The strongest girl in the school is certainly Klara from Czech Republic. She's very sunny and she likes to have fun, enjoy her life with go and with the people around her. We played few game, she was too strong for me to play with her in the league games, but one evening we played one of the most amazing blitz game I've ever played... She got the scholarship in King's Baduk Center so I hope to see her as a professional player in a few years. Go Klara!

Leonardo: What about you and your life besides go?
Klara: I'm Klara Zaloudkova, I'm 24 years old from Prague, Czech Republic. I'm studying history and philosophy at the University. I like reading books, practicing cycling, swimming, winter sports, playing pool and partying.

Leonardo: How did you start to play go and how is your go life?
Klara: I learned go when I was 12, my aunt told me how to play, and a few months later we went to the European Go Congress in Marseille in a kind of family trip. My aunt lived far from me so I only played at tournaments, meeting friends and having fun. In 2004 I went to Japan for the International Amateur Pair Go Championship having 2 wins over 5, and we lost to China only by 5 points. The I took part to World Student Oza in Japan during 2006 (only 18-30 years old players are allowed), where I only won one game (with Gabriel Benmergui) over 4, but we played at Nihon Ki-in and I really enjoyed it. In 2006 I also became European Female Go Champion and I went to China to participate in a Professional women championship. Then I went again in Japan in 2007 for another paig go championship, but only won 2/5. In 2008 I participated at the World Mind Sports Games in China in woman individual, where I played with Mannami Kana 4p from Japan and Diana Koszegi 1p from Hungary, and women team, where we played with Korea and Japan. So far I was playing for fun, but in Leksand I played a game in the main tournament and during the game I felt connected with the stones and the board, and it was a strange feeling and I really enjoyed it. I really wanted to play, and at the next tournament I wanted to play more than chatting with people. In 2009, just before coming here to Korea, I took part to World Students Oza where I only won one game with Peru, but I really enjoyed it. So far I improved almost by playing and my actual rank is 2d.

Leonardo: Tell me about your adventure at KBC and in South Korea
Klara: I discovered the school at the European Go Congress in Leksand and I thought immediately to apply for it. The school is good but after a bit I got a little bit sick of playing with the same people, but now it's ok. I like the game review, and sometime we play fun tournament and I really like it, and I like to solve my tesuji book problem. Sometimes we have some problems with the language, but during the review we can understand each other quite well. I like also to study joseki because we see also wrong move and learn how to punish. At first I thought it was difficult to stay here in the middle of nowhere, but then I realized that the place is perfect to concentrate on the game and it's the best place and I like it very much. Maybe we have no distraction and this is good because we are here for studying. At the beginning I was a little bit scared about the other students because I didn't know them, but then I found very nice people, and it's very nice to live with people from different countries. I didn't visited too much Korea, but I hope to learn more about it, all people here are really nice and I never had problems, even if sometimes it's not easy to get information, because probably here they have a different way to share information.

Leonardo: Plans for the future
Klara: I got the scholarship at King's Baduk Center, so I'll stay here some time, I don't know exactly how long. I don't know if it's possible to become a pro, but I want to improve, and this is also a great opportunity not to be missed, and also it's a good experience to stay away from home, not only for baduk but also for myself, and this is also a challenge for me. I already spent a lot of time on go and this is part of my life, so I also want to do it in a better way and not waste a lot of time.