I just watched Pawn Sacrifice, an interesting movie but what I found most captivating is the enthusiasm for chess depicted throughout the world. I realize Fischer's match against Spassky had much more context than just the game itself but the passion displayed by normal people was moving. From my experience I don't see that passion from common people, while the whole Alphago, Lee Sedol match is generating interest I don't see a whole bunch of people starting to play go.

Which made me think that maybe in Korea there would be this passion for go. Are there people playing baduk in the park? Are there a lot of people playing in baduk salons? Do people discuss recent matches as a means for small talk?

Nope.

That is sad to hear. While video games are a great form of entertainment I think they have taken too much attention from chess/go.

Hopefully AlphaGo vs Lee Sedol will bring attention to the mass.

For what it's worth, in the 24 hours after the AlphaGo announcement, the number of users online on OGS shot up from around 1200 to over 1600 (the previous peak had been 1250 or so). About half of those users appear to have stuck around so far. When AlphaGo plays Lee Sedol in March, we'll surely see an even bigger increase.

A friend of mine has lived in Seoul for the past two years and he told me there are always (old) people playing baduk in the parks he passes by.

I just got back from Korea, so I have a bit of context for comparison with the USA, where I'm living now.

I think Minjae is somewhat correct in that Go is not as big in Korea as what you appear to be describing, if you consider the population as a whole. But nonetheless, there is more passion for Go than in America. I mean, you already know this - what other country has a college with a "Department of Baduk Studies"?

Some random observations based on my recent trip, in no particular order:
* It's been about a year and a half since I last visited Korea. When I visited back in 2014, I'd watch BadukTV in the morning when I ran on the treadmill. BadukTV was one of the standard public stations that pretty much everyone had in their homes. In contrast, this year, I couldn't find it! It seems that the station has lost a bit of popularity since 2014, and it's not one of the "standard" channels. You can still get BadukTV if you buy the channel, but it's not there by default. A little disappointing - I ended up watching a cooking show during my morning exercise, instead

* Go to any "dollar store", Daiso, department store with a toy section, etc., and you'll find a Go set (though, sometimes they are cheap ones). This is much different than my experience in the USA, where I can only occasionally find one.

* You can find Kiwons/Goclubs pretty much where ever you are. There were at least 4 within walking distance of where I was staying.

* Used book stores have tons of old go books and magazines. I stopped by one last week, and the owner of the bookstore was watching BadukTV. He said he was 6d, and when he noticed I was interested in Go books, he wanted to play a game - he had a board there, too. He was watching the finals of the LG Cup, and told me a little bit about the game. He was surprised that I knew what he was talking about.

* You can find Go books at pretty much any bookstore.

I might compare the level of enthusiasm to Go in Korea to the level of enthusiasm of something like golf in the USA. You can find golf resorts nearby in almost any city you go to in the USA, and you can find books on golf in bookstores. There are golf enthusiasts that are really into golf and follow it. There are people that follow the PGA tour actively. You can probably find golf equipment at retail stores like Walmart.

The general public knows what golf is, they know how to play it, and most have probably played a few games at least once in their life. Not everyone actively follows golf news, but most Americans would know who "Tiger Woods" is.

Maybe Go in Korea is slightly more popular than golf in America. But it seems somewhat close to me, from my perspective of golf and Go. I might be biased, since I'm a Go player, and not an active golfer.

So I guess I would say... Some people in Korea are passionate about Go, and some people aren't. You could have a conversation with anyone about it, but some people may not be as interested as others.

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be immersed

The overall baduk population in Korea may be quite high, but it doesn't seem to expand through the younger generation. It's still true that most people (most men?) are aware of this game and know the rules. However, you'll find it very rare a Korean person in the 10s to 30s actively pursuing this game as a hobby, unless he or she formerly meant to be a pro. There are many more fun things to do other than go. Perhaps the fact that the number of professional go tournaments in Korea is decreasing shows the decreasing interest in go more directly. I'm not an expert in recent Korean baduk news, but as far as I know, 2 tournaments (Cheonwon, Price Information Cup) has been discontinued last year, and the KT Olleh cup shrinked its winner's price 5 to 1 making it a tournament for non-baduk-leaguers (i. e. the players outside top 50).

I agree that enthusiasm for Go in Korea is probably declining. But I think it's still higher than the enthusiasm you'd see in America, for example.

If trends from both countries continue in the same direction, maybe one day this won't be the case, but for now, Korea has more passion for Go than America as a whole.

I can't really speak for other countries.

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be immersed

If you want to know a bit about kids playing baduk in Korea you could take a look at my holiday journal from when I was there two and a half years ago. viewtopic.php?p=139983#p139983
There you can see hundreds of kids playing in the Hanbyon (spelling?) tournament and I don't think they all formally want to be pros. The average strength is much higher than in the West: in the UK I'm one of the top players, there I was utterly unremarkable (apart from being a Westener) in group 5 of 10 amongst a bunch of ~12 year olds. Like Kirby said there are lot more clubs and baduk schools around the place. I don't remember seeing people playing baduk in the park where I was, but I was filmed playing baduk in the park for a Korean TV station .
To give another perspective, I went to a British Korean Society function last year on behalf of the British Go Association. Pretty much all the Koreans there knew of the game, and a few used to play as kids. Most of them were unaware that we played baduk in England.

That is great to hear that Go is still quite active in Korea, I only wish such an appeal was global.

Hi, just my 2 cents (a little OT).

I've spent some time too, pampering the idea of GO being more popular: known, casually played here and there, discussed about and... Fashionable.
It is one of my interests and hobbies, so what can be better than that?

IMHO, this optimum condition would lead to more people playing but also, inevitably, to many not really interested... because this is the effect of fashionable things.

A possibly worser scenario than that is GO taught in school (as Chess in the former CCCP): I have seen people hating Math, what will happen with GO:
Bad teachers, pupils that copy for remembering a Joseki at the examinations?

GO is not everyone cup of tea, but this is its nature, and also as a mere hobby, it is a (very) demanding one.

I don't expect this to change soon and also if I would like not to have to correct so often people saying: I know, I know, you are playing Othello!

I prefer GO to be a niche interest and think that I will be at ease with people playing it because I know that we share something not so common and special.
Something that a small niche of people shares since 3 - 4.000 years ago

Galation

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When you play Weiqi you are joining millions of people across four thousand years of time.
Jonathan Hop - So You Want to Play Go?