Today I went to korea baduk association with zhang qian to watch LG cup selection. At first I thought this trip was just photo taking and enjoy looking at their games but when I reach the competition venue I was taken by surprise by the atmosphere and the intensity of the games.

Firstly I have never seen so many pro players at one place competing against each other. The atmosphere is totally different from amateur competitions and you should see how serious all of them were. The time for this selection is 3hours, 5 times 60 seconds each. Can you imagine yourself seating there for more than 6 hours (u have 1 hour break), some even close to 7 hours just to finish one game. The pro players can really think a lot. I was there from 2pm to 5pm and just by looking at the various games I felt like vomiting when I left the place. Is really not easy to be a pro player. And this is just the second round of LG selection.

The competition area. Some matches were over before lunch break.

I think this is the youngest player in this selection and he attract quite a number of attention.

When I saw this player from far, I thought he is like the coolest pro player I have ever seen. Then i went nearer to see his name and I got a shock... He is the son of TAKEMIYA MASAKI (武宮 正樹).

The guy on the right is from myongji. I think this is one of the games that made me shake my head. The game covers only half of the board but the amount of calculation is scary...just one wrong move and you will need to resign.

Match fees. Wah!! You get more than SGD300 even if you lose the first round!!!

I thought the player on the right is going to scold the F word very soon. Why? Look at the next pic....

The time difference is just crazy... I think this is a good way to torture impatient opponent.

Seriously who on earth would have thought that this uncle here is a pro player. I mean he look exactly like the uncle at my void deck selling newspaper.

After today's trip I come to this conclusion.

GO is a damm bloody difficult game.