"Let's play chess, you, this chess, even if Wang Jialiang comes, it won't work"... This is a sentence that everyone heard in the chess stalls in the streets and alleys of the three northeastern provinces sixty or seventy years ago.
Wang Jialiang, the grandmaster of the Chinese chess world, fought all the way from the folk chess stall to become the originator of the chess circle in Heilongjiang Province, the founder of the "Northern School" chess art, and the chess circle pattern of "Yang Guanxuan in the south and Wang Jialiang in the north". He also trained three world chess champions, Zhao Guorong, Wang Linna and Guo Liping, making Chinese chess famous in the world.
One day in early June 2021, in Harbin, the reporter interviewed Wang Jialiang, a 90-year-old "Siberian tiger" in the Chinese chess world.
"Sweep" the wild chess stalls, all the way to the "kill" to the whole country
Wang Jialiang was born in September 1932, and during his grandfather's generation, he "broke into the Guandong" from Huang County, Shandong Province, to sun wu county in what is now Heihe City.
"My father loves to play chess, one of the best in the local area, because he is obsessed with small chess, often forget to go home to eat, I will go to ask him to eat, crouch next to the chess stall to wait for him, as soon as I come and go, I will learn chess." 」 Wang Jialiang recalled.
After that, Wang Jialiang moved to Harbin to live. He often plays chess at a chess stall on Dongqidao Street in Daoli District, Harbin. It was also here that he met his chess initiation teacher, Kim Kai-koon.
"When I was a teenager, Teacher Jin saw that I was playing well, so he took the initiative to lend me his chess scores, the more important "Orange Secrets" and "Plum Blossom Scores" in the "Chess Score Compendium", etc. When I watched "Suitable for Love and Elegance", I began to be very interested in killing chess, and after a long time, I could calculate more than a dozen steps of killing moves just by looking at the picture." Wang Jialiang said that since then, all the way to play chess, Harbin has almost no opponents, and he has become a "small chess master" in Harbin's chess circle.
In the 1950s, chess was popular in some cities in southern China, and the chess world was a river and lake, the south flourished, and the north was lonely.
In order to make his chess level more exquisite, Wang Jialiang began to go out of Harbin and go to the whole country to find a master to play chess.
In 1954, the Chinese folk regional competition was held, and Zhao Wenxuan of Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province, was the first master in North China, and Wang Jialiang, together with several chess friends, mailed some travel expenses to Zhao Wenxuan and invited him to Harbin for more than half a month.
"Zhao Wenxuan is in his 50s, I am 22 years old, I played 21 games with him at that time, I won three sets, I lost six sets, and the other draws, I benefited a lot from it." Wang Jialiang recalled. Later, after being introduced by Zhao Wenxuan, Wang Jialiang went to Tianjin in 1954 and visited Qian Mengwu, the referee of the East China and South China Confrontation At that time, and the process of playing against him also made Wang Jialiang improve his chess skills a lot. At that time, Qian Mengwu told Wang Jialiang a message, saying that the next year, Yang Guanxuan and He Shun'an, who were well-known in the chess world at that time, would go to Beijing to play chess, which was called "double male southward" by the chess circle.
In 1954, Yang Guanxuan and He Shun'an "double xiong went south", the north sent 5 people to fight against the double xiong, the first 4 people lost, Wang Jialiang made the fifth appearance, and played against Yang Guanxuan, who was 6 years older than him, which was the first game of the two half-life games.
At that time, Yang Guanxuan was already the first place in the national folk competition. "Yang Guanxuan has both offensive and defensive, my start is not good, the first half of the game can not win him, to win he must get the first half of the game, if the first 20 moves can not win, you have to hurry up and chess, his endgame is too powerful." Wang Jialiang recalled that this time, the fledgling me undoubtedly lost, but Yang Guanxuan wrote about this game with Wang Jialiang in the "Essence of Yilin" written later, saying that Wang Jialiang's future was unlimited.
The "dark horse" of chess, the national competition to win the silver to create the "North School"
In the 50s of the last century, Wang Jialiang traveled to many places across the country, playing against many masters, and his chess skills were great. At that time, Wang Jialiang was an apprentice in the Harbin factory as a teenager, and then worked in the word model factory of the Longjiang Daily newspaper of qiqihar Daily and the state-owned film machine factory, all of which he played chess in his spare time.
In 1956, the National Sports Commission incorporated chess into the official sports program and held the first national chess tournament. Wang Jialiang won the first place in the selection competition in Harbin, representing Heilongjiang Province, and once again met Yang Guanxuan.
