Lee Sedol Submits Resignation Letter to Korean Pro Go Assn.

[Yukontodd]

I think one shouldn't judge a master strategist until well into yose. However it turns out, that'll most likely be exactly what he was aiming at.

[Uberdude]

On the face of it it seems rather selfish of Lee to object to this "fee" payment. As Bill points out, at the beginning of their careers pros, nor anyone else, knows which ones will become big prize winners. Without some source of income at the start people would not choose to be pros. I suspect the weaker pros who do not win a lot of prize money are also the pros who most support and teach the amateur world in Korea, the source of new pros.

Although I agree the withdrawing from an insurance system (if that's what it indeed is) when you don't end up being a beneficiary smacks of self interest, I don't believe the claim you* are oblivious to which kids are likely future champions. When Benjamin Teuber visited the Kwon Gapyoung baduk school he wrote abour a precocious young kid there who was beating older kids and pros and clearly going places. His name? Park Junghwan.

*us western forum chatterers might be, but not Mr Kwon.

[beata]

http://www.ddanzi.com/ddanziNews/99042764

This is an article from an anonymous Korean pro, which is posted in Tygem.com this morning but got deleted very soon. Chinese newsweb SINA already translated and post this here:
http://sports.sina.com.cn/go/2016-05-24 ... 8761.shtml

I am Chinese, and I think it's pretty interesting and there is lot of back story we should and haven't known about.

We can see that 3-5% fee is not the most important point. Actually Lee is very generous, he just take 50,000,000 Won for donation. He also donated all his Asian Cup prize money in 2008 for earthquake area in China.

From the article the player association is not a community representing players opinion, nor a player Union, but a powerful organization which controls the KBA(by some powerful person and group from business and political field).The organization is not even a legal organization, but it controls prize money release and fund money, and its financial situation is a secret. In the article the player association even make loans to player for their financial need.

Obviously, there is some problem about the organization and part or most players don't like that. They want a change but don't have ability or courage. From that side, I believe Lee did something he thought was right.

The article is long and has a lot of information. I can't translate all of it. Just hope you know that from my point of view Lee is a fighter. He may do things differently from others, but he deserves more respect.

----
note: I just found this forum after the alphago match, so I am new here. This is my first post, because i find out that it's difficult for you guys to get more information from Asia. I'm a big fan of Lee Sedol for several years, and I know Chinese and i'm learning Korean as well. I think you may want to know this. sorry about my poor English!

[tchan001]

Maybe he'll move to China and join the Chinese pros if too much pressure is applied.

[beata]

Maybe he'll move to China and join the Chinese pros if too much pressure is applied.

I think he won't.
As I know he want to be a legend like Cho Hunhyun,not only in achievement but also in influence in Baduk,so he won't leave.
In his interview last few days, he said he thought about this things from 2014 and now is the right time, because he get more influence from society after alphago match.
I think because the association he resisted is really powerful, he considered the time and method very carefully.

[Magicwand]

On the face of it it seems rather selfish of Lee to object to this "fee" payment. As Bill points out, at the beginning of their careers pros, nor anyone else, knows which ones will become big prize winners. Without some source of income at the start people would not choose to be pros. I suspect the weaker pros who do not win a lot of prize money are also the pros who most support and teach the amateur world in Korea, the source of new pros.

Exactly.
Which in turn helps ensure great interest in Go and this in turn causes the prize money to be high and top players like Lee Sedol earning a lot of money.

I would feel much more compassionate towards him if he also complained about the system when he was still a young and budding pro with uncertain future. Or did he?

if you feel that lee is doing this because of money ... xxxxxxxxxxxxxx <---- if i say this it will be deleted by adimin so i will.

[Bantari]

On the face of it it seems rather selfish of Lee to object to this "fee" payment. As Bill points out, at the beginning of their careers pros, nor anyone else, knows which ones will become big prize winners. Without some source of income at the start people would not choose to be pros. I suspect the weaker pros who do not win a lot of prize money are also the pros who most support and teach the amateur world in Korea, the source of new pros.

Exactly.
Which in turn helps ensure great interest in Go and this in turn causes the prize money to be high and top players like Lee Sedol earning a lot of money.

I would feel much more compassionate towards him if he also complained about the system when he was still a young and budding pro with uncertain future. Or did he?

if you feel that lee is doing this because of money ... xxxxxxxxxxxxxx <---- if i say this it will be deleted by adimin so i will.

Here is what was said about this by the OP:

Apparently, Lee Sedol had an issue with the uniform deduction that the association takes out from all players. There is about a 3~5% deduction related to members' games that they take out. So players that win a lot of money pay a larger contribution to this amount.

So, it seems to me to be about money. If it is not, please enlighten me.
I do not have any first-hand info, so I have to go by what is said by those who do.

[Kirby]

I didn't mean to imply that this was entirely about money, though money was mentioned in articles. Sometimes the article authors may be interested in explaining that information, too, so it doesn't mean that Lee Sedol is aiming at that. I have no idea about the extent to which he cares about the money.

My feeling is that, more than money, Lee Sedol is a bit of a rebel. It's in his go style, too. He doesn't like to do things the conventional way, and often plays creative moves. IIRC, for the longest time he was a pro 3d. And I think a reason was that he didn't want to conform to what people expected of him, to participate in the games that would increase his rank. I think eventually they changed the system.

In general, when people don't conform to the current system, you can react to it in different ways. If you like the current system and think people should just accept it, then maybe you feel that person is being unfair or greedy. If you think that the system needs to be changed, then sometimes having "rebels" can be a good thing.

I won't get into politics, but sometimes people vote for politicians in the same way (e.g. the guy that will promise to bring change vs. the guy that knows the current system and will maintain it).

[Bill Spight]

In football ( that's real football for you folks across the pond ) the American Football League arose to compete with the National Football League.

The only real football is Australian rules football. Mark!