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3 <!-- Mirrored from users.eniinternet.com/bradleym/America.html by HTTrack Website Copier/3.x [XR&CO'2014], Sun, 06 Nov 2022 06:48:48 GMT -->
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4 <head>
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5 <title>HOW GO CAME TO AMERICA</title>
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6 </head>
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7 <body text="#000000" link="#0000ff" vlink="#551a8b" alink="#ff0000" bgcolor="#c0c0c0">
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8 <a name="HOW GO CAME TO AMERICA"></a>
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9 <p><hr>
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10
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11 <br wp="br1"><br wp="br2"><h3><strong>HOW GO CAME TO AMERICA</strong></h3>
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12
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13 <p><strong>© 2002 Milton N. Bradley</strong>
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14
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15 <p>It is possible that Go was first brought to America by some of the many Chinese laborers or the
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16 (far fewer) Japanese and Koreans who immigrated here primarily in the mid to late 19<sup>th</sup> century.
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17 But if it was, it was restricted to those (at that time very insular) communities, and therefore had
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18 no impact on "mainstream" American life. So it wasn't until Edward Lasker, a young German
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19 engineer and internationally known Chessmaster, immigrated to these shores in 1914 that Go
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20 truly began its still far from complete process of integration into our society.
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21
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22 <p>That story is told in the following article by Jerald E. Pinto (originally entitled "How The Young
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23 Edward Lasker Learned About Go, And How He and The World Chess Champion Nearly Went
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24 To Japan To Study With the Masters"), as a tribute to Dr. Lasker (1885 - 1981) on his death, and
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25 first appeared in The American Go Journal, Vol 16, # 2, (June 1981) - reproduced here with their
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26 permission.
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27
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28 <p>On an autumn afternoon several years ago, I visited Edward Lasker in his apartment on Riverside
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29 Drive in New York, and heard this story of his first steps as a Go player:
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30
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31 <p>"One day I was at the library of the University of Berlin. At that time, that is, in 1905, I was a
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32 student of electrical engineering. With me at the library was a fellow student, a mathematician,
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33 and we happened on a large magazine with a treatment of Go. Korschelt, the author, gave many
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34 old Japanese games and explained the game quite thoroughly, but what struck us was the article's
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35 title :Das Go Spiele, ein Konkurrent des Schachs, that is 'Go: A rival of chess' which seemed a
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36 humorous claim. Well, we glanced through the article and learned the rules in the few minutes
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37 that takes.
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38
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39 <p>Then one day at the cafe in Berlin where the Chessplayers used to gather in the afternoon my
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40 friend Max Lange and I saw a Japanese reading a Japanese paper, on the back of which we
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41 noticed a Go diagram. We thought 'Well, that's remarkable'; we knew, of course, about chess
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42 columns, but Go columns? We didn't know what to think, so we waited until the fellow was
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43 gone and took the paper down from the newspaper rack. We put ourselves to deciphering the
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44 diagram. The problem lay in decoding the Japanese numerals the diagram used, but although we
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45 hadn't actually played more than a game or two of Go, we worked things out without too much
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46 trouble. So we went through the game, but after 120 or 150 moves things came to a stop, and
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47 there was some notation.
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48
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49 <p>We waited until a few days later we saw another Japanese customer at the cafe, whom we
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50 approached to ask whether he would mind telling us what that notation meant. Oh, first it seemed
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51 obvious to us that it must say 'White resigns', since Black had an enormous army and there
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52 didn't seem to be any reasonable continuation for White, or else something like 'Game
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53 adjourned'. Well, the gentleman said, 'Certainly, "Black resigns!" When we heard that we
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54 decided that we would really have to give a good look at the game, and we took the newspaper.
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55 About 3 weeks later Max Lange called to say that he had found a sacrificial continuation for
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56 White ending in the capture of the Black army 22 moves later. Then we really started to play Go
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57 in earnest. We used a piece of cardboard and two different types of coins. However when we told
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58 the other Chessplayers that here was a really interesting game, they just smiled at us and said,
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59 'Don't be silly!' (Ed. Note: Nothing has changed in the intervening 92 years, and this is still the
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60 attitude of the vast majority of Chessplayers that I have encountered!)
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61
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62 <p>About 2 years later, Emanuel Lasker (Ed. Note: no relation), The world chess champion, returned
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63 to Germany after 14 years in America. Soon after I met him I revealed that my friend and I had
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64 found a game that rivaled chess, but the other chessplayers were too silly to even look at it.
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65 Lasker was skeptical, but he listened to me explain the rules, and said,'Well, let's play a game.'
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66 'Alright', I replied, 'but first I'll show you a few important things which aren't in the rules, but
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67 which you have to know.' 'No, no, no, let's play a game.' we played, and of course I won, but
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68 Lasker immediately recognized the deep strategical and tactical possibilities which Go holds
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69 despite its simple structure. After just one game. He's the only man I ever showed the game to
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70 who grasped this at once. 'Look, this is what we'll do', Lasker said, "I suppose you have a fellow
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71 student at the University who is Japanese and may know the game. If you find one I'd like to
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72 arrange a Go evening once a week at my home.' Indeed, there was a Japanese in my class who
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73 knew the game; he surprised me in fact by saying that every educated Japanese knew the game. I
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74 still recall his name: Yasugoro Kitabatake. At first he gave us 4 stones, but we improved
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75 gradually, and after 2 years we beat him already.
