The Seattle Go Center looks for new home after closing U District site

Tuesday nights are bustling at the Seattle Go Center with more than three dozen people hunched over wooden Go boards on the organization’s second floor. Players speak quietly as they sit in pairs and gently tap black and white stones at the intersections of the grid lines. Others sit crossed-legged on mats in the center’s Tatami Room. 

But after more than 20 years in the University District, the Seattle Go Center is looking for a new home. Wataru Ueno, who joined the center in 2015, said he learned to play the game of Go in Tokyo. Ueno said he will miss the bonds he made over the game. 

“Go is pretty popular in Japan, but coming to the U.S. it’s very rare to meet people who know about the game — let alone play it,” said Ueno of Capitol Hill. “It feels like an end of an era.”

Seattle Go Center opened in 1995 to teach and promote Go, an ancient strategy board game that historians estimate was invented in China 4,000 years ago. Go is a game of territory, which means whoever controls most of the board wins. The longtime hub for Go culture in Seattle is moving to a temporary location after its lease ends later this month. 

“It’s very sad,” said Bill Chiles, president of the Seattle Go Center. “It’s not unicorns and rainbows, but we’re still going to come out of it and be OK and have a thriving community.” 

According to leaders, having a physical space to play Go fosters in-person connections among players, as opposed to playing the game online. 

“We don’t want to be scrounging around in dark corners trying to find coffee shops that are open,” Chiles said. “This provides a home.” 

Noni Dowding, 32, of Fremont, celebrated the organization’s last day of operation by playing a Go match with her mother, Rebecca Dowding, 52, of Greenwood. Noni, who learned to play Go more than a decade ago from a high school teacher, said it makes her feel calm. 

“It’s very peaceful,” Noni said. “It’s not about crushing your opponent, but coming to an equal place.” 

Rebecca started driving her daughter to the center as a teen. As adults, she said this is an activity they can enjoy together. 

“It’s something I can share with my mom,” Noni said. “It’s sentimental because I’ve been coming here for so long.”

The closure comes after Champion Real Estate Company purchased the building from the Nihon Ki-in, the former Japanese owners of the Go Center, last June for $7.3 million. An August 2020 design proposal shows plans to construct “Victory at the U,” a high-rise student housing building, on the lot. The proposal would allow the Go Center to occupy the second level of the building. 

“The original intent for the site included a new building with a space for which the Go Center would occupy under a 99-year lease,” said Garrett Champion, executive vice president of Champion Real Estate Co. “However, due to market conditions we are reevaluating the use of the site.” 

The Go Center’s central location in the University District is a main draw for participants and visitors who enjoy its proximity to Interstate 5, accessible parking and the nearby U District light rail station, according to the organization’s leadership.

Members like Ueno worry the center might lose some of its accessibility after the move. 

“It’s easy to access for a lot of folks that might live away from Seattle too,” Ueno said, adding that he hopes the new location can host similar large events and that the “community won’t lose what we have here today.” 

Seattle Go Center history

More than 20 years ago, professional Japanese Go player Kaoru Iwamoto funded the Seattle Go Center so it could spread and preserve the culture of Go in the U.S. Seattle was tapped for the U.S. center because of its history of Go organizing, including hosting the 1986 U.S. Go Congress, which is now known as one of the largest competitive Go activities in the country. 

Chris Kirschner, 83, a founding member of the Go Center and director of the Seattle 1986 Go Congress, said the center will survive the temporary closure. 

“[Go] is in my blood,” said Kirschner, who wore a T-shirt from the 1986 Go competition. “This is not the end of the Seattle Go Center. It’s just the end of our existence in this building. We’re going to relocate and we will be revived.” 

As Go Center leaders pack up years of memories, including records, a library of books, Go boards and glass stones, secretary Peter Kron said they plan to find and move to a new spot in a few months, but it will be years before they buy a permanent space. 

Kron, who discovered his love of the game decades ago after stumbling upon the shuttered cafe The Last Exit on Brooklyn, a home for Go and chess players in the U District, said the closure of the center is bittersweet.  

“Go is not as popular as chess by any means [in the U.S.],” Kron said. “This was a place where you could always depend on there being a few people or sometimes a number of people who knew the game and played the game.”