Playing go at work
Everyone who has fun stories about playing go at work is invited to share them !
Stefan: This story is not 100% go at work, but close enough. In November of 1999 I went on a business trip to South-Korea, to visit and discuss with a potential supplier. Although I knew upfront I'd have hardly any spare time, I secretly hoped to score some game. After all, there's supposed to be 10 million players over there, right? Maybe the receptionist in the hotel could teach me a trick or two.
Anyway, the evening we arrive we have dinner with some of our hosts, but unfortunately none of them bites the bait I throw out. They must have thought it obvious that *everybody* in the world knows Yi Ch'ang-ho. But the next day we leave on a 3 hour train journey to the company's plant in Iksan. So as our 10 people party start to kill time, I whip out one of my English-language go books... Bingo! Their senior scientist, sitting next to me, starts to jump up and down and say all the usual stuff when a Korean or Japanese finds out you play go.
The moment we arrive in Iksan, he takes one of the local employees aside and hurriedly says two or three sentences. So by the time we board the train back to Seoul again in the evening, he produces a plastic set with magnetic stones, clearly intent on finding out just how much this tall white guy was bluffing, and showing him how it was really done. We played two games in the buffet wagon of the train, with lots of beer and an increasingly drunk party around us. It was all tremendous fun, and I'm proud to say I won both games (which cost my opponent a considerable amount of good natured abuse from his fellows. Nobody else stepped in to take over though :-)) I was around 4 or 5 kyu at the time, and the guy must have been one or two stones weaker than I. He gave me the set as a victory prize, and I'll treasure it for a long time.
Scartol: Please see my tale about Playing through lunch and arriving late to class and getting chewed out by the other teachers.
le zogzog I wonder if this is a bad habit for pro players ...
How about reading SL at work? :-) - JoshuaRodman?
Once, my opponent on KGS left the game during five minutes. When he came back, he apologized explaining he was playing at work and had to quit because of his boss...
That's a bad habit.
juste: For you software engineers: KGS as you compile...
DGS is even handier :-)