2019 Chinese Pro Qualification and Weiqi Congress

[wolfking]

Yikeweiqi reporter Qiudaoyu did an Q&A session with new pro Yao Jiahui 1p. I translated part of the content here:

Q: Congratulations! Do you know how many times you have participated in the PQT?
A: I truly have no idea.

Q: Can you tell us how you started to learn go?
A: I started at 8. 2001-2005 I was in the Henan provincial team. 06-09 I went on to study in Nie Weiping Dojo. 2011 I started college life in Wuhan Sports University. Last year I pick up Go again in Shanghai Sports Club.

Q: Did you expect to win pro cert before the tournament?
A: Of course I had expectations, but I was not confident. I registered for the Grand Prix too.

Q: Aren't there schedule conflicts?
A: Grand Prix is more flexible for the first few rounds.

Q: Of the 7 games played, which one was the most memorable?
A: Fifth round against Gao Yongmei.

Q: That's the one that broke her winning streak. But both of you earned shodan. You lost the first game against a weaker opponent (Added by me: her first round opponent was Xiang Yun who finished with 3 wins). Was it because you were not in peak form yet?
A: I was too nervous in the first round. When byoyomi started my hands started shaking.

Q: What is your assessment of your opponents strength?
A: They are all very strong.

Q: I know your husband loves playing Go and is playing in the Marathon tournament. What handicap do you usually give him?
A: Yes I am on my way over to the CWC to bring him some food. He will play until it closes. Yesterday he played two games in the Grand Prix and 6 games in the Marathon. He only played 6 because he was too hungry to continue. He usually wants me to give him two to three stones which is too much. Very tiring game for me so we do not play that often. He is about 8D online.

Yao Jiahui (Left) vs Ai Xinnan in round 7

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[Ferran]

He usually wants me to give him two to three stones which is too much. Very tiring game for me so we do not play that often. He is about 8D online

That's a good one. Take care.

[wolfking]

On August 22nd, PQT played round 11 and 12. Two players from U-25 Male group earned pro status through Early Qualification(EQ) by winning 9 games in the first 10 rounds. They are 13 year old Wang Chunhui 1p and 15 year old Yang Tingxuan 1p. Together with Zhang Mengyao, all three EQ new pros are from Hangzhou Go School, continuing recent trend in PQT.

For Male Adult group round 11 was the final round so all 5 new pros from that group were determined. They are Li Yuanqi, Yu Qingquan, Su Guangyue, Kang Rui and Yuan Sitong. Unfortunately Sun Yiguo 8D lost last two rounds and finished 6th due to less total opponent scoring.

Final round will be played on the 23rd. In U25 Male group Li Xinchen and Lu Xunfeng led with 9 wins, 12 other players had 8 wins. In U25 Female group Wei Xintong and Li Xuemeng led with 9 wins, 9 other players trailed with 8 wins.

Su Guangyue 7D filling out CWA shodan registration form

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[wolfking]

Yikeweiqi reporter Xiao Yuan interviewed both Wang Chunhui and Yang Tingxuan. Here is the translation:

Interview with Wang Chunhui 1p:

Q: Congratulations on turning pro. Any thoughts?
A: Very happy of course!

Q: Were you confident before the tournament that this would be the year?
A: I had confidence but was not 100% that it would be this year.

Q: Which game was the most impressive in your mind?
A: Actually there were two. The last one and the round 8 game (my edit: round 8 was against Lu Xunfeng 6D. Round 10 was against Xie Xuebin 6D). In round 8 it was almost a sure loss. My opponent got too aggressive and made several mistakes and I was able to reverse the game. Last game I think I was ahead but have not checked with AI (so not sure). My opponent kept it close and I made a mistake. After a trade I thought I was going to lose. I was lucky to get a 1.5 point win.

Q: What about the lost game?
A: That one was fighting all along. I made a bad mistake and was too far behind to catch up.

Q: Have you thought about long term goal now that you are a pro? Like winning world championship?
A: Of course I have thought about that. But it was too far in the future. For now I just want take one step at a time, just play good games.