"The game is a points race, after three rounds, Yang Guanxuan won three consecutive wins and accumulated 6 points, I have a win and a draw, accumulated 4 points, the fourth game, Yang Guanxuan met me." Wang Jialiang said.
At that time, Yang Guanxuan's call for the championship was very high, and no one noticed Wang Jialiang. "On the morning of the game, Yang Guanxuan said in an interview with the media that Xiao Wang played chess well, and the chess was OK, and if he wanted to win me, he would have to practice for three years." Wang Jialiang said.
In the game on the same day, Yang Guanlu played against Wang Jialiang, the first game was a chess game, and in the second game, Wang Jialiang sacrificed the "flying knife" that had been prepared for a long time, defeated Yang Guanxuan, and broke Yang Guanxuan's undefeated record at that time. At that time, there was a cheer at the scene, and the audience was in a commotion, although Wang Jialiang ranked second after Yang Guanxuan in the competition. But since then, the Chinese chess world has had Wang Jialiang's seat, and the "Northern School" chess style, which is known for its ferocity, has since gained a foothold in the rivers and lakes. Since then, the Chinese chess circle has shown a chess circle pattern of "Yang Guanxuan in the south and Wang Jialiang in the north".
After that, for many years, Yang Guanxuan and Wang Jialiang met many times at the National Chess Tournament and played 16 games of chess before and after. "I'm going to buy win, or win, and never lose a set." Wang Jialiang said.
In February 1957, Wang Jialiang was invited to Guangzhou to participate in an exhibition competition. Among them, the match between Wang Jialiang and Yang Guanxuan was very sensational, and the audience who watched the chess game on the spot reached more than 20,000 people on the same day, and there was a performance area the size of a football field that was full of people, creating a record for the largest number of viewers, which was the feeling of the north-south chess king match.
At that time, in the crowd of spectators, Wan Siyuan, who was sometimes the president of the Guangzhou Municipal Court in Guangdong Province, loved chess, and Wang Jialiang's bold chess style left a very deep impression on him, which also laid a historic foreshadowing for the establishment of a chess team in Heilongjiang Province more than a year later.
Established the country's first chess academy, so that the "North School" chess swept the country
In 1958, Wan Siyuan was transferred from Guangzhou to Harbin and served as the first deputy director of the Heilongjiang Provincial Sports Commission. He loves chess and is even more enthusiastic about his career. When he was in Guangzhou, Yang Guanxuan was transferred to the chess team with his help. At that time, there was no professional chess team in Heilongjiang, and as soon as Wan Siyuan arrived, he began to set up a chess team in Heilongjiang Province, and Wang Jialiang was transferred to the chess team at this time, and he was also a coach and a chess player.
In 1959, Wang Jialiang won two runners-up for Heilongjiang at the National Games. After returning to Harbin, the leaders of the Heilongjiang Provincial Party Committee set up a banquet to wash the dust for them and proposed the goal of establishing a Heilongjiang chess team.
At that time, Wang Jialiang's "Northern Faction" was already famous throughout the country. In 1961, due to natural disasters in the country, no national competition was held. Heilongjiang Province is preparing for the next year's team competition, the chess team is enough, the Go team will also be sent to the farm, Nie Weiping transferred to the team, only the chess team is short of people.
In order to train troops, Harbin held an invitational tournament for six provinces and cities, booked a room at the Harbin Hostel (now the Madier Hotel), and issued invitations to the three northeastern provinces, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Hubei. In June of that year, chess players from all over the world came, and Wang Jialiang was the coach of the Heilongjiang team.
In 1962, the Heilongjiang provincial team was still only Wang Jialiang, and new players were needed to join, after which Jin Qichang volunteered to join the provincial team.
In 1963, Harbin held another invitational tournament, inviting Hu Ronghua, He Shun'an and Zhu Yongkang from the Shanghai team. In order to form a team, the Heilongjiang team seconded Wang Yongsheng from the railway system to participate in the team.
At that time, the venue of the competition was located in Zhaolin Park, and there were more than 2,000 spectators. The Shanghai team lost, and Wang Yongsheng was loaned to the chess team for training because of his outstanding results, preparing to participate in the 1964 national competition. Wang Jialiang said.
After the cultural revolution began, chess was listed as the "four olds", the Heilongjiang provincial chess team was forced to disband, all the games were canceled, and the chess players went back to their respective homes. Wang Jialiang was sent to Tonghe Farm for a year of transformation because of his "chess master", and then was transferred back to work at the Harbin Film Machine Factory, and his mother burned books and photos related to chess because she was afraid that the Red Guards would raid her home.
