Yu Bin won the 2000 LG Cup.
When he played chess, Chinese Go fell into a deep trough and was completely suppressed by the "Korean Wave" led by Cao Xuanxuan and Lee Chang-ho;
At the age of 33, he defeated Liu Changhe in the final of the 2000 LG Cup, the only world champion in The 10-year "Dark Ages" of Chinese Go;
In 2009, he became the head coach of the Chinese Go team, cultivating a large number of young talents led by Ke Jie, and making indelible contributions to the turnaround of Chinese Go;
He was Yu Bin, who said: "Go must be clean, utilitarian ideas must not be." ”
Learning Go was originally just to get a good job
Influenced by the strong Go atmosphere in his hometown, Yu Bin learned chess at the age of 7, "At that time, unlike there are so many Go schools now, I could only learn with local masters." ”
Yu Bin's purpose in learning chess at first was simple, to help him find a job in a public institution. "Before me, we had several Go seniors in Tiantai County (Yu Bin's hometown), like Jin Qianqian and Zhu Jufei, who were very famous because they had already found jobs when they learned Go. Our local dialect is called 'out of the mountain', that is, to find a public institution. Yu Bin said.
Not long after learning chess, Yu Bin showed his talent for Go. At the age of 12, he entered the Zhejiang provincial team, and the representative player in the team at that time was Ma Xiaochun.
Like many industries at that time, chess players entering the provincial team also had to discuss the vacancies such as seniority. "If there is no vacancy, you simply can't get in, and the opportunity may be gone." At the age of 12, Yu Bin entered the Zhejiang team as he wished, and was selected for the national team five years later.
Talking about the experience of learning chess in that year, Yu Bin had some feelings. Now most children who learn chess do not need to take the road of professional teams anymore. As long as the child is talented, parents will spare no effort to send to the dojo or Go school in the Chong section for professional training, "as long as you are good enough, the provincial team will definitely come to dig you, or even cross the region to dig you." ”
This way of facing the social audition ensures that the Selection Of Chinese Go is large enough. In Yu Bin's view, the renewal of the training system is a major reason for the success of Go in China.
However, in the huge base of The Go crowd, Yu Bin also found some bad signs, and some parents bought chess for their children. Some amateur masters with entry standards do not enter the stage every year, and the income from selling chess alone is higher than that of an amateur champion. "The industry rules are gone, and technically nothing can be done to make up for it." Yu Bin said that Chinese Go has a fine tradition, which has been well passed down from generation to generation, "Go must be clean, this kind of utilitarian thinking must not be allowed." ”
In the 10-year "dark age" of Chinese Go, Yu Bin won the only championship. Photo/Osports
Win the LG Cup, the highlight of the Chinese Go trough
In May 1995, Ma Xiaochun won the Toyo Securities Cup, becoming the first world champion of Chinese Go. In the Fujitsu Cup in August of the same year, Ma Xiaochun became the double champion. After that, Chinese Go began a 10-year long "dark age." During this period, Yu Bin was almost the only shining point, he defeated Liu Changhe in the final of the 4th LG Cup in 2000, becoming the only world champion in Chinese Go in 10 years.
In that year's LG Cup, 4 Chinese Go players reached the top 8, but Ma Xiaochun, Chang Hao and Wang Lei were out of the quarterfinals, only Yu Bin passed, and Lee Chang-ho, Liu Chang-hyuk and Cao Xuan-hyun occupied the other 3 seats in the top 4.
In the semi-finals, Yu Bin won against Cho Hwang-hyun. In the final five chess, Yu Bin defeated Liu Changhe, who entered the LG Cup final 3 times, 3-1, and Chinese Go won the world championship after 5 years.
"To tell the truth, the LG Cup did not pin hope on me that year, Ma Xiaochun was still a hit year, and he and Chang Hao had more opportunities than me. However, every time they encountered the four kings of Korea, especially Lee Chang-ho, they basically returned without success. Time went back 20 years, Yu Bin smiled and said, luck to his side, "When so many people attacked the world championship, I was just luckier and caught the opportunity." ”
At that time, Chinese Go was completely suppressed by the Korean team for a full decade, until Chang Hao won the Ying Cup in 2005.
