For years now I’ve wanted to learn to play Weiqi (that Chinese Othello kind of game, aka “Go” in Japanese, for those unfamiliar with the name), and it just dawned on me the other day that I’m probably the best positioned for learning that I’ll ever be right now. So, any suggestions as to how/where to go about this wee task?
If you can speak a little Chinese you could go along to one of those wei-qi buxibans (cram schools). Your fellow students will all be elementary school students, though.
You’d be guaranteed a good game, you’d get quality instruction but the chairs might be a bit small as they’re usually only for elementary school kids. I bet they would be glad to have you. They would enjoy teaching the westerner a thing or two, and they could practice a few words of English on you.
I second Spack’s suggestion.
Sometimes even younger! I know of a five-year-old weiqi student who’s getting pretty good apparently.
Pardon my ignorance, but where could I find one of these weiqi buxiban? And the whole elementary-student thing - sounds great. That’s about the level my spoken Chinese is at anyway 
i believe there’s on in the building with the mcdonalds at the corner of hoping and roosevelt.
If you can speak as well as an elementary school student you must be fluent in Chinese! 
I didn’t say it was a SMART elementary school student’s level
Don’t dumb elementary school kids speak fluent Chinese then?
Good luck with your search. Let us know what you find and how you get along with your playmates. I’d quite like to learn too but have no free time. Maybe there is somewhere on the Net you can practice between classes? Maybe Yahoo Games?
If you wish you could always try downloading IGOWIN (freeware program; the AI is impishly impossible near the 5 kyu level) and start learning from there…you’ll have to google a while to get a link though.
that’s cool, thanks aoi145.
Yeah, I’ve got that and a couple of other Go/Weiqi programs, but there’s really no substitute for actually playing, nor for being taught as opposed to learning in this case, I reckon.
Same with chess. I keep making the same dumb mistakes over and over. What I really need is for a good player to show me how to play better.
I think there’s some kind of weiqi academy on the fifth floor of the corner of Fuxing and Ren’ai, opposite the MRT station. The sign says Zhonghua Qiyuan or something like that. I always wanted to go there but never got around to it.
I believe that’s the name of the one i mentioned above, must be a chain.
Zhonghua Qiyuan as in “Chinese Chess Academy”? I’ll go take a look later today then. I never actually got around to checking the Heping/Roosevelt one, been pretty busy, but I’ll be in the general area of the Fuxing/Ren’ai one later today.
Well, I went and had a look for the place, but I missed it entirely 
I kinda forgot the “fifth floor” part too… But I’m still not 100% clear on the location as per your directions: it can’t be “opposite the MRT station” and on “the corner of Fuxing and Ren’ai” since that corner is halfway between Zhongxiao Fuxing and Daan stations… Mayhaps you could clarify?
Tetsuo,
If you wish to not seem too beginner when you will face those viciously strong young players, I recommend you to try to play with some real players on internet on the server kgs.kiseido.com
My nickname on this server is karmaGfa, just in case you wish to play me.
Sorry, Tetsuo, my memory of Ren’ai locations was always faulty, and I no longer live in Taibei (or Taiwan for that matter). But I’m pretty sure it was on Ren’ai, and near Fuxing… I remember often seeing it soon after passing the AIT. Wait, is that on Xinyi or Fuxing? I think maybe it’s on Xinyi and Fuxing then. Fuxing and something, anyway.
Sorry, I wish I could be more helpful. I’m not trying to mislead you, much as my (in)directions may seem to indicate the opposite.
Here’s the link to IGOWIN games.yahoo.com . You’ll have to sign up with yahoo to use it.
Here’s a link to the US go website www.usgo.org .
I’d recommend downloading that free game. It comes with a tutorial on Go that looks pretty helpful (and the price is right).
www.zone.com does too. i haven’t tried go but in general their games seem to have better graphics than yahoo, which can be kind of clunky.