Chapter 5 my mentors

Regrettably, although I learned Lei Lao's chess skills, I still failed to learn his gentle and elegant character. As mentioned earlier, my first teacher was Mr. Zhang Futian, but he didn't teach me for a long time.My second teacher is Mr. Lei Puhua. Lei Lao is a senior in the Go world, and he was as famous as the famous master Gu Shuiru in his early years.Lei Lao's chess is a kind of "Kung Fu chess", that is, it pays attention to layout and ending, and its style of chess is closer to that of Japanese players.At that time, the well-known older generation chess players in my country, such as Cui Yunzhi and Jin Yaxian, etc., mostly inherited the classical chess style of our country, did not pay much attention to layout and ending, and were keen on slashing and killing in the middle game.Therefore, in the fifties "fighting power"

When the old style of chess prevailed, Lei Lao's chess was not taken seriously.But I got a lot of precious things from Lei Lao's chess. Mr. Lei is very strict with Jibo and me. From the posture of holding the handbag to the way we sit, we must behave well.Hitting the chessboard with chess pieces, shaking your head, reaching into the chess box to rattle the pieces, etc., are absolutely not allowed. Mr. Lei attaches great importance to the training of basic skills. Sometimes we have to perform a fixed form or a change many times until we can draw inferences about other cases from one instance.At that time, we were very addicted to chess, and our hands itched after listening to it for a while, so we pestered Mr. Lei to play chess.Whenever this happens, Mr. Lei is never willing to accommodate us.Looking back now, it was Mr. Lei's strict basic skills training that laid a solid foundation for me.

Mr. Lei is not only knowledgeable, but also very upright.Although he was not very successful in the chess club at that time, he never said the right and wrong of others behind his back.When interacting with others, Mr. Lei is always so humble and polite, even for children like us, he never puts on the air of a master and stares and gets angry.I remember that when we became proud of playing chess, sometimes we would step on the chair and yell, scratching the chess pieces.At this time, Mr. Lei always looked at us silently. He didn't patiently reason with us until we got off the chair in embarrassment and sat upright.These events left an indelible impression on me.

Regrettably, although I learned Lei Lao's chess skills, I still failed to learn his gentle and elegant character.Now I have very strict requirements for young chess players. It can be said that I was influenced by Mr. Lei. However, as a teacher, my cultivation is far inferior to him.As soon as I saw others play "stinky chess", I couldn't help but reprimanded them, and even used such radical words as "too stinky", "Oh, this is a waste of the art of Go", as for whether others can step down I don't think much about it.Many young chess players have been trained by me to the point of tearing up. Ma Xiaochun has been scolded many times by me even if others don't mention it.

Not only in Go, but in other things as well.For example, I like playing poker very much. The higher the opponent's card skills, the more I am motivated. Although playing cards is purely for entertainment, I also want to win every game, so I am very demanding of my partners.Especially when playing bridge, as soon as my partner played a "stinky card", I would get so angry that everyone in the chess team was afraid of partnering with me.Of course, when I play a "stinky card", people will "treat the person in the same way", thanks to the fact that there are not many times like this.This intolerant bad temper has offended many people, but I can't change it. It's really "it's easy to change a country, but it's hard to change one's nature"!

I also have two other teachers, that is, Guo Tisheng and Guo Xuchu, two old gentlemen I met at Mr. Chen's place.Guo Xuchu is older, known as "Big Guolao", while Guo Tisheng is called "Little Guolao". Anyone who likes Go is probably not familiar with Big and Little Guolao.When Boss Chen asked me to play chess, why did he invite the big and small Guo Lao? I think this must be a deliberate arrangement.At that time, the level of Go in China was very low. A Japanese old lady, who was only five-dan, once defeated our national player without winning a game.In order to defeat Japan's Kuduan, Mr. Chen also knows that this cannot be achieved in one or two generations, and seedlings must be found and cultivated from teenagers or even children.He called Big and Little Guo to come here, and he must have wanted them to "appraise" our "identity". When he felt that we were "teachable", he handed us over to them.Later facts proved that Mr. Chen was always very far-sighted.

Although Mr. Guo Xuchu did not teach me formally, I played more chess with him than with other teachers.At that time, he was working in the Political Consultative Conference Cultural Club in Nanheyan, and my home was not far from Nanchizi, so I often went to his place to play chess.From 1963 to 1965, Daguo and I played countless games of chess. From the beginning when he gave me six pieces, I was able to hold black and draw.It would be very commemorative if the chess games played at that time could be preserved, but unfortunately I didn't record a single game. Guo Xuchu's chess style is very delicate, with many ingenious moves in the layout, middle game and ending. Some of the delicate aspects of my current chess are greatly influenced by him.

