Cuba and Mexico held their first primary school go exchange this April at the Cuban Go Academy in the Eduardo Saborit Sports Complex in Havana. Five Mexican and seven Cuban primary shool students competed in a four-round Swiss System on the 14th and 15th (Monday and Tuesday), also finding time for a game of soccer on Monday and a beach house visit on Tuesday. Then after an instructional class, game commentaries, and a social event, the exchange concluded with a 13 x 13 pair go tournament on April 18 (Friday) in which the Mexicans took Cuban partners. The individual Swiss System, which made the Tuesday sports news on Cuban TV, was won by Carlos Manuel Alfonso Basabe (Cuba, age 9) while Diego Armando Luciano Cortes (Mexico, age 7) finished second. In the pair competition, Carlos teamed up with Daniela Luciano Cortes (Mexico, age 9) to take first place. The entire event appeared on Cuban TV again when sports commentator Yimmy Castillo covered it in his Sunday Pulso Deportivo (Sports Pulse) program.

 The Mexican players were accompanied by parents and by Siddhartha Avila, who teaches go to primary school children in Mexico. During the five days, these grown-ups and their Cuban counterparts discussed topics of mutual interest, such as the educational systems in the two countries and methods of teaching go. The exchange grew out of a 2013 visit to Cuba by go players from the United States, who then met Siddhartha at the 2013 U.S. Go Congress and told him about the Cuban Go Academy’s program for children of primary-school age. Siddhartha contacted the Cubans, and the idea of an exchange was born. In organizing the exchange, the Cuban Go Academy obtained support from the Mexican ‘Pipiolo’ Center for Primary School Educational and Artistic Research, as well as from Cuba’s National Institute for Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (INDER) and from Cubadeportes (Cuba Sports).

This go exchange was the first of its kind in Latin America, and the organizers described it as a great success. In future years the Cuban Go Academy hopes to expand it to include more Latin American countries where go is taught to children. In the more immediate future, they are preparing for a ten-day visit in May by twenty Spanish-speaking Japanese players representing Japan’s Sociedad de Intercambio Internacional de Go (Society for International Go Exchange), and in the more distant future, they dream of holding a World Amateur Go Championship in Havana.