Q: Were your parents here with you?
A: Yes. Usually my mom is on the road with me for tournaments. But since it is close to home my dad came too this time. (my edit: Wang Chunhui lives in Qingdao, Shandong Province which is about 2 hour drive to Rizhao.)

Wang Chunhui (Left) vs Xie Xuebin in round 10

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Interview with Yang Tingxuan 1p

Q: Congratulations on earning pro status. How do you feel?
A: Very excited! I did not have high hopes coming in, but performed surprisingly well.

Q: Which game was the most memorable?
A: Against Liu Ruizhi (edit: round 3). It was a losing game but I got lucky and won on his blunder.

Q: Can you tell us how your started learning go?
A: I started at four and half. Studied in Tianjin and Beijing dojos. My parents have always been with me. It was not easy for them.

Yang Tingxuan 1p

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[wolfking]

Final round was played on August 23rd. Here is final standing of all groups.

U-25 Male

Numbers after name are Round Score (number of games won x 2), Opponent Score, Overall Score

1. Wang Chunhui (王春晖) 18 150 20 (EQ 9 wins in first 10 rounds)
2. Yang Tingxuan (杨霆轩) 18 144 19.4 (EQ 9 wins in first 10 rounds)
3. Li Xinchen (李欣宸) 20 160 23 (EQ 10 wins in first 12 rounds)

The 3 players above earned pro status through Early Qualification (EQ)

4. Xie Xuebin (解学斌) 20 222 29.2
5. Chen Tuli (陈土力) 18 214 26.4
6. Cheng Xiaoqing (成晓青) 20 184 25.4
7. Qu Ming (瞿鸣) 18 204 25.4
8. Hu Zhenbeng (胡振鹏) 20 182 25.2
9. Zhao Fei (赵斐)   18 200 25
10. Wang Yucheng (王禹程) 18 196 24.6
11. Hua Chang (花畅)   18 194 24.4
12. Lu Xunfeng (吕洵锋) 18 192 24.2
13. Wang Wenqi (汪文琪) 18 190 24  highest score of defeated opponents
14. Wang Pengfei (汪鹏飞) 18 190 24  highest score of defeated opponents
15. Deng Wei (邓威)   16 210 24
16. Liu Ruizhi (刘睿智) 16 208 23.8
17. Yang Ge (杨戈)   18 184 23.4 highest score of defeated opponents
18. Cai Lichen (蔡李宸) 18 184 23.4 highest score of defeated opponents
19. Wang Mian (王冕)  16 204 23.4
20. Zhou Runmin (周润民) 18 182 23.2

The players above earned pro status

Players 21-25 get 6D status but I think they are all 6Ds coming in so no new 6D certs were issued.

[wolfking]

U-25 Female

1. Zhang Mengyao (张梦瑶)  20 170 22.5 (EQ 10 wins in first 11 rounds)
2. Li Sixuan (李思璇)  20 184 23.7 (EQ 10 wins in first 11 rounds)

The 2 players above earned pro status through Early Qualification

3. Li Xuemeng (李雪萌)  22 210 28.1
4. Li Xiaoxi (李小溪)  20 224 27.4
5. Wang Meicheng (汪美成)  20 218 26.8
6. Wei Xintong (魏欣桐)  18 214 24.5
7. Mao Yanxin (毛彦新)  18 210 24.1
8. Yu Jingying (于靖莹)  18 206 23.7
9. Chen Manqi (陈蔓淇)  20 182 23.6
10. Xu Jingqi (徐晶琦)  18 194 22.6

Players above earned pro status.

Note number 4 Li Xiaoxi has exactly same name (even in Chinese characters. Literally 小 means little and 溪 means brook) as Li Xiaoxi 3p in the WAL, so likely they will be distinguished by a tag indicating their birth year or a tag indicating little/big. I have already seen a table with Li Xiaoxi 1p's name listed as Li Xiaoxi 05.

Li Xiaoxi 1p

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11. Song Yiwen (宋怡雯) 18 192 22.5
12. Xu Haizhe (徐海哲) 18 190 22.3

Players above were issued 6D certificates. Xu Haizhe was born in 2008 so she has many more chances to get her shodan cert.