Among the older generation of chess players, Mr. Guo Tisheng is the most famous and his chess skills are outstanding.Compared with the previous teachers, the old chess is closer to the style of modern Japanese chess players.If Mr. Lei Puhua's chess is like the chess of Japan's Taisho era, then Mr. Guo Tisheng's chess is more like that of Japan's Showa era.Because I was influenced by these two teachers successively, Japanese friends later commented on my chess and said that among Chinese chess players, Nie's chess, especially the layout and style, are very similar to Japanese chess players.

When I learned chess from Guo Lao, I first went to his house by bus.The old residence is far away, and it takes a long time to go back and forth.Later, my parents learned from my mouth that the living environment of the old man was not very good, and the housing was relatively poor. Out of respect for him, after obtaining his consent, they took the couple to live at home.I was very happy at this moment, and since then I have been soaking in the old room every day, and I don’t even want to go home to eat.After a long time, my mother was afraid that it would affect the rest of the old couple and that I would miss my study, so she forbade me to go there every day, but the room where the old man lived was closest to the door, and I could sneak in when I got home. Mother can't control the old room at all.

Once, my mother was very angry, grabbed me and asked, is your surname Nie or Guo?I opened my mouth wide in fright, and stood there in a daze.It took me a long time to know that there was a little "secret" among the reasons why my mother was so angry at that time.It's a bit funny to say, she was afraid that I would spend day and night at the old man's place, and the old couple had no children and liked me, wouldn't it be bad if they really wanted to recognize me as their son.Although I always make my mother angry, she loves me the most in her heart. My precious son ignores her existence and stays away from home every day. Of course, he is angry and anxious.When this matter was mentioned later, my mother herself felt angry and funny.

