As long as you talk about Japanese Go, there is always one person who will be mentioned, he is Wu Qingyuan, a Go master in Japan. In the early eighties of the last century, the Sino-Japanese co-produced movie "An Unfinished Game of Chess" was filmed based on him.
In 1987, Japan's "Go Club" visited six Japanese super-first-class chess players Masao Kato, Masaki Takemiya, Lin Haifeng, Zhao Zhixun, Koichi Kobayashi, and Otake Hero, who are familiar to Chinese Go lovers, and asked them: Who is the strongest in the history of Go?
Zhao, Lin, Wugong, and Kato all replied that it was Wu Qingyuan.
Xiaolin and Dazhu believe that there are three, namely: Dao Ce, Xiu Ce, and Wu Qingyuan.
This shows Wu Qingyuan's position in the history of Japanese Go.
Wu Qingyuan (1914-2014), formerly known as Wu Quan, was the promoter and practitioner of the world Go revolution, known as the "Chess Saint".
Wu Qingyuan was born into a prominent family in Fuzhou, China, and later moved his family to Beijing. At the age of 14, he crossed east to Japan and began his career as a professional chess player. In 1933, at the age of 19, Wu Qingyuan used his original "new layout" against the famous people of Honinbo Hideya, turning a new page in the history of Go.
From 1939 to 1956, Wu Qingyuan defeated all the super-first-class chess players of his generation in the Juban Chess Ring, relegating all the top players in the Japanese chess world at that time, creating the "Wu Qingyuan era" in the Go world, known as the "Showa Chess Saint".
In his later years, Wu Qingyuan devoted himself to cultivating future generations, promoting the internationalization of Go and the development of Chinese Go, and with a lifetime of experience, integrating ancient Chinese culture, he proposed the 21st century Go - Liuhe Chess, sublimating the artistry of Go, revealing the lofty realm and vicissitudes of Go.
Wu Qingyuan rose to prominence as a teenager and was known as a "Go prodigy".
In 1924, Wu's father died of illness.
At that time, Wu Qingyuan was only 11 years old, his family had already declined, and his orphan and widow did not know how to live. But at that time, Wu Qingyuan was still obsessed with studying Go. He was advised not to play chess as a meal. But Wu Qingyuan replied that he would rely on chess to eat in the future.
As Wu Qingyuan's "Go prodigy" became more and more famous, even Duan Qirui, a famous Beiyang warlord who loved Go, knew about it, and specially asked Wu Qingyuan to come to him to play chess. Duan Qirui's chess art prides himself as "seven dan", which is roughly equivalent to four dan in Japan.
Wu Qingyuan did not dare to win him during the game, but Duan Qirui saw Wu Qingyuan's strength and told him not to be afraid, he was happy to defeat him.
So when Wu Qingyuan played again, he stopped making chess, and the result was that Wu Qingyuan won.
If others win Duan Qirui in chess, this competitive warlord will be unhappy, but he is very happy to lose to Wu Qingyuan, a child.
Duan Qirui also gave Wu Qingyuan a salary of 100 oceans every month, allowing him to play chess in his private residence in Beijing's Jizhao Hutong every morning.
In this way, relatives and friends who advised Wu Qingyuan not to rely on chess to eat were blocked and had nothing to say. The days of playing chess in Duanfu also created good conditions for Wu Qingyuan to concentrate on studying chess in his early years.
On November 28, 2017, on the eve of the third anniversary of Wu Qingyuan's death, he was officially buried in his hometown Fuzhou Sanshan Humanities Memorial Park.