[FM Discuss] Go and chess books for Sugar

[Julian Oliver]

..on Mon, Nov 24, 2008 at 03:12:40PM -0800, Edward Cherlin wrote:
> I have just written to the American Go Federation and the US Chess
> Federation proposing books on Go and Chess for the OLPC XO, to bring
> these games to many millions of children in dozens of countries. AGF
> is excited about the idea, and we have started the discussion about
> how, what, and when. I am waiting to hear from USCF.
> 
> We are proposing book sprints on well-understood topics beginning with
> teaching the rules of the game, and continuing through all of the
> elementary stages, such as capturing, openings, very elementary
> strategy and tactics, basic endgame play, and so on. Each game has
> topics that do not apply to the other, such as handicap play in Go and
> checkmate and drawing rules in chess. Adam and I are excited about
> sitting down with experts on teaching these games for a week at a
> time, and about working out how to integrate Sugar software into
> interactive tutorials.
> 
> This is what we call a low floor, high ceiling opportunity, where we
> can make it extremely easy for schoolchildren to get started, and show
> them how to continue as far as their talent and desire will take them
> toward master and grandmaster play.


fantastic. even as a videogame developer i can say there is no better game i
have played than Go. more broadly than my fandom however, i like the idea very
much.

cheers,

-- 
Julian Oliver
home: New Zealand
based: Madrid, Spain
currently: Madrid, Spain
about: http://julianoliver.com