Japanese Go began to undergo major changes in the Edo period, and gradually began to become the center of the world's Go. By the 1980s, Japanese Go had reached its peak. Japan's Go population is as high as 12 million people, with hundreds of high-dan players, and there are six famous super-first-class chess players: Hayashi Haifeng, Otake Hideo, Masao Kato, Cho Zhixun, Kobayashi Koichi, Masaki Takemiya, as well as a large number of strong nine-dan players such as Yoshio Ishida, Kyaw Kobayashi, Wang Licheng, Wang Mingwan, Yamashiro Hiroshi, Satoshi Kataoka, and Shuzo Awaji. These players form a powerful camp of Japanese Go, which is extremely powerful in terms of sharpness and thickness, and Japanese Go is also known as the world's Kingdom of Go.
At that time, the strength of Japanese Go was beyond doubt. Even Cho Hwan-hyun, the Korean "Emperor of Go" who later swept the world chess world and was recognized as the world's first, was defeated 0:2 in the 1980 triple-game match with Cho Ji-hoon, a Japanese super-first-class chess player of Korean descent, and after the defeat, Cao Xuanxuan was once very inferior, believing that his Korean celebrities and Cho Ji-hoon's Japanese celebrities were not worth mentioning. Japan's super-first-class chess players are considered invincible, and at this time, Chinese and Korean Go can only learn from Japan like elementary school students.
The atmosphere of Go in Japan is also very good, and the Japanese government promotes Go as a traditional culture and national skill in Japan. If you look for a magazine or newspaper in Japan, whether it is a financial or military class, a fishing class or a current affairs news category, most of them will have a Go question or a chess sheet. Because the media believes that Go is a traditional culture, it is their responsibility to pass it on. There are more than 20 levels of craftsmen who make Go boards in Japan, and the top craftsmen's chess boards can easily sell for 6 million yen, which is converted into 350,000 yuan. Therefore, teenagers with Go talent in the world want to go to Japan to develop.
However, in the past two decades, Japanese Go has become a supporting role in Chinese and Korean Go, not only in the world championship is difficult to find, or even a victory. How did such a huge contrast come about? Experts and scholars in the chess industry have made a lot of interpretations on this. Someone once asked Nie Weiping to analyze the reasons for the backwardness of Japanese Go, and Nie Weiping, who was quick-talking, said:
The ease of Japanese Go has shaped their current style of play, and when they encounter a wolf-like Korean player and a stronger Chinese player, they are at a high level.
The reasons for the backwardness should be very clear, I personally think it is because the living conditions of Japanese chess players are too good! I hope to restore the three-legged situation between China, Japan and the ROK at an early date.
How comfortable are Japanese professional Go players in Japan? I counted the comparison of prize money in the Japanese professional Go tournament with the Go tournaments in China and South Korea, as well as the World Series, and the results were shocking.
Exchange rate conversion as at January 3, 2020
At present, the World Series and the Go competitions in China and Korea are all based on the level of prize money to determine the ranking of the competition. For example, the Prize Money for Japanese Chess Jihad is as high as 45 million yen, so it ranks first among the seven major chess tournaments in Japan. And South Korea's chess holy war, because the championship prize is only 140,000, is less and less valued. China's chess holy war has also been increased to 800,000 yuan because of the prize money, becoming the highest prize money event in China, thus surpassing Tianyuan and celebrity battles and becoming the most concerned domestic competition.
Chess Jihad: 45 million yen, equivalent to about 2.97 million yuan
Celebrity Wars: 33 million yen, equivalent to about 2.18 million yuan
Beninfang: 32 million yen, equivalent to about 2.11 million yuan
Battle of the Throne: 15 million yen, equivalent to about 990,000 yuan
Ten Duan Zhan: 15 million yen, equivalent to about 990,000 yuan
Tianyuan War: 13 million yen, equivalent to about 860,000 yuan
Jihad: 7.77 million yen, equivalent to about 510,000 yuan.
Of course, due to the great appreciation of the renminbi in the past two years, coupled with the Japanese government's stimulation of the economy, the currency is extremely loose, and the yen will shrink a lot against the renminbi in 2021. For example, according to the exchange rate as of September 15, 2021, 45 million yen is about 2.65 million yuan. Although it has shrunk, it is still very high.
In 2020, Yuta Iyama, who defended the titles of Chess Saint and Ben in-Fang, and won the title of celebrity, won the first place in the prize list for 10 consecutive years with an amount of 128.51 million yen (about 8 million yuan), which is also the 9th consecutive year that Yuta Iyama has exceeded 100 million yen.
Japan Chess Academy 2020 Chess Players Prize List
World Chess Players Revenue List 2020:
1. Yuta Iyama (Japan): JPY 128 million, about RMB 8 million
2. Ke Jie (China): About 6.2 million RMB
3. Shin Jin-chan (South Korea): 850 million won, about 5.05 million yuan, which is the first time that his annual prize money has exceeded 5 million.
4. Park Ting-hwan (Korea): 560 million won, about 3.3 million yuan.
China's outstanding chess players earn hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, and the top chess players have millions of incomes, which is simply incomparable with Japanese chess players. This forces Chinese chess players to desperately play well in international competitions, and only by winning the world championship can they obtain high income. And Japanese Go players, since they can be so comfortable in China. Naturally, they no longer have to focus on international competitions. Honor is important, but making money is also important. Fighting with the top chess players such as Ke Jie, Shin Jin-chan, and Park Ting-hwan in international competitions is naturally not as good as abusing a bunch of Japanese chess players at home. If there is a conflict between an international competition and a domestic competition, I am afraid that Japanese chess players will not hesitate to give up the international competition. In the long run, Japanese Go has become a game of self-amusement behind closed doors. Therefore, the only one who represented Japan in the World Series was left with a rich family and no shortage of money.
More than two thousand years ago, Mencius in China said: Born in sorrow, died in comfort.
True to me!