Below is an introduction to the go teaching programme we will organize during our trip.

The teaching will be dividing into three parts: opening, middle game and endgame, and the participants in groups according to strength. Each group will have around 6-8 players. At the start of the course, course materials will be given to the participants, so that the players who want to focus on go can study outside class hours. Of course, plenty of opportunity will be given to play with Chinese players.

Ou Yang Kui playing a simultanous game, 2005 trip

There will be several forms for teaching:

• large board lectures in the whole group
• small-group lectures (usually in the mornings)
• small-group discussions of life and death problems or pro game reviews
• simultanous or individual games with the teachers with reviews
• tournaments within the group, with reviews of the games by the teachers
• reviews of games played on the internet, in the local go clubs, or with other Chinese players who visit us
• question sessions where the students can ask the teachers about strategy, positions from their actual games, joseki, or anything else they may think of

Wang Yang 5p teaching during the 2006 trip

In addition, the teachers will play regular games on kgs to offer some relaxation and entertainment for the participants during the evening.

The schedule for teaching will vary from week to week. Regular weeks we will offer 5 days of scheduled go teaching, with 8 hours per day. In the mornings from 10-12 the teachers will give lectures, afternoon sessions will feature games between teachers and students, and among the students. The evening sessions will be freer, and give students the chance to influence the topics studied. Our experience is that often only around half of the students will participate in the evening sessions.

Chang Hao 9p and Bao Yun showing a variation

We will also try to arrange weekend sessions or extra study opportunities for those students who are especially interested, and invite other strong players to our apartments to play with the participants on days that are free from scheduled teaching. Like this, we hope to offer enough lessons for those participants who want to study go almost every day, and flexible arrangements for those who want to spend part of the time traveling and enjoying life in China, but also want to play go.

During the trip, there will also be a number of special go events, where top players come to visit the players, or where the players go to visit special games or pro tournaments.

Teachers

Will Zhang (Chinese 6d, willzhang 9d on kgs) will be the teaching during the whole trip, and offer promotional games and teaching on kgs before the trip. The teachers for all groups will generally be Chinese 5d or above, but we may choose a weaker player (but of course, a good and patient teacher) to teach any beginners who may be participating.

We will try every year to find teachers who are experienced with and motivated in teaching and participating in activities together with the participants. From our experience, this is often more important than the stength of the teachers, except for players already in the dan rankings.