Compared with the development of professional Go in Shandong in the past eighteen years, the chess project was carried out earlier. Liu Wei, who was working as a sports reporter in qilu evening news in 1998, accidentally entered the chess world because of his public welfare heart to help children, and pulled Tong Yuanming, the magical leader of the national elephant industry, starting from the cultivation of children, all the way ups and downs, with today's brilliant achievements. The full text of Liu Wei's speech is as follows:
Spring City in summer, the charm is still there. We gathered at the magnificent Ramada to celebrate the Jinan Yinfeng Chess Team and the new season and world city league. I was very excited, and I was very excited, in addition to expressing congratulations, but also expressing gratitude. As a witness to the team, today's event is so grand, with so many leaders and guests to come to the scene, it is really very happy and exciting.
From the establishment of the first chess club in Jinan in 1998, to the formation of the first chess team for Shandong to compete in domestic and foreign competitions, to the establishment of the first professional chess team in the history of Jinan today. Unconsciously, I have stepped into the threshold of national elephants for more than 20 years, and I have also paid the most precious period of youth in my life.
We started from the wasteland of Shandong chess projects, starting from the earliest cultivation of children, to the emergence of a stubble potential rookie and top chess players, and then to our team dominating the national first division league, dominating the Intellectual Games, Asian Games, World Championships, World Team Championships, International Olympic Games, we have given birth to more than 50 national champions and world champions. Not only chess, but also Go, we also have excellent records, Shandong Go just held an 18-year-old coming-of-age ceremony not long ago, and there have been countless champions along the way, and last year's Weijia League won the runner-up, which is also worthy of pride.
From the absence of a professional chess player in Qilu Dadi to now having more than 30 professional chess players in multiple professional chess teams, Qilu Chess Academy has made painstaking efforts for the cause of Shandong chess, and has also made certain achievements, and has not lived up to the high expectations of Shandong chess fans. In order to revitalize Jinan's chess industry and help Jinan's urban development, we formed this national elephant team with Yinfeng Group last year to compete in the China City League. Because of years of accumulation, because of the many excellent players, Jinan Yinfeng team finally won the championship, the road to winning the championship is very difficult, but it is also a matter of course.
Over the years, we have received strong support from the sports department and received great help from all walks of life. Today, Minister Yang Feng of the Jinan Municipal Party Committee came to the scene to express his attention and support to our team, which was very touching. Deputy Director Wang Yankui of the Provincial Sports Bureau also came to help, Director Wang has been in charge of chess and card projects for many years, and has always cared for me and our chess team, and you have a credit to the chess team for winning the championship.
Zhang Haizhong, director of the Provincial Chess and Card Sports Management Center, has not led Shandong chess and cards for a long time, but the support for our chess team is real. He was present at the final of the city race, and he advised the team training and competition, provided logistical services, and the team won the championship.
As an entrepreneur, Wang Wei, chairman of Yinfeng Group, has social responsibilities, is enthusiastic about public welfare and sports undertakings, and has been helping me personally to Shandong chess, and has undertaken the home games of the Shandong team of the Weijia League for many times. Mr. Wang said that the next step is to increase investment in the chess industry and fully support shandong intellectual sports.
Zhang Ruiyun is always my mentor and my old leader in the Qilu Evening News. More than twenty years ago, when I started the Shandong chess project in the desert, I received the full help of Mr. Zhang, who had a unique strategic vision, including the establishment of the Chess Club, the Qilu Evening News Chess Academy, and every chess team in the future. I still remember what Mr. Zhang said to me, "You are cultivating talents for Shandong for the country, and you are also promoting Qilu culture and Shandong sports, such a meaningful thing, I have no reason not to support it!" "Just this sentence, let me stick to it to this day. Thank you Mr. Zhang, you are the benefactor and guide of my chess journey.
There were other leaders and guests in the room, who also helped me a lot in my career. I am a member of the staff, there are always noble people to help, because there are too many people who support, there are too many words to express gratitude, and the time relationship will not be described one by one today. I'm really impressed, and I'd like to say a few more words, focusing on our championship-winning players and recalling a few of their little stories.
