Chapter 27 Shock Japan Kudan

The chess battle between China and Japan has always been valued by the Chinese chess world, and the results of fighting against Japanese players are often an important basis for measuring the level of Chinese chess players.Especially before 1980, in the minds of most chess players, defeating a Japanese nine-dan player was even more important than winning the national championship. Why is this so?This starts with the history of Go exchanges between China and Japan. Go is one of the treasures of ancient Chinese culture.As early as the Tang Dynasty, the level of Go in our country was very high, and it developed again in the Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties. It reached its peak in the Yongzheng and Qianlong years of the Qing Dynasty.The famous "Danghu Ten Bureaus" is the masterpiece of Fan and Shi's life.Since then, the national fortune has gradually declined, and chess skills have also declined day by day. In the Guangxu period, after the death of the last national player Zhou Xiaosong, the level of chess skills plummeted.

In the early years of the Republic of China, the Japanese chess player Dohei Kobe came to China for the fifth dan and killed all the invincible players in China. According to his evaluation, the best Chinese chess player at that time was only the first dan.Before the founding of New China, chess players were poor, and most of them became "entertainers" who wandered around the rivers and lakes. The art of Go has reached a dying state.On the contrary, the Japanese chess world has become more and more prosperous. After Go was introduced to Japan before the Tang Dynasty, it was deeply loved by the Japanese people and soon became Japan's national skill.In the history of Japanese Go development, there have also been many talented people with outstanding chess skills.

In the Tang Dynasty, there were frequent exchanges of Go between China and Japan. The popular story of "Suppressing the Gods" is about a Japanese prince who came to China to play against Gu Shiyan, a great Go player in the Tang Dynasty.Regrettably, due to the limitation of objective conditions, the communication between Chinese and Japanese chess players seemed to be interrupted. In fact, the exchange of Go between China and Japan has long been the common wish of the players of the two countries.Japan's "Zuo Yin Tan Cong" mentioned that the Japanese master Huanan Yinshuo Baduan wanted to visit China.It is written in the book: Huan'an and the celebrity Zhanghe are invincible in the chess game, and they are unwilling.It was originally introduced from China, and I also heard from a Nagasaki businessman that Zhou Xiaosong, a national player in China, is very skilled in chess, because he wanted to cross the sea and travel westward.At this time, the shogunate implemented the policy of locking the port and prohibited ships from going to sea.Huan'an had a secret conversation with his disciple Haoshan, using the excuse of visiting the seashore, and not letting anyone know about it. He went out to sea in a small boat, and soon encountered a big storm. The boatman was afraid of capsizing, so he forced him to turn back.Huanan sighed and said: "My husband! I can't compete with famous Chinese scholars. It's a pity! It's a pity!"

At that time, in addition to Zhou Xiaosong, there were veteran chess players such as Shi Xingsan, Li Zhanyuan, and Chen Zixian in the chess world in our country, who were ready to fight.For example, Huan'an's successful crossing to the west is not only 90 years earlier than Dohei Takabe's coming to China, but also our descendants can appreciate the charm of the competition between Chinese and Japanese masters at that time. The state of non-communication between China and Japan in Go did not come to an end until 1960.Under the active advocacy and promotion of Vice Premier Chen Yi and Japanese Mr. Kenzo Matsumura, this year, the Japanese Go delegation headed by Kensaku Segoshi's Honorary Kudan arrived in Beijing, which opened the prelude to the friendly exchanges between China and Japan in modern Go .

Because it was the first visit to China, the Japanese chess world attached great importance to it. In addition to Segoshi's honorable 9th dan, it also sent senior chess players such as Sakata Eiko 9th dan, Hashimoto Utaro 9th dan, Segawa Yoshio 7th dan, and Suzuki Gora 6th dan.The Chinese side also focused on the country's elites, Liu Dihuai, Guo Tisheng and other senior chess players who were known as "Southern Liu Beiguo" at that time all went into battle.Although the level of Go in my country has improved a lot since the founding of New China, the results of the game are still shocking.In the case of all Chinese chess players being given the lead, the Japanese side won 32 games, lost 2 games, and drew 1 game in a total of 35 games, occupying an absolute overwhelming advantage.

In 1961, the Japanese female chess player Ito Tomoe 5th Dan visited, and none of us could resist it. In 1962, the Chinese Go delegation headed by Li Menghua paid a return visit to Japan.The group members include Liu Dihuai, Guo Tisheng, Chen Zude, Huang Yongji, Zhang Futian, Chen Ximing and so on.Even with many amateur chess players on the field, Japan still has the advantage with 23 wins and 12 losses. The fact that they were defeated by disparity in the two confrontations made the Chinese chess world realize that China's Go level has lagged far behind that of Japan.For this reason, Mr. Chen made a request to Chinese chess players to "catch up with Japan in ten years" at the report meeting of the Go delegation visiting Japan.

Since then, until the "Cultural Revolution", although the attitude of Japanese high-ranking chess players towards Chinese players was basically coaching, starting from 1963, Chen Zude's sudden advances added some confrontational color to the Sino-Japanese Go exchanges.This year, the Japanese delegation visited China. Although China still lagged behind with 19 wins and 33 losses in total, Chen Zude won five out of five matches against professional chess players and amateur chess players. These include victories over Sugiuchi Masao 9th dan, Miyamoto Naoki 8th dan and Kuwahara Munehisa 7th dan.This unprecedented record sounded the marching call for Chinese chess players to catch up with Japan.