Getting along with Guo Lao day and night has benefited me a lot.First of all, I have a sense of stability in learning chess.In the past, no matter which teacher you learn chess from, you always have to consider the time, and you can't sit still when the weather gets dark.Now the teacher is at home, so I can sit still, listen attentively, and ask questions whenever I have any questions. Secondly, since Guo Lao lives in my house, famous players from the national team such as Chen Zude and Wu Songsheng often come to play chess with Guo Lao, so I also benefit from it.Whenever they come, I can always play a game or two of guide chess and play against these first-class chess players, which greatly broadens my horizons. During the life when I was old in my house, many details are now a little hazy in my memory, but I remember everything about chess very clearly. As we all know, too old chess is very flexible and good at discarding pieces.He has a famous saying: If you lose it all, you win it.It means discarding all the pieces that have become a burden, and losing the burden, it will be much easier to play, and the hope of winning will be greater.Guo Lao once showed me a game between Chen Zixian and Fang Qiuke, the national champions in the late Qing Dynasty. There was a wonderful abandoned piece in it. When explaining it, he said, look, how hard it is to escape from this piece of chess! Feed him and win.This incident made a deep impression on me. In the game between me and Guo Lao, I was often embarrassed by his abandonment tactics. He obviously took a lot of pieces, but lost the game.So for a period of time, I was obsessed with sacrifices, and I always wanted to play some beautiful sacrifices. If I didn't use sacrifice tactics in a game of chess, even if I won, I would feel very boring. Over time, I realized some of the tricks, and until now, the abandoned son is still my effective weapon. When it comes to abandonment, I would like to say a few more words. I think abandonment can best reflect a chess player's heart.Some people only regard abandonment as a way to get rid of the opponent. This kind of understanding is a bit narrow. In fact, wonderful sacrifices are often aggressive, and they are offered to the opponent to eat, so that he has to eat and eat. And uncomfortable, this is the real sacrifice tactic. When Guo Lao played chess, the pieces moved very quickly. He also asked me to play chess as fast as possible and not to be hesitant. Therefore, I have developed the habit of playing chess quickly since I was a child.This habit put me in a good position later in time-limited games.Especially now, in order to adapt to TV broadcasts, there are more and more fast chess games, and the time required for each move is getting shorter and shorter, so the benefits of playing fast chess are becoming more and more obvious. First of all, playing fast can make the opponent feel oppressed.Just imagine, when the other party thinks hard and finally casts a ball, but you quickly or even immediately return a move, which will give the other party a shock, ah, he has already expected my intentions, and the other party will be depressed if you think about it like this stand up. Second, the time saved can be used at critical moments.There are often situations in the game where either the fish is dead or the net is broken. It takes a lot of time to judge and calculate. If the time is almost used up in advance, you will panic at this moment. What's more, if you play fast, you can force the opponent into the countdown first, thus destroying his fighting spirit.Anyone who has watched a Go final has probably seen a situation in which a chess player loses a good game with a series of bad moves because of the countdown, right?Chess players who have participated in the competition may have a deep understanding of the death-like countdown sound.The painful feeling of being confused and helpless makes me feel terrified when I think about it.Therefore, if you don't want to fall into the predicament of counting down the seconds, you must do everything possible to try to play the chess quickly. Of course, if you are blindly pursuing speed, it is meaningless.Any amateur can play chess very fast, and even play twenty or thirty games a day, but there are many flaws and loopholes in it, which cannot be called chess at all.What I mean by "fast" is fast based on playing well. If you want to do this, you must pay attention to the training of basic skills, including the feeling of chess shape and calculation ability.Another trick is to be good at "stealing" the other party's time, that is, when the other party is thinking, you have to use your brain at full speed, and calculate in advance the changes in the places where he may make a move, and don't wait passively for the other party All of a sudden.This is also one of the most important reasons why I play fast. Maybe some people who like long exams will ask: Since the benefits of playing fast are endless, why are there still many long-term 9-dan masters in Japan? Indeed, there are many long-term masters in Japan, and Hideya, the master of the modern Japanese chess world, is a long-term expert.Not only that, Shi Xiangxia, a famous big player in the Qing Dynasty of our country, can also be described as a long-term test type. According to relevant records, when Shi played against another big player with the same name, Fan Xiping, Fan often lost his hands like flying, and Shi repeatedly When pondering, it takes several hours to think about a move. So how to explain the long test of these famous masters?In my opinion, this aspect is related to the character and temperament of the chess players, and on the other hand, it is also related to the rules of the game at that time.Like the time limit of the game, our country only started to adopt it after the founding of New China.Although Japan was earlier, it was after the Shuya era, and before that, chess players never had a time limit. The habit of growing up. In addition, it must be realized that the long exams of these famous masters (including some nine-dan in Japan) contain the spirit of "the art is not surprising and the death is endless", and it is by no means incapable of playing chess quickly.I believe that if Shi Xiangxia and Xiuzai were really given a time limit, they would also play very beautiful chess. Looking at the Chinese and Japanese chess circles, although chess players have always been divided into sensory and long-term players, judging from the current development trend of Go, perhaps in the near future, sensory players will completely dominate. Now all major chess games in Japan adopt the "two-day system" game, that is, each side is limited to nine hours.The game time limit in our country is usually less than three hours, so some people think that the reason why you can't play good chess is because the game time is too short.In fact, even some famous Japanese chess players, such as Fujisawa Hideyuki, Ishida Yoshio, and Kato Masao, have questioned the "two-day system", hoping to shorten the time and change it to "one-day system". Contest. In my opinion, although the quality of chess has a certain relationship with the length of time, it does not mean that it takes a long time to play good chess.The outstanding performance of many outstanding players in Japan (including the long examination type) in the "NHK" Cup is a proof.The main reason why some of our chess players often worry about the lack of game time is that they cannot make up their minds decisively at critical moments. Chess is ever-changing, and there are many different ways to play in every situation, and every way to