Watching the NHK Cup games on You Tube, I’m very impressed by how deftly players remove captured stones. Better still is their speed in realigning the stones for scoring. And the absolute kicker comes when it’s time to clear the board for replaying. There’s a good demonstration of this in the recent match between Cho U and Nakano Yasuhiro. It’s like, okay let’s replay, and before you can say Jack be nimble the board is swept clean and not a single stone dropped. I feel like watching the video again for that reason alone.
I mean if the go thing doesn’t work out for them they can always find employment dealing blackjack or performing magic tricks at parties. It seems well within their grasp, both figuratively and literally.