Chapter 25 National Training Team

Anyone who likes Go will find it difficult to break up with Go in this life, let alone those professional players who have been engaged in this sport.So in the Third Machinery Factory, although Chen Zude and the others are already workers, daily "hand talks" are absolutely indispensable.Among them, except for Chen Zude, who was recognized as the "overlord", the other "vassals from all walks of life" were "on one side" and refused to give in to each other. In the late period of the "Cultural Revolution", I returned to Beijing from the farm in Northeast China, and joined their small group to play chess.After my new force joined, this "battle for hegemony" became more intense, and it also added a bit of "thrilling".

At first, the national players didn't pay attention to me. After fighting several times, I realized that it would be difficult to win without displaying some "big tricks of life", so I couldn't help but get nervous.For these national chess players headed by Chen Zude who have long been famous in the chess world, although they win the battle, they are happy, and they don’t lose face when they lose. It's okay to pass the general out, so every time I play chess with me, I always go all out and make wonderful moves, often killing me so much that I'm sweating.In retrospect, the intensity and tension of playing chess at that time was no less than the current national official competition.

Fujisawa Hideyuki once emphasized that an important condition for becoming an excellent chess player is: a chess player must have a fiercely competitive environment between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.The key to why there are so many first-class chess players under Kigu's sect lies in the creation of this environment.I think Mr. Hideyuki's opinion is completely correct. It is precisely because I have been fighting against famous chess players such as Chen Zude when I was twenty years old that it is possible to enter the ranks of first-class chess players. At that time, I played chess desperately during the day, and at night I put out the chess I played during the day and studied it repeatedly until late at night.Sometimes as soon as my thoughts get into chess, I forget everything.For example, after playing chess and riding home, I often run a red light or ride the wrong road because my mind is still thinking hard about the changes in the game.Gradually, I was pleasantly surprised to find that apart from Chen Zude, I had a slight advantage over the other national players.

It was from this time that the ambitious goal of "working hard to catch up with and surpass Japan" was formed in my heart. In the spring of 1973, a major event happened that determined the fate of my life.Proposed by Premier Zhou and approved by Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese National Go Team was reorganized.I was honored to be selected into a training team composed of more than 30 masters from all over the country, which opened a new chapter in my Go career. The period from 1972 to 1973 was the most fanatical period for me to learn Go.At that time I almost never felt tired playing chess.The training schedule of the training team is very tight, at least three or four games (training games) are played a week. For some players, three or four regular games are quite tiring, but it is far from satisfying my needs.Except for training and games, I spend all my spare time playing chess, and I don’t go home on Saturdays. As long as I have someone to accompany me, I can play from morning until late at night.This "Wheel War"

It often makes many training team members overwhelmed and have to truce halfway. At that time, the masters in the training team were most afraid of being pestered by me to play chess, because once they got up, they won, and I naturally refused to let them go; .As a result, on the weekends, the national players "stay away" from me, and run away immediately after dinner, lest they will be entangled by me and not get away.I can say with certainty that I played more games during that period than any three players in the training camp combined. At that time, there were very few materials, and some chess records came very late. If you can get an up-to-date game record from Japan, it is like a treasure, and you can often put it on overnight.Of course, this desperate effort has also been rewarded. In the internal competition of the training team, either Chen Zude was first and I was second, or I was first and Chen Zude was second. The two of us were obviously one piece higher than others.

I had good grades in the training team, but in the game against Japanese players, due to my inexperience, I played very badly. In the summer of 1973, a Japanese Go delegation headed by Ei-o Sakata visited China. This was the first Japanese Go delegation to visit China since the two countries’ Go circles were interrupted during the Cultural Revolution. The delegation has a strong lineup. The head of the delegation, Eiko Sakata, is in his heyday. Among the members are Masao Kato and others, all of whom are active first-line chess players in the Japanese chess world. At that time, I was not qualified to play against Sakata. I was too young, and the Japanese didn’t know me, but according to the actual level, I should have been arranged to play against professional chess players. In fact, they arranged for me to play with an amateur seven-dan Nishimura build.Even so, I was so nervous the night before that I didn't close my eyes all night.This is the first time I have met a Japanese player in my professional Go career. I have never experienced such a game before, so I don't know what to do, and I don't know how to relax.

