In the Korean chess world in the 1990s and the beginning of this century, there was once a saying of the "four kings" of the new and old. The day before yesterday, I wrote a text entitled "The New Four Heavenly Kings Blow the Rallying Sign?" After the Korean Wave raged, the crisis reappeared, and the national players rose up to fight back", a small number of chess fans disagreed with the statement of the "four kings" of Korea at the beginning of this century in the text, and even questioned it in the message area. In this regard, I think it is necessary to explain it and introduce some titles in the Sino-Japanese and Korean Go circles, such as "Four Heavenly Kings, Seven Little Dragons, and Six Supers".
In the early and mid-1980s, Japan's six super-first-class chess players were recognized worldwide, referred to as "six supers". The six are: Hayashi Hae-fungus, Hero Ohtake, Masao Kato, Masaki Takemiya, Koichi Kobayashi, and Cho Ji-hoon. The period when the six super powers dominated the world chess world is called the "six super era", but the duration is not long. In 1985, Nie Weiping defeated Masao Kato and Koichi Kobayashi in the first Sino-Japanese Ring, breaking the barrier of the Six Super Leagues, and then defeating Masaki Takemiya and Hideo Otake in the second tournament. In 1989, Cao Xuanxuan won Koichi Kobayashi, Lin Haifeng and Nie Weiping consecutively, and was crowned the first Ying Cup champion, and since then the world chess world has entered a period of eight super-first-class competition between China, Japan and South Korea, but the chess industry and the media have not appeared in the title of "Eight Super".
Masaki Takemiya and Lin Haifeng
In 1992, Lee Chang-ho of Shifo turned out to be the final of the 3rd Toyo Securities Cup, and Li klin Haifeng became the youngest world champion in the world chess world. In 1993, South Korean masters broke out, Lee Chang-ho defended the Toyo Securities Cup, "Weed" Seo Bong-so unexpectedly broke Cho Ji-hoon and Ohtake Hero to win the second Ying's Cup, and Yoo Chang-hyuk won the Fujitsu Cup in one fell swoop. At that time, the world chess world, world champions were rare, and South Korea suddenly emerged three, accumulating to four, which attracted the world's attention. In view of this, some media have given these four Korean heroes the glorious title of "Four Heavenly Kings" in South Korea, and have been recognized by the chess community. It is the first generation of "Four Heavenly Kings" in Korea.
By 2002, at the beginning of the new century, Seo Bong-so had long ceased to be a glamorous figure, but there were successors in the Korean chess world. Born in 1983, Lee Sedol was like a dragon out of the water, crossing the Threshold of Liu Changhe in the final of that year's Fujitsu Cup and reaching the top in one fell swoop; although Cho Kao Hyun was nearly half a hundred years old, he won the 2002 and 2003 Three Star Cups in a row; Liu Chang hyuk, who already had the title of "the world's first attacker", was still strong and won the 2002 LG Cup; Lee Chang-ho's status as the world's first person at that time was still unshaked. These four formed the super luxurious lineup of the new four kings of Korea, which can also be called the second generation of the four kings, but it was relatively short-lived. First, Liu Chang-hyuk's family changed drastically due to the sudden death of his wife in early 2004, and soon became depressed; Cho Kao-hyun also gradually became incorruptible and strong; lee Chang-ho was knocked down by the sacred pig Luo Washhe in the 2006 Samsung Cup final, and has not been able to see the mountains in the world series since. Of the four heavenly kings, only Li Shishi remained majestic, competing with Gu Li, Kong Jie, Chen Yaoye, Tang Weixing, Ke Jie and other Chinese masters.
Group photo of Korean Go masters
Recently, some media have proposed the latest version of South Korea's "Four Heavenly Kings": Shin Jin-chan, Park Ting-hwan, Shin Min-chan, and Bian Xiangyi, these four people currently rank in the top four of The Korean Go rankings, and the record is not ordinary, but because Bian Xiangyi has not yet won the World Series, it has not been echoed by other media. It can only be said that it is in the brewing stage, whether it is officially introduced, it still needs strong performance to support.
