Amherst man to compete in world-class mind games

By Nick Grabbe
Staff Writer

Published on October 10, 2008

Trevor Morris may not look like an athlete, but he's definitely got game.

Morris, 39, one of the country's top Go players, will fly to Beijing this weekend to represent the U.S. in an international tournament.

He moved to Amherst in August to be near his 8-year-old daughter after his ex-wife joined the University of Massachusetts faculty. He's been giving generous handicaps to local players willing to take him on at the Western Massachusetts Go Club Thursday nights at Rao's coffeehouse in Amherst.

The World Mind Sports Games in Beijing, coming right after the Olympics, is designed to promote Go as an Olympic sport, he said.

A contender

"To think that I'm an Olympics-quality athlete is kind of mind-boggling," he said. "Look at me!"

Morris beat Jie Liang, one of the strongest players in the U.S., while qualifying for the tournament.

"He made a mistake, and I saw it," he said.

Go, probably the most popular board game in the world, is so old Confucius mentioned it in the 5th century B.C. It is especially popular in Korea and Japan, where it is called "Igo," a derivation of its English name.

The game is deceptively simple. The board is a square of parallel lines with 361 intersections. Each player takes turns placing a white or black piece or "stone" at an intersection, and the goal is to surround the opponent's pieces.

"Beyond being merely a game, Go can take on other meanings to enthusiasts: an analogy with life, an intense meditation, a mirror of one's personality, an exercise in abstract reasoning or, when played well, a beautiful art in which Black and White dance across the board in delicate balance," according to usgo.org.

Go is such a rich game that there are parallels with life itself, Morris said.

"For example, it is best not to overextend yourself," he said. "When you make a bad move, it is best to acknowledge that misstep but to continue on with the situation as it is, not trying to prove that the mistake was not really a mistake. In other words, be willing to cut your losses and move on."

Morris agreed that it's possible to see people's personalities reflected on the board. "Young players are often very impulsive and reckless," he said.

Go has some similarities to chess, but all the pieces have the same value and the game starts with an empty board. Go has five to seven times as many possible moves as chess, and it is more creative, with fewer established patterns, Morris said.

Computers can now compete against the top chess players, but in Go human beings reign supreme. The machines are getting better quickly, though, said Morris, a computer programmer.

"In Go, you realize how much you don't know," he said. "I would like to be able to ask God what would be the best move."

Morris started playing Go when he was 11 after his mother brought home an old set with plastic stones. He and his father and two brothers got hooked on the game. One brother and his father still play online, and Morris sometimes joins in to comment on their moves, he said.

Online Go has expanded so much that Morris can find players who are as strong as he is at any time, and children and teenagers are much better than they used to be, he said. In-person Go clubs have suffered as a result, but Morris likes the instant friendship he finds by visiting them, he said.

Occasionally, he plays three games simultaneously.

"It helps to prune your thought processes and figure out where to focus your attention," he said.

The best Go players are mostly men of Asian ancestry, though the strongest player in the U.S. is a woman born in China named Feng Yun, he said.

When Morris was younger, he read every book on Go written in English and studied with professionals around the country, he said. Now he's expanded to books written in Asian languages, and though he doesn't speak any of them, he knows enough to understand the diagrams.

He will be staying in the same place in Beijing that housed the Olympic athletes. He expects to play five to seven games during the week he's there, and perhaps meet the great Lee Sae Dol, of Korea, one of the top players in the world.

Although he doesn't expect to "win" the tournament, he's beaten some of the members of the Canadian team, winning a tournament there in 1991, he said. Morris loves Go but doesn't let it run his life. "I sometimes go months at a time without playing," he said.