Wysi

Hello.

My name is Joe Boden. I'm a psychology lecturer at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia. I'm originally from the US, and have also taught in the UK.

I've been interested in go for about 18 months but only really started playing 8 or 9 months ago. wysi is my screen name on igs (just started playing there), kgs (21k but I don't play much there), It's Your Turn (22k) and the new Dragon Go Server. I mainly play on the turn-based servers as I rarely have enough time to finish a whole game - I don't have an internet connection at home and so must use my work connection (sshhh!!!). I've never had the opportunity to play on a real board, but I will someday.

I really enjoy these pages and find a lot of answers to questions I often have while reading go books. Perhaps when I am a bit stronger I won't be too shy about contributing, apart from questions of course!

Hi all

Well, since July a lot has happened. I've gradually improved to 18k in the Go Guild, and I actually played on a real board in the Toyota Denso Go Oza in Brisbane (coming third in the 15-30k group). I attended the 'teaching day' just prior to the tournament to get the hang of playing on a real board. I enjoyed watching the strong players play their stones with great authority - THWACK! - looking at the opponent while doing so (perhaps to intimidate?).

I especially enjoyed the chance to play some teaching games with dan level players. I feel that it has done a great deal toward helping me to improve my game, especially having the chance to interact and ask questions at the time (rather than via review or some other online means).