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A Korean professional baduk player has built a blog popular with baduk fans from around the world. Cho Hye-yeon, a level seven-dan player, opened her English-language blog "Full of Surprises" in 2006. As the first blog dedicated to baduk, it has drawn scores of foreign fans enchanted by the mysteries of the ancient game. Visitors from some 50 nations access the blog, linking it to almost all the places in the world where baduk is played.
The number of baduk enthusiasts from every corner of the globe came as a big surprise for Cho. Visitors log in from Croatia, Singapore, Finland, and even Arab nations where baduk is quite obscure.
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Professional baduk player Cho Hye-yeon talks about her English-language baduk blog.
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The blog includes several sections -- articles about Cho's life as a baduk player, columns on all aspects of the game, questions and answers about strategy and technique, and baduk-related book reviews. The number of comments and messages left on the blog topped a thousand a while ago, and Cho tries to reply to each one. Through the online community she has been contacted by an Israeli boy who asked her to help him join the Korea Baduk Association as an apprentice, and a Dutch patent company worker confused about a technique who plied her with question after question until he finally understood it. Some columns have inspired lively debates amongst visitors, with the hottest topics the declining number of young baduk players and thoughts as to why women players can seem inferior to their male counterparts.
As the best female professional baduk player in the nation (she's ranked 43rd), Cho studies English and literature at Korea University, where she's a sophomore. "I felt sorry that Korea, the strongest country in baduk, did not have even one English-language blog on the game, so I conceived the idea of combining my major and baduk," she said.
Three years of running the blog has opened Cho's eyes to several things: that many foreigners have an incredible affection and awe for the game, and that turning baduk into a global game is achievable. "The most rewarding thing in managing the blog is to see visitors using baduk instead of the Japanese word 'go' as time has gone by," she said.
Such is the passionate following she built up around the blog that her European fans protested strongly when Cho posted a notice saying that she had chosen to go to the U.S. over Europe for a baduk convention. "I will work hard to improve my baduk skills so that I can go to many interesting place and relate lots of interesting experiences about baduk," she said.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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