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76
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77 <p>Then one evening Kitabatake came to us with an interesting proposal. 'There's a Japanese Go
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78 master passing through Berlin, a professor of mathematics on his way to London as an exchange
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79 professor. Would you like to play him?' 'Of course we would.' Lasker replied, 'and I'll play him
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80 in consultation with my brother Berthold, if you don't think he'll mind?' 'Of course he won't.'
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81 'Well' continued Lasker, 'do you think he'll give us a handicap?' "Certainly', laughed Kitbatake.
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82 'And how many stones?' 'Nine of course.' (Ed Note: At least equivalent to Queen odds in chess.)
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83 'That's impossible', Lasker replied decisively. 'The man in the world who can give me nine
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84 stones and beat me doesn't exist!' Kitabatake just smiled, and soon we found ourselves at the
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85 Japanese club playing the master on nine stones.
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86
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87 <p>No matter how long we took to plot our combinations the master never took more than a tenth of
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88 a second for his reply, and he beat us terrifically. I don't think we had a single live group at
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89 game's end. Lasker was the most discouraged and disappointed of men. 'Look Edward', he said
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90 (this was in 1909 or 1910 don't forget). 'the Japanese have never had a first-class mathematician.
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91 I'm sure that we can beat them at Go, the ideal game for the mathematical mind. Let's go to
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92 Tokyo for a few months to play with the masters. I think that we'll be able to catch up to them
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93 without too much difficulty.'
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94
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95 <p>Naturally, I didn't think that it would be so easy to catch up to them, but I was enthusiastic about
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96 the plan. However, I had recently graduated from the University and had just got my first job, as
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97 an engineer for the German General Electric Company, and I couldn't tell m y boss that I wanted
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98 a vacation of several months to travel to japan. But I told Lasker I would try to be assigned to my
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99 company's office in Tokyo.
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100
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101 <p>The next day I went to my boss with my cunning plot. 'There are 41 engineers in this
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102 department", I began. 'I am certainly not so arrogant as to say that I am better than any of them
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103 (MB Note: Ed Lasker later became a millionaire, so he was probably being unduly modest!), and
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104 I don't see how I can expect to excel them to such a degree that I have a promising future here.
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105 So I would like, therefore, to represent the company in one of the foreign offices.' 'Where?' my
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106 boss asked. 'Tokyo, for example.' was my diabolical reply. The boss came back to me later after
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107 speaking with the head of the Foreign Department. 'Sorry', he said, 'we only send Englishmen or
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108 Germans who speak fluent English to Tokyo or any other foreign office. English is the
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109 commercial language throughout the world.' The English had practically everything
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110 monopolized in those days. Nothing daunted, I asked to be transferred to the London office to
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111 learn English while drawing a nominal salary. Eventually they acquiesced in my request and I
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112 was sent to live and work in London in 1912. I was in London when the first World War broke
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113 out in August, 1914.'
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114
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115 <p> From London, Lasker arrived in New York City in 1914. He made the united States his
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116 permanent home, a turn of fate which is a distant reverberation of that awful defeat at the hands
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117 of a traveling Go master. Soon after his arrival in New York Lasker saw Japanese waiters playing
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118 go at Lee Chumley's restaurant in Greenwich Village. He was introduced by the headwaiter
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119 Koshi Takashima, an avid Go player, to another patron of the restaurant who played Go, Karl
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120 Davis Robinson. Robinson knew of one other Go player in New York, the editor-in-chief of
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121 Harper's Magazine, Lee Hartman. The three formed a Go group at Lee Chumley's that soon
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122 became quite large and took a room on the second floor of the restaurant. This group was the
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123 nucleus of the New York Go Club and organized Go in the United States: the same 3 men
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124 founded the American Go Association the same year Lasker published GO AND GO MOKU.
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125 (MB note: 1934).
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126
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127 <p>It was Max Lange who first of all made it to Japan, and Lange taught the game to his brother-in-law Felix Dueball, who became the first Westerner of genuine Dan strength. Emanuel Lasker
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128 remained a tremendous Go enthusiast throughout his life and included an important chapter on
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129 the game in his book Die Spiele des Menchen. On hi s death his Go set was presented to the
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130 West Point Military Academy. (MB note: In my visit to the Academy about 10 years ago I
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131 enquired about this, and found no one who even knew what I was talking about!)
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132
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133 <p>The story which I call "How The Young Lasker Learned Go" was told by Lasker in print in his
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134 article "From My Go Career" in #'s 7 and 9 of Go Monthly Review of 1961, and in his Chess
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135 Secrets I Learned From The Masters (Dover, 1969)."
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136
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137 <p><hr>
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138
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139 <br wp="br1"><br wp="br2">
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140 <p><a href="Compare.html"><Font Color="#0033FF"><strong>Continue</strong></Font></a>
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141
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142 <p>Click Here To Return To<a href="index.html"><Font Color="#0033FF"><strong> Milt's Go
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143 Page</strong></Font></a>
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144
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145 <p><hr>
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146
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147 <br wp="br1"><br wp="br2">
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148 </body>
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149
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150 <!-- Mirrored from users.eniinternet.com/bradleym/America.html by HTTrack Website Copier/3.x [XR&CO'2014], Sun, 06 Nov 2022 06:48:48 GMT -->
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151 </html>
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