2018 Chinese Pro Qualification

[Elom]

Thank you both for these posts and pictures!

[wolfking]

Will Li Haotong be considered still an amateur in order to play in the Chenyi Cup final in October?

Chenyi Cup is arguably the number one amateur tournament in China (and number one period in terms of both overall prize money and prize money for the winner). And its schedule is also unique in that it mimics international pro tournament instead of the usual go congress style amateur tournament. The preliminary stage starts in April with players separated into 4 groups in double elimination format (used to be there was an online qualification stage even before that but stopped in 2018 due to emergence of AI). Top 4 of each group advance to the single elimination main tournament to determine the finalists. The final is best of three held in October.

Due to the time gap between different stages I am pretty sure they have considered the situation like Li Haotong this year. My guess is that amateur status is determined at registration time and Li would still be eligible for the final as amateur.

[wolfking]

All the pictures are at yuntingdian.com/A_league and yuntingdian.com/go_congress

Great effort to just get Lee Sedol by your side! And to get inside the playing hall! In one photo I see that you were right next to Rui Naiwei sensei, in front of Ke Jie！

Wow I missed this picture that you were sitting opposite of Ke Jie last time!

[John Fairbairn]

Chenyi Cup

Chen Yi Cup, surely. Or has he been forgotten already in the new capitalist China?

[wolfking]

Chenyi Cup

Chen Yi Cup, surely. Or has he been forgotten already in the new capitalist China?

Of course! Thanks for correcting me John! I did have the feeling that something was not right when I wrote that down. I can quote his poems and know of stories that he was playing Go as the battle was raging on merely hundreds of meters away since I was a teenager so I certainly remember him! And I do not think any Go lover of my generation would ever forget what he did for modern Chinese Go.

By the way I still remember last year you asked about Ge Yuhong. It it just that Ge Yuhong is such a fascinating story I do want to tell it in full and that takes time. So I will probably answer that question in a new thread.

[wolfking]

13. Zhang Mingkang 1p

Born 2003 in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Winner of 2018 King of Xinjiang Hua'ao Cup. After the PQT he told reporters:"This tournament is so hard! I would have earned an Early Qualification had I won the 12th round. But I was so nervous that I lost it under the pressure of byoyomi."

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14. Shi Ji 1p

Born 1998 in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. Shi is some kind of celebrity because he was a finalist on a TV reality show called "King of Go". His dad was a Go instructor, and before learning how to read Chinese he learned how to read a Go kifu at age 5.

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15. Wang Haotian 1p

Born 2004 in Sanmenxia, Henan Province. Wang showed interest in Go since age 3 but did not start to take formal lessons until 8. Before long he became the strongest young amateur in Sanmenxia. In 2014 his dad started to take him to Luoyang to get Go lessons, studying with Wei Mingrui 2p (City of Luoyang has generated 35 pros so has a rich Go culture. New pro Han Zhuoran 1p went to the same go school as Wang so they were classmates). In 2015 Wang went to Beijing to study at Ge Dojo, with special attention from world champion Fan Tingyu. In 2017 he won the Luoyang "Zongzhi Software Cup". That same year he got admitted to Hangzhou Go School. He is the first pro from Sanmenxia.

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[wolfking]

16. Hu Zihao 1p

Born in 2006 in Hefei, Anhui Province, Hu is only 11 years old (will turn 12 in October). He would be the youngest new pro if not for the still younger Wu Yiming. He earned 6D by winning the Youth Group of the Little Bailing Cup in 2017.

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17. Han Enyi 1p

Born 2003 in Shanghai, Han also showed talent early. He started training with Zhang Ruochuan 5D in 2009 and went from 1k to 5D in 14 months. He has been active in Shanghai's Weiqi Leagues ever since. He was 2nd in the 7th Gaoyou Open last August and won the Ganzhou Jinghuan Cup last December. After turning pro he actually played and won the Mingyueshan Cup on August 22nd because he already registered for that tournament as an amateur.

