We are receiving lots of emails of interested people and we think many players out there want to become stronger and want to spend time in Korea studying Baduk seriously but are not sure how the whole experience would be.
BIBA is always open to hear any concern anyone has. We have had and have foreign students that have an awesome time and also train harder with the local korean students.
So our question is, whats stopping you from becoming a stronger, harder and more experienced player? Tell us! and we might be able to assist your particular case. BIBA is about helping all those that love and are passionate about go. We are interested in you!
So don't be afraid to tell us. We are expecting you.
BIBA-Blackie's International Baduk Academy
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Thursday, August 25, 2011
BIBA + Kaya.gs Friendship Match
On Sunday the 28th of August at 6pm CEST (9am PDT) Kim Seung Jun 9p (aza, blackie) vs DexMorgan 7d. DexMorgan will play with white and give Kim Seung Jun 9p 3 handicap stones, while getting a 65 point reverse komi.
This is a unique opportunity to get to see a very strong professional player utilize handicap stones to make up for a large territorial advantage.
Kim Seung-jun 9p is a very strong Korean professional and main teacher at BIBA, Blackie's International Baduk Academy in Seoul. BIBA is always open to students that want to delve deep into the game of Go and also those that want to experience what its like to have a hard training with Baduk. The school also regularly organizes field trips and other activities to get to know Korea. You can see more info of the school here http://biba2011.blogspot.com/ .
DexMorgan 7d(Gabriel Benmergui) is the founder of Kaya.gs along with Patricio Reboratti. Kaya.gs is a project for a new web-based Go server focused on letting the community create content, activities, materials and services. Right now we are looking for support from the community to be able to develop this server 100%. In exchange we are giving special server accounts, a documentary on the building of the server, and many other treats. You can see more information at http://kaya.gs
Monday, August 22, 2011
Templestay and World Youth Baduk Festival 2011
There were several events for kids (Chinese and Japanese kids came too) during 4 weeks in a Buddhist temple. Kids stayed in the temple and played many games with eachother, got to learn about Buddhist teaching, meditation, etcetc.. Moreover they got the opportunity to play simultaneous games with top pro players.
Blackie, me (Dia) and the BIBA students also went to the temple twice.
First time on the first weekend of August. Blackie gave simultaneous games on the 6th of August and the BIBA students stayed for 2 nights more. The meditation and some special excercise was a bit hard for some of them, but they played many games, and also got the chance to play with Choi Gyubyeong 9p, so after all I think they had quite good time.
A week later there was a tournament for closing these events. Originally it was a youth tournament, but the foreigners were allowed to play on it. We arrived too early and the students were never been in jimjilbang (sauna) and they were curious about it, so we found a nice one and stayed there for 2 hours. (Korean sauna is a good place for relaxing, taking hot bath and enjoy hot/cold room. It is also possible to stay there during night)
The tournament started in the afternoon. Seba, Maxime, Vova and Barkin played in the elementary school section, but still had quite a hard time, because most of the kids were tygem 8 or 9d. On 13th of August, the qualification games were played, and the final games were played on the 14th of August. Blackie was the tournament refree so we also stayed one night. On Saturday (13th) we went to catch some crabs with the tournament organizers. They had the strong flashlights and we had only weak ones, so it wasn't that easy to find the crabs in the sea anyway it was an interesting experience. Around 10 pm we decided to move on. Our original idea was going to the beach, because the students really wanted to go, a week ago they couldn't have time.
So we all took Blackie's car (6 people) and arrived to the beach around 11pm. Had some good food, spent some time in the fun park, then we tried to swim, but the water was extremely cold.
We tried to find some accommodation, but all the Motels were full so finally around 3am we went back to the jimjilbang (sauna). Slept there few hours then had to go back to the temple. Students gave some interview and Blackie had to be there as the main refree.
Around 4pm, finally the tournament was finished ...
After that we went to the beach again and finally we had some fun in the water.
Actually I was lucky, since it was my birthday and spent really good time at the beach than on the way back home we stopped in a nice restaurant and had a nice birthday dinner. We arrived back to Seoul after midnight, so the birthday cake was postponed for the next day. :)
Blackie, me (Dia) and the BIBA students also went to the temple twice.
First time on the first weekend of August. Blackie gave simultaneous games on the 6th of August and the BIBA students stayed for 2 nights more. The meditation and some special excercise was a bit hard for some of them, but they played many games, and also got the chance to play with Choi Gyubyeong 9p, so after all I think they had quite good time.
Simultaneous games against Choi Gyubyeong 9p. (From the left: Vova, Seba, Maxime, Barkin)
A week later there was a tournament for closing these events. Originally it was a youth tournament, but the foreigners were allowed to play on it. We arrived too early and the students were never been in jimjilbang (sauna) and they were curious about it, so we found a nice one and stayed there for 2 hours. (Korean sauna is a good place for relaxing, taking hot bath and enjoy hot/cold room. It is also possible to stay there during night)
The tournament started in the afternoon. Seba, Maxime, Vova and Barkin played in the elementary school section, but still had quite a hard time, because most of the kids were tygem 8 or 9d. On 13th of August, the qualification games were played, and the final games were played on the 14th of August. Blackie was the tournament refree so we also stayed one night. On Saturday (13th) we went to catch some crabs with the tournament organizers. They had the strong flashlights and we had only weak ones, so it wasn't that easy to find the crabs in the sea anyway it was an interesting experience. Around 10 pm we decided to move on. Our original idea was going to the beach, because the students really wanted to go, a week ago they couldn't have time.
