I've made four boards, one for each go club, where people can post and share ideas, etc. relating to their club, as well as a general category, where Go players from ALL of Houston can discuss anything they want.

Please pass this link on to Go players in the Houston area. It's time we start building a stronger local Go community.

(I apologize to Ziggy's members who already got my announcement through the google group and are getting this a second time)

Brits Adopt U.S. Rules

This was just released in the AGA Go Journal, and I thought it was worth a note:

BRITS ADOPT U.S. RULES: The British Go Association officially adopted AGA rules of go at last weekend's British Go Congress at Hastings, reports BGA President Ron Bell, who was re-elected for another term. "AGA rules have two major benefits," Bell tells the E-Journal, "First, they neatly allow either the Japanese or Chinese styles of counting the score to be used. Second, the use of pass stones allows any disagreement between the players to be resolved by simply resuming play. Since the BGA Council adopted AGA rules last October, they've been used successfully in about half a dozen tournaments. We do have some members who wanted to keep the previous Japanese rule set - but the motion at the AGM to approve the change was passed with no opposition