Head coach Cao Dayuan introduced the players. Beijing News reporter Sun Haiguang photographed
Beijing News (reporter Sun Haiguang) sits on Jiang Weijie, Fan Tingyu, Zhou Ruiyang, Shibano Tiger Maru 4 nine-dan chess players and the best newcomer in the Weijia League Yi Lingtao eight dan, which makes Cao Dayuan nine dan full of confidence. Today, at the inauguration ceremony of the Rizhao Shanhai Elephants, head coach Cao Dayuan bluntly said that he would lead the team to attack the championship this season.
In the 22 years of the Weijia League, Shandong Weiqi has always been a traditional strong team, and it and Chongqing are the only two teams that have never been relegated. In 2010, Shandong, with Zhou Heyang, Jiang Weijie and Zhou Ruiyang as the main team, won the league championship. However, last season, Shandong's record was not good, ranking only 12th.
Since this season, the Shandong Weiqi team has settled in Rizhao and changed its name to Rizhao Shanhai Elephants. With the return of Zhou Ruiyang, the Rizhao Shanhai Elephants team has a stronger lineup, currently has Jiang Weijie, Zhou Ruiyang, Fan Tingyu and Japanese foreign aid Shibano Tiger Maru 4 nine-dan players, is the league with the most world champions and nine-dan players. Shibano Toramaru Kudan currently holds three titles in Japan, The Celebrity, Throne and Ten Dan, and is second only to Yuta Iniyama, the first person in the Japanese chess player power list.
In addition, the two "post-00s" chess players, Yi Lingtao Eight Dan and Chen Zijian Seven Dan, are also an important supplement to the Rizhao Shanhai Elephant Team. In the 2018 Season, Yi Lingtao won the Multi-Win Award and the Best Newcomer Award.
In the eyes of head coach Cao Dayuan, this is the team's most neat lineup in recent years. "With our squad, it may be a bit high-profile to say that we won the championship, but it is also too modest to position it in relegation. Objectively speaking, our positioning is somewhere in between. But I have a dream of planting the flag on the highest peak of the armor. ”
Jiang Weijie, the main player in the team, should keep a low profile when talking about the goal of this season: "It is no problem for the overall strength of our team to enter the top six, but the championship is still a bit difficult, first strive to enter the top three." ”
The League began in April for many years, but this season has been postponed twice due to the impact of the epidemic. Not surprisingly, the 2020 League will kick off in late August.
Beijing News reporter Sun Haiguang
Edited by Wang Xichong proofread by Lucy