A few weeks after Christmas, while I was travelling into work on the Newcastle Metro, I noticed that the man sitting opposite me was reading a book on Go. I hadn’t played Go for years. When I was about 14 my eldest sister was given the MB Games Go set, and a few years later I used Older Brother powers to nick it. It went off to University with me, and I continued to play (rather badly) there too.
At some point I misplaced the Go set (I suspect Alison reclaimed it), and then rarely played Go for years - occassionally I would play a computer version. I intended to get a new board and learn to play properly, but other things pushed it back. I also couldn’t find a board in shops, I couldn’t find any other players either.
I got chatting with the Go man, and he recommended a couple of books. One Amazon order later, I started learning how to play properly, and took the book with me on my journey to work.
While I was reading the book in an overcrowded carriage, the guy sitting next to me, who I had never met before, said “You play Go? I haven’t played Go for ages”. We had a brief chat about Go and board games before I left at my stop with the location of some Go retailers.
I only know one person who’s played Go before meeting me, and people on the Metro don’t usually talk to strangers at all, but somehow I’d had two chats with keen Go players within a few weeks. I swapped roles in the second conversation. Odd. I wonder if the pattern continued?
