Who am I to say anything about GO?
Mr. Tyler Reynolds personally participates in the revitalization of North American GO society as Vice-President of the Canadian Go Association (CGA) which has appointed him National Youth Coordinator. He also chairs the CGA’s Grants Committee which sponsors new student GO programs across Canada. Additionally, Tyler is involved with the American GO Foundation (AGF) as a Mentor to Canadian organizers of GO programs targeted at youth; and, he officiated in the American Go Honor Society’s 8th Annual Ing School Team Championship 2009—the largest online GO tournament for youth under-20 in North America. Mr. Reynolds was honoured to receive an Advisor Congeniality Award, in a popular vote at that event.
“I’ve been a devotee of classic games since my father taught me to play Chess as a toddler. I then proceeded to learn and teach myself innumerable card and board-games before I discovered a vague reference to GO in a book I was reading about feudal Japanese history while in elementary school. This relatively unknown, yet highly respected game piqued my curiosity and prompted me to search all the local institutional libraries over several weeks in 1985 (long before the World Wide Web was opened to the public). This yielded just three books that described how to play the game, one of which was Edward Lasker’s GO and Go-moku which became my first resource.”
“Captivated by the sublime simplicity and depth of the game, I was desperate to play GO with as many people as possible, and proceeded to teach everyone and anyone who would listen how to play for several years; but eventually became frustrated [unable to find any worthy opponents] because of the apparent absence of an organizing body or support structure—similar to that which existed for Chess—anywhere in North America. Of course this was a false assumption, but as a kid in late 20th century rural Ontario, prior to the advent of widespread access to the internet, it was a reasonable deduction.”
“Captivated by the sublime simplicity and depth of the game, I was desperate to play GO with as many people as possible, and proceeded to teach everyone and anyone who would listen how to play for several years; but eventually became frustrated [unable to find any worthy opponents] because of the apparent absence of an organizing body or support structure—similar to that which existed for Chess—anywhere in North America. Of course this was a false assumption, but as a kid in late 20th century rural Ontario, prior to the advent of widespread access to the internet, it was a reasonable deduction.”“This motivated me to work at bringing this wonderful game into the mainstream of Canadian society, and provide the support structures I so sorely lacked as a percocious child gamer and potential GO prodigy.”
“Once my eldest daughter entered school, I volunteered to form a GO Club for the student body. From there I realized that I could expand the scope of the initiative beyond the education systems to foster the awareness, advantages, and enjoyment of the game regionally, nationally, and world-wide: That’s when GO for All became a reality!”
© 2009 Tyler Reynolds, an excerpt from GO for AllUsed with Limited Permission
Tags: introduction