In addition to the "Six Supers", the Japanese chess world also has the title of four kings, that is, "Heisei Four Heavenly Kings". Keigo Yamashita, Naoki Hane, Shinji Takao, and Zhang Xu, who rose to prominence and made meritorious achievements in Japan's Heisei era, were given the title of "Four Kings of Heisei" by the Japanese media because they almost included seven major news chess battles in Japan. In the World Series, only Zhang Xu won the 2006 LG Cup world championship (since then, there has been no new world champion in Japan), so the so-called Four Heavenly Kings are only for their own amusement in Japan, and are not recognized by the Chinese and Korean chess circles.
Chang Hao won the 5th Ying Cup
There are also many such small teams in the Chinese chess world. Originally born in the 1970s, the "Seven Little Dragons" became famous in the 1990s, and the members were Chang Hao, Luo Xiehe, Shao Weigang, Zhou Heyang, Wang Lei, Liu Jing and Ding Wei. Among them, Shao Weigang and Luo Xiehe were later adopted as apprentices by Ma Xiaochun, and the rest, except for Ding Wei, were all taken under Nie Weiping. Chang Hao is the leader of the seven, and later became the triple crown of the world, Luo Xianhe was also famous because of the 2006 Samsung Cup defeat of the world's first man Lee Chang-ho, Zhou Heyang and Wang Lei also reached the final of the World Series, but they all failed and returned home. Ding Wei, who appeared in the online chess world with the mysterious "Dragon Flying Tiger", is also a big name, and I will have the opportunity to introduce his "brilliant deeds" in a separate article in the future.
Group photo of the Seven Little Dragons
Gu Li, Kong Jie and Hu Yaoyu, who were born in the 1980s, began to exert their strength in domestic and foreign competitions at the beginning of this century, bravely and diligently, and achieved extraordinary results, so they were known as the "Three Little Tigers". Gu Li is China's first eight-crowned, uncompromising leader, he fought against Lee Sedol in the world chess world, creating the Gu Lee era after the Lee Chang-ho era. Kong Jie also achieved the great cause of the Triple Crown, but Hu Yaoyu missed the opportunity to be sniped by Taiwanese chess player Zhou Junxun in the LG Cup final in early 2007, losing the world championship title.
"Leopard Generation" is the honorific title of the post-90s masters in the Chinese chess world. The earliest is Chen Yaoye, Shi Yue, Zhou Ruiyang, Jiang Weijie, Feng Jiaxi and other people, of which Chen Yaoye was born on December 26, 1989, is a quasi-90s generation, also included. Chen Yaoye had a remarkable record, as early as 2006, he broke into the LG Cup final, but was defeated by Gu Li 3:2, when he was less than 17 years old, and after all the baptism, he finally became a rare triple crown in the chess world, worthy of the two honorary titles of "Leopard Head" and "Little Strong Who Can't Die". After that, China's post-90s Leopard generation world champions sprung up like mushrooms, in addition to the above few, Tang Weixing, Tan Xiao, Dang Yifei, Fan Tingyu, Mi Yuting, Ke Jie, Yang Dingxin, Xie Erhao, Gu Zihao, etc. scrambled to appear one after another, becoming a beautiful landscape in the world chess world.
A collection of eight Dragon, Tiger and Leopard World Champions in the Battle of the Southwest
From the above series of titles, it can be seen that the world chess world was first ruled by the Japanese six super powers, and then soon entered the season of the new and old kings of South Korea and the era of Lee Chang-ho, and after experiencing the ancient Lee era, finally entered the glorious moment of China's post-90s world domination. But the wolf is coming, the latest world war, South Korea's post-99 and post-zero Shin Jin-chan and Shin Min-chan, have stood on the highest podium, and China has not had a younger post-wave since the 98 Three Jiescher Howe, Gu Zihao, Yang Dingxin.
Just when everyone is worried about the Korean Wave raging again, which young Chinese talent or talent can stand up? Let's wait and see.