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Here is an article from weiqi.tom.com about Zhou Heyang (translated by me). I thought I would post it since there is a thread about "what it takes to make a 9d."
Despite being at the top of China's go world, inside Zhou Heyang's home is a 25-year old Go set made by his father. It is made from a simple black piece of wood, and it is a record this 9d's earliest Go memories.
In 1984, Zhou Heyang attended the Luoyang City Locomotive Factory Primary School as a first-grader. That year the school opened a Go class. His father immediately signed the 8-year old up for the class. "My father was a go fan," Zhou Heyang says. "While I was in that Go club for two years, I studied Go nearly to the point of forgetting to eat or sleep."
He studied by himself until 11:00pm every day. He read through game records and his school's Japanese Go books. Zhou Heyang's teacher noted the boy's talent and went to the his house in the evenings to teach him--without charging a fee.
All this time, Zhou Heyang used the board constructed by his father. They still had not purchased a respectable Go set. His father found a piece of black wood, made it level, and then used a black pen to mark the lines. "Examining the board took great effort." Glass stones completed the set.
For the next few years, the "eye-straining" go board accompanied Zhou Heyang's early career, until at age 11 Zhou Heyang made the national youth squad. [Other sources say age 12. Chinese age calculation can be complicated.]
In 1986, Zhou Heyang participated in the national children's tournament finished runner-up [other sources say 4th]. By coincidence, this was also the year China initiated the national youth squad. From his current position, Zhou Heyang considers his good luck: if his school had not offered the Go class; if his father had not enrolled him in the class; if his kind teacher had not taken the initiative to tutor him at Go, perhaps he would not be who he is today. Of course, it is even harder to forget the simple board made for him by his father.
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I am Tartuffe from GoDiscussions.com
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Peter Hansmeier
