A question that probably only I can answer but maybe I strike a sympathetic chord here: "Why am I not so enthusiastic about professional players these days?" I used to be thrilled about the Cho Chikun - Takemiya Masaki rivalry. I wish I were there when Go Seigen and Kitani Minoru fired up the place and when Cho Hun-Hyun and Lee Chango were making a wonderful story of the pupil surpassing the master, all Go fans were on the edge of their seat. I cheered for Ma in his struggle for Chinese power against Nie Weiping. Why is it that today I cannot really bother that much about Mok Jin-seok, Choi Cheolhan, all the Parks, Piao Wenyang, Chen Yaoye and the rest of the Chinese squad. I've got a bit of a hyped up cheering for Gu Li but it isn't all that genuine.

Here are a couple of explanations:

1. I'm getting older and reminisce of younger days
2. There are no more rivalries
3. There is something about Korean and Chinese names that makes them less suited for popularity with the Western crowd

I'm also an avid tennis fan and I think the current era is the best ever. If I were an obsessive melancholic I would not think that: so I give myself the benefit of the doubt concerning 1.

I realize that 3 may sound crazy and I do think the real issue is 2. There is no real rivalry going on anymore. There is a crowd of young and strong players of which the 20th can beat the 1st it seems. But there IS something strange going on: I do feel about the same enthusiasm with Japanese titles, where Hane Naoki, Iyama Yuta and Yamashita Keigo are battling out many of the big titles. There is something about the sound of "Yamashita", "Hane" and "Iyama" that makes it stick more easily, that I can relate with it and create an image of a persona behind those names.

It doesn't work with Xi He, Qiu Jun, Won Seongjin or Kang Younghoon.

Could it be that Korean and Chinese names are less easy for us to familiarize with and that this has an effect on the strength of our association as a fan? Or is it purely and simply the multitude of players and the absence of top rivalries? Or is it just me needing a shrink very soon?

Maybe it's that new stars are appearing so rapidly in Chinese and Korean go that it's bewildering trying to keep track of them?

The top Japanese pros have all been around for quite a while (with the obvious exception of Iyama). Yamashita, Hane, Cho U and Takao are all in their 30s.

Also, there's always a certain something about the people you first learn about when you get into any interest (or obsession). There are many great soccer players, but even now the name "Pele" has a special resonance for me; likewise, there are probably hundreds of guitarists with better technique now, but Hendrix and Clapton dominate my record collection! Quite possibly, younger go players will look back on Gu Li and company with similar nostalgic affection.

It could also simply be that some of the older players truly are a bit quirky. I went to a round of the NEC Cup that was held in Hiroshima a couple of years ago, and saw Yamashita Keigo versus Cho Chikun. Yamashita was as cute as a button in his fine clothes, but he didn't say very much post-game; Cho, on the other hand, really acted up to his "mad professor" image - hair sticking in all directions, shuffling gait, and in the middle of the game he gave himself a good, hard slap across the face. He was very animated in the post-game interview, too, but then again he had won the game.

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Learn the "tea-stealing" tesuji! Cho Chikun demonstrates here:

i believe it is 2 & 3:

as Tami pointed out, Korean and Chinese go scenes are more dynamic (probably a partial reason why they dominate internationally), so it is more difficult to keep track of the best players there. the first pro match i watched was the seven game 2008 Honinbo final and both Hane Naoki and Takao Shinji are still big players in Japanese go. on the contrary, in Korea and China every year emerge some new very strong players, so i have troubles remembering their names and faces, not speaking of playing styles

one issue connected with 3 is better exposure of the west to Japanese go. this is probably rooted in past when Japan was the go country and even today most of us play go, not baduk nor weiqi. also when i want to watch pro games, for results i go to wbaduk, because it broadcasts many games, but for actual watching i open IGS because people there speak English, so one can discuss the game with others (and to play i prefer KGS, because it offers good interface). i never tried tygem or other servers

on the other hand, this difference slowly melts for me, as i follow gogameguru, with their results and An Younggil's commentaries (naturally preferring Korean games) and portraits of the 2010 world top 20 players (no Japanese here), i get more in touch with Chinese and Korean go.

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Spilling gasoline feels good.

I might be wrong, but probably not.

Could it be that the "fat tail" of top players is due to the short time limits which introduce an element of chance at the expense of "super" professionals who could really outsmart their opponents by using their extra time effectively.

This may be a perverse effect of TV, asking for shorter limits, thereby inducing a regression to the mean.

Interesting fact, though I can't quite draw any conclusions from it: almost exactly the same number of Japanese, Chinese and Korean players have won an international title.

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Occupy Babel!

Here are some issues that might explain my diminishing interest in international competitive go/weiqi/baduk. For one thing, in the 1950's through the 1980's, when my interest in go was at its peak, there was only one top country, Japan. I liked, and still like, the cultural history of go in Japan. I don't see much of that in modern international go. It's all about winning tournaments and competition between countries which is, to a degree, chauvinistic. A second issue is that there are too many players to keep track of them. "You can't tell the players without a scorecard." But seriously, all these new international stars appear on the scene with no context of personal history. My reaction on seeing yet another young international tournament winner is "Huh? Where did he come from?" They are products of a training machinery, a very successful one to be sure, but with no cultural connection. And many of these young stars seem to disappear after a few years at the top. Perhaps this is all a reflection of the acceleration of modern life and a nostalgia for a slower, simpler time.

No rivalries today? Gu Li v.s. Lee Sedol is one of the fiercest rivalries, so much so that Li keeps a book of Sedol's games next to his bed that he reviews every night before he goes to bed.

Seriously? :O Is there any confirmation on that or were you joking?

http://tchan001.wordpress.com/2010/08/2 ... le-series/
The source of that info is probably from my blog or my old GD thread. See the bottom of the post for info on the actual Lee Sedol book being talked about.

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http://tchan001.wordpress.com
A blog on Asian go books, go sightings, and interesting tidbits
Go is such a beautiful game.