Some interesting figures from Korea.

Taking only Korean players who became pro since 2000 and who played in world events (93 of them), it was found that they had a score of 1863-1407 (57.0%) in preliminaries but 131-172 (43.2%) as the going got tougher in the final knockouts. However, against Chinese players their score was 225-361 (38.4%). 63 of the 93 players had a score of less than 50% against Chinese players (and 25 had been unable to win a single game against them).

There are probably a few distortions. For example, the figures presumably include games against some older and more experienced Chinese pros, and as most world events are held outside China, the Chinese opponents must on the whole be those most motivated to travel. But these would seem to have a fairly minor impact. The overall indication seems to be that the current generation of young Chinese definitely has the upperhand against the young Koreans. Once the likes of Yi Ch'ang-ho and Yi Se-tol pass their peaks, we may be in for a long period of Chinese domination.

There are, however, a couple of rays of hope for Korea. The are a few - very, very few - who have a significant plus score against the Chinese. The only one with more than a handful of games are Pak Seung-hyeon (9-3), Kim Chi-seok (11-6).

What's Park Jungwhan's score? He's 4-3 for this year in world events in my collection, but I'm thinking that'll change fast. And he beat Kim Chi-seok the last 7 games. Anyway, I'm kinda hoping he's the next Sedol.

According to the Hankuk Kiwon, Park Junghwan currently ranks #3 among Korean professionals, with a score of 9581. Lee Changho is #2 with a score of 9598, and Lee Sedol is #1 with a score of 9732.

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Pak Cheong-hwan is 22-8 in prleiminaries, but only 7-7 in final KOs, and also "only" 7-7 against Chinese.