Sumiré Nakamura (仲邑菫). No one calls a female Go professional, who turned fifteen in 2009, “Nakamura.” He is still a “Sumière” wherever he goes. A prodigy Go player who debuted as a professional at age 10 and set the record as the youngest Go player in Japan’s history, the mascot of Japanese origins caused a stir in the Japanese Go community when he announced his move to Korea last year. A “Sumière fan club” was created in Korea, and both countries’ media outlets showed keen interest in him.
Smire’s existence alone has thrown a lot of controversy over the Korea-Japan relationship. In 2018, when he was studying Go in Korea, Korean and Japanese politicians raced to instigate anti-Japanese and anti-Korean sentiment after the Korean Supreme Court ruled that he should be conscripted for mandatory military service. However, Smire returned to Korea after joining from Japan. He chose the world’s strongest Go league from a professional perspective. Politicians took advantage of Korea-Japan relations, but teenagers were different. Maekyung interviewed him, who was studying at Hanjongjin Badukjang in Seongdong-gu, for the first time among Korean and Japanese media outlets.
In the world of professional sports, ‘Shindong’ often implies two different characteristics at the same time: mental immaturity and skillful completion. Smire, however, seemed to be far from both. The answer, which he gave after thinking about it for a while, shows that he is matured toward his identity, but he has a face of a young child who does not know what to do because it is fun to drop a stone on the table. After pausing to play against his peers, Smire entered the interview room and clearly explained the reason why he chose Korea with clear eyes. “I’ve been studying between Korea and Japan since I was eight years old, and I wanted to come and live in Korea someday. Korea is strong (on the go), so if I learn from here, I can win.”
His Korean proficiency was high-quality with Japanese accents. Before meeting Smire, he assumed that his parents played a huge role in his trip to Korea. Parents who raise their geniuses often find the existence of their children a part of their family. However, Miyuki Nakamura said something completely different. “My daughter told me that she wanted to work hard in Korea, and I wanted to support her as a parent,” he said, insisting that he go to Korea first. 안전 토토사이트
Her father is Shinya Nakamura, a 9-dan Go player who is a professional baduk player in Japan, and her mother was a Baduk instructor from Japan’s Kiwon, so it would not have been easy to leave Japan. Furthermore, Japan’s Kiwon created a “special recruitment system for gifted” for Sumire and granted him an official professional engineer license in 2019. In other words, he bet his future on becoming the youngest professional baduk player in Japan’s history. Perhaps that’s why the Japanese baduk community wasn’t so good when Sumire announced his move. “I was nervous because some people said they were sorry (for Sumire’s trip to Korea). However, I decided to support my daughter’s challenge because there are many people who support her future,” Nakamura said carefully.
He asked how special Korean baduk is. Smare responded like a child by saying, “I enjoy learning because I chat with my friends and have fun with my seniors and masters.” An anecdote occurred to me that when Cho Hoon-hyun was a student of the Japanese Go community in the 1960s, he would only sweep the yard or clean the room rather than teach him how to play Go.
Master Han Jong-jin (President of the Korea Professional Engineers Association, 9 dan), who first met Sumiraga in the second grade of elementary school and formed a relationship between a teacher and a student, said, “As the Japanese Go community still has an apprenticeship culture, there are some areas that young children are struggling with these days,” adding, “I think it was good because the seniors and juniors were so natural in Korea and we talked freely with the teachers.”
In Korea, it would have been hard to say, “I’m going to play Go now,” even though I was playing with my friends when I was in the 2nd and 3rd grades of middle school. Of course, that never happened. That’s because Go is the most interesting thing,” Smire said flatly. In fact, Smire’s daily schedule is Go from start to finish. He comes to the gym on Saturdays without taking a break. He regularly sleeps at 9 p.m. and wakes up at 6 a.m. every day. He sleeps for nine hours without waking up, but he does not exercise.
“When it comes to exercise, all it takes is walking,” Smire said with a shy smile. This is the life of studying baduk after breakfast, coming out to the gym, eating lunch, going home to the House of Representatives for dinner and studying baduk again. Nakamura, her mother, humbly said, “My child doesn’t seem to have a 奇才, but he has good concentration and fun.”
“Concentration is the key, and enjoyment is the key,” said Han Jong-jin, a teacher who teaches smirre. “Children at that age cannot be as immersed in one thing as smirre does.” “The concentration level of a smirre player is amazing both when playing Go and when studying. But when I talk to my friends after the game, they are just ordinary kids. They are also good at playing jokes.”
“Japanese professional Go players are defensive and value shape and formality, but Smire was also influenced by his father, and that part was strong,” he said of Smire’s Go. “Now it is being upgraded in Korea by combining aggressive styles.” In other words, he is learning advanced attack skills in general from the beginning to the middle of the battle to the end of the game, and is looking for Smire’s own style of Go.
Her mother, Nakamura, who had taught go directly to her since she was three years old, also said, “She was tenacious and focused. Maybe, she couldn’t see her concentration because she was talking about 談, not Sudam (手談). Her favorite Korean food is kimchi stew. She left the interview room excitedly, saying, “When I rest, I listen to K-pop and go to karaoke.”
In the professional world, Smire is now a dan. He is in the stage of “鬪力” in which fighting strengthens. He still has a long way to go before becoming a dan. Park Jeong-hwan, a dan. who loves his good looks and admires him for his good Go skills. Smire, who is struggling to achieve the status of a 入 god, flashed his eyes like an eagle when he left the interview room and returned to the upper level.