Following the almost certain participation of Mok Chin-seok 5-dan in this year's Chinese Team Tournament (the Jiangling Cup), it is being reported (23 February 2001) that three other players from Korea also want to play in China next year. One, of course, is Rui Naiwei 9-dan. Although she is Chinese she needs to apply via Korea as she is registered as a guest player there. She wants to play for Shanghai. Kim Su-chun 7-dan apparently wants to play for the Hong Kong team. A pupil of Cho Chikun, he already has long experience of playing overseas in Japan (where he was called Kimu Sujun). The third player is 18-year-old Pak Seong-ch'eol 2-dan, who is keen to team up with a squad put together by Nie Weiping.
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Older News From 19 February 2001: FENG YUN INTERVIEWED
An interview with Feng Yun 9-dan appeared in the Chinese go paper Weiqi Zhoubao on 9 February 2001. She is now in America, having forsaken tournament go since she moved overseas in May 2000. The move was to be with her husband (a computer expert) and daughter as a family unit. It was an agonising choice, but one that clearly had only one likely outcome ("I am a go player, but I am also a woman"). Life is still a bit of a struggle. They have a four-room apartment that costs 1,000 dollars a month - high because it is only 30 minutes drive from New York.
English is not too much of a problem, she says, as she spent two years learning it as part of an elite squad in China in 1987, but loneliness with hubby at work and daughter at school can be. Nevertheless she could keep busy teaching go a $30-50 a time (they need $3000 a month to live), but she also plays on IGS - limited to that because of language problems with clients. She revealed that she has turned down invitations to major tournaments in the Far East because it would mean being away from her family. One thing that has surprised her is that so few Chinese people in America play go, yet virtually every Korean does.
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MAJOR FORMAT CHANGES
Major changes are in the pipeline for Chinese go. The three major tournaments - Chunlan, Qisheng and Lebaishi - will switch to a fixed schedule in their next terms. The hope is that top pros can thus make themselves available.
The Chunlan, from Term 4, will divide into three stages. Rounds 1 and 2 will constitute Stage 1, and the quarter-finals and semi-finals will be Stage 2. The final will become Stage 3 and will be a best-of-three.
The Qisheng (the richest event at present) will no longer be modelled so closely on the Japanese pattern, which has itself changed anyway. The detail of the changes, to take effect from Term 4, have been notified to the sponsors but have not yet been announced.
The Lebaishi Cup will drop the repechage system in the early rounds that it inherited from the old Bawang. The Challengers' Final will also become a best-of-three.
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Older news From 6 February 2001: ANOTHER YOUNG STAR EMERGES
Go will have to be taught in ante-natal classes if the trends in prodigies continues. The latest on the Chinese scene is 10-year-old Gu Lingyi from Jiangkou. Gu is a pupil of the Sichuanese pro Li Liang 2-dan. His strength appears to be about amateur 7-dan judging by his outing in the 14th Wanbao Cup in mid-January 2001. This is an event for amateurs held in Shanghai. Gu finished in 6th place just behind Liu Jin. Liu plays as amateur 7-dan now, but was a 2-dan pro before having to give up for health reasons. He also won the World Amateur twice, in 1996 and 1997. For the record the cup winner was Li Taichun. Judge Gu's ability for yourself - here is one of his games from this event.
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Older News From 28 January 2001: WINDOWS OF OPENING FOR SPONSORSHIP
The first tournament sponsored by Microsoft China, held in Hangzhou on 2 and 3 February 2001, was won by Ma Xiaochun 9-dan. It was an invitation tournament for eight players. On Day 1 the first round results were Ma Xiaochun 1-0 Zhou Heyang 8d, Kong Jie 5d 1-0 Yu Bin 9d, Liu Xiaoguang 9d 1-0 Shao Weigang 9d, Cao Dayuan 9d 1-0 Chen Zude 9d. In Round 2 on the same day, Ma beat Kong and Liu beat Cao, courtesy of an oversight. In the final the next day Ma disposed of Liu in 199 moves. The event was part of a wider festival of go, including public demonstrations on large boards, to welcome in the Chinese New Year. It is seen as a good omen that Ma has won the first tournament of the Year of the Snake, because he will lead China's onslaught on the 3rd Chunlan Cup in April. That too will be in Hangzhou.
Ma Xiaochun 9-dan
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The Chinese press is reporting that formal permission for Mok Chin-seok 5-dan to represent Chongqing in the Jiangling Cup (China's national team league) has been received from the Korean Baduk Association. A formal request from Chongqing's go boss Yang Yi to the Chinese Weiqi Association on 1 February 2001 was relayed to Seoul and dealt with immediately. It must be said, however, there are lots of eddies and undercurrents on this issue, not least because of the continuing uncertainty over whether Rui Naiwei will represent Shanghai.
