Original address: https://toyokeizai.net/articles/-/582060
Hara: Go women's style 3 strong talking three reasons why the female flow became strong, the go world where women are playing a big role ahead of the business world
Excerpt from: Toyo Economy
Author: Keiji Ume
Translation and finishing: Make excuses for being quiet
In the Japanese Go industry in recent years, the performance of female chess players has been very active. Including the current stage of the title battle, it is already very common for women to defeat male players in many official matches.
In the official Hiroshima Aluminum Cup Wakasu Battle, the official mixed-sex competition, in 2020, Fujisawa Rishi Naomi won the championship, and in 2021, Ueno Aisami also won the Wakakami Battle Championship. And Ueno Aisami won the most wins of all japanese players in 2021. This is also the first time that a female player in Japanese Go has won the most wins of the year.
Why did the female chess player suddenly become stronger. This time, we interviewed Ueno Aisaki, who won the "SENKO CUP World Women's Strongest Match 2022" at the Japanese women's Go international tournament held in April this year, and Fujisawa's roku girls Rinmoto in the final four, and Xie Yimin Shichidan, who reached the final four. The Japanese women's top three summed up the opportunity to improve their strength into three aspects: "the rise of the spiritual side", "the emergence of Go AI" and "the increase of events".
Deciding for yourself where the cap is is very wasteful
- It is now common for female chess players to beat male players in official matches.
Xie Yimin: In 2019, Ueno Aimi won the runner-up in the mixed dragon star battle, which is also a big deal. After this game, we realized that in the mixed tournament, we felt that "the female chess player could be so close to the champion".
Aisa Ueno: I've watched a lot of top women's chess players, and they've all made me better. In 2021, Mr. Xie Yimin is still one win away from entering the celebrity battle circle that has the opportunity to challenge Yuta Iyama.
Riri Fujisawa won the Wakasa Battle Championship in 2020 and defeated the male chess players in the Yamato House Cup Ten-Dan Tournament in 2021. After watching the performance of these teachers, I felt that "I also have a chance to beat male chess players."
Risato Fujisawa: I feel like deciding where my ceiling is is a wasteful thing.
While it's really painful not to be able to achieve a higher goal, we still have to keep it ahead. People have to stand on a high place to have a chance to grow. I also want to beat the top men's chess players, I think I'm still mentally good, I feel like I still have a chance to win in an anxious situation.
——In terms of exercising mentality, what efforts will you usually make?
Risato Fujisawa: I used to be a chess player with a very poor mentality, and I often had a collapse of mentality immediately. However, no matter what the results are recently, the mentality will not change much. Probably because of the increase in age.
Xie Yimin: Age is one thing. There is also the fact that after experiencing a lot of things, I will consider how to examine myself after losing chess. When I was in my 10s, I was lying on my stomach on the table after losing chess (laughs). Now it is even more important to reflect on the situation of this game of chess.
Risato Fujisawa: Indeed, you will see how the current situation is.
Xie Yimin: After losing chess, there may be ideas like "Ah, I'm finished", but the chess player's career is still very long, and the current victory or defeat does not mean everything. When you are young, you really don't know this, and now after losing chess, you will think in reverse: "This may be for future experience", "After a few years, you may gradually realize that losing this game is a good thing".
Aimi Ueno: Me too, losing may mean something else. Of course, I also record and save the places where I need to reflect.
Don't care about the gender of your opponent
Do you care if your opponent is a female player or a male player?
Together: Not at all.
Xie Yimin: Many sports are divided into men and women, but I think go is a sport where the gap between men and women is not large. We may be in the general chess game, and the male chess players are more against the type of people.
Risato Fujisawa: Yeah, it feels like we have more games against male chess players.
Aisa Ueno: I never felt that the opponents were male chess players, so the strength was stronger than me, even so many of the top men's chess players were really strong, and I also realized that there was a gap, and I had the motivation to compete with them.
——In 2015, the "Fanxing Cup Female Flow Go Strongest Battle" was newly set up, etc., and there are many women's chess battles, is it also to help the strength of female chess players to be improved?
Xie Yimin: Now there are more games, and every game can be a place where we grow. Not only women's competitions, but also in general chess battles, there are many opportunities for pin-and-needle matches, so that our female chess players have more opportunities to grow.
Risato Fujisawa: In the official game, you can gain practical experience that you can't get when practicing, and the experience you can gain in a game of chess means a lot to me.
Aisa Ueno: There is still a "Women's Ryu Tachibana Cup" that wears a kimono for title battles, and the women's tournament has a gorgeous and beautiful side in it, which is not only a place for chess players to grow, but also a pleasure for chess fans.
——After the emergence of Go AI software, is it also helpful to improve the performance of female chess players?
Risato Fujisawa: Indeed, AI has a big impact on us. In the past two or three years, the computer at home can also use AI software to learn chess, and it can quickly study the layout. My words do gain a lot in terms of layout.
Xie Yimin: My previous layout has always been my weakness. Basically, in the layout stage, it entered a bitter battle, and then the middle and back sets began to turn the situation around...
Rikari Fujisawa: Just caught up, ah no, it was overtaken (laughs).
Xie Yimin: I think the layout of the battle will definitely not work if it is not strengthened, so I start learning through AI. At the layout stage, the AI will use numbers to show whether the hand is effective or not, and based on this information, I can learn chess and feel that I have improved slightly compared to before. After using AI to learn chess, their layout level has been improved, which may be the reason why the performance of Japanese female chess players is getting better now.