Young Lee Changho play against Seo Bongsoo in Choegowi cup in 1988. Lee revolutionized go paying attention to thickness and end game.


In 7th Fujitsu cup, playing against Fujisawa Shuko in 1994.

Thanks for the pictures!

More pics because I like me some Lee Changho.

Pic 1: Lee Changho plays on the Internet (EDIT: Given the time frame, this could be a dial-up server rather than an Internet server...or he might just be saving a game record). A number of things about this picture are funny. 1) Someone else is entering his moves for him. 2) He's placing real stones on a table board that sits on top of a nicer floor board.
Pic 2: Cho Hunhyun teaches Lee Changho. The floor board in this picture may be the same one that is in Pic 1. Supposedly, Lee Changho's board had no star points because he wore it out through extensive study. I am guessing that this room is Lee Changho's room in Cho Hunhyun's house, where all the go books were kept.

Sourced from leechangho.com

This appears to be the 2nd Paedal Wang final (three-game series) against Cho Hun-hyeon in which all the games were played via modems from each other's homes. Yi Ch'ang-ho won 3-0.

That's interesting.

What was the rationale for doing so at the time? Was it an early attempt to broadcast live games over the internet?

_________________
David

Go Game Guru: Learn Go | How to Get Better at Go | Go Game Shop | Go Boards | Baduk TV

Look at the colors of the boards. He is placing stones on his good kaya table board that is sitting on top of his old junker of a floor board!

_________________
Dave Sigaty
"Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered..."
- Marcus Aurelius; Meditations, VIII 21

Is it really kaya? The board on top doesn't seem all that great. 1) It has an obvious knot on one side (visible even at that low resolution) and 2) there is obvious discoloration that suggests 6-8 part composition. It may be an imitation.

That said, the board on the bottom is definitely not kaya, whereas the top board has the possibility of being kaya. I agree with your implicit opinion on that. However, if it really is the Lee Changho's no-star-point board, I am sure that it would be a piece of history that any go player would want to own.

I second this question. Modems! I feel old.

I generally don't answer things like this because I will normally have written about it once already on the GoGoD CD - as in this case. But as a grudging (since I am old as well as feeling old) exception:

With two Korean computer-technology companies among the sponsors - one producing PCs and the other delivering telecommunications - it was decided to hold the title match on-line. This was made easier probably by the fact that the two contestants were teacher and pupil - Cho Hun-hyeon and Yi Ch'ang-ho - so that they could be relied on not to try to pull a fast one, but it was still not easy to set up.

Each player played from his own home in Seoul. At home they had with them a keyboard operator who transmitted the game via a modem. The players played on a real board, making moves for both sides, but also had a PC monitor in front of them showing the current position.

The arrangement was repeated for all three of the title games, all won by Yi, who was just carrying on where he left off in the league, with five straight wins.

The main company involved was Korean PC Communications Cup (Han-kuk PC T'ong-sin), along with one of its various allied companies, but there were changes almost every year and so the focus of the sponsor's interests (and name) changed. There was the Korean Mobile Communications Cup, the SK Telecom Cup, the Freetel Cup (after the Korean Telecom Freetel internet service) and the n016 Cup (n016 this being the Freetel network). While it lasted, the Paedal Wang was also one of Korea's richest events with a prize fund of 200 million won (30 million first prize). Paedal Wang means King of Korea.

Thanks John, very interesting. I'll be sure to check the GoGoD CD before asking you next time

_________________
David

Go Game Guru: Learn Go | How to Get Better at Go | Go Game Shop | Go Boards | Baduk TV