This center made Seattle a hub for the game Go, now it needs a new home

In Seattle's U-District, there’s a nondescript two-story building tucked near the corner of I-5 and 45th Street. On the side of that building is a large sign that looks like graph paper with black and white circles on it.

If you’re a smartypants, you may recognize this as a game of Go. If you’re a super smartypants, you might head inside to play the game at the “Seattle GO Center.”

The center has been at this location since 1995. Over the last 28 years, it has become a haven and gathering place for players dedicated to Go, a game of strategy and territorial expansion with more than 2,000 years of history rooted in Asia.

"We like to wax on about how Go is a microcosm of life and business and stuff like that," said Bill Chiles, president of the Seattle GO Center.

In a way, the goal of the game of Go is a window into the center’s own situation. Chiles and his coworkers have been trying to hold on to their territory, but the steady forces of a changing economy and neighborhood are not an opponent they can beat. The Seattle Go Center is being evicted and closed to the public this week.

"The GO Center is our membership, for sure," said Kyle Burke, the Center’s program manager, "but this is a core piece of it that we're losing."

The center’s history started with a professional Go player, Kaoru Iwamoto. Iwamoto was playing Go in the suburbs of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945 when the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city.

After that, Iwamoto made it his mission to use the game to spread peace and cultural awareness.

"He built four Go centers around the world — one in Seattle, one in New York City, one in Amsterdam, and one in Brazil," Chiles said, "and we're the last remaining one."

Since its founding, the center has drawn professionals and built a community of Go players.

In 2016, the center started to look at long-term viability. The neighborhood was becoming more expensive. Chiles said he found a partner who would demolish the building and build a high rise on the land, while giving 4,000 square feet rent free for the Seattle GO Center for 99 years.

Chiles said that economic factors made building that new high rise cost prohibitive and the GO Center was forced to vacate the current building.

"I don't believe that the guy I've been working with for four or five years is behind that. I believe he's being pushed," Chiles said, "but the day that he delivered the message, we had about a week to process and then we talked and he's like, 'We need you to leave in 30 days.'"

Now Chiles is making plans for how to keep the Go community together. He's planning to put the Go boards and stones in storage and search for a new location for the center.

"We would like about 3,000 square feet to rent now, maybe 2,000 to 2,500, just to tighten the belt," Chiles said. "We'd like a kitchenette. We need a lockable office. We need bathrooms. That's about it."

On the GO Center’s last day, people file in to play the game. They clack stones loudly against the wooden boards. Others occasionally pass by and take a look at how the game is developing.

Much like the GO Center itself, the players are talking strategy, what’s possible, what’s far-fetched, what’s ideal, with the goal of defending their territory.