Brisbane Go Club

The Brisbane Go Club is an incorporated recreational association in the city of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. We play the ancient oriental game of go (also known as igo, weiqi, baduk, or stones). If you know how to play, we have stones and boards and opponents in a friendly, social, air-conditioned atmosphere. If you don't know how to play, we'll teach you.

We were founded around 1976 at the University of Queensland, helped found the Australian Go Association in 1978 (the AGA in turn was a founding member of the International Go Federation), moved to the Pancake Manor in Charlotte Street around 1979, and departed for the Queensland Contract Bridge Club in July 2008. We started meeting at Chermside in late 2007 and Sunnybank Hills in early 2006.

We have pages on Sensei's Library, a Facebook group and place page, and even a listing in the Yellow Pages.

The club is run by

• Mark Bell (president for life)
• Horatio Davis (secretary, horatio at go dot org dot au, aguido.davis on skype),
• Matthew Crossman (innocent bystander and UQ liaison),
• Dean Thomas (spare innocent bystander and tournament organiser),
• Mark Brough (fallback innocent bystander), and
• Erli Qiu (emergency innocent bystander and Gold Coast liaison)

Contact us

Questions? Contact the convenor of the meeting you're interested in, or the club secretary on secretary at brisbane dot go dot org dot au or +61 7 3103 0470. Our mailing address is PO Box 149, Woody Point, Queensland 4019, and our ABN is 66 860 304 059.

Join us

Membership is free for juniors (under sixteen), ten dollars per year for students, and twenty-five dollars per year for everyone else, renewable annually. Membership gets you registration as a ranked player with the Australian Go Association, voting rights, credit points when playing in tournaments, and inclusion on the mailing list to keep you in the loop on events.

Guests are welcome to come play at our weekly or monthly meetings without joining, but then you wouldn't be as cool.

Meetings

• Every Tuesday evening at the Queensland Contract Bridge Club (67 Ipswich Road, Woolloongabba) from seven o'clock until half past ten o'clock. Members pay $1 per night, guests and strangers $2. This meeting is on hiatus for the summer, from 27 December 2011, and will resume on 10 January 2012.
• The second and fourth Friday evening of each month at Critical Mass North in Chermside Public Library, from seven o'clock until late. Please contact Fumiko Hulme (fumiko93 at tpg dot com dot au) or Horatio Davis to RSVP.
• The last Saturday afternoon of each month at the Sunnybank Hills public library, corner of Calum and Compton Roads from a quarter to one until five o'clock. The convenor is Larry Wen, larrywen at hotmail dot com.
• The last Sunday of each month, the Gold Coast Go Club meets at the Gold Coast Country Club. The club will not meet in January 2012 as the first Sunday is New Years' Day, the first meeting for 2012 will be February 5. Contact the convenor, Gold Coast Go Club is Joshua Murray, joshua at styleliving dot com dot au, to RSVP and get on their mailing list.

There are some of our members at large with goban in the Queensland University Gaming Society, which meets on Mondays from 4pm in semester, and the UQ Chinese Chess Club, which meets on Thursdays from 4pm in semester.

Tournament Calendar

• The Queensland State Championships one weekend in February every year. The open division determines the state champion, the strongest handicap division determines the state kyu champion. As this is a first-class tournament, there are usually six rounds over both days of the weekend.
• The Brisbane Keio Trophy in mid-May to early June every year, when a group of alumni players from the Keio University make their annual visit to Brisbane for sun, holidays and a spot of go. This year, like last year and the year before a team from the Brisbane Go Club played the Keio Old Boys at 2pm on Sunday the 12th of June at the Good Hope Residence, 77 Lexton Street, Stretton. There were two rounds of untimed handicap go, with the team that wins the most games (in 2011 - Keio) winning the match. Afterwards all of us who wanted to stay had dinner laid on by the BGC at around 7pm. Likewise, all club members were invited to turn up for dinner at 7pm on Saturday the 11th of June at GHR and an evening of casual go with the Keio Old Boys. A cover charge of $15/head applied for club members to attend each evening's events. Middling and beginner players are equally welcome to socialise, spectate, eat, and play casual go and did so in numbers.
• The MCSQ Cup in late June every year. This is a one-day, four-round tournament generously sponsored by the Mainland Chinese Society of Queensland and QUGS. This year's Cup occurred in room S302 of the Hartley Teakle Building at the University of Queensland, St Lucia, on Saturday 25 June, 2011. An Younggil 8p, master of the Young Go Academy, refereed and gave a lecture. Directions and details were on the tournament flyer and the Facebook event.
• The Gold Coast Classic on Sunday 23rd October at Gainsborough Greens Golf Club, Pimpama. Three rounds from 9am to 6pm in the small function room beyond the bar, buffet lunch available in the clubhouse, coffee and tea on tap in the room. This is an experimental tournament. Turn up if you'd like to see more. Please RSVP to Dean Thomas, dean at go dot org dot au.
• The Australian National Championships in late November, rotating amongst Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, and us. The winner of the open division is the Australian Champion. We last hosted the nationals in 2008 and will next do so in November 2012.
• The Brisbane Christmas Go on Saturday 10 December at Mark Bell's farm, 268 Harper's Creek Road, Conondale. Mostly a barbeque at Mark Bell's house, there are also three rounds of pair go to determine the state pair champions if there are enough players in the mood.

In 2011 we're working through a calendar of four-round, one-day tournaments, with hopes to continue the practice in 2012. Watch this space, and tell Dean if you want one at a time and place that suits you.

Teaching

• At the Sunnybank Hills and Woolloongabba meetings, there are usually senior players around to teach beginners and challenge everyone else. Please feel free to ask for a game review afterwards.
• During tournaments, we have the habit of inviting An Younggil 8p up from the go school in Sydney to teach, review games, and teach some more.
• Mr Hung 4d operates a go school for children who are beginners through mid-dan strength in Peter Street at Strathpine. They teach weiqi, and also teach Mandarin Chinese. To sign up for lessons in either subject, contact Janna Yang (dukeny4888 at gmail dot com, phone 0431146884) or turn up to the Chermside meeting and introduce yourself.

Honour Roll

• Cecil Kuo 2d, voted a life member at the 2005 Annual General Meeting.
• John Hardy 2d, voted an honorary member at the 2011 Annual General Meeting.