Tunteeko joku esimerkiksi KGS:ssä virolaisia gon pelaajia? On perin harmillista, että eteläisessä naapurimaassamme ei vielä ole järjestäytynyttä go-toimintaa. Olisi erityisen hienoa, jos Tallinnaan syntyisi aktiivinen go-yhteisö. Tallinnassa on puoli miljoonaa asukasta sekä teknillinen korkeakoulu ja yliopisto.

Minusta voisimme tutkia mahdollisuutta järjestää Tallinnassa gon esittelytilaisuus esimerkiksi yliopistolla, teknillisellä korkeakoululla tai joillakin sopivilla messuilla. Minua kiinnostaisi olla mukana järjestämässä sellaista jonakin viikonloppuna. KGS:n saunassa voitaisiin järjestää jälkeenpäin alkeiskurssi. Onko muita kiinnostuneita?

-- Markku Jantunen, 8.1. 2004

Eilen aloin hengaamaan Eesti asi -huoneessa ja siellä näyttäisi olevan joitakin. Vähän ja kiireisiä, joten hiukan ovat heikoilla organisoinnin kanssa. Ja yksi aktiivisimmista asuu Helsingissä. Myös liettualaiset ovat kiinnostuneita aiheesta, joten heidänkin kanssaan voisi olla yhteistyössä. Heitä tapaa ainakin Lithuanian Roomissa.

-- Jari Koivikko, 8.1.2004

Esitelmän pito ja esittelymateriaali eivät varmasti ole ongelma. Ne voidaan hoitaa kokonaan omin voimin. Mutta tilaisuuden mainostaminen on. Tallinnan yliopistolle tai teknilliselle korkeakoululle pitäisi ottaa itse yhteyttä sekä kysyä tilanvarauksista ja lupa ilmoitusten kiinnittämiseen auloihin ilmoitustauluille ja seinille. Myös jonkin paikallisen ylioppilaslehden toimitukseen voisi tarjota ilmoitusta gon esittelytilaisuudesta. Käytännössä homma vaatisi kaksi käyntiä. Helsinkiläiselle yhden päivän käynti on mahdollinen, koska Helsinki-Tallinna -matka katamaraanilla ei kestä kuin kaksi tuntia. Tampereelta ei kannattaisi lähteä kuin viikonlopuksi, mutta mielestäni Tallinna on kiva kaupunki, jossa on hauska käydä ihan muuten vaankin.

-- Markku Jantunen, 8.1. 2004

Ajatus on kannatettava. Olisi hyvä, jos olisi kontakti johonkin tallinnalaiseen henkilöön, joka voisi järjestää tilan ja ilmoittelun. Itse esittelyresissuun voin osallistua, mutta minua ei innosta erillinen valmisteluretki. Voihan toki siihenkin löytyä vapaaehtoinen täältä.

-- Matti Siivola 8.1.2004

Hi, if you want Estonians to understand, it would be better to switch to English. Anyhow, there are only a few Go players in Estonia, and it seems that nobody is really considering to be a serious tournament player in the future. Still, it would be nice to get a Go promotion tour by stronger neighbours. Some ideas: (a) KGS had at some point 4-5 Estonian high school pupils. That would be an ideal audience for say even online lessons. (b) Estonia has a very active renju club (two renju world champions come from Estonia!). It has 50+ members, regular meetings, mostly children. And a fulltime(?) teacher. I bet they would be interested in learning another game. (c) There's going to be a combinatorial game theory course in Tartu, and it could be interesting to have actually some good Go player (who has math background) to give a visiting lecture. But this has to be discussed with the lecturer (who is a 21k? on KGS).

-- Helger, KGS 8k, 8.1.2004

Fine. I'll repeat muself in English. If we get somebody from Tallinn to arrange a place and advertise to get people there I beleive that we can send a group of people to visit Tallinn and do some promotion there. We just had better to select a weekend when don't have any big tournament in Finland.

When is the combinatorial game theory course in Tartu going to be?

By the way, is there a reson not to put your name below your text?

-- Matti Siivola 8.1.2004

No particular reason, modified my last signature.

The course is going to take part during this semester, janwil from KGS is the lecturer. He has lectured it once before, the course homepage (in Estonian) is at http://math.ut.ee/~jan/game/

I'd invite interested persons to Estonian room in the KGS to discuss the matters. Since the number of active players is quite small, it takes some effort to find somebody to arrange a place (I am myself in Helsinki!).

I might pop in to some HGK club evenings if I have time. This is probably the most reasonable way to start something.

The best Estonian player _we_ know is 4k on the KGS, although we have been acknowledged that there was a Russian(?) 4d living in Estonia in 80ies. I have no idea for how long, and where he is now.

--- Helger, 8.1.2004

It is not particularly difficult to arrange a venue for go demonstration and advertise it so that we would have some 20-30 interested people participating. I can do that, no problem. What is difficult is what will happen next. I don't know if it is very useful to just arrange the demonstration and then tell people that this is it, now go and play. There ought to be some follow-up, or otherwise we will probably lose 90% of the people who came. Of course, we could always refer people to KGS, but I very much doubt if chess or renju would have the kind of popularity that they do have now in Estonia if it was only played on the internet.

In my opinion, the real problem that we have right now is that there is no-one who would have enough time and commitment to actually follow up on the interest that will be created by the presentation. Maybe I'm wrong and maybe there is no need for any follow-up. In that case - as I said I can organise the venue and advertising for presentation in Tallinn, and I'm sure Jan can do the same in Tartu. However, I will not be able to work on promoting go on any continuous basis, i.e. organising regular meetings, teaching, answering questions, etc.

-- Tarmo (nuwanda on KGS), 9.1.2004

Good. Isuggest the following plan. We arrange the demonstration. Immediately after finishing we discuss with the people if they have interest in playing regulary. You should aim to have one meeting weekly. If that sounds unrealistic then have one every two weeks. You can make a break for summer, if you have problm of having people or the place at that time. The key is to make it predictable. People should know that at certain time at a certain place they can play. Helsinki Go Club has played over 24 years on Tuesdays. Arrange two players to come at the start of all the meeting. One is also enough, but it might be boring to wait for others.

I cannot guarantee sending a finnish player every week to Tallinn, but I think there can be several visits during the year. Do you have boards and stones there?

-- Matti Siivola 9.1.2004

Below is a list of Finnish players willing to make at least one trip to Tallinn this year.