Lee Ha jin

Early life

Lee was born and grew up in Daejeon, South Korea. She is the elder daughter of an engineer father and an accountant mother, both of whom are avid Go players. Lee naturally picked up an interest in Go at a young age, and her parents began teaching her the game when she was 5 years old. As her talents won increasing recognition, her parents sent Lee to a professional Go school in Seoul, to live at the master’s house with him, his family, and several fellow students. Lee was 9 years old, and from that time on would take a break from her Go studies only for a few days each year to visit her family.

Career

Lee debuted as a professional player in 2004, at the age of 16, passing the intense competition that selected one new female pro annually. As a professional player, she was often listed among the top female players in Korea. She won 1st place in the women’s division of the 5th ETLand Cup Professional Baduk Championship in 2008, and won a bronze medal at the 2008 World Mind Sports Games in the same year. She qualified 4 times for the Korean national team (2006, 2007, 2008, 2010), which selects 5 female professional players each year for the Jeongganjang Cup international women’s team championship.

She became 1st dan in 2005 and was promoted to 3 dan in 2007.

Lee has written a book about her experience as a professional player, Outside the Board.

Lee has been Secretary General at the International Go Federation since July 2014, and she was International Go Ambassador at SportAccord World Mind Games in Beijing in 2014. Lee is also running a YouTube channel, Haylee's World of Go/Baduk, demonstrating high-level Go in English.

Education

Lee entered the SolBridge International School of Business in March 2010. She specialized in International Finance. In June 2013, Lee graduated one semester early as Valedictorian of the graduating class.