The ups and downs tempered Ding Hao's mentality, and the strongest post-00 ushered in the second championship of the World Go Series within a year
On November 28, the 2023 Samsung Cup World Go Masters Championship will start the final trilogy of the final. Chinese Go 9 Duan Ding Hao held the black in the tiebreaker against Xie Erhao 9 Duan, seized the white chess mistake to expand the results in the case of time disadvantage, and finally the white chess 300 hands conceded defeat, Ding Hao won as he wished. So far, Ding Hao has won the LG Cup and Samsung Cup two World Series championships in a year, and has achieved the title of "the strongest post-00".
In this Samsung Cup, the Chinese chess players played well as a whole, sweeping away the shame of missing the semi-finals of the 2022 Samsung Cup. After the opening of the Samsung Cup on November 15, after Ding Hao defeated Kim Seung-jin 4 dan, Hong Seong-ji 9 dan, and Kim Myung Hoon 9 dan, the winning rate fell to a single digit in the semi-finals with Park Tinghuan 9 dan, and the time fell into the extreme reversal of the adversity of counting seconds, and reached the Samsung Cup final for the first time. Xie Erhao also performed well, after defeating Cui Jing Jiudan and Han Xiongkui Jiudan in succession, he defeated Shin Zhenzhen Jiudan in the quarterfinals to advance to the semifinals. After that, Xie Erhao defeated Xu Jiayang Jiudan in the civil war and met Ding Hao in the finals, making great contributions to the Chinese chess players winning the championship and runner-up of the Samsung Cup.
Previously, Ding Hao and Xie Erhao played each other 10 times and drew 5-5, but before 2019, Xie Erhao won 4 consecutive victories, and after 2020, Ding Hao caught up and achieved a record of 5 wins and 1 loss. The duo have previously won the LG Cup in 2018 and 2023 respectively, and whoever wins this final will win the Samsung Cup for the first time and become a two-time World Series winner.
In the first game of the three-way chess, Ding Hao seized Xie Erhao's mistake to win and get the match point. But in the second game, Xie Erhao fought everywhere, forcing Ding Hao to enter the long exam, making the time advantage his biggest weapon, and finally won the game, and the three chess battles were drawn.
came to the real tiebreaker, Xie Erhao was white, and was stumped by Ding Hao's start in the prologue stage and fell into a long test. However, soon Xie Erhao recovered his sharp chess style, making mistakes in and out, the two sides had mutual results in attack and defense, and Ding Hao fell into a long test again. Entering the countdown stage, Xie Erhao still had nearly an hour of time to reserve, but Ding Hao found that the white chess robbery was wrong, and the black chess was sticky all the way, so that the white chess fell into a predicament, and the situation was reversed instantly after the white chess was eliminated, and the winning rate fell into single digits. Coming to 215 moves, black suddenly had a problem hand, and Xie Erhao, who had the advantage of time, entered the long test, allowing the game to return to the single-robbery competition of half a eye. Up to 300 moves, white was still powerless and conceded defeat. Ding Hao won the tiebreaker and was crowned the champion of the Samsung Cup. This is also Ding Hao's second World Series championship within a year after reaching the top of the LG Cup at the beginning of the year. Ding Hao won a championship bonus of 300 million won, equivalent to about 1.656 million yuan, with the Samsung Cup championship.
The victory was of great significance to Ding, who was able to win two World Championships in a row in one year. Looking back on Ding Hao's road to chess, he once said frankly that this road was spelled out. Ding Hao was born in Datong, Shanxi Province in 2000, and after learning chess at the age of 7, Ding Hao, who quickly emerged, "made a desperate bet" with the support of his family and came to Beijing Ge Yuhong Go Dojo to become a "Beipiao Go Teenager". "Our family's conditions are actually not very good, and the tuition fee for going to the Beijing dojo to learn chess was quite high for us, so we thought about fighting for a few years first. Ding Hao recalled. "2013 was actually the last qualifier for me, and if it didn't work out I would probably go back to school. I was very impressed with the last set, and I was able to set the end if I won, but I hit a big spoon at the beginning and died as soon as I came up. My opponent also won the fixed stage, maybe he was also under a lot of pressure, there were a lot of mistakes, I won in the end, now I think about it as luck, it may be providence to take this road. If I had lost that time, I would have been in college by now. ”
That was the first time that Ding Hao had won the mentality in a key competition, and he was determined as he wished. Two years after becoming a professional chess player, Ding Hao signed with the club to play chess in the league. From 2013 to 2018, Ding Hao maintained the frequency of rising one section per year, and he became the absolute main force of the Longyuan Mingcheng Hangzhou team, leading the team to win the runner-up twice. In 2019, Ding Hao won the championship in the 2019 National TV Go Rapid Chess Tournament and won the MVP of the year's Weijia, and in 2021, Ding Hao won the championship of many domestic Go competitions such as the Champion Chess Cup, the National Player Competition, and the Grand Chess Tournament.
In February 2023, Ding Hao passed all the way to the final of the 27th LG Cup World Go Championship, and finally defeated compatriot Yang Dingxin to win his first world championship title and become China's first "post-00" Go world champion. Since then, Ding Hao's ranking in the ranking of professional chess players announced by the China Go Association has risen rapidly, and the title of "the strongest post-00" has also spread.
However, under the reputation, Ding Hao ushered in a new challenge in his career. In addition to the honor, the LG Cup championship brought Ding Hao new pressure. He didn't get the same touch as LG and went out early in several other World Series this year. The ups and downs of his mentality and the downturn in his state made him unable to go to the end of the Asian Games trials and failed to be selected for the national team. However, Ding Hao still participated in the training camp as the sparring partner of the Asian Games team, helping his teammates in another way, and also trying to get out of the mental dilemma in the training camp. Ding Hao also realized at this time that after winning the first championship, his psychological baggage was too heavy, and he needed to re-correct his mentality.
Coming to the Samsung Cup main event, Ding Hao finally returned to a confident state and faced the game with a more relaxed and calm mind. In this year's Samsung Cup competition, Ding Hao reversed Park Tinghuan in an extremely disadvantageous situation, and was reversed by Xie Erhao in the three-way chess final, set his mentality and win back the game. In November this year, Ding Hao is expected to surpass Ke Jie, who was ranked third, and enter the top three ranks of Chinese Go.
Text/Beiqing Sports Chu Peng