At that time, we lived in the Workers’ Stadium for the training camp. Six people including Chen Zude and I lived in the same room. I was afraid of affecting them, so I ran to the training room alone late at night.There is another person in the training room, Huang Liangyu from Fujian. He didn't have a game the next day and couldn't sleep for some reason.We said hello and didn't speak. I just sat in front of the chessboard in a daze, and didn't play the score, as if I was possessed by a demon.I sat there until three or four o'clock before going back, lying in bed and still unable to fall asleep.

I lost the game against Nishimura the next day. On the one hand, I was not used to Nishimura's "rough" play, and on the other hand, my state was very bad.After losing chess, I was in great pain. This is not ordinary pain. This is the first time I have tasted the bitter fruit of failure. Then, the field moved to Zhengzhou. This time I played against Kato. This was also the first time I played against Kato in my Go career.Kato was in the seventh dan at the time, stronger than me, but I fought hard and performed well, even though I lost, I was balanced in my heart. The third game was arranged for me by a second-dan female chess player. Although I won, I felt unbalanced, as if I could only win against women.From my position in the team, it is unreasonable to arrange these three opponents for me. Obviously, they did not take me seriously. In fact, my performance in the team was already comparable to that of Chen Zude.

We lost a lot in this China-Japan match, but it also truly reflects our overall level. Recently, I occasionally looked at my game records in 1973, and I found it very interesting. In terms of chess style, the way I played in 1973 was quite different from the way I play now. At that time, my chess was purely "struggle type", and I liked naked fighting. fight together.To use an analogy, it’s like a boxing match. The opponent punches hard, and I don’t dodge or avoid it, and I also punch the opponent hard. In this way, whoever has the most powerful fist will naturally take advantage of it.But now, when I encounter this kind of situation again, I will first consider how to dodge to ensure that I don't get hit, and then look at the opponent's weakness before punching. From the perspective of chess style, it has become more stable.Regardless of whether my current chess is "flexible" or "feeling", in short, I have rarely used the fierce and dashing style of play in the past. Chess players played too many games, probably because of their influence.

Among the well-known grandmasters in Japan, few belong to the "fighting type". Most of them pay attention to setting up the formation first, occupying favorable terrain, and then looking for opportunities.On the surface, it looks gentle and gentle, but it is secretly accumulating strength, just like a marathon runner, who does not sprint on a certain section of the road, but distributes strength evenly to prepare for the final sprint.This kind of subtle play without showing the edge is called "soft attack" in Japan.My current moves seem to belong to the category of "soft play". Compared with "strength fighting", I think "soft play" can better show a chess player's skill.

