Очень хорошее интервью получилось. Одно из лучших за всю историю Гоамы.
- How and when did you learn go?
I learned the Go game in 1947 – that was the time of the Berlin blockade -
in the house of Felix Dueball, directly from him. My parents had been
familiar with the Dueball family beginning in 1930. My father died in the
war and my mother worked still after the war in the Dueballs house. Felix
Dueball always tried to find new go players and so he explained me the game
once. Each Saturday he hold a Go meeting in his home, sometimes by light of
a small accumulator lamp – because of blocking electricity in this time -.
- Was it easy to find strong players for play?
In the first years there had been no stronger players than Felix Dueball.
Comparing to the nowadays classification he has had the ability of amateur 1
Dan. Sometimes amateur players from Japan visited the home of Dueball to
play some games there.
This changes after 1960. Some famous Japanese professional players -
Iwamoto, Takagawa, Nakaoka, Segoe, Hashimoto, etc. - visited the Go
Congresses and mostly they visited Berlin too.
- Did you easily find any go material (books, board-stones, pro go game
kifu) ?
We have had very less Go books. I remember only the book from Bruno Ruger –
Das Go-Spiel – which was my most important book in this time. No books in
english language had been available in the first years. This changes in
1963, when the Go Monthly Review from Nihon Ki-in was been published.
The Go books from R. Bozulich and S. Dowsey in Japan had been a great help
not only for me but for younger Go players.
Boards and stones had been no problem, because we played only in the house
of Dueball with his material. Sometimes later I produced Go boards by
myself.
- You are not an active Go player anymore. When did you stop to playing Go
tournaments and why?
I am still active in Go, but only playing in the Go clubs in Berlin
sometimes, not in the tournaments. I stopped it in 1964, after the 1st
International Tournament in Japan in 1963, where I had been member of the
German team.
To stop playing in the tournaments has had some reasons.
- I have had a business – electrical engineer - and a family, two sons, and
I needed plenty of time for all. To progress further in the ability of Go in
this time, I saw,
that additional efforts are needed.
- Till 1963 the Deutscher Go-Bund had been in Berlin and I produced about
two years the Deutsche Go-Zeitung. After changing Deutscher Go-Bund for West
Germany, the former and the new official people came in conflicts and I
decided not to join any of these groups.
About ten years long I played no Go game.
- There are lot of old players in Japan, who are still active — Sugiuchi
Masao (88), Iwata Tatsuaki (82), Kudo Norio (68). Why there are only few
players of their age
in Europe, who still take part in Go tournaments?
I think, there is a big difference between professional and amateur players.
In Europe most players have Go only as hobby. They have a profession, which
needs time and they have less time to study the game.
Besides this, the Go ability in Europe had increased very much in the past
40 years. In 1970 I got from Iwamoto the Yon Dan, and in the time till now I
became somewhat weaker. But now many strong players are playing in the
tournaments, and I have really no chance. I am not able to concentrate all
the days in a tournament, but I can give these reasons only from my view.
In the past years I tried to go into the publics to promote the Go game. The
first small exhibition we have had 1997 in Berlin Spandau. Shigeno Yuki
visited us.
The next big exposition we have hade during the Go-Congress 2000 in Berlin.
It had been held int the "Ethnologisches Museum" in Berlin Dahlem and we
presented interesting details of Go, mainly many Japanese "ukyo-e", all
showing the game. This exhibition lasted 4 months and we produced a
publication.
Several small events in Berlin follow. Last year in November I organized a
small exposition during the Japan Festival, showing some parts of the Go
history in Berlin. Some pictures you can see on www.govb.de (Fotos, 14.11.
2008).
I think that this engagement is much better for developing of Go in my town
than playing in the tournaments on my low level.
- There is a huge difference between European Championships in 1960 and
2008. What do you think about the current system? Is it better or not?
I think you should not compare the system of the former and the nowadays
Championships. We have now a very other time. Till beginning of the sixties
the Go congresses had been very familiar meetings of Go friends. The number
of participants had been low, not more than 100.
But now, nearly 1000 participants join the congresses. That is very good for
developing of Go in the European Countries, but there is only less familiar
feeling between the players. I regret this.
- I heard that few months ago you wrote the book about Felix Dueball.
Can you introduce it?
All the past years I had been very familiar with the Dueball family. I
received many articles – Go-boards, fotos, publications etc. – from the
heirs of Felix Dueball, mainly to prevent it for the future. About 5 years
ago I regarded, that most of the younger Go players even do not know the
name of Felix Dueball. Then I decided to publish a collection of interesting
details of his life. I think, his engagement is very important for the
development of Go not only in Berlin but also in Germany and Europe.
First I produced a DIN A4 version showing it some people to collect
additional material. Last year I visited Japan, researching publications
from Ki-do and from newspapers from 1930/31, when Dueball stayed in Japan. I
saw that the name of Dueball and the name of Korschelt too – he wrote the
first Go book in German language – is very well known in Japan, especially
in the small museum of Nihon Ki-in in Ichigaya/Tokyo.
- Where can we buy this book?
I offered this book to some publishers but they all answered negatively. So
I decided to produce it myself. This book is not available in the normal
book shops. Normally you can buy it only from me (ciessow-g(at)versanet.de),
but "Schaak en Go winkel het Paard" in Amsterdam had ordered a few one.
I think it would be best, to buy books during tournaments in Western Europe. Normally there will come participants from
Berlin. If I know in advance, that some people have interest, I can give
them some of my books.
- Can you tell us about any Go tournaments and Go activity in Germany during
1941-1945?
This is the time, where I myself never had heard the name of Go. But I know
that in these years, where WW2 came over Europe, Go development got a strong
brake. I found some publication in newspaper, that in the years 1940 and
1941 Go-tournaments in Berlin "Russischer Hof" had been held. From the
following years I found no information.
Александр Динерштейн,
Go lessons [
breakfast.go4go.net]
Разобранные партии [
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Журнал "Гоама" [
gogame.info]
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