Vox and I have been playing Go together since sometime in the mid-80s. It started as a chess game, and then eventually we tried go, just to see what it was all about. We would play a few games of chess and then perhaps one game of Go. Later, we played less chess and more Go and eventually we left chess behind. It’s been many years now since we’ve played a game of chess but we’ve played thousands of games of Go. On a typical evening we will usually play 5-7 games. Some games take a lot longer to play than others. Occasionally an early kill leads to a quick resignation, but most games are tough battles to the end.

The board we’re playing on in the photo is our portable set, which I made many years ago from leather and beach stones. Initially the idea was to gather black and white stones that did not have to be altered in colour but we found that led to quite a few black stones and white stones that were all somewhere in the middle grey area, very confusing for play. Eventually we took to painting the black ones black and the white ones white. Every now and then, when too much paint wears off, we repaint them. The lines wear out eventually too, so usually when we paint the stones we also redo the lines.

I have another wooden set at home as well, with glass stones.

That set was made for me by Ruth Arnold, a very stilled and creative wood-worker. The set includes stools and pots for the stones as well as the board itself.

When Vox and I play, our games are friendly in that we enjoy good play, regardless of which of us made it. Make no mistake though, the games are fiercely competitive. When we sit across the board from one another, I want to trash his stones, invade his areas and destroy his best laid plans.

Go doesn’t get old for us. The challenges of the game get richer as we get stronger. The game involves many battles at once, life and death struggles as well as real estate grabs. Often a move made against one group is ultimately designed to attack another later in the game. Some games are all about balanced structural development. Others are kill or be killed bloody battles.

Last night we played a number of well-fought games. The highlight for me was a big kill in which I trapped a large group of Vox’s stones, perhaps 15 or 16 of them, blocking their escape and destroying their shape. Of course Vox got his licks in too, and most of the games were won or lost by a few points.