Korean baduk language.

[Elom0]

The period from 1990 to 2020 saw Korea perform on average during that time at a baduk level about 30 times stronger than Taiwan, Japan, and China。This means that it's safe to say they are best when it comes to getting stronger at baduk, and while Japanese habits of linguistic use may be better than in Europe and America, Korea might be better still beyong just the word haengma, although that does denote what I view as Korea's Musical Approach, they view things in terms of rythm and dansu.

[John Fairbairn]

Korea might be better still beyong just the word haengma,

Korean go terminology is very similar to Japanese, which is what you would expect given that pioneers of the modern corps, such as Kim In, Cho Nam-ch'eol and Cho Hun-hyeon studied in Japan.

Modern Chinese go terminology is also very strongly influenced by Japanese, again because several you players studied in Japan or because some studied with Japanese players in occupied China.

The differences between styles have other explanations. Korean go is likely to be full of fighting because of sunjang baduk, and Chinese go is bound to have been influenced by old group tax go. But there are other, more cultural or sociological factors. For example, gambling go was prevalent in all countries but attitudes differed. In Japan, pros were very strongly steered away from it, and that might explain their dominant style of soba go. Gambling go normally features big, risky fights because the payout depends on the size of the victory.

If you want a much more detailed account of national style differences, Wang Xi is your man. He's a noted intellectual as well as an international champion and has written about this in Weiqi Tiandi. Few people here will be able to get hold of that, but I venture to mention him mainly because of a comment he made on his own style. This comment is perfectly a propos another current thread here: "My style is not one where I take pleasure in attacking."