Memoirs of Wong Ka Leung Chapter 26 Teaching in Singapore

1. Visit the Philippines again

At the first "Chess King Tournament", I met the Philippine chess king Chen Luoping again, the old friends met naturally very kindly, after a free conversation, Mr. Chen issued an invitation to me personally and the Heilongjiang Chess Academy, inviting us to come to the Philippines and exchange chess skills. We were very happy to accept the invitation.

After the "Chess King Competition", a delegation of four people, including me, Zhao Guorong, Ma Sidun, vice president of the Chess Academy, and the director of the Harbin Stainless Steel Products Factory, the sponsor of the "Chess King Competition", visited the Philippines. When it comes to Harbin Stainless Steel Products Factory, there may not be many people who know, even the old Harbin people may not know much, but to mention the "he and she happy" range hood, perhaps every Harbin person is familiar with it. However, under the impact of the tide of market economy, "he and she happy", a famous brand product that was once very popular in Harbin, has also been submerged without a trace. This phenomenon reminds me of chess, a sport that was popular throughout the country in the seventies and eighties, but now it is in a very awkward situation, and there is more or less some inevitable connection between it.

The Philippines, I have not been to the first time, although the revisit of the old place is not as exciting as Zhao Guorong, but also has a taste in my heart. The first time I came to the Philippines, I was extremely heavy because I was wronged, but this time I was much more relaxed.

In the Philippines, in addition to communicating with local chess fans, we also played a "triangle match" with Taipei and the Philippines. In the end, the Heilongjiang team formed by Zhao Guorong and me easily won the championship, the Taipei team won the second place, and the Philippine team came to the bottom. In just a few days in the Philippines, everyone was very happy. When we returned to China, we stayed in Hong Kong for a few days at the invitation of the Hong Kong chess community, then passed through Macao, then returned to Heilongjiang, and then was invited to attend the Asian Cup.

2. Coaching in Singapore

After returning from the Asian Cup, I thought I could have a good rest, but I did not expect to receive an invitation from Singapore, hoping that I would teach in Singapore. It turned out that at the Asian Cup, I had a very good time with the representatives of Singapore and gave them some guidance in chess. They went back and decided to hire a high-level coach from China, and after careful screening, they selected me.

When I received the invitation, I thought about it again and again, because the team competition was about to start, and if I left at this time, I might not be able to participate. In the end, I promised that as long as I coached in Singapore for six months, I would be able to participate in the team competition as scheduled, so I agreed. Before leaving, I handed over the training work of the women's team to Sun Zhiwei, and the men's team to Zhao Guorong, who was at the peak of his chess skills at that time, so I was very relieved to entrust the chess team to them.

When I arrived in Singapore, I was placed at the home of Mr. Cheung Wai Chi, vice president of the Singapore Chess Association. It was a three-story villa, and Mr. Zhang vacated the second floor for me to live in, and he lived on the third floor, and the first floor was used as a place for my usual teaching.

Singapore is a garden-like city with lots of greenery, and various green spaces and flower beds dot the buildings, decorating the whole city beautifully. And Singapore is still very clean, there are almost no sputum scraps on the road, perhaps out of the public's threat to local laws. It is said that Singapore law stipulates that those who seriously damage environmental sanitation will be subjected to flogging, and the back of the tortured person will be beaten to the skin and flesh, leaving permanent scars. Of course, even if this kind of torture is not taken, no one will bear to destroy this fresh and picturesque scenery. Singaporeans are hospitable, and since there are so many Chinese there, I don't feel at all uncomfortable being abroad. Every morning, after breakfast, a special car will take me to the Singapore Chess Club. During the day, I play chess and chat with some chess friends, and at night, I give lectures to the students who come to learn chess, which is also very pleasant.

The main people who come to learn chess are some local college students, this age is a little late for learning chess, if you should have achievements in China. However, in Singapore, learning chess is purely a personal hobby, and you have to post money yourself, so there are very few people who learn chess. But even so, I did not slack off in the slightest, and still carefully wrote the teaching outline. Now some of the top chess players in Singapore are the ones I trained at that time.

3. Zheng Haiwen and Zhang Xinhuan

In addition, I have also focused on cultivating several chess players in Singapore, including Zheng Haiwen and Zhang Xinhuan, and old chess fans may not be unfamiliar with these two names. Zheng Haiwen can be said to be my favorite overseas disciple, his results are very good, and he is also very promising. But perhaps it was a jealous talent, and shortly after I returned home, he was killed in a traffic accident. At that time, Zheng Haiwen was only in his twenties, and he was still very young, which was really regrettable.

When he was young, Zheng Haiwen showed outstanding talent for chess. When Hu Ronghua visited Lion City, he performed wheel war, and his opponent was Zheng Haiwen, who was the only chess player to defeat Hu Ronghua at that time. When I was in Singapore, I also paid the most attention to Zheng Haiwen, and I also gave him the most and the most serious guidance. I played more than 20 games against him, and found that his computing ability was very strong, and the middle and residual technology was also good, but the layout was slightly immature. So I focused on guiding his opening and selflessly passing on my latest layout experience at that time.

Soon my efforts and Zheng Haiwen's diligence were rewarded. At the "Zhongshan Cup" held in Taiwan shortly afterwards, the fledgling Zheng Haiwen defeated many overseas celebrities such as Taiwan's Wu Guilin and Hong Kong's Zhao Ruquan and won the championship. And because of Zheng Haiwen's excellent performance, the Singapore team also won the team championship. Because the Taiwan authorities are very sensitive to mainland people, I was unable to go to Taiwan, but I had long expected him to succeed.

When the double champion returned with honors, the Singapore chess community arranged a grand celebration cocktail party, and everyone was completely immersed in joy. Thinking back on this, I can't help but feel sorry for Zheng Haiwen, who died young, otherwise he would definitely become the first overseas master above Wu Guilin and Zhao Ruquan.

Compared with Zheng Haiwen, another female disciple who was specially trained by me, Zhang Xinhuan, was much lazier. Zhang Xinhuan usually did not work hard, but dealt with things hastily. However, in the 1990 World Cup, she defeated Huang Yuying, the first female master from the mainland. At that time, although the Singapore men's team had Zheng Haiwen, they only had to retreat in front of the powerful Chinese legion, but the women had a fight, especially when Huang Yuying knew that I was coaching in the new team, and she lost a point first, because she was very frightened by my layout. When formulating the layout for Zhang Xinhuan, I concluded that Huang Yuying would start with the "Outer Five Elements", so I deliberately put a set of changes for Zhang Xinhuan. During the game, Huang Yuying really took a "foreign five elements" to start, so Zhang Xinhuan had the heart to attack without heart, easily won the victory, and finally won the women's championship.

Unfinished to be continued ~ a little attention does not get lost