Did you know that in the last century, China gave birth to several World Champions of Go?
With a rough impression of the national essence of Go, you may choose to guess a number that matches its deep heritage. But even if you are a Go lover, if you are not familiar with that history, it is difficult to estimate the answer.
In fact, there is only one person.
Data chart: Ma Xiaochun zhang bin in recent years
Yesterday, 25 years ago, Ma Xiaochun won the final of the 6th Toyo Securities Cup, becoming China's first professional Go world champion, and also the only seedling of the last century.
Since there is no unified competition rules for professional Go, and there is no tournament similar to other sports world cups and world championships, in a practical sense, the professional competitions held by China, Japan and South Korea can represent the highest level of world Go. Generally speaking, the term "World Champion of Go" was born in the 1980s, and Masaki Takemiya, who won the first Fujitsu Cup, was labeled as such.
However, until the mid-1990s, China, the birthplace of Go, had not been able to produce a world champion. At that time, including Masaki Takemiya, although the Japanese "six supers" had a downward trend, they were still the dominant ones at that time; and Korean Go rose in full swing under the leadership of Cho Kao Hyun and Lee Chang-ho after years of accumulation. Japanese and Korean masters are sandwiched between two sides, and Chinese Go is relatively weak.
Data chart: Masaki Takemiya in the game Wang Junchao photo
The same is true in terms of grades. Throughout the 1990s, China's World Champion of Go was ma Xiaochun alone, and yu Bin's subsequent laurels in the LG Cup have been the event of this century. Therefore, this highlights the special significance of Ma Xiaochun's victory - filling the gap of an era.
May 24, 1995, was a pivotal day in the history of Chinese Go. In the 4th set of the 6th Toyo Securities Cup final, Ma Xiaochun defeated Nie Weiping in the black mid-set to win 3:1 on aggregate. Chinese Go has finally broken through the window paper of the world champion.
Not only that, after becoming the world champion at the Toyo Securities Cup, Ma Xiaochun defeated Japan's Koichi Kobayashi in the final of the Fujitsu Cup the same year and was crowned double crown. Unlike today, when all kinds of competitions bloomed, there were only three major tournaments in the world of Go, namely the Toyo Securities Cup, the Fujitsu Cup and the Ying Cup. Therefore, one crown is rare, and two crowns are rare in the world.
Source: Ma Xiaochun in the competition Image source: Osports All Sports Photo Agency
Ma Xiaochun, who was 30 years old at the time, lit a spark that could ignite the spark of Chinese Go that had been playing in the trough for a long time.
Chinese chess fans who have been suppressed for a long time finally have the opportunity to raise their eyebrows. After all, Go, which is regarded as the essence of the country, is different from others and has its own weight in the hearts of the Chinese people. Yu Bin once said that as a part of traditional Chinese culture, Go has been accumulated for thousands of years, and it carries a profound cultural connotation.
As he said, Go has a thousand years of history since its birth, and the ancients often used "qinqi calligraphy and painting" as a measure of personal cultural literacy, which shows its historical status.
The picture shows the ancient Go work, the iron qin bronze sword building old Collection of Song engravings "Forget Worry Qingle Collection". Photo by Du Yang, a reporter from China News Service
In the four arts of "Qinqi Calligraphy and Painting", chess is different from the existence of the other three.
As the saying goes: Wen Wu is the first, Wu wu is the second. One of the meanings is that everyone in the literary world has their own strengths and fans, and it is difficult to judge each other's high and low. For example, in terms of poetry, some people think that the elegance school is too "small family jasper", and some people think that the bold school is rough and not delicate. Therefore, they are all great poets of the Tang Dynasty, some people like Li Bai And Li Shangyin, and some people prefer Du Fu Bai Juyi.
The contemporaneous martial arts practitioners want to score high and low, and they know it by comparison. So far, there is no ranking of the three martial generals that can convince the public, but everyone has never had any objection to Lü Bu sitting firmly in the top position, which is why.
Data chart: As a part of traditional Chinese culture, Go has been accumulated for thousands of years, and it carries a profound cultural connotation. China News Service reporter Wang Zhongju took a photo
If it is said that the piano, book, and painting are "wen", then chess is more like "martial". Fighting poems may have different opinions, but they can't play chess. Although we can think of ourselves as the origin, the matter of Go will eventually return to the chessboard.
It is as if ping-pong is regarded as China's "national ball", but it originated in the United Kingdom, and should be an imported product from the root. However, for decades, table tennis has developed far faster in China than in Europe, and it has become one of the synonyms of Chinese sports.
Just imagine, if in a few decades, the British apply for a business card similar to "intangible cultural heritage" for table tennis, I am afraid that most people will be stunned: it turns out that table tennis was not invented by Chinese Ah...
Data chart: Li Changhao, known as the "Stone Buddha", was once a mountain that is insurmountable for Chinese chess players Liu Kegeng, a reporter from the China News Agency
No one wants to see that one day, Go is as good for the Chinese people as ping-pong is for britain. Maybe this is a bit of a concern, but if it weren't for Ma Xiaochun's hammering out 25 years ago, it's hard to imagine how long Chinese Go would have waited in the cold winter. The significance of the first world championship goes far beyond the championship itself.
Just last month, the news that "Chinese chess has been applied for by India 6 times" was very popular, and related entries quickly occupied Weibo's hot search. Although it was later proved to be a figment of the imagination, it really touched the nerves of the Chinese people. The main reason is that some of our long-standing cultural folklore have been taken by others to apply for heritage more than once, which will always make Chinese netizens feel uncomfortable.
Although the rules of Go are simple and easy to understand, they contain complex and profound changes, which are treasures in traditional Chinese culture and reflect the Chinese nation's pursuit of wisdom. We don't want this treasure to be touched at will, so we need to do our best to protect it in all aspects. Moreover, Go is not like Chinese chess, which is clearly engraved with Chinese characters.
The data picture shows Ke Jie (left) and Lee Sedol in the game. China News Service reporter Zeng Nai photographed
Fortunately, after Ma Xiaochun broke the wilderness, Chinese Go has been on the rise for more than 20 years. Later, when he was the head of the coaching team of the Chinese Go team, Chang Hao, Luo Xianhe, Gu Li and others successively became world champions, and Chinese Go completely came out of the haze.
Although Lee Sedol took over Lee Chang-ho and defended the honor of Korean Go for more than a decade, he also played AlphaGo as a human representative, making the man-machine war a sensation. However, from the overall point of view, in recent years, Chinese Go has regained its initiative in the competition with Japan and South Korea.
Infographic: To fight Against AlphaGo, China's top chess players are mobilized
Ke Jie, who is less than 23 years old, has become the protagonist of "Man-Machine Vs 2.0", and he is a prominent figure in today's chess world with several crowns in his hand. Including Ke Jie, China has produced more than ten "post-90s" world champions, who are attracting more and more young people to pay attention to And like Go.
Just like in those days, there were a group of children who fell in love with Go because of Ma Xiaochun.