Xu Haizhe 6D in round 13

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Pan Tianxing 5D from the CL finished at 26th place with 8 wins. 2019 World Collegiate Amateur women's group champion Xie Jiaxuan 6D finished at 46th place with 7 wins. She finished 11th last year so I though she had a good chance to turn pro this year. On the flip side Xu Jingqi 6D finished at 12th last year. This year she improved by 2 spots at 10th to get her pro cert!

15 year old Xu Jingqi 1p

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[wolfking]

Adult group

Male

1 Li Yuanqi (李元祺) 18 154 24.11
2 Yu Qingquan (于清泉) 18 146 23.22
3 Su Guangyue (苏广悦) 16 150 21.67
4 Kang Rui (康锐) 16 146 21.22
5 Yuan Sitong (袁斯童) 16 140 20.56

Players above earned pro status

6 Sun Yiguo 孙宜国 16 138 20.33

49 year old Sun Yiguo missed last qualification spot by 2 opponent points. Had he made pro he would certainly be the oldest ever new pro. The 5 players that did earn pro status were all born in the 90's, with 26 year old Li Yuanqi 1p the youngest.

Li Yuanqi 1p

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Yu qingquan 1p

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Female

1 Gao Yongmei (高咏梅) 12 54 14
2 Yao Jiahui (姚佳慧) 12 46 12.67

[wolfking]

This year we are getting less coverage on the PQT, maybe because there were too many events going on in the CWC and the reporters and media simply got overwhelmed (probably including me. I thought I could cover both but found that I did not have enough spare time to even briefly mention the 30 some events in the CWC). In the past I could find 50 to 80 photos each round just from Sina Sports. This year I only got 20 some photos in the first round from Yikeweiqi. And days after the PQT finished a brief summary of all 37 new pros were nowhere to be found. I guess I have to compile my own summary here.

So this is what I will do. It might take couple of weeks to finish. But I will post info for each new pro, supply photo if I can find one.

I will follow the timeline and start with female adult group.

1. Gao Yongmei(高咏梅) 1p

Born 1988 in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. Her dad was a Go teacher so she learned about Go early but did not start serious learning until she was in grade school. Her impression about Go from that time was "simple and fun". Soon she became the best player in school club and start to win championships at city and provincial level. In fifth grade she was recruited into Guangdong's provincial team. At age 15 she was selected into the National Team. In 2010 she won pair Go championship in 4th National Sports Games. Incidentally our other new pro Yao Jiahui also participated and finished 4th. Current women's number one Yu Zhiying was in the field too and finished 8th.

When in Beijing training with the National Team Gao Yongmei participated in several PQT but could not break through. After the last failed try before she exceeded the age limit she was really depressed and fell ill for a long time.

After returning to Guangzhou she joined Guangdong Eastlake Go Institute to teach Go and even took classes in preschool education. She never thought that she would get another chance to fulfill her pro dream.

Goa Yongmei 6D (Right) vs Xu Ge 6D (another 2019 new pro in U25 group) in 2016 Shenzhitian Cup

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2. Yao Jiahui (姚佳慧) 1p

Born 1990 in Luoyang, Henan Province. She is the 9th female pro of Luoyang. She has won 2nd place in Luoyang King of Weiqi and championship in National Collegiate Amateur Tournament. She operates a Weiqi classroom in Shanghai together with her husband. A pro cert certainly will not hurt her business.

By the way there were several new pros this year are from Luoyang. Luoyang is a city of rich Weiqi tridition and has the nickname "City of 100 Dan". After this year Luoyang's pro number increased to 38 and total number of Dan reached 142. Both numbers are second only to Shanghai.

[wolfking]

3. Li Yuanqi(李元祺) 1p

Born 1993 in Luoyang, Henan Province. Second Luoyang new pro of class 2019. Li Yuanqi showed talent at a young age and was the challenger to Luoyang King of Weiqi at age 11. Unfortunately the final were cancelled due to various reasons. In 2014 he came back to win the challenger tournament again and beat our other Luoyang new pro Su Guangyue to win the King of Weiqi title.

