There have been too many articles on Wu Qingyuan's amazing achievements and rich life, and his historical positioning and evaluation are not uniform. A few years after the death of the master, AI is surging up, and in the context of a broader vision, we may wish to briefly analyze his Go ideas.
The six super-first-class players who created the most brilliant golden age of modern Go in Japan have collectively commented on ancient and modern chess players, and several of the great chess players they respect are quite consistent: Dao Ce, Xiu Ce, Xiu He, Xiu Rong, and Wu Qingyuan. Among them, Wu Qingyuan has the highest evaluation, most people think that he is "the strongest in ancient and modern times", and the "Complete Works of Wu Qingyuan" are all necessary things for them when they are young, and they still play diligently after climbing the peak of chess.
In the face of the exquisite chess scores in "The Complete Works of Wu Qingyuan", instead of praising Master Wu's in-depth calculation, we should say that he has amazing judgment on the situation - in the end, Go should be a battle of judgment, assuming that the calculations of the masters are to the extreme, all changes can be seen at a glance, and the most suitable change to be able to choose the most suitable change for the current situation is to measure which is higher or lower, which is also an important reason why AI can now override humans. In that era, Master Wu had an insight beyond ordinary people, he knew when to use strong, when to close, coupled with the support of extremely strong technical strength, he succeeded.
So, can it be said that Master Wu's overly strong chess moves are slightly contrary to the chess theory recognized by everyone at that time? If his opponent were to deal with him in the same way, how would he respond? In Master Wu's heyday, when the opponent used the same "excessive" chess to deal with himself, Master Wu could most of the time break it. On the surface, he counted deeper than others, but in fact, it was more than that.
In terms of computing, no one who has reached the high level of professional level does not have extremely strong computing ability, and What makes Master Wu superior to others is his extremely flexible thinking - for example, when others are still calculating who to kill, he is already thinking about how to catch the situation after the conversion. In Master Wu's view of Go, nothing is necessary, as long as it is beneficial to the current situation, it does not matter if the second son's head is pulled, what is the harm in the chess tendon being eaten? Objectively speaking, these moves may not be the best means of the situation at that time, but the whimsical ideas they showed made the opponent confused, completely disrupted the established deployment, and the chess game was dragged into a completely new field. And Master Wu's speed of entry in the face of a new situation is difficult for others to compare, just like the exam that originally announced the scope of assessment in advance suddenly changed its content completely, it was all unprepared questions. For each candidate, the questions are the same, and the exam is fair, but it is obviously easier for those who are mentally prepared to adapt to such changes. Master Wu's unfettered thinking makes him never overwhelmed by the unknown of the situation, he rarely takes the layout of a fixed pattern, and those chess players who have their own familiar routines are confused because they are easily broken, and the technical gap that is not obvious suddenly widens, and the balance of victory and defeat is tilted.
Therefore, what Master Wu is better than others may not only be the technology itself, but his open-mindedness. The "chess theory" in his mind is not a traditional "chess theory", but a kind of "chess theory" that is very in line with actual combat, and the unconstrained Wu Qingyuan has expanded the artistic side of Go. It is the era that created Wu Qingyuan, just like Xiu Ce's "black first undefeated" in that year, Wu Qingyuan's high winning rate in the era of unsuitable eyes improved the theoretical level of Go, especially for the victory of white chess to open an active road, rather than following each other closely like before, waiting for a slow hand or losing. If you talk about the technique of chess alone, Master Wu is naturally extremely outstanding, but it should not be strong enough to surpass all the contemporaneous masters.
It is not difficult to understand why after the advent of the sticker era, Master Wu's record is not as eye-catching as before. Because of the stickers, the theory of Go has undergone major changes, and it can even be said that the targeted Go and the unspecified Go are two kinds of Go. There is no need for white chess to go through the sub-moves, as long as the chess is arranged in a step-by-step manner, the balance of the situation can be maintained. And black chess needs to be proactive, otherwise, "insufficient sticking" will be a very real problem. It is undeniable that Master Wu has passed his peak period when the era of sticking came, coupled with the impact of events such as car accidents, as well as the sense of loss brought about by the opponent who was originally demoted by himself to now have to play with him equally, so that he can no longer be as arbitrary as before. With Master Wu's talent, it is not difficult for him to create a set of layout theories of the eye-catching era, but after all, the years are not spared, coupled with the reasons of physical condition, he can only continue to adhere to his already formed view of Go, in order to compete with the opponents of the dragon and the tiger, and the winning rate will inevitably fall. In fact, Master Wu still has a fairly outstanding performance in the news chess battles of the post-Juban chess era, but for various reasons, he has participated in news chess battles with limited numbers, and the limelight has gradually been overshadowed by Sakata Einan, which is not so prominent.
After fading out of the chess battle, Master Wu began to immerse himself in the new Theory of Go, and "21st Century Go" is the crystallization of his painstaking efforts. However, at this time, Master Wu is no longer a fighter on the battlefield, but a philosopher who explores chess and life. This set of Go theories is of great humanistic value, but its application in actual combat has not yet reached the highest height. With the emergence of Go AI, everyone felt the similarity between Wu Qingyuan's Go thought and artificial intelligence thinking methods, and they also admired the master even more.