Former CEO of Google and executive chairman of the parent company, Alphabet, Eric Schmidt is scheduled to visit Seoul on Tuesday to attend the historic Go match between top player Lee Se-dol and Google’s artificial intelligence program AlphaGo. 

The five-day games will be held at a Seoul hotel on March 9, 10, 12, 13 and 15. There is a $1 million prize for the winner. All the matches will be live-streamed via YouTube.

Schmidt is also expected to attend the gala dinner on the eve of the first match to mingle with Go officials and other industry people here.

He was last here in October when he came to discuss partnership with Korean partners such as Samsung Electronics and lawmakers.

Google has expanded its presence in Korea in recent years. In May last year, the company opened its start-up accelerator Google Campus in Seoul, the first in Asia and third globally.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)