I still remember Wen Yang, who was still a little bit twenty years ago, and became the first batch of children in Jinan to learn chess. The boy was clever and very hardworking, and soon won the national children's championship. Later, after Tong Yuanming came, after more professional training, the level was improved again. He followed me to the southern expedition to the northern war, participated in domestic and foreign competitions, made great efforts for Shandong to win the first division championship twice, and won many major championships such as the National Wisdom Games, championships and foreign opens, and also represented the Chinese team in the world team championship. Now he is the coach of the national team, but also the head coach and team member of the Jinan Yinfeng team, at the critical moment of this campaign in the city league, Wenyang platooned properly, and personally charged the front, making a great contribution to the final championship.
I still remember Hou Yifan coming to Jinan when he was 7 years old. When coach Tong Yuanming told me that he had found a prodigy, a wizard who had not met for decades, the boys could not get rid of her, and the future future must be unlimited, I did not hesitate to leave this treasure to cultivate. At that time, Hou Yifan's mother came with her, and I heard that she quit her job in her hometown in Jiangsu for this reason. Hou Yifan went to school and lived in Jinan, which was very hard, but he always insisted on dreaming of a national elephant.
Soon, Hou Yifan was on the verge of becoming a pioneer: she competed in the World Junior Children's Championship in Greece at the age of 9, and I was also present at the time, and as a result, she won the 10-year-old championship, breaking the record for the youngest age in China. After that, Hou Yifan simply became a machine to win championships and break records. From the youngest chess master, the smallest international master, the youngest women's grandmaster, the youngest male grandmaster, to the youngest player to win the national championship, the smallest player to participate in the World Cup, the smallest player to participate in the International Olympic Games, the smallest team member to win the team championship, to breaking the world record for the minimum age to win the world championship, winning the women's individual world championship four times, the Gibraltar Open to defeat the invincible little Polgar and the three men's super first-class grandmasters...
From individual championships, first division championships, to Asian Games, World Games, to World Championships, to World Championships, international Olympiad... After several Chinese chess players who won the world championship before her, she has always regretted that she did not defeat little Polga who did not participate in the men's competition, and Hou Yifan completed the mission of defeating Xiaobo, becoming the first chinese Chinese and Asian to truly rule the world's female national elephant, and has been firmly occupying the position of the world's first women for seven or eight years.
This is a remarkable achievement. To know that chess is not a traditional Chinese sport, has always been the field of European and American rule, Chinese pulling teeth, becoming the absolute hegemon of this project, even Bill Gates, who has never praised Chinese athletes, has made an exception to praise Hou Yifan, the world-famous "Times" and "New York Times" have also reported Hou Yifan's deeds on a full page, and such a space report on Chinese athletes is also groundbreaking. This is the pride of Hou Yifan, and it is also the pride of every Chinese.
Lu Shanglei, another grandmaster of the Jinan Yinfeng team, also learned chess in Jinan almost at about the same time as Hou Yifan. He came from Benxi, Liaoning Province, accompanied by his father, and traveled thousands of miles to Jinan to learn chess. Because they also came in the name of Teacher Mu Tong Yuanming, they became one of the many children from other provinces in China to Jinan. He also went to school while learning chess, and worked hard all the way to today, becoming an excellent chess player in China and representing China in many world competitions.
Speaking of Teacher Tong, you are really worthy of respect. He is a prodigy and eccentric in the national elephant industry, and in just a few years of coming to Shandong, he has cultivated a large number of national youth champions, including Lu Shanglei, Hou Yifan, Li Chao, Zhai Mo, etc., and later became champions and became grandmasters. This time, Lu Shanglei played as a men's player in jinan, and twice played overtime when advancing to the finals, survived the danger, helped the team advance to the final, and made great contributions to winning the championship. Lu Shanglei was also named the best chess player in the city league, which is well deserved.
Huang Renjie, the junior stage of the Yinfeng team, has just won the first place in the men's world championship division (China), and he won two gold medals in the junior men's individual and team at last year's National Wisdom Games, and has begun to show his sharp edge and become a leader in talents of the same age. There are also Tong Yan and the younger Sun Jiajun in the team, who are also the stars of hope for the future.
