In the North China chess world, before the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, there was the saying of "Eight Fierce Men in the North", they were: Xu Cihai of Shenyang, Quan Hailong of Beijing, Zhang Dekui, Na Jianting, Yang Maorong of Tangshan, Hou Yushan of Beijing, Pang Caiting of Tianjin, and Zhao Songkuan of Beijing.
These eight people are all famous in Beiping, some often live in Beiping, and some have swam through Beiping, which does not represent the strength of the entire north.
Looking at the ranking of these eight fierce, presumably it is not arranged according to the level of chess skills.
Xu Cihai is at the top of the list, but from the perspective of record, it is not stronger than Zhang Dekui and Na Jianting, probably because of his older age and long-term play in the north, which has a greater impact on the chess world.
At the time of the "Eight Fierce" reign, there was another new star rising in the Beiping chess world, that is, Xie Xiaoran.
Born in 1913 in Wuqing County, Hebei Province, Xie Xiaoran loved chess since childhood and was quite talented, and his level was already good in the countryside.
In 1929, he went to Beiping to study, and at the same time, he also mixed in the chess world, often going to the Tianqiao "Sun Ji" and "Cun Ji" chess stalls to play chess.
After a period of time, he got to know many friends in the chess world, and was introduced to play chess at the Tianqiao Qixin Chess Club and the Juxian Chess Club.
At this time, Xie Xiaoran already had the determination to compete for the title in the Beiping chess world, but he did not rush to challenge the "Eight Fierce", but first competed with the second-rate chess players to win.
Under the tempering of actual combat, Xie Xiaoran had no teacher to teach himself, and his progress was rapid.
Many second-rate chess players were defeated by him, so he had the idea of challenging first-rate chess players.
At that time, the most famous people in the Beiping chess world were Zhang Dekui, Na Jianting and Zhao Songkuan, all three of whom were among the "Eight Fierce Men of the North".
His plan was to fight Zhao Songkuan first, then Na Jianting, and finally Zhang Dekui.
With such a plan, Xie Xiaoran came to the Fire Temple Tea Society to fight Zhao Songkuan.
I don't want this battle but it is full of twists and turns.
The first time I went, I didn't see Zhao Songkuan, but instead competed with his apprentice "Oil Slag Li" for four rounds, and the result was four consecutive losses and a fiasco.
Xie Xiaoran saw the gap, but he did not get discouraged, and continued to study chess hard after returning home.
Half a year later, he came to the Fire Temple Tea House again, and this time successfully met Zhao Songkuan.
The two immediately went to war, making it clear in advance that they would play four games first, with each round winning five yuan.
Unexpectedly, the division was unfavorable, and even three sets were lost at the beginning, and the fourth set was also in a losing trend, precarious.
Zhao Songkuan was an elegant chess player, and he couldn't bear to see Xie Xiaoran lose consecutively, so he deliberately let him go, and the result was a draw.
Xie Xiaoran kept this matter in mind, and after returning home, he still practiced chess diligently, and after a period of time, his chess skills improved a lot, and he challenged Zhao Songkuan again.
The chess tournament is located in the De'an Chess Tournament in Dong'an City, where each game is five yuan and two games are decided.
In the first game, the game reached the middle plate, Xie Xiaoran saw that the situation was very good, ordered forty pot stickers, a bowl of spicy soup, and ate it in one breath.
And Zhao Songkuan was at a disadvantage, asking for four large buns, a bowl of soup pattern silk did not move.
Soon, Xie Xiaoran won the first set.
In the second game, not long after the game, Zhao Songkuan was at a disadvantage again and was about to lose his son.
Just at this moment, Na Jianting paced from outside, saw the situation on the situation, and also pinched a handful of sweat for Zhao Songkuan, and Zhao Songkuan's face was also full of embarrassment.
Unexpectedly, at this time, Xie Xiaoran actually made a faint move, and this game of chess was finally a draw.
Na Jianting was quite surprised by this move, and after the onlookers dispersed, he asked Xie Xiaoran why he had taken such a step.
Xie Xiaoran only then told the experience of Zhao Songkuan letting him go of a horse when he played chess last time, and it turned out that he deliberately released water to seek retribution.
Later, Zhao Songkuan also knew about this matter, he saw the momentum of Xie Xiaoran's chess skills growth, and because of the "mutual release of a horse" to form a friendship, the two no longer gambled on chess.
After this battle, it marked the end of Xie Xiaoran's chess learning stage.
Soon after, Xie Xiaoran suddenly fell seriously ill, spent all the money for studying, and had no choice but to withdraw from school.
Without completing his studies and finding a job, he embarked on a path of chess for a living.
According to the previous plan, Zhao Songkuan was killed, and his next target was Na Jianting.
However, due to the previous story, Xie Xiaoran and Na Jianting were also very good friends, so he changed his plan, skipped Na Jianting, and went directly to fight Zhang Dekui.
Xie and Zhang's first match was also held at the Dechang Chess House in Dong'an Market, and the six innings came down and were evenly divided.
Six months later, the two fought again at the Dechang Chess Club, agreeing to play three games in different periods, two games each.
In the first game, Xie Xiaoran won with one win and one loss; in the second game, he won with one win and one draw; and in the third game, he won both sets.
After three games, Xie Xiaoran has already won, and later added another game, and it is still Xie Xiaoran who wins.
Zhang Dekui was once recognized as the first hand of Beiping, and after Xie Xiaoran's victory, he naturally shocked the Beiping chess world and became famous.
So someone paid him to "talk about chess", and Xie Xiaoran's life was relatively stable.
The chess players are all good-looking and lively, and they wish that the famous players would fight every day, so that there will be melons to eat.
As a result, countless chess fans instigated Xie Xiaoran to start a war with Na Jianting.
Under this pressure, Xie and the two finally opened the battlefield, in the form of two dollars per plate, and the lost one bought two yuan a bucket of ice cream for everyone to eat.
This sounds easy, but in fact it is not simple, and the "duality" at that time was not a small amount.
After a week of competition, Xie Xiaoran was in excellent condition, and Na Jianting really lost a lot of money.
I also blamed that Jianting was too obsessed with chess, and even lost the travel expenses that he had planned to go to Qingdao, and Qingdao could not go.
It can also be seen from here that at that time, the drawbacks of chess players playing "betting" were easy to get angry at the moment and lose their homes, but fortunately all this was rectified in the new era.
This incident also affected the friendship between Xie Xiaoran and Na Jianting for a time.
After Xie Xiaoran became famous, he also had games with many famous players.
Played three games against Northeast star Zhao Wenxuan, all of which were harmonious.
He played against Dalian's Hu Zhenzhou twice, the first time Xie Xiaoran won, and the second draw.
In the match against Tianjin's tian Yushu, he won a small set.
In the game against Xu Cihai of Shenyang, Yang Maorong of Tangshan and Quan Hailong of Beijing, who ranked in the "Eight Meng", there were more wins and fewer losses.
Overall, in the more than a decade from the late 1930s to the 1940s, Xie Xiaoran's chess titles have surpassed Zhang Dekui and Na Jianting.
By the time of the founding of New China, Xie Xiaoran had already become a famous player standing in the northern chess world, and what awaited him would be more challenges from East china and South China, which we will talk about later.