Benefits of Teaching Go

In order to promote Go, I would like to share with you some of the benefits which teaching can bring you.

Definition of Teaching Go:

Teaching can take many forms. Usually it means a giving a teaching game and/or game review, but it can also mean instruction in strategy, josekis, life and death, fuseki patterns, etc. Writing a book, creating a Go Club at your school, all can be considered teaching Go in some regard.

Note: You should be stronger than your Go students by at least a couple of stones. I recommend a minimum of three stones for effective teaching. Anything more than that is a bonus.

Benefit #1: Making Friends:

First and foremost, one must consider the teacher-student relationship. Teaching Go, and even being friendly rivals with another Go player, creates lasting friendships.

Benefit #2: Sharing the Beauty from another Culture

Go is originally a loosely 'Asian' game, meaning its roots are in China, Japan and Korea. By sharing Go, you share something of another culture and its beauty with others. I feel happy knowing that I am increasing cultural awareness by sharing this game.

Benefit #3: Getting Stronger

It is said that you do not truly know something until you attempt to teach it to others. I have discovered that by teaching Go on KGS every day, I have received a stronger grasp of the principles which I am teaching. I feel this has contributed greatly to my current good results on KGS.

Benefit #4: More vibrant Go Community

The more people you introduce the game to, the more people play the game and become members of the Go community. This means that eventually Go will find it's way more and more into popular culture. We may even get a daily life and death problem in the national dailies one day soon. One can hope :)

Benefit #5: Financial Benefit

Although not a primary concern for most amateur Go players, if you are strong enough you can charge for your lessons. If you write a book, you can get paid for it. For example, most people are able to write a book with the help of a strong dan player or professional player as long as they are at least 3 or 4 dan in strength. For example, Charles Matthews and Andrew Miller both wrote books with the help of strong Dan players when they were 3 dan. Professionals usually charge between and 10 and 30 dollars per hour for lessons. Personally, I teach Go to children for five hours per week and am paid for it. Although it sometimes feels like babysitting, you gotta love those kids, and my dream is that they will become strong Go players some day.

For some good resources on how to teach Go, please see:

• Ted Keiser's Teaching System (how to teach new players)
• Usagi's Books (textbooks for beginners)

If you would like to jump right in and start teaching others, please see:

• The KGS Mentoring Scheme
• The Go Teaching Ladder
• The KGS Teaching Ladder

Initial author: usagi