Mr Kim Sang Soon, a Go teacher in southern Seoul, has been much busier these days fielding queries from parents and students on courses in the ancient chess game.

“There are indeed many more calls and visits from children, especially preschool girls. I’m pretty sure that the AlphaGo match brought back the popularity of Go,” said the 65-year-old, who has been teaching Go for the past three decades.

“This is definitely a good sign.”

Renewed interest in the Go game is sweeping through South Korea, amid a series of battles between Korean grandmaster Lee Se Dol and Google’s artificial intelligence AlphaGo.

Lee achieved his first victory against the supercomputer on Sunday after losing three games in a five-game match and is due to play the final game today (March 15).

At a children’s Go competition held by the Korea Baduk Association on Sunday, the number of new participants rose to 20 students in just one day. This is double the daily average. Around 300 students join the competition regularly every month, the association said.

The fad has also hit colleges as more individuals are expressing interest to join Go clubs.

“Compared to the past, a lot more students are asking through the school’s online community how they can join the Go club. I’m sure the number of applications is much larger this semester than before,” said Park Hyo Jeong, who heads the Go club at Ewha Womans University.

Go used to be a game for the elite in the past. It has been a common game for man in the street since the country’s liberation in 1945.

While the number of Koreans who played Go reached 10 million in the 1990s, this number has dwindled over the years, Go industry sources said.

According to a survey by Gallup Korea in 2013, only 25 per cent of people here said they knew how to play Go and of this proportion, over half of their playing abilities were at the elementary level.

“Go has been a game for all people regardless of class. The game has soothed people’s sadness and relieved stress from a long time ago. Since the game requires much time and patience, creating a boom in the game is not as easy as other games,” said KBA official Chung Dong Hwan.

“But I can see that the whole country is into Go now.”

Bookstores are benefitting from the growing interest in Go.

Kyobo Book, the largest bookstore chain in Korea, saw Go book sales rise by 7 per cent compared to last year. Online bookstore Aladdin, has also seen a jump in Go books sales by 50 per cent.

Of the top five Go books sold in the first week of this month, four were written by Go champion Lee Se Dol.

For some retailers, Go products are also flying off the shelves.

Online shopping mall Gmarket said its sales of Go items surged fivefold in the past month. Another online shopping mall, Auction, also saw sales of such items jump by 40 per cent.

Among these customers, there were over 80 per cent more customers in their 20s compared to the previous year, according to Auction officials.

“Not only Koreans are interested in Go, but also people from other countries. I believe the current boom may serve as a turning point for the Korean Go industry, depending on how well (our association) manages the opportunity,” Chung added.

Indonesia is considering scrapping subsidies on diesel fuel, an energy ministry official said late on Monday, as part of efforts to create much-needed government spending room, although the plan still requires approval from parliament.

Shortly after he took office in 2014, President Joko Widodo moved to reign in the country’s budget deficit by cutting government fuel spending by more than 90 per cent, in one of the biggest energy subsidy reforms in decades.

The reforms shifted the burden of gasoline subsidies to state energy company Pertamina, and changed diesel subsidies to a fixed rate of 1,000 rupiah (S$0.10) per litre.

But, the government is seeking further cuts to 2016 spending after the budget deficit widened to 2.53 per cent of GDP in 2015, in part due to declining oil and commodity revenues, and after parliament delayed approval of a key tax bill. “If we can reduce subsidies, there will be budget space for other sectors that are more appropriate such as for the energy security fund or infrastructure,” Energy Ministry spokesman Sujatmiko told reporters at the Ministry, referring to the plan to cut diesel subsidies.

Sujatmiko noted that the plan still needed parliamentary approval.

Energy security funds are needed to achieve Indonesia’s renewable energy targets and to build oil storage in eastern Indonesia, according to Energy Minister Sudirman Said, who was with Sujatmiko.

The ministry will propose energy security funds of up to 3 trillion rupiah to be written into the 2017 state budget, he said, declining to comment on the issue of diesel subsidies.

Indonesia’s diesel fuel demand declined by “double digits”in 2015 as the market adjusted to reduced subsidies that had crimped opportunities for fuel smuggling.

Indonesia, the world’s top palm oil producer, plans to raise the amount of palm oil-based biodiesel to 20 per cent of the content of domestic diesel in an effort to reduce fuel imports and create more demand for the edible oil.

However, falling crude prices are expected to limit the shift of diesel consumers to biodiesel, as the alternative is more costly to produce and requires large subsidies too.

Taiwan’s president-elect Tsai Ing-wen made her first major appointment Tuesday by naming a former economist as premier in a bid to kickstart the island’s flagging fortunes.

Lin Chuan is a former finance minister and will take office on May 20 when Tsai is officially inaugurated after taking a landslide victory over the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) in January.

Among the challenges for Tsai’s China-sceptic Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will be how to deal with a stagnating economy, which played a major role in the KMT’s defeat.

Many ordinary Taiwanese feel trade pacts signed with Beijing during an eight-year rapprochement under the KMT have failed to benefit them.

Taiwan last month slashed its growth prediction for 2016 from 2.32 per cent to 1.47 per cent after a worse-than-expected 2015 saw the island sink into recession at the end of the year.

Exports slumped 13 per cent year-on-year in January – the longest consecutive period of decline since 2009.

Tsai said Lin, 64, had a “glowing record” as finance chief.

“Lin is a good communicator and familiar with my ideas on how to manage the country. His previous government experience is notable. That’s why I decided to choose him as premier,” Tsai said.

The full lineup of the new cabinet will be decided next month, according to Tsai.

“I would like to give my promise that the cabinet led by Lin will not only be economy-oriented,” she said.

“It will also be a ‘reform cabinet'” dealing with a range of issues from funding for political parties to pensions, she added.

Tsai did not mention ties with China as speculation swirls over how she will address relations with Beijing in her inauguration speech.

Beijing has warned against any move towards a declaration of independence by Taiwan.

The island is self-ruling after splitting with the mainland in 1949 after a civil war, but China considers it part of its territory awaiting reunification, and Taiwan has never formally declared independence.

The DPP is traditionally a pro-independence party, though Tsai has repeatedly promised to maintain the status quo with Beijing.

However, in a speech after her win, she said “suppression” would harm cross-strait ties and emphasised the need for Taiwan to forge an economic path which is not overly dependent on China trade.

The majority of voters in Taiwan want peaceful relations with Beijing but are fiercely protective of the island’s way of life and democracy.