A couple suggestions for it.
1) Add Nongshim Cup
2) Color code the tournament locations as well when appropriate. I think there is some correlation with players playing better at a "home" tournament.

I also laugh at the free handicap suggestion.

One argument I have heard (maybe here somewhere?) is that the longer playing times of japanese tournaments leads to a different style of play that doesn't work as well in the more hectic pacing of international tournaments.

That's a team competition, no?

(And while I'm being contrary, the chart is just busy enough to be informative without being completely useless. If he adds more colors for the locations, he might as well add powerpoint animations of flying aircraft.)

I have heard that as well, but I've never heard the Japanese actually say that before.

Mostly from what I hear in Korean and Japanese media is that the Korean and Chinese just study harder and in groups, but the Japanese aren't doing that as much. You could argue the focus of the Japanese players is to beat Japanese players and the Koreans and Chinese are focused on building stronger groups of players.

From what I can tell from watching Korean BadukTV, the games seem to be 10 minutes + 5 * 40 seconds. That is a really fast pace, the games are remarkably high quality despite that, but mistakes are made, particularly in the end game (or maybe its just easier to prove end game moves are mistakes).

maybe Mickey Mouse time limits work best with Mickey Mouse stones.


edit: image too large

From the Time chart it seems like the time issue isn't that big of a deal. All of the international tournaments have at least an hour of play time and it seems that it is mainly the Korean domestic tournaments with the blitz time settings.

One friend told me that the reason is within the teacher student relationships in these three countries.

In Japan when a teacher corrects a move of a high level amateur and says the correct move is here, the student listens and corrects his playing.

In Korea when this happens the student bows his head but then utters to himself that he/she is right and doesn't correct his playing

In China when this happens the student argues with the teacher explaining why he/she is right.

This of course is a gross generalization but to an extent could be quite true. The students who create these new moves and strategies eventually become the better players.

As I mentioned a friend told me this and some other friend told him. So this is just hearsay, yet may be evidence as to how Go has developed in the recent few decades.

Okay it's been at least dubious so far. But this screams troll.

(my emphasis.)
Seems there's some misunderstanding -- an initial time of 2 hours per person is considered short for pros.

Especially if you are only really familiar with 4,4 openings.

I heard this from Guo Juan probably at an open KGS+ lecture or similar promo lecture, on KGS. I remember it with Korean and Chinese switched, though not really sure. This was at least 2 years ago, possibly more.

Apart from that, An Younggil 8p sometimes touches the topic during his game commentaries. One thing he mentions is the burden of 2 (3?) years military service for Koreans pros, forcing a long break at crucial age. A few pros got exempt, or did short service, but apparently that's not possible anymore.

I too heard this "story" from Guo Juan, and also with chinese and korea the other way around. But i don't remember she was saying it has much to do with the strength (but i may have forgotten), but more with some crazy move which are often described as "korean style" (again my memory could be a bit off).

The argument with the 4-4 made me laugh for 10 minutes before i could breath again, great joke!

I wonder if there were someway to do unbiased statistics about games won and lost in head to head competition. IE are Koreans winning against Japanese or Chinese winning against Japanese. It could be that during a course of a tournament the Koreans tend to knock the Japanese out, and the Chinese do OK against either, however if they don't do equally well against both then they may not advance to the top levels of play. It would be interesting to see if this were the case.

This question comes up in one form or another on a regular basis. I'll recycle my usual reply.

People who look for genetic or cultural reasons are kidding themselves. Korea is good at go for the same reason that Russia was good at chess and Canada is good at hockey--they have lots of people (usually children) playing at the amateur levels that feed into the pro leagues.

John Power summed it up in twelve words: "Go is popular because Korean mothers think it makes their children smarter." In Korea go is regarded as an activity that can improve the brain and so Korean mothers don't mind shuttling their kids to go schools etc. In Japan, it's regarded as a past time along with video games. If parents are encouraging their children in one country and discouraging them in another, it is going to have an effect at the top levels.

Ah the Baduke Mom minivan problem.

seriously?
Japan was more successful earlier, which is when the 4,4 was played LESS.
not to mention that korea also uses traditional handicap placement.