However, it does not mean that "soft attack" is necessarily better than "strength fighting".Take Masao Kato, the representative of the "strength fighting style" in the contemporary Japanese chess world as an example. His "strength fighting" has caused Japanese grand players to complain, and he has won the titles of "Honinbo" and "Celebrity" many times.Chinese chess player Liu Xiaoguang and others also belong to the "fighting type" and have also achieved quite good results.It can be seen that the "fighting type" chess players also have their unique features. The chess I played in 1973 was not only "fighting strength", but also the moves I played had a taste of "tyrannical". Although others thought my moves were a little unreasonable, they had no choice.Only when I met Chen Zude did I feel stupid, because he was stronger than me and more "dominant".When my "little tyrant" meets a "big tyrant", I have no choice but to bow down. Nevertheless, I did play quite a few good moves in 1973, and the quality wasn't bad by my current level.Although the chess game was immature at that time, the strong aggressiveness shown in it was extremely valuable. Unfortunately, this aggressiveness is somewhat weak in me now. 1973 is a memorable year.The formation of the national Go training team marks the re-start of the Chinese Go career.As a member of the training team, I also re-recognized my social value and restored my dignity as a human being.For a whole year, I was intoxicated by having enough playing time and high-level opponents. Except for playing chess, it seemed that everything else in the world ceased to exist.But at this moment, I was hit by another unexpected blow. In April 1974, my name was included in the list of the Chinese Go delegation visiting Japan.How many chess players dream of visiting Japan for a match!But just when I was joyful and excited, there was a sudden news that Shanhe Farm refused to conduct a political review for me. At that time, I really felt as if I had fallen into a hole in the ice, and my heart was so cold. At the beginning, I entered the National Go Training Team after going through all legal procedures and with the approval of the General Administration of Farms. Even if there was resistance from Shanhe Farm, there was nothing I could do.I also had the illusion that I would just play chess in the future and would not go back to the farm again, nor did I continue to report to the farm.In fact, all my relationships and files are still on the farm. If I want to go abroad, I must go through the political review of the original unit. This is the most troublesome thing for me. As expected, the farm not only refused to give me a foreign appraisal, but also said that I was "going through the back door", and strictly ordered me to go back to "grasp the revolution and promote production".They also don't think about it. You can "go through the back door" when you are a soldier, and you can "go through the back door" when you go to college. Go is a kind of competition, and you have to be really good. How can you "go through the back door"?Really uneducated!But I can't do anything, my fate is in their hands, and now I feel sad when I think about it. At that time, the whole country was engaged in a campaign of "criticizing Lin and Confucianism". Especially in early 1974, after the newspaper published the deeds of a man named Zhong Zhimin who opposed his father's "back door" to enlist him in the army, the whole country set off a climax of opposition to "going through the back door".Li Menghua, deputy director of the State Sports Commission, originally wanted to protect me, but he couldn't protect himself from the limelight, so he couldn't take care of me anymore.As a result, at the same time as the Chinese Go delegation got on the plane to Japan, I got on the train back to the farm. On the train I was tearful, in terribly painful pain, and even felt that life was too boring. I don't think I've done anything really bad on the farm, except for one fight, and that's because he wouldn't let me drink water!You can't treat me like this and ruin my future.I couldn't understand what the farm did at the time, and I held back a lot of resentment, but I couldn't show it. I had to work honestly when I got to the farm. This time the farm gave me some color and asked me to go to the pigsty.It just thawed in April and May, and this job was dirty and tiring. Others would replace me after a few days of work, but no one came to replace me, so I could only swallow my anger.People are quite envious of me, asking if I am not in the national training team?Didn't he also win a national championship in ten provinces and cities?Why are you back again?I couldn't answer, and I didn't dare to say anything more. I was afraid that if it got to the ears of the farm leaders, what would they do if they retaliated against me more severely? I can only hold back the pain in my heart and work silently. It wasn't until June that the General Administration of Farm Farms called me up to prepare for the National Go Tournament in July, so I arrived in Harbin.This experience is really unforgettable for me! The competition was held in Chengdu. This was the first official competition since the "Cultural Revolution". It had been eight years since the last national competition held in Zhengzhou.I participated as a chess player of the Heilongjiang provincial team. Originally, we could transfer directly from Beijing to Chengdu, but everyone wanted to take this opportunity to pass the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, so we first took the train to Shanghai, then took a boat to Chongqing, and then went to Chengdu. There was an episode on the train.At that time, we were not eligible to sit in sleeper berths. We were bored in the car and had no place to sleep. To pass the time, I learned to play chess with Li Zhongjian.He is a professional chess player, and he gave me a queen when he taught me.I immediately found it very interesting, and I was hooked.At this time, Wu Guangxi, who used to be a coach of the national team, came over and said to me, how can you play chess if you give up?It means my chess is too bad.I was so irritated by his sarcasm, I held my breath and decided to play well and beat him first. When I got on the boat, I dragged Wu Guangxi to the boat. At the beginning, I tied the game. If I lost a game, I would go first, then I would go first, then I would go first, then I would go first, then I would go first. After him.At this time, I told him, isn't it impossible to give up in chess?Made him speechless.After seven days on the boat, I was able to beat some of the lower-level players in the provincial team.Later, my level of chess improved dramatically. I won the national women’s champion Liu Shilan, Xie Jun (also when she won the national championship), and the world junior champion Zhu Chen. up. When I arrived in Chengdu, I was filled with emotion. Nine years ago, I won the championship of the children's group of the "National Ten Units