Before going to Seoul I contacted Lee Ki-Bong, a strong korean player known in Europe for his partecipation at many European Go Congress where he distinguished himself for his brilliant results. Taking advantage of my short-stay in Seoul I tought to make a visit to his school, which has been created in Jenuary 2008: it's name is International Baduk Academy, also known as IBA. It's a very good school, I was really impressed by the atmosphere and by the spirit of the professor and his students. The idea was to make an interview to promote this school in Italy and more, but I was welcomed as a long-standing friend and this made me feel at home immediately. To break the ice what else we could do but...

... but to play go, or better baduk?! Despite I was very tired for the long trip, the 6 handicap game with Simon, german 3d, was fine and I gained a good win by resignation. The game was very intense, battles everywhere... in a typical korean style! :)
While we were playing, other guys were playing each other, other ones were studying situations, other ones were looking at life and death problems in a book. The library in the school is well-provided, many books are in korean, but it's not a big problem because there are many problems books, where it's not necessary to know korean to understand what is the goal.
The school is suitable to meet every need, from the beginner to the demanding player. Very often, in addition to Lee Ki-Bong, other strong players are happy to play against you, some are studying to become insei, which is called yeongusaeng in korean, that is the player that want to become professional. The activity is divided into the morning, with life and death problems and free games, and specific lessons and game with strong players with comments about opening and middle game afterwards in the afternoon. Other activities and other games are planned, depending on players needs currently in the school.

The material is of very good quality, the environment is cosy, people are affable and comes from everywhere in the world: this multicultural factor is a strong point in favor of this school, in my opinion. Be here in South Korea in a school like that, speaking english with almost everybody (koreans included), it's very important for many players and fans that may be scared to make this move: Lee Ki-Bong is certainly an extremely resourceful person, not only about go. For his students he can arrange a room in an apartment to share with other players, he can give advices on korean life and culture talking as a westener do, thanks to his deep knowledge on European and Westeners more in general. He also joins quite often his students for the dinner, giving advices on the places to go and information about local meals.
It's not a common school after all, where results come first and where a won game means everything: everybody help each other, both in the game and in friendship to build the collaborative atmosphere that make everything possible. Only one day was sufficient to understand the value of this school, and I hope that my visit can give to the interested people a smart contribution to think how to organize the next vacation, if you want to mix a business - becoming stronger - with pleasure - turism, new friends, a very important logistic base in a so different country.
The school is in Seoul but not in downtown, but it's easily reached by subway even in less than half an hour from downtown. Just follow the instruction in the school web site, they're very clear and accurate. From the subway exit it's no more than 300 meters away, and even if there are a lot of clothing shops you can't miss it. I really recommend you to bookmark that website because it's possibile to follow the life in the school and the activities that are going on.

JavaScript must be enabled in order for you to use Google Maps.
However, it seems JavaScript is either disabled or not supported by your browser.
To view Google Maps, enable JavaScript by changing your browser options, and then try again.