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18. Zhang Yichao 1p

Born in Xinjiang, back in 2015 Zhang Yichao was not even sure if he would stay in Beijing after middle school. Because he was not a resident of Beijing he could not go to public high school in Beijing. Eventually he had to settle for a private school in the suburb and endure the daily commute. Now all that endurance paid off.

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[wolfking]

19. Wang Junxiao 1p

Born 2000 in Sichuang Province, Wang will turn 18 in September. As the reigning amateur champion of his home province, Wang Junxiao was actually considered the number one candidate to earn pro status among 18 Sichuan born participants in this year's PQT/HTT, ahead of 14 year old Yang Zhiwen (who finished 23rd in the PQT) and 12 year old new pro Zheng Zaixiang. His best finish this year was 3rd place in 2018 Lishui Qingyun Cup.

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20. Huang Chunqi 1p

Born 2003 in Cangnan, Zhejiang Province, Huang Chunqi became the 7th pro of Wenzhou prefecture. He was 2nd in 2014 Jiancheng Cup National Youth Championship Children's Group, runner up at 2015 Pufa Bank Cup (which earned him 6D at age 12), 2016 Wenzhou Jianqiao Cup champion. In 2017 he won the National Middle School Go Championship.

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Female pros from the PQT:

1. Wu Yiming 1p

Born in November 2006 in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, Wu is the youngest ever female pro in Chinese Go history. She stumbled upon Go at age 4 when her kindergarten teacher handed her parents a free pass to try out a Go class. After that her favorite activities changed from dancing and painting to playing Go. At age 7 she beat Hua Xueming 7p in a three stone game which won her high praise from National Team coach Yu Bin 9p. In 2014 she got admitted to Hangzhou Go School. The same year she finished 3rd in the Little Bailing Cup Group C, one place ahead of our other child prodigy Hu Zihao 1p.

In the 2017 National Games (these are very much like the Olympics and are held every 4 years, only the participating parties are the provinces instead of different countries) she lost by half point to the eventual champion Fang Ruoxi 1p in the quarter final and finished 5th. She cried all night but recovered quickly and beat Fang Ruoxi in the mixed team (she was paired with man's individual champion Liu Yuncheng 1p) championship to win Jiangsu Province the gold medal. During the competitions she is always the darling of the whole team due to her warm and outgoing personality. The national games actually had a zero tolerance policy about being punctual so if the game starts and you are not in position it is considered an automatic forfeit. During the last round of the mixed team competition her opponent was still absent as the game time approaching, so she ran to the door to find her opponent and led her back to their board position. During the PQT after reviewing the game in the night she would organize teammates and coaches to play games and singing!

A "young" Wu Yiming with her dad

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Edit: I should add that her dad was an athlete in Swimming and aspired to represent Jiangsu in the National Games. It never crossed his mind that his 10 year old daughter would make it to the Games before he did, and would bring home a gold medal!

[Elom]

What if this warrant's a Wu Yiming watch?

[wolfking]

What if this warrant's a Wu Yiming watch?

I will certainly keep an eye on her progress Maybe before long we will seriously talking about Wu Yiming watch

By the way The 16th Jianqiao Cup Women's Open Weiqi Championship is in its preliminary stage. The two "Early Qualification" new pros Wu Yiming and Chu Ke'er met in the first round. Wu beat Chu to advance to 2nd round. She will face Wang Xiangyun 3p next.

Wu Yiming vs Chu Ke'er (The gentleman watching the game is Women's National Team coach Wang Lei 8p)

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[wolfking]

Continue with new pro introduction:

2. Chu Ke'er

She was the other Early Qualification on the women's side. Her only loss in the PQT was to Wu Yiming. Chu Ke'er was born in 2002 in Shengzhou, Zhejiang Province, hometown of world champion Ma Xiaochun 9p. Shengzhou was one of the first 5 Go Cities granted by China Sports Committee in 1990, and Chu went to the famous Lushan Elementary School that also produced Tong Mengcheng 6p, Sun Yuan 3p and of course Ma Xiaochun 9p, plus many strong amateurs. In 2018 she helped to promote Dalian Yidao into Women's A-League (together with Huang Jiayi 1p). She also finished as top women in 2017 Huai'an Cup (16th overall) and 2018 Lishui Qingyun Cup (5th overall).

