Teaching Go at Barnes & Noble
Back in the end of February at the MoveOn retreat, somehow the topic of chess and games came up at one of our social dinners (maybe?). There I mentioned that I play Go, and Eli was interested in learning. Last night we met up at the Barnes & Noble on Union Square. Eli was a little late, which turned out to be quite fortunate because it took about 15 minutes to get a table (and a dirty look at the woman who nearly sniped my table).
It might have been fun to have onlookers, but I guess in NYC, that’s not really possible. Its pretty rare for people to come over and ask what you’re doing, at least in my experience.
We sat for about 45 minutes. I went over the basic rules, black plays first, territory, liberties, eyes, and the ko rule. Then I showed him some shapes, including some examples of 2-eyed shapes, and did some basic life-and-death problems. Last, we played 2 quick 9×9 games, and Eli did very well.
Overall, it was fun - I enjoyed the teaching and I think Eli enjoyed learning. Hopefully we’ll play again sometime!