ZT:Go in Thailand（泰国的围棋）

Fish

原文由文章作者 Paul Schmit 发布于 RGG
I recently published an article about Go in Thailand in the Scandinavian Go
Magazine but I think also players from other countries might be interested:

Go in Thailand

Already on a previous trip to Thailand I made a short visit to the GO Club
in Bangkok and as I was amazed by the activity I discovered, I decided to
get back  last October for 2 weeks of intensive playing and taking lessons
with Adam Yan, the  chinese instructor of the Thai Go Federation. I felt
really deadlocked at 3k but Adam shook me really up already with his
concepts about the game focusing on the direction of play. In medical
language I could say he put his fingers in my wounds and I feel the benefits
of  his treatment already and continue now with online teaching.. but enough
about Adam, anyone interested can visit his homepage at:
http://tactigo.free.fr/shodan/ThaiGo.html



During my stay there were other major GO events in Bangkok and that is also
why P?l Sannes asked me to make a contribution for the Scandinavian GO
magazine.



Mainly due to the yearlong efforts and devotion of   Korsak Chairasmisak
(5D),  a thai with chinese origins, GO is now really booming in Thailand and
I know no country ( except the traditional GO nations, like China, Korea and
Japan) where the game is spreading so rapidly. "Khun" Korsak is a high
ranking business executive, CEO of C.P. 7-Eleven and Vice Chairman of the
C.P. Group of Companies which has a business volume in the billion dollar
range with tens of thousands of employees in Thailand and in China. Via the
social foundation of CP 7-Eleven, Mr. Korsak has thus supported the
development of Go in his country and he is also president of the Thai Go
Federation. He recently also published a book (" The Asian CEO in action")
which has parts of a joseki on its cover, he analyses management ideas and
strategies found in the basics of Buddhism, Taoism, Sun Tsu's: The Art of
War and..GO.



Over the last few years, regular events and workshops were held in different
parts of the country at all the levels of the educational system: Primary
and secondary schools, colleges and universities. Many tournaments have been
organised, frequently with exhibitions about the game to introduce it also
to the general public. Major events are regularly attended by government
officials and  every year professionals players from China, Korea, Japan,
Taibei, Singapore come to Thailand  to help raising  the level of GO skills
of the young players.



Anyone visiting a Go club in Japan might get the impression that Go is some
pastime for elder men, when visiting the Go Club in Bangkok you will mainly
see children and students with a respectable numbers of girls. The clubrooms
are daily open from 2pm to about 9pm, really overcrowded on the weekends. I
think that by October 2003 the Thai Go magazine is distributed to some 3000
more active players but the number of young people starting to play is
rapidly increasing, last but not least due to a young guy with blond hair
from Japan: Shindo Hikaru.  Maybe you want to read the article that appeared
2002 in Newsweek,
http://www.cix.co.uk/~solipsys/new/GoArticle.html?RecentChanges ,

it is safe to say that also numerous young thais will now increasingly go
crazy for GO, especially since the Hikaru series will be aired on TV from
this January on.



3 most interesting events took place during my stay, this gave me the
opportunity to meet a lot of interesting personalities with different
background like business executives, professional players or scientists like
He Xiang-Tao, Professor of Astronomy and Dean of the Science Faculty of the
Beijing Normal University.  He Xiang-Tao does not only look up to the stars,
he has also a deep a understanding of the universe that might unfold on a
Goban.



Those events were:



  1.. The yearly U-Go: the Thai University Championship and an annual
competition between the top Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Thai university
teams (Korea won, captain was a Hikaru fan with blond hair, pic available on
request). This event was held at the campus of the Assumption University
outside of Bangkok ( our busses got police escort!!). I could only attend
the opening but all students were present at the highly entertaining closing
party where they also received their prizes from Chen Zude, Nie Weping etc.


  2.. Yanhuang Cup Invitational Weiqi tournament


The idea for this tournament was initiated 1998 by Nie Weiping  (9dan), Shen
Junshan (6dan amateur), the famous chinese novelist Jin Yong and Lin Haifeng
(9 dan, better known in the west as Rin Kaiho) in order to strengthen
friendship of Weiqi lovers from all societies. It was the first time the
tournament was held outside China, it will continue to be so in the future
on different locations around the world.



  3.. World Chinese Weiqi Federation


      This is really a new international GO organisation and as much as I
learned it was initiated among others by Korsak Chairasmisak  from Thailand,
Chen Zude (9dan, "the father of the Chinese style fuseki" and now President
of the GO Institute of China) and Shen Junshan. The opening ceremony took
place at the Assumption University, unfortunately all speeches were in
Chinese. I regretted - as everybody else- that Wu Qingyuan (better known to
all of us non-chinese as Go Seigen) could finally not attend as originally
planned. To my understanding, the aim of this federation is partly to
coordinate efforts of various GO/Weiqi organisations to promote the game and
strengthen ties worldwide between the GO  playing community.

Korsak Chairasmisak was elected president of this new federation which will
have its HQ in Thailand with offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Taibei etc...



I want to conclude my report and just would like to encourage everyone
travelling to Thailand  to visit also the GO Club in Bangkok, you will be
rewarded by great experiences but be aware, young people, playing for much
shorter time then you might give you a hard time on the GO board.

Click this link if you want to see some pictures from the thai Go scene:

http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/roninsum/album?.dir=/bee1&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/roninsum/my_photos

Address:

The Thai Go Club

2nd floor, Silom Park View

55 Soi Saladang2/Concent Road

Bangkok