Dan Argent
Approximate rank: 27 kyu
IP (if you see it on the Recent Changes its me): 4.64.188.129
Email: silverdan@toughguy.net
I'm Dan Argent. I'm rather new to go. I've been playing since the start of 2004. not very long as of yet. I have been playing on KGS a good bit and my rank there is 29k? In real life though I play in my Go club at school where my rank is one or two stones higher. Oh well, the bottom line is that I am the biggest of newbies.
I live on the eastern coast of the United States. Right around the capital, Washington DC. I am a Junior in High school. Which means I have about a year and a half before I go to college (or university). I hope to create a wiki page for my go club at school soon. right now there are a ton of new players learning to play go where I live.
Yea! I just beat my friend in a casual game at my house. I had a 25 point lead (Japanese system). This makes me happy because he is around 19 to 20k. It was also an even game with no handicap. I attribute my success to the SL Beginner Study Section. Anyone is welcome to comment (and correct my horrible spelling) on what I say. I will most likely use this page to place my ramblings when I have nothing better to do.
Stefan: Good to have you around, Dan, and very pleased to hear the BSS is useful.
Sigh, the snow falls outside. Here in washington we were just hit with a little snow storm. I guess this means more time for go and surfing SL. Should be studying for midterms.
I'm suprised about the lack of political discusion here on SL. In other international and intellectual communities that I have participated in, like chess or diplomacy groups, there has been a constant debate in many corners of general disscussion about current events. I rather like the nonpartisan atmosphere of SL, Quite a breather from the litany of offensive and/or uneducated statements.
If you see me posting quite a lot in the next few days it is because of the bad weather here.
Mark Wirdnam: Hello! It's fascinating to hear there are Western schools that have a Go-club, so if you know and feel like telling, could you tell of the circumstances that lead to there being a club at your school?
Dan Argent: Yeah, it hasn't realy taken off yet. But I will try to summarize its history so far. Most of it started with three different 'nerds' (I count myself as a nerd myself so I do not mean this in a derogatory sense) learning and being interested in Go entirely separate from one another.
Kevin Zao is either chinese or from singapore, not sure which. He grew up with go and learned to play as a kid. He got a free computer game to play against but didn't know there were any players in the US to play against. He is by far the Best player in our Chess club.
Gareth lived in Malasia as a kid and his mother is chinese. I'm not sure exactly how he learned of the game but he started playing on KGS after watching Hikaru no go He plays as Sai on KGS. He was a friend of mine and he got Alex and myself into it. We played on graph paper in physics for a while.
Bjorn (aka bjogo) is another student who got interested in go as an alternative to chess. He is the one that introduced me to SL.
None of these three knew that there was anyone else who played until the robotics season started. We are all on our schools national 'First' robotics team. Gareth and I started playing Go and Bjorn and Kevin both saw us so it took off from there. We are now trying to get more people into it and get a club meeting weekly. It is unlikely that we will really get going until the robotics season ends because most of the players are on that.
That is our story and given the popularity that it has inspired and the circumstances I think that it is not unlikely that other clubs will spring up in schools around us.
I'm excited, I just got my first Go board. It's pretty hard to find quality boards in the US, or at least where I live. I managed to get a wood fold up set so that I can take it to school. It's pretty cool.
After getting it I taught my brother how to play. now he completely addicted. we stayed up till 1 in the morning last night playing. He still hasn't gotten over a nine stone handicap against me though.
Brent Yorgey: Hi Dan! I teach computer science at Wilson SHS in DC -- just out of curiosity, which high school do you attend?