Speaking of reserve forces, Shandong Guoxiang is really powerful. We won five gold medals at the Li Chengzhi Tournament, which marked the highest level of youth, accounting for half of the total number of 10 gold medals, so that many children from other provinces were afraid to see Shandong's chess players. When Shandong Guoxiang was brilliant, almost one-third of the 12 teams participating in the National First Division League were players trained by the Qilu Chess Academy, and it is no exaggeration to say that in the cultivation of chess reserve talents, we are definitely the best in the Chinese national elephant industry. Including the following professional competitions, domestic and foreign competitions.
The Asian Games China won four gold medals, we took three, the World Games China 12 gold medals we have four, of course we are more cattle. Taking this city league as an example, our club not only formed teams from Jinan and Qingdao provinces, but also helped the team members to help Haikou and Xi'an create the first professional national elephant team in the history of their cities. Therefore, in terms of the thickness of chess reserve talents, Shandong is definitely worth showing off.
I remember that Bu Xiangzhi joined our club in 2004 and should be the first person to transfer the top Chinese chess players. Bu Xiangzhi is a native of Qingdao, who became famous as a teenager, becoming the world's youngest chess player to win the male grandmaster at the age of 13, and winning the men's championship in the world age group at the age of 14. Bu Xiangzhi used to play for Qingdao Daily, and after I mobilized him to come to Jinan to join the Shandong team, I found that he was really another treasure after Hou Yifan. He has not only won the championship in national competitions repeatedly, but also won gold in the World Wisdom Games, Asian Games, Olympiad and other competitions, and together with Hou Yifan, he has become the "Gemini Constellation" of our club, Shandong and even the Chinese chess world.
I still remember going to Bulgaria to help Bu Xiangzhi participate in the Sofia Grand Slam Tournament, which is the world's highest level of professional super competition, and no Chinese chess player has ever been invited to participate before. Bu Xiangzhi also defeated carl sen, the first man today's men's world champion, in a slow chess game, which is the only Chinese chess player so far. Thank you to Bu Xiangzhi for his contributions to Shandong and to China's national elephants. There are many chess players, because they are not on the scene today, they will not be listed one by one.
Unconsciously, Shandong Guoxiang has gone through 23 years of history, and I am reminded of the cold and hard work when we first started. From the earliest no team members, no funds, no training grounds, no office space, to today's Yushu Linfeng, countless champions and has become the benchmark of the Chinese chess industry. For many years, we have been relying on self-hematopoiesis and independent market-oriented operations. We started from the predicament, waded all the way through the mountains and rivers, and completely followed the laws of the market to make a road... Although this road is still full of thorns, it has gradually entered the right track and has become a rare case in the national chess world.
It took me and my team to get involved in chess because I helped learn chess children, and it took more than 20 years of hard work to get to where I am today. Just think, without the support of the faith of enthusiastic public welfare, without the concerted efforts and solidarity of chess players and coaches, it is difficult to imagine that we can create today's miracles. Now, we are no longer fighting by ourselves, Shandong Chess and Card Management Center, Shandong Provincial Sports Bureau has long begun to attach importance to chess, our outstanding players have a sports bureau establishment, Director Wang, Director Zhang and Director Zhang of Jinan Sports Bureau are personally present at the venue, and the chess team issued the "Shandong Chess Special Contribution Award", which is a strong support for us, is a strong signal to focus on the development of chess
The new National Games will be held soon, the Asian Games will be held next year, both Games have chess projects, and I believe that we have better policy support in Shandong, and we will go all out to achieve good results. The new season begins immediately, with the National City League and the World Cities League in July. This year,the National First Division will also resume, and it is expected to start in September, and we will face multi-front combat, and there are many difficulties.
I believe in the strength of our team members, and I also believe in their fighting spirit. We have many years of management experience, we have the tempering of participating in many competitions, we have the support of leaders at all levels and all sectors of society, we will definitely take advantage of the victory and move forward and create brilliant again.
Once again, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to all the leaders, sponsors, chess players, chess fans, media friends, and the staff of the club and the chess team, who have always cared for and supported me and the chess team, which will never be forgotten.