In the early March of 2022, the Multilingual Go book project completed its sixth full version with Catalan joining the already completed editions in English, Greek, French, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. This particular version had started with the effort of Ferran Bassols who begun translating the first two chapters, but the whole effort has been completed with the work for Joan Lluis, who finished up the first chapters and then proceeded to do an amazing job in translating all the 192 pages of the book.

The main goal of the project is to create a free Go book for beginners that will be translated to as many languages as possible, in order to provide an additional way to promote and spread Go in countries that do not have a Go tradition and their native language is not English.

Along those lines, the biggest ambition of the project is not only the provision of a free online resource, but also the printing and distribution of free copies of the book in physical copies. In that regard, Joan Lluis considered the cultural celebration of Sant Jordi that takes place in 23 of April in Catalonia to be the ideal occasion for a Go book related event. Sant Jordi’s festival is a day of culture, where love and life is celebrated. It is customary to give women a rose and men a book or vice versa as preferred, so, fifty physical copies of the book were printed, to be shared with the people in the event.

Taking advantage of the fact that this year it falls on a Sunday and we have the whole weekend (every time the festivities last longer than indicated) Joan Lluis has organized the inauguration ceremony of the Go club of the Gran Penya de Vilanova i la Geltrú on April 22th to achieve maximum influx and impact.

The main idea is to show a new game and, at the same time, since this day is celebrated on the day of the book, present the first Go book in Catalan within the framework of a global project to guarantee the possibility to use the different mother tongues of the world in the field of Go.

The schedule of the event is this (22th of April – Gran Penya)
12:00 pm : Welcome
12:30 pm : Conference: two games, two worlds
1:00 p.m. : Presentation of the first Go book in Catalan
4:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. : Games and Go workshop

We would be very glad to see you there and everyone is welcome to come by, say hi, play some Go and get a Go book in Catalan. See you there!

For the Multilingual Go Project:
Joan Lluis (Catalan translator, Event Organiser)
Haris Kapolos (Author, Typesetting)

UPDATE

On Saturday, April 22th, the inauguration of the Go club took place in the Gran Penya de Vilanovai la Geltrú. This institution is a cultural and recreational center that was founded in 1913 and has chess, bridge, billiards and bingo sections and from today it has a section for Go.

To celebrate it, an event was held which, during the morning, consisted of a conference entitled "Two games, two worlds" where the culture of the East and the West was addressed through its two well-known strategy games: go and chess. This content is based on the articles I had published in the EGJ in the September, October and November-December editions.


Next, the Catalan translation of the book "A Go guide for a beginner" was presented, explaining how it was born within the framework of a multilingual Go book project to promote Go and counter its current dissemination. Also, its content and mode of use for club members and new fans were detailed in broad strokes and copies of the book were given as a gift. Finally, it was explained how the idea had arisen on my part and how, as a result of this initiative, the two translators Ferran Bassols and me met a year ago and had decided to found a Go club together and inaugurate it within the framework of the annual party of Sant Jordi, which is a day where culture, love and life are celebrated by giving away roses and books.

In the afternoon there were simultaneous games and teaching games as well as a Go workshop for people who wanted to begin playing Go. There was a good influx of people of different ages who participated with great interest in the different activities. The atmosphere was phenomenal, people were surprised and very attracted by the novelty and beauty of the game and were interested in joining the club activities to learn and play more.




I want to thank all the people who have helped me throughout this journey and, especially, Haris Kapolos for his tenacity and the members of the Go la Pedra club for giving me their help and kind collaboration.

- Joan Lluis