Why do Korean pros keep winning international tournaments? Part II

As usual this is the continuation of yesterday's blog.

A few years ago I asked Kobayashi Koichi professional
9-dan when I had dinner with him along with others.

He didn't give me an answer.
(It seems like it was a mystery to him...)

So it was a big mystery to me as well...

But the answer came to me suddenly.


Recently I've read an article in Nikkei Shimbun,
Japan's Wall Street Journal, which talked about
how Korean children learn baduk(iGo) when they
are young.


This iGo writer seems to have observed the iGo
world in Japan and the baduk world in Korea
over the years.

According to him, Korean children
solve hundreds of, thousands of problem sets
when they were little.

And he thinks that's the difference between
Korean pros and Japanese pros when they
study as a child.

He is right.

In Japan young children don't do that.

Nor do we have many problem sets.

So if his argument is true, then in order to
become a strong Go, Igo, Weiqi, Baduk player,
you should try as many problem sets as possible.

And I think easy problems are good for amateurs. :)


BTW, this summer I was at the US Go Congress.

I had a great chance to ask Korean pros about
how they studied baduk when they were little
and how Korean children study to be a pro.

Unfortunately, I forgot to ask that.

For some reason it never occurred to me...

Do any of you know Korean pros and ask
her or him about the truth?

I want to make sure if the argument about is
correct...

If you find out about it, please let me know.

Thanks.

Oh, I've already got one suggestion on this blog
yesterday. He made a very good comment.

So if you are interested in it, please check it out

Why do Korean pros keep winning international tournaments? Pat I

First, I must apologize...

I'm very sorry to inform you that my "Go text
services" will be delayed much longer.

I don't know when to start the services right now.

I'm sorry, but I've underestimated how long
the programming would take.

Now I've decided to ask a professional programmar
to make the progarmming, which will take sometime.

I'm sorry, but at this point, I'm not going to
say when to start.


Right now my plan is that:

1. I start teaching on KGS plus sometime soon.
2. After teaching on KGS plus for a month or so,
I'm going announce when to start Kaz's Go text services.

I appreciate your patience and understanding. thank you.

---------------------------------

I hope people are not going to get disappointed and
disappear...

So much for the bad news.


Here's another proof that it's a good idea to
solve many Go problems.

The answer comes from Korean.

Before I talk about that, I'd like to ask you a question...

How many of you ever contemplate why Korean
professional baduk(iGo) players are sooooooo strong
and keep winning international tournaments?


Until 15 or 10 years ago, Japanese pros always
won international tournaments such as Fujitsu Tournament,
in which many Korean and Chinese pros also participated.

But all of the sudden, Korean pors kept winning many of
the tounrnaments.

Well, one reason must be that there was I Chan Ho 9-dan pro,
(sorry, but I don't know how to spell it.)
who is the most genius baduk player in the world.

But there are hundreds of young and unbelievably strong
Korean players come out every year.

Chinese pros also win some of the tournaments, but
by far Korean pros have been winning, if I remember
correctly,

Is this just a coincidence?

I don't think so.

I always wondered why.

To be continued...