Life In 19x19

Mr Meyer is definitely for real. He beat Burrall 7D, and Qiao Shiyao 1P. ( He lost to Kim 9P, but then who on this continent wouldn't? )

I met Seong-Yong Kim. I like him. He reviewed the fuseki of one of my games, and I played in a simul against him. He has no problem telling you where you played badly. ( As opposed to certain pros - who I will not name - who say things like: "This leads to a difficult fight", when they mean to say: "This is a bad move. You're gonna die!" )

Not only does he tell you where you made mistakes, but he shows the alternate line(s) that you should have played.


He told one amusing anecdote. He had played and taught in Europe for a while, and he said that in big tournaments there, most people speak English when describing games. ( They use phrases like "Opening game" instead of "Fuseki", he said. ) So he learned enough English to talk about go in Europe. He then figured that he would be able to come to America and talk about go just as easily. He came here to America where everybody speaks English, and found that he had to learn Japanese!

Kirby wrote: If I recall correctly, the old "hemmy" (what's believed to be 김성룡's old account) account from KGS - which is now expired and taken by someone else - used this exact spelling (Kim Seong-yong) in the profile information.

"Hemmy" is his wife's name.

Joaz Banbeck wrote:...
Not only does he tell you where you made mistakes, but he shows the alternate line(s) that you should have played.
...

I agree with this, too. When I was able to meet him, I had to go on stage in front of the audience, and he asked me a question about a move. I played on the big board where I thought the answer was. Apparently, I was wrong, and he thought for a couple of seconds, and said that the move was "안돼" or "no good". It was kind of embarrassing, but I'm glad that he corrected me.

I guess some people might take blunt comments negatively, but I think that they are helpful.

Your story makes me wish I were at Congress even more, Joaz.

Seong-Yong Kim was awesome, absolutely hysterical, and very kind to everyone. He delighted the kids in the youth room, and was happy to take on 8 of them instead of 6, like most pros do. I had dinner with him at a Korean Barbecue place too, and I can assure you the man knows how to drink! Myung-Wan Kim is very mild mannered, so it was really fun to watch the two of them together. The Koreans were very supportive of the congress in general, and donated stacks of Go books and boards for use as prizes in the US Open. Myung-Wan presented formal Korean Dan certificates to winners in certain sections too, which was really cool. We talked about setting up some friendship matches with the Korean Amateur Baduk Association also, and how we might let KABA and AGA members play in each other's tourneys online in the future.

About a year ago he beat zchen on KGS and bluntly typed "I give you 2 stone" at the end of the game. Immediately afterward he played bigbadwolf (Andy Liu) who lived up to his pro-killer reputation, winning by half a point. At the end of the game Andy typed "I give you 2 handi" to the delight of spectators.

Seong-Yong Kim was quite the character. At one point he got Mwung-Wan Kim to do pushups on the stage...

I can understand Magicwand's comment. What he is doing sounds like he is making Go like BSPN, and like all sports fans I hate BSPN with a passion.

I attended every one of his lectures and game analysis, and besides being very funny and kind, he is a fabulous teacher...I hope he comes back next year!