Lee Se-dol Retires From Competition

Lee Se-dol announced his retirement from the game of baduk, also known as go.

During his 24-year career, he was consistently on of the top players in the world.

Lee officially retired from playing baduk professionally in November 2019.

Then in the following month, he took part in a commemorative match in Seoul and his hometown Shinan against Han-dol, the artficial intelligence (A.I) made in Korea.

The 36-year-old baduk master won one game but lost two more to the computer program.

The match was a fitting epilogue to Lee's long and illustrious career.

Born in 1983, Lee became one of the youngest professional baduk players in Korean history when he played his first match at the age of 12.

Eight years later, Lee was already ranked as a 9 dan, which is the highest level in the game.

During his career, he went on to win 18 international titles and 32 domestic competitions.

His style of play was respected by fellow baduk masters around the world.

Lee came into the global spotlight in 2016, through his world-famous match against the A.I. program, AlphaGo.

While the world watched, he took on the famous supercomputer for five games in Seoul.

Lee was disappointed because he only managed to win one of the games.

However, this turned out to be the only game that AlphaGo would lose against any professional baduk player at all.

Even now, the 36-year-old is remembered as the one person to beat AlphaGo in baduk.

Now that he has retired, Lee said he planned to take a little time off before figuring out the next phase of his life.

 

• commemorative kə|meməreɪtɪv (중요 인물·사건을) 기념하는  illustrious ɪˈlʌstriəs 저명한, 걸출한 (=distinguished)

• go on to do something (무엇을 끝마친 뒤에) 이어서 ~을 하기 시작하다 come into someting  (특정 상황에서 중요하게) 작용하다 (유산으로) ~을 물려받다

• manage to 간신히 ~하다. 성공하다, 해내다