Brisbane Go Club

We meet every Tuesday evening from 6pm in the main gaming room at Comics Plus, shop 18, Annerley Arcade, 478 Ipswich Road, Annerley. Parking is around the back via Dudley Street and then turn left into the little lane or out the front on Ipswich Road (good luck).

Playing costs $5/night (first time is free!), please drop the money into the cashbox, boards are in the Trunk Of Doom, snacks and drinks can be purchased on-site and food from the shops up and across Ipswich Road. We have coffee, tea, hot chocolate and biscuits freely available – help yourself! We do not have EFTPOS facilities, but there is an ATM on the corner of Ipswich Road and Dudley Street.

We’re a very casual group, so no need to ask permission, just show up! Children are welcome, but if they’re 5 or under we ask that someone be around to keep them under control. We have unguarded sugar and caffeine.

The incumbent Supreme High Overlord (which is a better title than club convenor, you have to admit) is Allan Hunt. He frequently begs people to rise up against his tyranny, but in the meantime provides cake.

We have our own Facebook page, but mostly hang out in the main QGS group. Alternatively, we have a Discord server.

We don’t usually have formal lessons, but we are always happy to teach beginners. Don’t know the game at all and happened to wander past? Happy to show you the basics! Played a few times years ago? The dust gets blown off much faster than you’d expect, and we’re always happy to polish off those rough bits. Drifting 6d? We have strong players for you to be challenged by!

Every two weeks, we have what has been called a “yum” night, in which we have some kind of delicious food available. This alternates between pizza and cake/generic baked goods. If you happen to find yourself there on one of those nights, please help yourself! The Supreme High Overlord is trying to lose weight, so the more you eat, the less his temptation.

History

The Brisbane Go Club was founded around 1976 at the University of Queensland, helping to found the Australian Go Association in 1978 (the AGA in turn was a founding member of the International Go Federation). We moved to the Pancake Manor in Charlotte Street around 1979, grew branch meetings at Sunnybank Hills in early 2006 and Chermside in late 2007 and departed the Pancake Manor for the Queensland Contract Bridge Club in July 2008. The club championship tournament is the annual Brisbane Spring. We alternate with Gold Coast Go Club to host the Queensland Championship.

Later that year we incorporated, and stayed that way until March of 2013. The club passed through an interregnum for a year and was reformed as a chapter of the Queensland Go Society on Saturday the third of May, during the 2014 Queensland Open.

From the 15th of April in 2014 until the 21st of February in 2017, we met at the GO Lounge in Greenslopes, until Cindy retired and closed the place.

Then we met at Club Sosay in Paddington from 28th February until 11th of April that year. Since then, we have been meeting at Ace Comics and Games in Annerley (until it got bought out and replaced with Comics Plus around us. We noticed eventually).

Miscellaneous

We support and enforce the QGS Code of Conduct (which, if you don’t have time to read it, amounts to “don’t be deliberately unpleasant, and don’t disrupt the play of others”. That said, we’re an extremely chill group, so don’t be intimidated!