In 1965, Chen Zude defeated Iwata Tatsuaki's 9-dan for the first time by points, which made the Chinese chess world rejoice. From the beginning of the 1960s when Japan's nine-dan made the second son unable to win, until 1965 when they first defeated the nine-dan. In just six or seven years, China's Go level has made an amazing leap. If you work harder, Mr. Chen said The hope of "catching up with Japan in ten years" will likely be realized ahead of schedule.But at this critical moment, the Cultural Revolution broke out, which stopped the development of Chinese Go for eight years.At the same time, the Japanese chess world is more prosperous, and a large number of outstanding young players such as Otake Hideo, Ishida Yoshio, Takemiya Masaki, Kato Masao, and Kobayashi Koichi have emerged. The level of Go between China and Japan has once again widened the distance.

In 1973, under the concern of Premier Zhou, China and Japan re-opened Go exchanges.However, our level seems to be even further behind. In fifty-six rounds, we only won fourteen rounds, drew two rounds, and lost forty rounds. In this situation, for the first time in my life, I participated in an official match with a Japanese chess player.The first Japanese player I met was Osamu Nishimura amateur 7th dan.He once won the amateur Honinbo champion and is an amateur "powerhouse" in Japan.He has a strange style of chess, fierce attacks and kills, and his level is really not inferior to that of ordinary Chinese players at that time.Among Chinese chess players, it is enviable for me to be able to eat and sleep, but on the eve of the match against Nishimura, I was so nervous that I couldn’t fall asleep. I tossed and turned until three o’clock in the morning the next day, so I simply got up and went for a walk outside.In this way, the sleepless night and the nervousness made me lose the battle very quickly.

Immediately afterwards, I was defeated by Masao Kato again.In the end, it was hard to win the second dan of the female chess player Ogawa Shiroko.The poor performance of the competition made me feel ashamed. In December 1974, a Japanese Go delegation headed by Miyamoto Naoki visited China.Just like in 1973, the first game pitted me against an amateur player, Fumisho Murakami.I have lost.In the second set, I lost to Yuichi Sonoda in the seventh dan.In the third set, there was a second dan, and I won.The difference from last year was that I played the fourth set against a female 4th dan, Emiko Yanagi.Arranging such a poor opponent for me shows that the Go team still doesn't pay much attention to me, and there is a phenomenon of suppression.Of course, I didn't live up to it myself, and my grades were not good.

However, the loss of the first two games was also due to an imbalance of mentality.The opponents of other people in the team are stronger than me, so I keep fighting against amateurs and women, can my mentality be balanced?According to my actual level, I already have the strength to compete with Japan's Kudan, but the team doesn't give me a chance. At that time, Chen Zude had already played two sets against Miyamoto and lost them all. The rest of the team also played one or two sets against him, and they also lost all. Miyamoto maintained a six-game winning streak.At this time, the other team members couldn't stand it any longer, and started to "make a fuss", a bit like a student riot, asking for me to play the last set with Miyamoto.This has nothing to do with me at all. At that time, I felt that I had no choice but to play with the female fourth dan.It was because they thought I had such good grades in the team, how could I make such an arrangement.The next morning we had a meeting all morning, and all the team members told me to go, so the list was temporarily changed, and I would go to Naoki Miyamoto and Wu Yulin to go to Emiko Liu.When I heard this decision, I was both excited and nervous. I even thought this was my only chance. If I didn’t win again, would I be allowed to play against Jiuduan in the future?I made up my mind that this game must be fought with all my might. The game of chess between Naoki Miyamoto and I was played at the Peace Hotel in Shanghai on December 9, which is Mr. Miyamoto's birthday.He originally wanted to have a seven-game winning streak as a birthday present for himself, and then he could "return to court".In this game, I am playing black. Considering that the opponent is a 9th-dan master, it may be difficult to win with a stable layout, so I used a strong diagonal star layout at the beginning of the game.As I expected, from my seventh move "big oblique", there was a fierce battle.Although there are many changes in the future, and the outcome cannot be determined by this, but from the beginning, I have stepped out of my own pace, which is very comfortable for the players.This game of chess has been played for more than ten hours, and it counts down. This is the longest game I have played in my life.Originally, I could have won a lot, but in the end, I only won two pieces for the sake of safety. This is my first encounter with Japanese Kudan and I won.If he made a "spoon" and made a "faint trick", that's another matter.I overwhelmed him from the beginning to the end of this game of chess, and it can be said that it was a complete victory.Miyamoto was very depressed after losing chess, and walked around the hall alone without speaking.It was very late then, past eight o'clock.I understand his mood, because everyone knows chess, he has no chance of winning at all, it is a complete defeat.The more important thing is that the opponent is an unknown person, if it is Chen Zude who goes back, it will be easier to explain. Later, Mr. Miyamoto and I had a very good relationship. He told me that he didn't know where I came from at that time, and he didn't expect that there would be someone in China who could beat him.I told him, your birthday is a good day, you have created an excellent chess player.If you had won that day, I would have been years later. Indeed, this game was a decisive turning point in my Go career. It not only confirmed my status in the Chinese Go world, but also greatly enhanced my self-confidence.Before that, I always felt that I was standing still. Although I already had the conditions to take off, I just had no chance and couldn't take off. I knew that what stood in front of me was either a huge mountain-like thing, or a layer of window paper, and I just had to tear it off, but I couldn't pull it off, it was always there blocking it, and I couldn't rush through.I just stood there holding back, feeling extremely uncomfortable.Facing Japanese players at that time, Chinese players also had a lot of psychological pressure. In fact, their level may not be lower than theirs, but they were nervous when they met them, and their level could not be displayed.This time I defeated Naotake Miyamoto, I felt a sense of liberation in my heart, and I will not be so at a loss as before when I meet Japan's Kudan in the future.Later, reporters always asked me about the most memorable game of chess in my life, and I always said it was this game.