Schools are not clubs. In Europe you have clubs with a mix of levels, activities like workshop or tournaments. In China you have a small group of relatively strong levels (weaker playing mostly on internet). Comparing clubs in Paris and in Shanghai will left you very disappointed for China. Weiqi is popular to educate the children, and from that they get good pros. But for amateur adults players it’s another story.
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Well, yeah. That all matches my experiences and perceptions as an American living in Beijing. I’ve played in tournaments and clubs in Los Angeles, and was quite disappointed with how difficult it was to find friendly adult players in Beijing. About half of my over-the-board games in Beijing have been with other Americans, and half with local citizens. I’ve also been to a little school for kids as a guest, and played with them for fun (I got my first Dan Trophy beating a 10-year old shodan, LOL. yeah they’re little kids and their ranks are really inflated but I’ll take it!) so I’m familiar with the schools.
All that understood, it’s still safe to say that go is more popular in Beijing than in Los Angeles, even if it is easier for an adult American SDK to get a friendly game in Los Angeles than in Beijing.
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Even for children weiqi has lost some popularity. Today the Chinese care a lot to give the best to their child so you have many many educational center offering music danse logical activities, Montessori methods, and so on. 2d floor of big commercial centers are full of these. And sometimes and much less you still find weiqi schools, almost always at the very back side.
Almost all Chinese I met don’t play at all or even don’t know the rules. It’s not uncommon that they don’t know who is GuLi.
It’s hard to say where weiqi is the most popular to me but I think there are a lot of misconception of weiqi in China.
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I know universities have student Go clubs, where most top amateurs are. Also, Go schools for kids are usually run by high dan amateur players who won some tournaments before. And major income for them, and they would sometimes invite pros if possible to have lectures if they have good reputations.
Go is mostly a culture thing, and like a skill than a hobby. Like you can learn to cook, doesn’t mean you’d like to participate in a cook-off. And with online Go can be played as mobile games, not many would bother go out and gather in a place. Go is also somewhat serious, not just for fun. So don’t expect much social function to them in China, more of a status symbol, indicating well-educations and backgrounds.
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Yes some uni, which i forgot, mea culpa. True I met nice players there. The adults I know have their little routine, half on computer, half to a meeting place or by a friend. Yes not really a social activity. China today discards leisure, most people find hard to understand why you don’t bother earning more money instead.
lol
you must be high in ranks eh? like about 1 Dan?
What’s does have that to do with our discussion?
Yeah but do you really get the game until 1000 losses?
What I mean specifically is that “lose your 100 games” is kind of telling off to a new player. When a complete beginner asks for a review of their first game, and it’s just complete nonsense, stronger player simply tells them to lose 100 games (with some general advice like watch out for ataris).
Still they can win which is always part of the fun if they play same level .
It’s one of the reason I push to play more as trying too hard to understand.
Hmm, a thousand 19x19 losses is actually a pretty good marker of serious playing experience.
If you played four 19x19 games each week, and lost half of them, then it’d take you almost ten years to reach a thousand losses. At a game a day, it’d take a little over five.
At even a blistering three games / day, every day, it’d need over eighteen months.
It is on the upper end as milestones go, probably. Something like 250–750, for instance, seems more like the number of losses you’ll probably take before reaching shodan, if you don’t like blitz.
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But only if it’s more or less serious games.
I’ve seen lightening fast players only playing blitz and piling up games very quickly.
I’m not quite there yet, 848 19x19 losses on OGS (ie. almost all my 19x19 losses anywhere).
Let’s say that 750 were “serious”. I don’t often play blitz, after all.
I might make it to shodan by 1000, but it’s not something I care about.