Original address: https://digital.asahi.com/articles/DA3S15259995.html
Hara: Nakamura 2nd dan 13 years old, super fast flowering natural game master spirit, professional actual battle from 10 years old Growing up go, youngest title challenge
Excerpt from: Asahi Shimbun
Author: Daisuke Koji
Translation and finishing: Make excuses for being quiet
At the age of 13 and 1 month, Zhongyi Ninji became the youngest challenger in the title battle. This time, the challenger is a junior high school student who has greatly set a record of 16 years and 0 months. Excellent talent and hard work, from the primary school stage to enter the professional arena, so that Zhongyiyi quickly blossomed.
March 31 was the last day of Zhongyi's first year of junior high school, and on this day, he won the round robin of the female celebrity battle challenge. After winning 5 consecutive wins in the pre-selection, he entered the round robin and scored 5 wins and 1 loss after entering the round robin for the first time.
"I didn't expect to get the challenge right so soon, I'm very happy," ZhongYi said in a press conference, winning the 7-man single-round robin event, and the strength is really obvious to all.
Yuta Iyama also said: "When I first became a professional chess player, I believe she also encountered many difficulties, but with her own efforts, she shut up the noise around her."
Zhongyiwei carries the expectations of Japanese Go, which was once the strongest country in Go, but now it is poured cold water by China and South Korea. In the team competition between China, Japan and South Korea, he has not won the championship since 2006. If Japanese Go is to emerge from the downturn, it must perform well in the World Series. Therefore, it is necessary to cultivate geniuses early and let them compete in the world.
In January 2019, the Japanese Chess Academy opened a "Talent Quota" for Zhongyi, who was still in the fourth grade of elementary school at the time and became a professional chess player without passing a fixed-stage competition. At the age of 10, while giving birth to the youngest chess player, many people commented that "this is just creating a topic."
Kobayashi Kyaw, the former chess master and the chairman of the Japanese Chess Academy, who is also a top chess player, persisted even though he knew that he was being criticized. "A year at this age is worth five years for adults," he insisted on enforcing the immature rules.
Zhongyi did not disappoint everyone, although in the debut year and the second year, Zhongyi's results were not bad but not outstanding, but last year with a record of 43 wins and 18 losses, ranked 3rd in the list of all Japanese chess players' wins, and this year won the challenge of the women's celebrity battle, and the growth trajectory suddenly rose.
Yuta Iyama commented: "After becoming a professional chess player early, the experience gained in actual combat is very valuable to Nakai. Zhongyi has proved with practical actions that only formal competitions are the best places to learn."
After accumulating the number of matches and experience, the decision to transfer from Osaka to Tokyo last January also helped Nakae-eun Seol.
The Players of the Tokyo Academy of Chess are stronger than those in Osaka and Nagoya, and there are many research associations. Nakagawa also said, "There are a lot of chess players in Tokyo who are the same age as me, and I feel that I can't do it if I don't work hard."
Competing with Yuta Iyama for the world's power, Liao pulled nakae-yō-2nd stage and set up a new research association , "One Research Institute". In the seminar, the top women's Fujisawa Rishigi Four Crowns, and the 16-year-old rising star Fukuoka Aktaro Sandan, a small research group of four people will practice chess together. In the world of Go, there is a culture of research that spans master-apprentice relationships. YiLi Liao said: "Because the Go world also has opponents in the world." Together with the small partners who also impacted the world chess world, they lived a super first-class and dense time.
The level of preliminaries for all major chess matches conducted in the Japanese chess academy Tokyo Main School is very high, and many people predicted that Zhongyiyan would be in a bitter battle before the transfer, but Zhongyiyi proved himself with strength.
"Do not accept defeat to a tragic extent", "the dedication to victory can match Zhao Zhixun", the surrounding chess players all praised Zhongyi's winning and winning master soul, perhaps because she had worked hard to practice chess since she was a child, so that she had enough Go environment. Yuta Iyama said: "In the future, it is possible to achieve good results in general chess battles and even in world competitions."
Budding female chess players
In recent years, Japanese female chess players have also begun to perform not only in women's competitions, but also in mixed-sex competitions.
At present, the mixed title battles are occupied by male chess players, but from 2020 to 2021, Fujisawa Rishi's female stream four crowns and Ueno's beauty flow chess saints have won consecutive championships in the young chess players' limited tournament Wakakusa Battle. In the event with no age limit, Rikari Fujisawa and Yumin Xie were just one step away from the celebrity battle loop known as the "Golden Chair" and entered the final of the final qualifier.
Breaking through the circle of female celebrity battle cycles in which all the top women's chess players appeared, national team coach Tomoya Hirata said: "Nakai's strength has reached a level similar to theirs."
This time, the opponent of the celebrity battle sanban chess is currently at the peak of Japanese women's Go, 10 years older than Nakagawa, fujisawa Rishigi four crowns. Before Zhongyi challenged the title, he held the record for the youngest challenge before at the age of 16 years and 0 months. In the "Ichiken" honing level of Nakai, Fujisawa Rishi said: "Nakai is really very cute, for me is like a sister's existence, of course, I also know that her chess is very strong, for me to promote a lot, I hope to get some growth through this title battle." ”
The two are likely to become veteran rivals in the title battle in the future, and their first title battle will kick off on April 14.