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3. Huang Jiayi 1p

Born 2002 in Wuhu, Anhui Province. She started to take Go lessons at age 4 in Wuhu Experimental Kindergarten (that kindergarten provides Go lessons since 2003). Her Go teacher was the principal of Qizhi Go School and persuaded her parents to take lessons from Yu Zongxiang 5D at the Go School starting in 2007. She improved so fast that the next year she was promoted as an exception to the advanced class to study under Hao Mingguang 6D. As many other new pros, soon it became apparent that she needed to go to pro dojo to keep growing her strength. In 2010 her parents accompanied 8 year old Jiayi to Beijing to study at Ma Xiaochun Dojo. Her mother recalled that those were really tough times due to the high cost of living in the capital city. At one time they had trouble to raise enough money to pay for the tuition, and her hometown go school teacher Hao Mingguang 6D actually took a train ride to Beijing on his own expense to give Jiayi free lessons to keep her skills sharp. After several years they moved to Hangzhou to study at the Hangzhou Go School (unlike the Beijing dojos, Hangzhou Go School is actually a public school subsidized by the Hangzhou government, so the students pay no tuition or nominal tuition, and actually get paid 15 Chinese yuan per day for food). And after 8 years since she left her hometown she is finally a pro. Huang Jiayi is also the 3rd member of the aforementioned Dalian Yidao team that will be playing in Women's A-League. I hope they will keep that team intact.

Huang Jiayi in kindergarten

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4. Hang Xiaotong 1p

Born 2000 in Shuozhou, Shanxi Province.

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[John Fairbairn]

Huang Jiayi has been in action as a pro already and has started off on a winning path:

[wolfking]

Huang Jiayi has been in action as a pro already and has started off on a winning path

Yes! Many of the new pros participated in the ongoing 16th Jianqiao Cup Open Championship. In fact Wu Yiming's game vs 2010 champion Wang Xiangyun 3p was one of the two games being broadcast on Sina Sports. Wu lost the game but Huang Jiayi and another new pro Ding Mingjun beat their opponents to advance to the main tournament. Huang's victory was especially impressive because her opponent Zhou Hongyu 4p is a 16 year old rising star and just beat Fujisawa Rina couple of days ago in the A-League.

Wu Yiming lost to Wang Xiangyun 3p in Round 2

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Huang Jiayi vs Yuan Weihong 2p in Round 1

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New pro Ding Mingjun beat Fang Ruoxi 1p (Fang was the 2017 National Games champion that beat Wu Yiming by half point in the quarter final) in Round 2

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[Shenoute]

Interesting that Chinese pros get to see action so fast after earning pro status. I have long wondered if the long (end of summer to April?) gap between the pro exam and the start of pro career in Japan wasn't a problem. Is it unthinkable that it would be detrimental to lose months and months of professional play when you're still that young and able to improve? Nowadays a pro is competitive during what? 10/15 years (and if results are not great before let's say 20, it's probably not going to get much better afterwards), so is losing around six months at the very start a problem?

[wolfking]

Interesting that Chinese pros get to see action so fast after earning pro status. I have long wondered if the long (end of summer to April?) gap between the pro exam and the start of pro career in Japan wasn't a problem. Is it unthinkable that it would be detrimental to lose months and months of professional play when you're still that young and able to improve? Nowadays a pro is competitive during what? 10/15 years (and if results are not great before let's say 20, it's probably not going to get much better afterwards), so is losing around six months at the very start a problem?

I think that gap should have some impact on their career. I am not familiar with Japanese competition rules but majority of the Chinese tournaments are open to all active pros (active means registered with CWA). Some have limited quota for amateurs too (for example the Changqi Cup). The rules of the 16th Jianqiao Cup clearly states that all registered female pros including this year's new pros are eligible.