play has advantages and disadvantages.Throughout the ages, no one has been able to exhaust these changes. Therefore, it is impossible to calculate all the changes in the limited time of the game. It took a lot to feel.In fact, many "bad players" in the game often appear after the "long test" of the chess players. All in all, I'm an old "faithful believer" when it comes to rapid chess, and I hope that growing teenage players will develop the habit of rapid chess as well. When Xiang Lao was learning chess, he often told me stories about some ancient and modern Chinese and peripheral chess players, such as Fan Xiping, Shi Xiangxia, Huang Longshi, as well as Japanese Xiu Ce, Zhang He and so on.I remember that Mr. Guo respected the celebrity Xiurong very much, and he lent me a set of "Complete Works of Xiurong" by Zhang Futian, and asked me to play the chess records of the famous celebrity Xiurong. Originally, I didn't really like to play notation, but since the teacher told me to, I had to do it.Unexpectedly, Xiurong celebrity chess quickly fascinated me, and I played "The Complete Works of Xiurong" from beginning to end without knowing it.Although at my level at the time, I may not be able to understand 10% of the mysteries of Xiurong celebrity chess, but the score during that time was of great help to me. At least it made me familiar with various types of chess. The small mesh layout.In addition, Xiurong celebrity's excellent feeling and light turn around also gave me a certain degree of influence. Now that I mentioned Dapu, let me talk about my views on Dapu by the way. There is no doubt that playing notation is an important way to learn chess. Whether you are a professional chess player or an amateur, you must learn to play notation if you want to improve your chess skills.But I would like to emphasize one point, the notation must be done well, and one must not only seek quantity, but not quality. I often see that some people play music very hard, they can play many games a day, and they can play everyone's music. I dare not say that this method has no effect, but from my personal experience, it often gets twice the result with half the effort.I think growing chess players must pay attention to the following points when playing scores. First, choose the scores of chess players who are similar to your own style of chess, and conduct systematic research.For example, those who like to fight in a big way can choose the chess records of Masaki Takemiya, those who like to play in the field can choose the chess records of Kigumi, and those who like to attack and kill can choose the chess records of Masao Kato, etc.Don't just play whoever's name is big, only in this way can it be effective. Second, don't be greedy for too much, don't "little monks chanting scriptures, speaking without intention", and study every game record repeatedly, and strive to fully understand it.If you can get into it when you are notating, you will feel a lot of joy in each new discovery. Third, go all out to guess the intentions of both sides of the game and find out the flaws in it, because no matter how good a chess player is, he can't make a move.Often standing on the standpoint of "finding faults" is undoubtedly an excellent way to improve chess power. Fourth, don't be superstitious about the explanations in the chess records, let alone memorize them by rote.It is said that Hideyuki Fujisawa never read the commentary when he wrote the scores.Some of our chess players have excellent memory, and can even tell who the two sides of the game are when they play a random game (of course played by a famous player), which shows that he has put in a lot of hard work. When he asked questions about a certain step, he said that so and so did it!The implication is that famous masters are like this, how dare you object?This has become a dogmatic learning method.Go itself is extensive and profound. With the advancement of the times, its skills are also constantly developing and innovating. The chess that was recognized as good in the past may not be very useful now. The chess that no one has played in the past is likely to be played now. .For example, before Wu Qingyuan and Mu Gushi created a new layout, it was unimaginable for black chess to start with "star" or "three three", but now this layout has become the mainstream.When Chen Zude first created the "China Style" layout, it was also considered "heretical" at the beginning. Not long ago, it became popular in the world of chess.Therefore, it is not advisable to just be satisfied with imitating the strokes of the predecessors. Fifth, don't always write notes alone. It is very beneficial to conduct group research properly. As the saying goes, "Three cobblers are the best Zhuge Liang", collective research can inspire and promote each other, which is especially suitable for young chess players.I heard that in Japan, super-class chess players such as Hideyuki Fujisawa, Masao Kato, Masaki Takemiya, and Zhixun Zhao often meet regularly to study chess skills. As far as I am concerned, except for group research, I seldom use chess pieces to play scores on the chessboard, but "look at scores".I used to like reading novels when I was in school, and then I changed to reading chess records. Now it has become my habit to read a game or two of chess records before going to bed.I feel that "reading music" can strengthen memory and cultivate the ability of quick calculation.However, learning methods vary from person to person. I don't know whether my method is applicable to other people, so it can only be used as a reference. There is one more thing to note about playing score. Playing score is important, but what is more important is practice. Only in actual combat can you test whether your understanding and ideas are correct.I advocate that the ratio between playing chess and playing score should be 7:3, or even 8:2 or 9:1. Some of our chess players spend a lot of time playing score, but rarely play chess.The "feeling" of Japanese shogi players The reason why they are generally stronger than us is that they play more chess. This is about the experience of learning chess from the teachers.When I became an adult, especially when I learned about the situation of some famous Japanese chess players learning from masters, I felt the value of this experience even more. Most of the masters who are active in the Japanese chess world at the beginning were able to join the famous masters after hard work, and the life and study after the entry were also very difficult.According to Zhao Zhixun's recollection, his studies after entering Mugumen were very hard, and he had to follow the strict and even harsh requirements of his master every day. If he was negligent, he would be severely reprimanded immediately.For example, if he can't solve the life-and-death problems asked by the master and his brothers, he can't go back to sleep.In Japan at that time, even if you entered the school of famous teachers, it was very difficult to get personal guidance from the master. It would be very good to learn a game with a high-level senior brother.It is said that after Masao Kato entered Kigumon, he only played a game of chess with Mr. Kigu.In addition, in the Japanese chess world, the ranks of professional chess players are strict, and it is generally rare for low-level players to play chess with high-level players.Zhao Zhixun is very grateful to Lin Haifeng because he played a game of coaching chess against the five sons with Lin Haifeng Jiuduan when he was a teenager.In contrast, I have been taught by many first-class chess players in China since I was a child. I am really lucky.