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),
• Edwin Clarke (treasurer, edwin at go dot org dot au),
• Matthew Crossman (innocent bystander and AGA liaison),
• Dean Thomas (spare innocent bystander and tournament organiser),
• John Hardy (fallback innocent bystander and eminence grise), 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.
• 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 second Sunday of each month, the Gold Coast Go Club meets at the Gold Coast Country Club. The Gold Coast Go Club convenor is Joshua Murray, joshua at styleliving dot com dot au. Contact him 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.

2012 Tournament Calendar

• The annual Brisbane Keio Online Friendly Match online in the KGS Australia Room on Sunday 19th February 2012. This is a one-round team vs team tournament; team with the most victories wins. All are welcome to spectate. Kickoff at 3.00pm Brisbane time (4.00pm Sydney; 2.00pm Tokyo).
• The Queensland State Championships on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th March 2012. The open division determines the state champion, the strongest handicap division determines the state kyu champion. As this is a first-class tournament, there will be six rounds over both days of the weekend - details in the flyer.
• 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 previous years a team from the Brisbane Go Club will play the Keio Old Boys on Sunday of that weekend at the Good Hope Residence (77 Lexton Street, Stretton) with dinner laid on by the Brisbane Go Club that evening for all players from both sides. On the Saturday will be an afternoon of casual go capped by a dinner laid on by the Keio Old Boys. RSVP to Horatio Davis.
• The third MCSQ Cup on Saturday 28th April at the Sunnybank Hills Public Library. This is a one-day, three-round tournament generously sponsored by the Mainland Chinese Society of Queensland. Registration is $25, celebrity guest referee is An Younggil 8p, and all the other details are in the brochure.
• The second Gold Coast Classic in late September 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. Please RSVP to Dean Thomas, dean at go dot org dot au.
• The 35th Australian National Championships in Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th November at an undisclosed location in the Gold Coast. The winner of the open division is the Australian Champion.
• The Brisbane Christmas Go party on Saturday 10 December at Mark Bell's farm, 268 Harper's Creek Road, Conondale. Mostly a barbeque at Mark Bell's house with lots of casual go.

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 and life member at th 2012 Annual General Meeting.