How the ancient game of Go is a guide to modern life | Silvia Lozeva | TEDxPerth

Silvia Lozeva uses the ancient Chinese game of Go to connect with people across the world. On her journey, she discovered that Go is a wonderful teacher of skills necessary in many aspects of modern life. She walks us through some of Go's principles to demonstrate the social learning and personal understanding that come from playing the game.
 
Silvia Lozeva has worked to advance equity and diversity in the higher education sector and leads campaigns on the prevention of violence against women. Silvia has lived and worked in New Zealand, Australia, Bulgaria, Russia, the UK, and central Europe. She organized the first academic Go Symposium in Australia (Sydney 2018) and has continuously applied the art, science, and game of Go in her own research, teaching, and community engagement. Silvia is a life-long Go player and an aspiring Go scholar.

Silvia is joined on stage by two brave Go players, Hardy Zhiyuan Dai, 8, and Jason Schrader, 26, as they continue their game of Go.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

We come from many different places,

but one thing we all have in common
is that we have all played games

while growing up.

Games are a natural mirror
of the world of the social humans

by way of mimicking real social scenarios,

developing new skills,

satisfying our curiosity,

and making friends -

and all while having fun.

As a teenager,

I grew up behind the Iron Curtain
in socialist Bulgaria,

and each night after school,
I'd lie on my bedroom floor,

plowing through books
on philosophy and religion.

I was trying to make sense of the world
and to find the meaning of life.

An influential figure in my life
introduced me to a new way of thinking

through books on Eastern philosophy,

which were not easily
available at the time.

It was he who introduced me
to the game of Go,

a humble board with 361 intersections
and black and white stones.

In the late 1980s, the Iron Curtain fell,

forging a new sense of connectedness
with the rest of the world,

together with the ability to travel
and to search for the meaning of life.

I pursued traveling, and I decided
to be a global citizen

together with that sense of freedom
that swept across Eastern Europe.

I lived in Wellington, Dubai, Moscow,
Seoul, Sydney, Prague, Sofia,

and everywhere I went,
there was a local Go club,

mirroring the global sense
of connectedness,

as if the latitude and the longitude
of the globe were reflected

on the micro-grid of the Go board.

While on the personal level
it was relatively easy

to relate the game of Go
to my own experience,

it wasn't until I started to search
into the origin and history of the game

when I began to uncover the reasons

why Go is so applicable
to real-life scenarios,

and why it has sustained
its undisputed place in the world today.

To do so, however,

I first had to address my own ignorance

of the deeply embedded
traditions in the East.

And I will explain why.

Go was invented in China
40 centuries ago,

and its original purpose
was to teach strategic thinking.

This is evident from the translation
of the word in China, "wei qi,"

"surround" and "board" -

or literally, "the surrounding"
or the "encircling game."

Regarded as a highly elitist game
in the empire, Go's original purpose

was not only to teach strategic thinking,
but to mimic concepts of real life -

so much so that Go was and still is known
as the universal game.

I will give you three examples:

First, a central concept within Go
is creating web-like connections

or the opportunities
for those connections to occur

where a threat presents to the group.

This is vital for their survival.

Go players refer to groups
as living or dead,

depending on the local situation.

What makes a group alive is not the number
of physical stones on the board.

Size does not matter.

What matters is the space
within the groups that makes it alive.

Think about the space within
as the shared value that we share now

with social connections
that sustain those groups,

rather than the number or the size
of our social connections.

Within the framework of Go logic,
humans are social creatures,

seeking to form meaningful connections
with others for their own survival

and for the survival of the group.

We are stronger together, and what matters
in life is that we get along

despite our differences in age, religion,
political views, or race.

Secondly, Go is a way of communication,
a conversation by hands.

It's a powerful tool to communicate
different ways of thinking.

It's essential in reaching compromises
while dividing the space

based on mutual respect and understanding.

Since the Go board offers
an immense number of opportunities

to play with its 361 intersections,

controlling the entire space -

it's impossible.

And this challenges
the traditional Western perspective

to strategic games

where destroying your opponent's pieces
and your opponent's territory

is the ultimate goal of the game.

It's a desirable outcome of the game,

and often the only way
to determine a winner.

