Dear 7 million Baduk (Go) players,

It is an honor to have the opportunity to introduce myself, Seo Hyo-seok, who has taken office as the 8th president of the Korea Baduk Federation (KBF).

These days, the world has been suffering fromsocio-economic confusion and several difficulties due to various issues such as COVID-19, warfare, and abnormal climate.

Korea has been also suffering from economic difficulties of small business owners due to the explosion of COVID-19 confirmed patients, lack of supply of production goods due to the warfare,soaring oil prices, continuous public conflict, and disasters like large forest fires.

I feel tremendous responsibilities and duties as the president of the KBF, the head of 7 million Baduk players through the rough time.

In particular, I and KBF would do our best to achieve the goal, ‘Implementation of a sports culture education community that leads the improvement of the quality of life through Baduk’.

Since its foundation, KBF has set the task of a culture creation of national health and made all-out efforts to globalize and industrialize Baduk to fulfill the task.  

As I took office as the president of the KBF, I would like to focus on ‘a culture creation of national health’ and promote a campaign to prevent dementia through Baduk under the sponsorship of Pyunkang KoreanMedicine Hospital.

Korea faces the age of 100 years, a super-aged society.

With the super-aged society, the problem of senile diseases naturally emerges and causes several serious diseases such as dementia, arthritis, hypertension, diabetes, and cataracts.

Especially, in the case of dementia, an enormous social cost would be resulted from.

The best way to deal with the problem is the prevention, and Baduk is the best activity for constant brain activity, which is the most effective way to prevent dementia.

It is said that human brain function has the potential to develop beyond the age of 70, given proper stimulation, and Baduk is the best sports to stimulate brain activity.

Moreover, Baduk is a great help to not only brain activity but also a happy old life.

Today, as IT technology advances, people live in an environment where they have the most access to electronic devices and only long for convenience and pace.

It is undeniable that the mechanic civilization is convenient for people, but it has alienating old people who are not used to its manipulation, thereby discouraging their activities.

On the other hand, Baduk is based on slowness and waiting. No matter how urgent you are, you have to wait until the opponent moves.

Since the opponent’s time could be shared for your thinking, it is possible to learn the aesthetics of slowness and waiting through Baduk.

In other words, it is Baduk which can give relaxation to the elderly who have been trailed by the pace for their families all their lives.

Ofcoursly, it is also true that this beneficial Baduk is not popular for the elderly yet.

According to a Baduk reporter, the most common reason for not learning Baduk is ‘because it looks difficult’ with 29.9%, followed by ‘because there was no opportunity to learn’with 27.8%, which suggests the direction of the business that KBF should carryout.

In order to reduce the accessibility of Baduk, KBF would carry out some projects to distribute 13-line Baduk boards for beginners and train a number of Baduk instructors to increase opportunities for access to Baduk.

Pyunkang Korean Medicine Hospital, which I have run, has gained a reputation as a national health protector by treating patients with incurable diseases such as atopic, rhinitis, asthma, emphysema,and COPD, especially with a lot of know-how in treating senile lung diseases aimed at ‘well-dying’, which means to die comfortably.

Therefore, I have no doubt that the dementia prevention campaign promoted by the KBF and Pyunkang Korean Medicine Hospital would create a lot of synergy for the projects.

Dear 7 million Baduk players, as we have inevitably been facing a super-aged society now, it is necessary to ensure healthy and enjoyable days for the elderly.

It would be a big pleasure if you support the dementia prevention campaign organized by the KBF and sponsored by Pyunkang Korean Medicine Hospital.