In 1972, in order to welcome the visit of the Singapore chess team, Guangdong and Shanghai first restored the chess team.
At that time, After negotiations, Wang Jialiang invited the Shanghai team to the northeast in 1973 to visit and play an exhibition match.
After this visit, the chess game in the three northeastern provinces gradually resumed and was no longer listed as the "four olds". In 1973, the National Team Sports Committee issued a document to resume the national competition, and Chinese chess finally came to light.
In 1985, Wang Jialiang, because of his outstanding contribution to chess, Heilongjiang Province specially approved 400,000 yuan to establish the Heilongjiang Provincial Chess Academy, which was also the first chess academy nationwide.
Chinese chess giants, digging out three world champions international fame
When the national competition was just resumed, the Harbin Municipal Sports Committee organized a new selection for the whole city, and Wang Jialiang won the first place. At the same time, the women's and children's selection competition was held, and it was in this competition that Wang Jialiang discovered Zhao Guorong, who later became the world champion.
"Zhao Guorong plays chess plainly and calmly, and his ability to review is particularly strong." Wang Jialiang said. As the head coach of the Chess Team of Heilongjiang Province, Wang Jialiang has made outstanding contributions to the prosperity of Chess in Heilongjiang Province from the selection of chess seedlings, careful cultivation to leading the team to go out. He has successively trained chess masters Sun Zhiwei, chess masters Zhang Yingfu and Zhang Xiaoping, and female chess masters Zhang Xiaoxia, Zhang Mei and Liu Limei.
Among the many disciples, Zhao Guorong, Wang Linna and Guo Liping were all discovered by Wang Jialiang, and after years of training, they eventually became world chess champions and eventually became grandmasters of Chinese chess.
"Zhao Guorong was about 11 years old at the time, less than the age of entering the provincial team, when the team set up a chess junior class to enjoy the treatment of chess players." Wang Jialiang said.
Before there was no junior class, Wang Jialiang and Zhao Guorong were not far away, he often carried a school bag to Wang Jialiang's home to learn to play chess, Zhao Guorong and Wang Jialiang's chess style is very similar, fierce and good at killing, stronger and braver, but also more delicate, rigid and soft, and later known as the "new Northeast Tiger" by the chess community. Zhao Guorong has said in many interviews: "Mentor Wang Jialiang has helped me the most. ”
In Heilongjiang, the women's chess team has grown from scratch, from weak to strong, all of which embody Wang Jialiang's painstaking efforts.
In a competition in the surrounding counties of Harbin, Wang Jialiang found 11-year-old Wang Linna, at that time, he gave way to the "two horses", played chess with the little girl, felt that it was not easy to win, saw that the child was a "good seedling", and selected Wang Linna to the junior class of the Heilongjiang Provincial Chess Team.
In 1997, Wang Linna defeated all the heroes in the Zhangzhou National Individual Competition, filling the gap that the northern female chess players had never won the championship; in 2000, the Heilongjiang women's team won the women's team crown, and Guo Liping became the second Heilongjiang women's chess champion in the Yichun National Individual Competition in 2002. After that, the two won the World Women's Chess Championship, won the "crown" of the World Chess Competition, and climbed to the highest peak. All this is closely related to Wang Jialiang's insight and talent.
The seedlings of the past, the towering trees of today
Zhao Guorong has served as the president of Heilongjiang Provincial Chess Academy, the head coach of Heilongjiang Chess Team, Wang Linna as the coach of the women's team, Guo Liping is now the director of the Chess Department of the Chess and Card Center of the State General Administration of Sport, and has also served as the host of the chess column of CCTV, using professional knowledge to promote the development of Chinese chess...
From the first time he participated in the National Chess Individual Championship in 1956 to the official "sealing of the sword" in 1987, Wang Jialiang has been in the chess world for 31 years, and his chess age is rarely outstanding. Not only that, he has also created a number of chess books, from the 1950s "Xiangqi Forward", "Xiangqi Center", "Xiangqi Defender", "Orange In the Guts", to the later "Xiangqi Self-study Tutorial", "Xiangqi Modern Layout Essence", "Shun Cannon Complete Collection" and so on are well received by the majority of chess enthusiasts at home and abroad. In 1979, he founded the "Northern Chess Art" magazine, which was later "Chess Art", which was well received by the majority of chess lovers at home and abroad because of its rich content, vivid and lively magazine.
Today, 90-year-old Wang Jialiang is physically tough and mentally strong, and he still pays attention to the development of Chinese chess every day. In his spare time, he can play chess on the Internet, he has loved chess all his life, and he is very pleased with the inheritance.