Lee Sedol
Lee Sedol in 2016 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Native name |
|
| Born | 2 March 1983 Sinan County, South Jeolla, South Korea |
| Sport | |
| Turned pro | 1995 |
| Teacher | Kweon Kab-yong |
| Rank | 9 dan |
| Affiliation | Hanguk Kiwon |
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Representing South Korea | ||
| Asian Games | ||
| 2010 Guangzhou | Men's Team | |
Lee Sedol (Korean: 이세돌; born 2 March 1983), or Lee Se-dol, is a South Korean former professional Go player of 9 dan rank. As of February 2016, he ranked second in international titles (18), behind only Lee Chang-ho (21). His nickname is "The Strong Stone" ("Ssen-dol"). In March 2016, he played a series of matches against the program AlphaGo that ended in Lee losing 1–4.
Lee announced his retirement from professional play in November 2019, saying he could never be the top overall player of Go due to the increasing dominance of artificial intelligence (AI), which he called "an entity that cannot be defeated". In a 2024 interview, he said "losing to AI, in a sense, meant my entire world was collapsing. ... I could no longer enjoy the game. So I retired."