Baduk in North Korea?

[William Sharpe]

I'm interested to know if anyone knows anything about baduk (go) in North
Korea. Seems like anyone outside (or inside for that matter) knows little
about *anything* that goes on there, but I'm just curious. I have heard
that baduk was frowned upon in China during the cultural revolution but
has since made a comeback. Does the NK government officially frown upon
baduk or is it just that nobody there has any time to play? Seems like
the government would be against professionals (or at least pocket any
prize money a NK pro might earn). Do any NK players ever make it to
"friendship" matches or the like? Any comments from those who might know
something about state of baduk in NK appreciated.

Bill

[Ming Yuean Choy]

William Sharpe (sha...@u.washington.edu) wrote:
: I'm interested to know if anyone knows anything about baduk (go) in North

: Bill

Recently I had a chance to look at the south korean newspaper Tong-A
Daily (East Asia Daily). I can't read Korean except people's names. I
looked at it mainly becuz was curious about any Go games that they might
print. And on those particular papers I found games played between North
Korean players and South Koreans, kind of like China-Japan super Go I
guess. And the North players were 4 dan or something like that. I
believe they are pro dans. So I'd say the level of Go-playing in North
Korea is quite high, though certainly not at the level of South.

Ming Yuean

[Ilmin Kim]

There are no pro players. But NK government made a baduk association for

training. They harve participated world amatuer games for recent years.

As I remember, they ranked about 6-8 among the participants. In north korea,

there are about 50 Go players who can match (with 3 stones) with pro players.

I think it will take more than 10 years to grow wolrd class pro-players in NK.

kim.

[Wu Hao-Ming]

Ming Yuean Choy (cho...@gladstone.uoregon.edu) wrote:

: : Bill

: Ming Yuean

There was an article on NK Go situation on a recent issue (can't remember
how recent, I'll dig it up if anyone is interested) of Chinese Go mag.
called "Wei Qi Tian Di" (rough translation would be the world of Go)
A couple of Chinese pros visited NK, one of them is Wang2 8p, who is not
actively playing in the pro circuit, and reported they were giving top Nk
players 2 to 3 stones. Also they reported that Go is a part of North
Korean Annual National Sports Contest (the Nk themselves probably don't use
this name, it's hard to translate form korean-->Chinese-->English, the
author noted that it was similar to the Chinese Quang2(all) Yun4(sprots)

hao

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