Go Invitational Tournament" here.I have gone through ups and downs in the past nine years, and finally participated in the national competition in the name of an official chess player.I really want to win the championship. In addition to the general chess player's outlook on victory and defeat, since my household registration is still on the farm, this competition is even more important to me, and it will directly affect my future. After the battle started, I played quite smoothly and won five games in a row.In the sixth set, I met Chen Zude. At that time, he had four wins and one loss, and he had fewer points than me. The outcome between us was directly related to the championship. On the eve of this game, in order to recharge my energy and fight hard, I went to bed early, uncharacteristically, but the more I wanted to fall asleep, the more I couldn’t fall asleep. All kinds of thoughts were like moths fluttering at the lamp, and I couldn’t catch them open.In this way, after thinking about it, I tossed and turned on the bed like a "pancake" all night. The lack of sleep and the burden of thinking made me feel dizzy and heavy-eyed when I sat at the chess table in the game the next day.But Chen Zude was full of energy, calm and full of confidence.This made me more and more flustered. After the game started, I suddenly felt that my mind went blank, and all the inspiration from the past had gone to nowhere.Chen Zude made a move, and I mechanically followed behind to respond, but what his combat intention was, I couldn't calm down and think about it carefully, and finally staged the most embarrassing scene in my game history-eighth After eleven moves, he surrendered. Originally, fierce fighting is my forte. During the game, as soon as I encounter the "hand-to-hand combat" where the chess pieces touch, my strength will burst out.But in this round, in the first battle at the corner, I was completely defeated, like a swordsman in a duel. Before my sword could be unsheathed, the opponent's sharp sword had already pierced my chest. There is no room for fighting back.The moment I admit defeat, I really want to dive into the ground. The chess fans who were expecting to see a wonderful game were all surprised and disappointed that I was so vulnerable, and left in disappointment. The disastrous defeat of the competition and people's comments made me fall into a depression that I couldn't extricate myself from. Later, I lost to Wang Runan, Luo Jianwen and others one after another, and ended up only finishing third. After returning to Harbin, everyone prepared to go back to their respective units. I had nowhere to go, so I had to go back to the farm. Before we broke up, we all met in a restaurant.Stealing dishes was popular in Harbin at that time, and the restaurant we went to lost a lot of them, which is a joke now.Most of us are locals from Harbin, and we all have a lot of acquaintances. We all brought our own dishes on our own plates that day, and Wang Jialiang brought a lot of good dishes. Wang Jialiang is a chess champion. In today's words, he can be said to be the "big brother" in the chess world. There is no one in Harbin who does not know him.That day I was in a lot of pain, because I was going back to the farm the next day, and I didn’t know when I would be able to come out, so I drank so much that I was almost drunk in the end. When going out after dinner, Wang Jialiang was grabbed by an old man guarding the door. We immediately surrounded him and asked what happened.It turned out that the old man said that Wang Jialiang had stolen his plate, and Wang Jialiang said that he had brought the plate, but the old man insisted that he had stolen it, so there was a quarrel.Wang Jialiang also drank too much at that time, and when he talked, he spit and sprayed the old man all over the face.The old man was in a hurry, so he hit him with his hands.The dozen or so of us were all young men, so we refused to let him beat him when we saw this. Unexpectedly, the old man was very rough, and we ended up making trouble at the police station. The director of the police station knew Wang Jialiang and the old man. As soon as he entered the door, the director said, "Jialiang, why did you come here?" Wang Jialiang pointed to the old man and said, "He said I stole his plate." He said to the old man, "How could Wang Jialiang steal your plate?!" After hearing that the man was Wang Jialiang, the old man said, "Hey, why didn't you say you were Wang Jialiang earlier? When will you come to this restaurant in the future? No money for food!" It turned out that the old man was a chess fan and an admirer of Wang Jialiang. He was an enemy just now, and when he started a fight, he heard the word "Wang Jialiang" and immediately settled the matter.This is the first time I have seen the influence of a person's name. I am deeply moved. It is different between being famous and not being famous.I didn't have a name at the time, and I consciously learned a lesson. The next day I went back to the farm in despair. But this time when I came back, the farm took a 180-degree turn for me.After all, I finished third in the country, which was unprecedented on the farm.As soon as I arrived at the main field, the leader of the main field invited me to eat and drink, and told me in person that I could stop working after returning to the farm and study chess records by myself.When it came to the split, the attitude of the cadres towards me changed drastically, they were completely rehabilitated, and all restrictions on me were gone. What touched me the most were those educated youth "buddies". They stole another goose and hid in the hut where the water was boiled and treated me to eat goose meat.They said that I am very persistent and persevering, and if I can overcome this adversity, I will be able to accomplish a lot in the future. At that time, don’t forget the "buddies" and the scene of eating goose meat in this hut.At that time, we cooked the goose meat in boiling water, then dipped it in soy sauce and ate it without any other condiments, but it was delicious!Now I have no appetite for goose, no matter where I eat it, but at that time I thought goose was the best delicacy in the world.After eating, some people played the guitar, some tapped the bucket to beat the time, and everyone sang randomly.While singing, someone started crying, and the atmosphere suddenly became a little strange.This is also true, they have not been able to go home for many years, and it is hard to say what will happen in the future, but I already knew at that time that I would definitely be able to go home, so how can they not be sad by comparison?I understand and sympathize with them very much, but so what? !I really remember these people very clearly, and the scene at that time is also vivid in my mind, and it is impossible to forget them at any time. In October, the golden season, the national training team started training again. Only then did I leave the farm, return to Beijing, and start a new chapter.