Nice dinner in the fun park. (From the left: Seba, Dia, Maxime, Blackie, Vova, Barkin)
Around 4pm, finally the tournament was finished ...
Group picture after price giving ceremony.
The chief priest on the left is tygem 9d. :) Blackie is on the right.
After that we went to the beach again and finally we had some fun in the water.
Group picture on the beach.
(From the left: Seba, Blackie, Vova, Dia, Maxime and Barkin)
Tasty choco cake from BIBA :) Thanks ^^
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Picnic in the Mountain
We went for a picnic in July /3days, 2 nights/. Blackie, Dia, Youngsam (Korondo) and 6 students (Daniel, Jonathan, Marc, Seba, Maxime and Max) Unfortunately Cory had to go home just before we could go.
We prepared food for everyday. On the first day, Blackie was the cook and we had a nice barbaque party. On the second day, I (Dia) made some Hungarian food. Actually I cook really rarely, so I thought it was the last time for this year, but I also made some omlet for the next morning. Lucky guys, aren't they? ;)
We prepared food for everyday. On the first day, Blackie was the cook and we had a nice barbaque party. On the second day, I (Dia) made some Hungarian food. Actually I cook really rarely, so I thought it was the last time for this year, but I also made some omlet for the next morning. Lucky guys, aren't they? ;)
We played several games.
Even tho it was almost raining all the time, we had lots of fun.
In one of the games, Youngsam and Blackie had to explain some words in English
and their teammates had to guess what the words were.
It is Youngsam's turn on the picture. Youngsam was going to Europe, so it was a nice practice for him.
Actually he did really well on the European Go Congress and won the main tournament with a perfect score (10 out of 10).
Congratulations!
They get punished if they guess wrong, so they were focusing hard.
(From the left: Seba, Daniel, Marc)
The rain didn't scared us and Blackie took us to a nice stream near by.
(From the left: Blackie, Max, Dia, Seba, Jon, Daniel and Maxime)
Ah~ Marc and Youngsam got scared so they were just watching us ^^
Because of the lots of rain, the stream was really fast.
Daniel had hard time not to stay behind Maxime. :)
/There was a photographer taking pictures, so we got really lucky.
He took like 10 pictures, but Daniel can be seen only on these two pictures ./
For more detailed information about the picnic, I recommend our student, Seba's blog. He wrote a nice article about the picnic and the activities. Merci, Seba! ^^
/If I can manage with the videos, I will upload some./
Korean writting
It was quite a long time ago, when we were teaching the Canadian guys how to write in Korean. I took some pictures when they tried their first steps. If someone can write Korean, these pictures might look cute. :)
Anyway right now, all of them can at least write Korean and they know some basic words or sentences.
We give a Korean book (CD included) for each student, so they can study and if they have some questions they can ask us. Originally we planned to teach everyday about 30 minutes, but we realized some of the students are very interested in Korean language, some are only interested in Baduk :) so right now, Korean study is more individual, but the student can any time ask some help from us.
So here are the names :)
Anyway right now, all of them can at least write Korean and they know some basic words or sentences.
We give a Korean book (CD included) for each student, so they can study and if they have some questions they can ask us. Originally we planned to teach everyday about 30 minutes, but we realized some of the students are very interested in Korean language, some are only interested in Baduk :) so right now, Korean study is more individual, but the student can any time ask some help from us.
So here are the names :)
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Long time no news
We got two new students. The first student is a new Maxime (we call him Max) also from Canada, Quebec city. He has arrived on the 5th of July. His plane was late, but the Korean International Airport is on an Island so thanks to Maxime, Blackie and me (Dia) got a short holiday and visited a beach near by. Thanks Max :-p (for the future students: feel free to be late :)
Actually it has been a month..... and Max is leaving tomorrow. His plane departes at 5pm and a new student Vovka (from Ukraine) is arriving at the evening around 9pm. If Blackie would have lost his first round on Samsung cup today, after taking Max to the airport, we could have go and wait for Vovka at the beach. But luckily (?,!) :) Blackie won today against Park Seung-hwa. So good luck for him tomorrow too. :)
The other student is Barkin, from Turkey. We have met with him in the first Turkish camp, where we were invited. He couldn't come for the second Turkish camp, but he was very nice and help us in Istanbul, when we were on the way to the airport. Tesekur-Thank you /in Turkish/ :)
The other student is Barkin, from Turkey. We have met with him in the first Turkish camp, where we were invited. He couldn't come for the second Turkish camp, but he was very nice and help us in Istanbul, when we were on the way to the airport. Tesekur-Thank you /in Turkish/ :)
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