"During that time, China's Go strength was not as good as others (South Korea)." Yu Bin did not shy away from the gap between China and South Korea, admitting that the technology was indeed far behind the opponent, "Now look back, South Korea eats the layouts all over the world, and the current technology will soon be cracked." Especially now that there is AI, it is even more fearless. ”
The reason why Chinese Go was left behind by South Korea, Yu Bin said that the main reason was the birth of Lee Chang-ho. In those years in South Korea, Lee Chang-ho fought hundreds of games with his teacher Cho Hwan-hyun, and almost single-handedly improved the level of Korean Go by a large margin. Yu Bin even agreed that Chinese Go, to a certain extent, used the power of Korean Go to complete the transcendence of Japanese Go in that decade.
Yu Bin trained star chess players such as Ke Jie (right). Beijing News reporter Sun Haiguang photographed
Be a coach and cultivate excellent chess players such as Ke Jie
In 2009, Yu Bin became the head coach of the Chinese Go team. At that time, although Chinese Go was still inferior to South Korea, it had already risen.
"To be honest, there are concerns in the short term, but I am not worried about the general trend." Yu Bin said that the general environment at that time was the struggle for hegemony between China and South Korea, and although Chinese Go was slightly inferior, he saw hope in the increasingly tug-of-war between China and South Korea.
In 2013, Chinese Go won 6 consecutive world championships, Zhou Ruiyang, Shi Yue, Fan Tingyu, Chen Yaoye, Mi Yuting, Tang Weixing and others won the bailing cup, LG cup, Ying's cup, Chunlan cup, dream lily cup, three-star cup, Chinese Go completely turned over.
Turning over does not mean that the opponent is overwhelmed in an all-round way, "We are now a little ahead of South Korea, but the real Go technology is not overwhelming, and the top five in South Korea have suspense with us." Yu Bin said that whether it is Park Tinghuan and Ke Jiexia, or Shin Jinchen and Ke Jiexia, the one-on-one result is still difficult to predict.
Yu Bin, who is good at layout, has seen the dawn of victory in the sino-South Korean hegemony for many years, "In the future Sino-South Korean hegemony, we must win." Yu Bin gave four reasons: first, there are not as many excellent Korean chess players as China; second, korean chess players in the year of playing are not as young as Chinese chess players; third, China's Go talent training system is better than South Korea; fourth, South Korea's Go market is shrinking, and China is growing rapidly.
When he is not busy, Yu Bin still plays chess online, saying that tens of thousands of people play offline every night, and he will pay attention to the comments of netizens about Chinese Go, Ke Jie, Yu Zhiying and other star chess players.
"From the perspective of the national team, we encourage star players, which is good for the marketing of Go." Yu Bin bluntly said that the role of star chess players in the development of the Go project is immeasurable, and the role of a star chess player is even more than that of several world champions.
As the head coach of the Chinese team Go, Yu Bin thought about how to win the game. But as a Go player, he is more concerned about where Go will go, whether there will be more and more people concerned about Go, "Go to the end, the technical level is certainly no problem, more is to understand from a cultural point of view, to promote Go, the image and promotion of star chess players is particularly important." Yu Bin concluded that the better the Go market and the bigger the cake, the higher the level of Go.
Introduction · Yu Bin
Birth date: April 6, 1967
Origin: Tiantai, Zhejiang
career:
He learned chess at the age of 7, entered the Zhejiang provincial team in 1978, and entered the national Go team in 1983;
In 2000, he defeated South Korea's Liu Changhe in the final of the 4th LG Cup, becoming the second World Champion of Chinese Go after Ma Xiaochun;
In 2007, she became the coach of the women's Go team;
In 2009, he succeeded Ma Xiaochun as the head coach of the Chinese Go team, and trained a number of outstanding chess players such as Ke Jie, Chen Yaoye and Gu Zihao.
Beijing News reporter Sun Haiguang
Edited by Wang Chunqiu Proofreader Jia Ning