Opposites attract

What are two USA go team members doing in the draughts playing area? Trevor Morris (left) and Louis Samuel Abronson, both being 6th dan in go, are playing international draughts. Coming from the USA they already knew the checkers game, but the international 10×10 game was unknown to them. Abronson was immediately struck by the subtleties he saw on the draughts boards. The nice positions, the combinations in a series of moves: those were unexpected surprises to him.

On the first glimpse, go seems to be the exact opposite of draughts. With go you place pieces on the board and they stay there, the draughts game pieces move around until they eventually will be taken off. While in go the edges are strong, in draughts the centre of the board is the battlefield. Cluttering of game pieces is very weak in go, while single pieces sometimes fear for their lives on the draughts board.

Morris was surprised that draughts has a long history. He explained that go was initiated in China a few centuries ago, professionalized in Japan, and the Korean are the best at it nowadays. It is an Asian dominated sport, although you’ll find participants from everywhere. The origin of draughts lays in Europe and from there it spread to Africa and the rest of the world. You can learn more about the history reading this article.

During the interview both go players kept on playing draughts, trying to understand the moves, only in between some moves there was time for a few words to say. When Dutch player Wim van Mourik started explaining and showing nice combinations, the interview was over, the focus was all again on the draughts board.