Yet in the Go world,
an aggressive approach to the game,

aiming to dominate the entire territory
without recognizing the need

of your opponent to coexist,
to form its own space,

is the surest way to lose the game.

And this is simply illustrated
by the first of the 10 strategies of Go:

"Don't be greedy."

A novice player is quick to learn

that being greedy is not
one of the biggest mistakes to make,

but also one that makes you
feel like a fool.

In my first 100 games,
I aimed to win every battle,

only to realize that I've lost
an entire side of the board

or of the bigger picture,

and I'm still learning this lesson today.

Thirdly, in Go all stones
are of equal value,

which could be easily related
to the principles of equity and inclusion.

Go players rely on their long-term
vision to place each stone.

Go is a creative game,
where players start with an empty board

and then end with
a mosaic-like full picture,

where imagination is just as important
as logical thinking and problem solving.

This can be easily related to real life.

A stone placed in the right
place of the board

has the potential to overturn
the entire result, even in the endgame,

something impossible
in other strategic games.

In real life, this means
that we all make choices every day,

and thus we have the opportunity
to change our lives at any one point.

At one point in my life,
I felt like I've lost all battles,

as if all of my stones
have been wrongly placed on the board.

I survived domestic violence,
and I started a new life,

forming a new sense of place
in a new territory.

When I landed in Perth about 10 years ago,
it was a beautiful and sunny day,

just like today,
but I didn't know anyone.

Metaphorically speaking, I placed a stone
in a new area of the board.

The Perth Go Club became my place
to form connections with people

from diverse backgrounds
and to make new friends.

Go became my 19-by-19 pillar of strength

where I could form meaningful connections
with people from different backgrounds.

Here, in the microcosmos of the Go board,

I could battle while reflecting
on real-life problems.

It offered the perfect place,
both physically and mentally,

to practice some
of the ancient principles in Go:

"Don't be greedy on winning."
"Aim to sacrifice to take the lead."

"Compromise when in trouble."

Before you declare me for a Go master,
I have a confession to make.

I'm one of the worst Go players in Perth.

(Laughter)

The reason that I continue to play
is not necessarily to win,

but to develop skills that I can use
in my everyday life,

to make better decisions,

and to inspire others
to benefit from the strategies of Go.

Go is a simple yet complex game.
Everyone can learn the rules in minutes.

Yet the deceivingly simple rules of Go
contrast with its strategies,

which is so immensely complex
that they even baffled

artificial intelligence
through the DeepMind AlphaGo Challenge.

So is it this ability of the game

to stimulate logical thinking
and problem solving,

and to provoke our imagination

that has sustained
the game of Go over 4,000 years?

And why has it been ignored
for so long in the West?

My answer is that above anything else,
Go offers a unique way

of connecting people,
places, and culture -

a cultural bridge through time.

Go offers a millennia-old, strategic,
tangible tool to teach skills

that are just as relevant today
as they were in the past.

For example, in the business world,

this could simply mean

that instead of seeing
your business competitor

as your opponent or your enemy,

you see them as your teachers.

Forming connections
based on trust and respect

could be as simple as asking for a game
following the Go etiquette,

which is, "Please teach me."

So what if we could bridge centuries

of strategic thinking to modern boardrooms

and gamify strategic thinking
using the lessons of the Go game?

And what if we can teach children new,
transferable skills through gaming?

In my opinion, Go is destined
to take over chess

and to teach us lessons
that we cannot even imagine.

Go has the immense potential to teach
both hard and soft skills.

Students who play Go are found
to form better relations with their peers,

to have higher marks
and better concentration.

Go has the potential
to teach Australian children

problem solving and
imagination and creativity.

In fact, this is exactly one of the goals
in the Australian school curriculum:

to develop students as global citizens
while providing a cultural bridge

with some of our closest neighbors
in the ancient century.

I have a vision: in every boardroom,
in every schoolroom, in every university,

to have a Go board,

to be able to make better decisions,

to be able to teach young people
how to think,

to be able to form a new set of values

in tune with the better
angels of our nature.

I dream of more places to connect,

more places to play,

and more freedom to learn.

Only then, we can forge
a new sense of freedom,

learn to appreciate differences,

and grow the next generation of leaders.

Thank you.

(Applause)