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The city of Guiyang will host China's first international go festival in August 2001. The description makes it sound like a cross between a go festival and a trade fair. Guiyang is capital of Guizhou Province, and is so far rather off the beaten track for foreign tour parties - which may be seen as an advantage.
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Older News From 28 January 2001:
The life of Go Seigen 9-dan, now 86, is to be turned into a film made by Chinese director Tian Zhuangzhuang, it was announced at the end of December 2000. The film should be ready for showing in three years time. Tian, 48, won the Tokyo Film Festival Grand prix in 1993 for his "Blue Kite" and has an international reputation also with "Horse Thief". He sees Go as more than a go player and was struck, for example, by his deep knowledge of the Chinese classics. In discussing his previous work he has said, "On reaching my 40s, I found myself more and more thinking about the past, China's history since the Revolution." This new film seems a logical progression. Go, for his part, sees the venture as another way of spreading international goodwill.
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Older News From 24 January 2001: RANKINGS
The latest Elo-type list of Chinese pros confirms the traditional rankings by putting Zhou Heyang out in front ahead of Shao Weigang.
The top 20 places as of 31 December 2000 were:
1. Zhou Heyang 2697
2. Shao Weigang 2678
3. Ma Xiaochun 2677
4. Chang Hao 2666
5. Luo Xihe 2647
6. Wang Lei 2638
7. Yu Bin 2636
8. Ding Wei 2612
9. Kong Jie 2593
10= Liu Xiaoguang 2586
10= Dong Yan 2586
12. Nie Weiping 2576
13= Liu Jing 2575
13= Gu Li 2575
15. Hu Yaoyu 2565
16. Qiu Jun 2556
17. Huang Yizhong 2543
18= Wang Yuhui 2546
18= Liu Shizhen 2546
18= Zhang Wendong 2546
Top female is Zhang Xuan in 23rd place on 2536.
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Older News From 19 January 2001:
Top performer in China in 2000, judged by the traditional winning percentage criterion, was Zhou Heyang 8-dan. He scored 58-21, or 73.4%. He was followed by Gu Li 5-dan (58-23; 71.6%), who also set the longest winning streak of 16 wins. Third was a relatively new name, Liu Xing 4-dan (45-20; 69.2%) and fourth was Luo Xihe 8-dan (56-25; 69.1%). Shao Weigang was the top 9-dan, in 5th place on 58-26 (69.1%). For reference, the other big names - all outside the top ten - fared as follows: Chang Hao 9-dan 39-26 (60.0), Ma Xiaochun 9-dan 22-21 (51.2%) and Yu Bin 9-dan 42-22 (65.6%). One player, Dong Yan 7-dan, managed to find time (and talent) to play 87 games.
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Older News From 5 January 2001:
There is a 50-50 chance that Rui Naiwei will return to China to play in domestic events for the first time in nine years, according to reports in early January 2001. She has apparently given her approval to join the struggling Shanghai team. She is from Shanghai anyway, but the team there would welcome her because it regularly has to play without its top board, Chang Hao 9-dan, who is often on international duty. Shanghai has so far managed no better than fourth in the relatively new National League Championship.
There is also at least a 50-50 chance that Korean star Mok Chin-seok 5-dan will play for the Chongqing team as it strives to hold on to its first places of the past two years. Mok is studying Chinese, is keen to travel round China and is great friends with Liu Jing 8-dan and Shao Weigang 9-dan, the two stars of the Chongqing team. He has recently paid his own way to Beijing, for example, to study with Liu. He has also linked his homepage up to the Qingfeng page of the young Chinese stars. It seems that the officials of the Korean Go Association have given their blessing. Many prominent Chinese go officials also seem to have signalled assent.
There are still hurdles to be cleared before all this can happen. China's 250 players are divided into 24 regions or national institutions, each of which has a pro team of six players, but even with reserves many pros do not get a chance to join the competition. Those excluded would not welcome even further obstacles. One reason why Feng Yun 9-dan left for Canada recently, it is said, is that she could not get a place in the Beijing team. (She had played for Shanghai but moved to Beijing on marriage.)
The 24 teams are divided into two sections, A and B, of 12 teams, and within each section they play from April to June then September to December on a round-robin basis, home and away (i.e. a total of 22 games per team). Only four team members actually play and the league points are allocated according to the match score, 2 points for a win, 1 for a draw. The B League winners earn promotion to the A League.
The teams are all sponsored locally (e.g. Chongqing is backed by a car company, Shanghai by an IT group). Apart from travelling expenses, the pros also get at least a small but stable salary, vital now that state support of go players has been so eroded. Since 1999, teams have been able to recruit players from other regions, so the system is rapidly becoming like that of football or baseball teams. Yu Bin 9-dan, for example, is apparently leaving the Chongqing team in 2001 to play for Zhejiang, hence the interest in drafting in Mok Chin-seok (who, if he did join, would enter the current league at the "endgame" stage).
