In Memoriam

           It is with tremendous sadness that I must announce that Evan Corday, 3d OGS, founder of the Cincinnati Go Club, passed away on March 7, 2023 at the age of 78 after a year-long bout with cancer. 

           Evan learned Go as a 16-year-old high school student from an elderly Japanese woman in a tiny Greenwich Village coffee house in New York City.  It did not take long for him to become obsessed with the game, not only with the visual beauty of Go, but with the analytical and intellectual skills which it teaches.  Much of his spare time in college was spent searching for opponents who could help him increase his skill.  After graduation, he had the opportunity to teach English in Japan for several years and it was there that he was able to observe professional play and increase his playing strength, peaking at around 5-dan. 

           When he arrived in Cincinnati, he could not find any players, so he peppered all parts of town with go flyers.  He did not get a lot of responses, but he did begin playing with a gentleman named Jonathan Abel at Borders book store.  Then, in 1999 he had the opportunity to teach a course on Go at the University of Cincinnati.   It was as a result of this course that the Cincinnati Go Club was born.  The Club has changed venues many times over the years, including Cody’s Café, the comic book store on Vine, Highland Coffee House in Clifton, Lydia’s Café, Rohs Café, and currently at Panera in Kenwood and Starbucks in Rookwood Plaza. 

           I met Evan not long after joining the club, in 2015.  Evan was a kind and patient teacher of Go.  His voice still rings in my mind, “Read it out, Steve, Read it out”.  And after I would complain that I couldn’t see it out all the way, he would offer a gentle, “Yes, … you can.”  I owe a great deal of my current skill to his gentle, insistent urgings.  He was a strong player, a patient teacher, my (and others’) sensei, and a very, very dear friend.  He will be missed.