Li Yuanqi had studied in Beijing Ma Xiaochun dojo and participated in couple of PQTs. After exceeding the age limit (at the time there were U17 and U25 groups, with only 3 certs from U25 group) he focused on study and was admitted to Shanghai Foreign Language University in 2013. In 2016 he won the 4th place in Collegiate Ing Cup. He has been a regular fixture in Shanghai's Super League. He also finished 2nd in the 2019 Yuan 19 Cup New Shodan Challenge.

Li Yuanqi 1p in 2019 Yuan 19 Cup

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4. Yu Qingquan(于清泉) 1p

Born 1992 in Dalian, Liaoning Province. Started learning Go at age 5. At age 16 he went to Beijing to start Go for 3 years. From 2001 to 2011 he participated in the PQT for 10 times! The closest he came to be a pro was year 2009 and 2011. In 2009 he just needed 1 win in the last 3 rounds but lost all. In 2011 he started with 6 wins 1 loss, but could not get the last few wins in the final 6 rounds.

After exceeding age limit in 2012 he went to Wuhan Sports University like Yao Jiahui did. In his spare time he went to university Weiqi club to help teach kids. One of the parents suggested that he open a teaching classroom himself. Later he joined Wuhan Sanrensei Weiqi Institute and became the head coach. One of his students was 2019 new pro Li Xinchen.

Yu Qingquan has been active in amateur tournaments. In 2014 he finished in top 4 of Chenyi Cup. In 2015 he won 2nd place in Fengcheng Cup. In 2016 he played his way into the final of CCTV's Who Is The King of Weiqi reality show, lost in the final to Hu Yuqing 8D. In 2019 he also won the 2nd place in the prestigious Evening Post Cup.

In the PQT he won 9 out of first 10 rounds and was guaranteed a pro cert regardless of last round result. That day he wrote in his blog: "9 wins in 10 rounds, pro player Yu Qingquan. 5 learned Weiqi, 27 made pro, played hard for 22 years. High age turning pro is not too late, I want to play another 70 years."

Yu Qingquan 6D (Right) vs Hu Yuqing 8D in 2016 Who Is The King of Weiqi final

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[wolfking]

5. Su Guangyue (苏广悦) 1p

Born 1992 in Luoyang, Hanan Province. 3rd Luoyang new pro this year.

Su Guangyue learned about Go at a very early age by watching his dad playing neighbors in the front yard. At 5 he had learned enough to start giving suggestions to the adults. Still he did not start serious learning until he was in elementary school. The first year in elementary school his dad enrolled him in a Go class. The Go class met 4 or 5 times a week, each class lasted 5 hours. Dad accompanied him to all classes, and recalled that he never lost concentration during those 5 hour long classes. After one year study he was already stronger than his dad. Dad had to take him to local clubs to find worthy opponents.

In 2001 dad enrolled him in a training class by Henan provincial team so he could receive pro teaching. The cost of the class was about 200 USD a month. It was not much by today's standards, but at the time his dad only made a little more than 100 USD a month. Dad had to work several jobs to make ends meet.

The training paid off and Su Guangyue started to win tournaments. The next step was to go to Beijing to further his study. But this time dad did not go with him, likely due to the high cost of living in the capital city. Su Guangyue recalled that as a young kid living in the big city he always felt homesick, but it was thoughts of home and family made him work harder, because he knew how much his parents had sacrificed for him.

Su Guangyue tried couple times in the PQT before exceeding the 17 age limit. In 2011 he was admitted to Shanghai Foreign Language University to study law. University life took away some training time but he never stopped playing and studying Go. He won Luoyang King of Weiqi in 2013, and runner up at World Students Go Oza the same year. In 2015 he was selected again to represent China (he qualified by winning the Collegiate Ing's Cup previous year) at World Students Go Oza and won championship. In 2017 he won one of the top amateur events, the 31st Huanghe (means the Yellow River) Cup, and became the 15th 7D in China. 7D is so rare (only a handful of national events issue 7Ds) that I consider it even harder to get than the pro cert. Su Guangyue was the 2nd Luoyang player to get a 7D. The other Luoyang 7D before Su Guangyue was Shi Yue 9p, who won the Evening Post Cup at a tender age of 12.

After turning pro Su Guangyue quickly won his first pro event at the Yuan 19 Cup. Maybe he can follow the footsteps of Shi Yue and go much further in his still young career?

