Creating attractive Baduk server

It's easy to find the most popular Go server, just by checking the number of players in rush hours, but which Go server is the strongest one?

If you like to observe the games, played by best players in the world you have to join Tygem or Cyberoro (WBaduk).

 How about other servers?

20 years ago IGS (Pandanet) was the strongest server. Many top pros, mainly from Japan used it regularly. Just to name few superstars: Cho Chikun, Kobayashi Koichi, Kobayashi Satoru, Ryu Shikun. That time the choice was limited. Pandanet was the only server in Japan.

Korean top players used IGS too, but they also played on Korean Hitel and Chollian servers, because of attractive local tournaments.

Nowadays it's hard to meet professional 9-dans on Pandanet. I believe that outdated software with many limitations is the main reason. Current IGS 9-dans (like Cornel Burzo) are about 2 stones weaker, than IGS 5-6 dans (that time it was the highest rank) from early 90's

 The methods of attracting top players are important. First of all it's good to have monthly tournaments, open only for regular players (for example, you have to play minimum 20 rated games per month). It's important to have live games from professional offline tournaments. It's good to support top players by paying them for live reviews.

As you can see, we don't have these conditions on KGS. The interface is good, the server is free, there are Korean, Chinese and Japanese program versions, but they don't have any tournaments with big cash prizes and it's possible to find live games only from local European/US tournaments. If you like to watch the LG cup live ,for example, you have to choose WBaduk.

 

Who is the strongest one on KGS? MilanMilan probably. He is 3-dan Chinese pro. He can easily beat our US and European stars. But if you check Tygem or Cyberoro, you can find thousands of players, who are not weaker (sometimes even stronger) than MilanMilan.

KGS is only attractive for teachers. You can see that most 7-9d KGS players have lessons rates in their profiles. On WBaduk you cannot even find players profiles! You cannot advertise your teaching services, but everyone can see your score, your winning % and can ask you to give some private lessons.

 Some servers, like Play361 or Dashn tried to attract users by paying top players for every played game. It's not the best method, I think. As a result, Play361 server is closed now. Dashn server is still working, but it's much smaller now and most Dashn stars moved to Tygem or WBaduk, like it happened with Pandanet 15 years ago.

 If they pay you for every game you play, you will hate Go soon. I worked this way on Dashn about 10 years ago (I stayed in Korea and it was necessary to earn money for paying for my Go school) and I remember the feeling, when you have to play as many games as possible. Quality is getting lower, you start losing your games and it makes you angry.

You have much better feelings, while playing, if you know that ranking #1 master gets a guaranteed prize at the end of the month. You try to play as many games as possible too, but you pay attention on winning such games. Not only on finishing them quickly.

 

For the same reason we have prizes for teachers in our Insei League on KGS. These games are not just teaching games for them - they try to win every game, they try to get the prizes. It makes teaching games attractive both for students and teachers.

 

Few weeks ago I started to work officially on WBaduk. I did not use this server for about 8 years. Many things changed since that time ...

I will put my efforts for making this server more popular in Europe and USA, but the task is not that easy.

I will need your help.

I will try to publish WBaduk news regularly on our GoSensations.com portal, the main source of online Go news in English.

If you find something worth publishing, worth sharing with others, please email me (backpast@gmail.com) such games, such stories.

For example, if you feel that someone on WBaduk plays like legendary Takemiya-sensei, send me his games please and add your impressions. I will study these games and together we will try to guess, is he real Takemiya, 9-dan, or just one of his fans.

 See you soon on WBaduk!

P.S, I have 2 accounts here: breakfast and Sasha (short name from Alexander, which they used when I studied Go in Korea). Feel free to challenge me! Crazy Russian trickmoves are waiting you!