"The goal is to win one point," says professional knight Kravets as he competes for Samsung Flower Cultivation Europe
The Ukrainian native won a wild card as European champion.
A player in the wall challenged the professional baduk game led by the four East Asian countries of Korea, China, Japan, and Taiwan.
At the 2023 Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance World Baduk Masters Round of 32 draw ceremony held at the Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Global Campus located in Goyang City on the 15th, Andriy Kravets (32, Ukraine), representing Europe, definitely attracted attention.
Among the 17 players from Korea, 9 from China, 4 from Japan, and 1 from Taiwan, Kravetz was the only non-Asian player.
Excluding the four East Asian countries, it has been four years since 2019 that professional drivers from other countries participated in Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance.
Kravets, who is from Ukraine, now engulfed in war, and now lives in Germany, is said to have first picked up a game of badukdol when he was eight years old.
He said at a press conference after the draw, “I have loved and enjoyed Baduk my whole life since I first learned it.”
“The professional driver system was first introduced in Europe in 2014, and after several challenges, I became a professional driver in 2017,” he said. “My biggest achievement as a professional driver was winning the European competition in 2023.”
European champion Kravetz Chodan participates as a wild card for Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance
Kravets finished second in succession at the European Championships in 2019 and 2020, and finally won the title this year by defeating Israel's Ali Jabarin in the final.
He also participated in the 2019 Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance World Group preliminaries, recording 2 wins and 1 loss, but failed to advance to the finals.
However, as Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance resumed the 'face-to-face match' for the first time in four years, the European champion was invited as a wild card, giving Kravets the opportunity to participate in the finals.
Of course, they are European champions, but their objective skills are bound to lag behind when compared to drivers from East Asian countries where professional competitions are active.
However, Kravets Chodan said, “I am very happy to play against great players from around the world,” and expressed his determination, “My current goal is to win in the first round anyway.”
It is reported that even if Kravetz loses in the round of 32, he plans to stay a few more days and enjoy his first world competition. 카지노사이트