Su Guangyue holding Huanghe Cup trophy

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Certificates and trophies won by Su Guangyue

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[wolfking]

6. Kang Rui (康锐) 1p

Born 1990 in Wuhan, Hubei Province. Unlike many other new pros, Kang Rui did not have formal training growing up. He had participated in PQT three times before but never got close to promotion. 2014 was the last year he tried before exceeding the 25 age limit. But he persisted in his pursuit of Go career. He joined Yixing Weiqi in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province as a Go teacher and regularly participated in amateur tournaments. In 2017 and 2018 he was runner up both times in Suzhou King of Weiqi adult group. In 2019 he finished 3rd in Jinling Cup behind Bai Baoxiang 7D and He Xin 6D (He Xin is a former 4p who gave up pro status to play amateur events).

His Fox Server id was "拒绝放弃"，meaning "refuse to give up". I think it was this Never Give Up spirit that propelled him to success.

Kang Rui 1p

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[silviu22]

U-25 Female

12. Xu Haizhe (徐海哲) 18 190 22.3

Players above were issued 6D certificates. Xu Haizhe was born in 2008 so she has many more chances to get her shodan cert.

Xu Haizhe 6D in round 13

Xu Haizhe 6D looks very intense and determined!

[silviu22]

5. Su Guangyue (苏广悦) 1p

Born 1992 in Luoyang, Hanan Province. 3rd Luoyang new pro this year.

Su Guangyue learned about Go at a very early age by watching his dad playing neighbors in the front yard. At 5 he had learned enough to start giving suggestions to the adults. Still he did not start serious learning until he was in elementary school. The first year in elementary school his dad enrolled him in a Go class. The Go class met 4 or 5 times a week, each class lasted 5 hours. Dad accompanied him to all classes, and recalled that he never lost concentration during those 5 hour long classes. After one year study he was already stronger than his dad. Dad had to take him to local clubs to find worthy opponents.

In 2001 dad enrolled him in a training class by Henan provincial team so he could receive pro teaching. The cost of the class was about 200 USD a month. It was not much by today's standards, but at the time his dad only made a little more than 100 USD a month. Dad had to work several jobs to make ends meet.

This story explains why the Chinese are so strong. It took 20 years for someone like Su Guangyue to become pro even though he would study more than 20 hours a week when he was 7? The Asians take go very seriously - I am not convinced the Western players would ever become so strong.

Also, you need a lot of regular people to play go so their kids will want to start playing when they are very young.

[wolfking]

Xu Haizhe 6D looks very intense and determined!

Yes she is a very promising young star, maybe next Wu Yiming. There are not many 11 year old 6Ds in China. In this year's Bailing Cup she participated in the youth group (top age group, 15 or older) instead of her own age group and still won 1st place (2nd place is 2019 new pro Chen Manqi). She is from Zhenjiang, Jiangsu which is only two hours drive from Wu Yiming's hometown Wuxi. I expect her to make pro next year, maybe through EQ like Wu Yiming did.

[wolfking]

This story explains why the Chinese are so strong. It took 20 years for someone like Su Guangyue to become pro even though he would study more than 20 hours a week when he was 7? The Asians take go very seriously - I am not convinced the Western players would ever become so strong.

Also, you need a lot of regular people to play go so their kids will want to start playing when they are very young.

I do think some Western players can be strong enough to compete with Chinese pros, but it will be hard to get to the level of the top pros like Ke Jie, Mi Yuting, Tang Weixing etc. And the reason is precisely what you said, because of the sheer number of children in China that take Go seriously and start learning at a very young age. This years' Little Bailing Cup had 1023 participants. In Shanghai there are Go schools that have thousands of kids studying Go in one school. I read somewhere that in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province along there are more than 100 thousand kids studying Go. Even with that kind of base Shenzhen only produced two pros since 2002: Zhou Ruiyang in 2002 and Huang Yiming in 2015. To create top pros, you really need huge number of young kids taking up Go. And once you reached pro level, I think you need a good competitive environment to improve quickly. That means many similar level pros and high level competitions. For now I only see that in the big three Asian countries.