Harabuji Park Revisited

There's a little park out of Jongro 3-ga Station where all the "harabuji" (grandpa) gather to play "baduk". It is a rather simple game. Two players take turns placing one black or white stone on a 19x19 grid. The game ends when one player has tallied up more territory, or one surrenders. How difficult can it be? Very difficult actually. I started learning 1 week ago from my "hyung." As he was teaching me the basics of the game, I realized how much more complex baduk really was. One's strategic arsenal involves making connections, severing the opponent's route, respecting mutual spaces, making "houses", avoiding and welcoming death, invading the opponent's territory, reducing the opponent's territory, entrapping, and making sacrifices. At the end of the week, I couldn't even put a dent into his game, but I finally won one game yesterday... against his 7 year-old son. We were neck and neck, both acquiring territory across the board, until 1 stone changed the entire dynamic of the game. Call it the game-changer, but sometimes that 1 stone is all it takes to change everything.

enjoi :)










(taken Sept. 2010)

"A coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave die but once."
-Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare



pax