Michael Redmond was talking on the broadcast last night about his childhood and attempting to learn to play Go. He lived in Santa Barbara but nobody near him p

Michael Redmond was talking on the broadcast last night about his childhood and attempting to learn to play Go. He lived in Santa Barbara but nobody near him played Go whatsoever, so he would have to drive hours to L.A. to Koreatown / Japantown when they held tournaments. He also had to regularly fly to NYC to play. All of the difficulty in finding regular matches is what prompted him to move to Japan and become an 'apprentice' (apologies if this isn't the correct terminology). He eventually became extremely proficient and is a 9-dan player now. One wonders how good he might have become if he had access to the internet to play against other strong players from a young age. One further wonders how good he might have become if he could play against an AI of Alphago's capability.