To 'avenge' for her father

At first she learned Xiangqi because she wanted to 'avenge' for her father.

Liu Huan was born in Ping Xian, of the town of Nanyang, in the year 1992. As from the days she can remembered, her father loved to play Xiangqi. Father played the game, but played badly, losing everytime, yet coming back to play more. One summer day in 2000, the eight year old Liu Huan went out to recall her father back for dinner, she saw her father was playing a game with others, there were lots of small pieces of paper stucked all over his face. "Immediately I knew that my father must have lost many games, I told my father with some bitterness that I was going to learn to play the game myself." Liu Huan said, at that time she was angry for her father and felt helpless too, and there and then she made a decision to learn the game, she thought of the day when she will beat all the opponents of her father, and 'avenge' her father's tormentors.

Under the guidance of her father, Liu Huan made very quick progress, and less than 3 months after, the father was not an equal opponent of the daughter, in 10 games of play, 8 of them would be won by the daughter. She said to her father light-heartedly, in the beginning it was with intention to 'avenge' your tormentors, however without realizing it, I myself became another 'tormentor'.

The father, who knew something about Xiangqi through his study, realised that his daughter was good for the game, thus he started his plan of accompanying his daughter to play against all the other good players around the county, and within a year, all these players were unable to measure against her daughter any more. Then in the beginning of Spring 2000, hearing that Henan Chess and Cards Academy was going to establish a chess training base in Yuzhou City, the father without any hesitation sent his daughter to the Academy. In the training base, Liu Huan received systematic Xiangqi training, studied good players style of play, investigated and analysed masters' games, study and yet more study, that was almost Liu Huan's life in the Academy.

Now, because they wanted to look after Liu Huan in her Xiangqi pursuit, all her family had moved to Yuzhou. Mother and father had no job of their own, so they opened a small shop selling bits and pieces to get life going, at the same time supporting the expenses of Liu Huan's competitions outside of her hometown. The reporter asked her: you won the third place in a national chess competition, did you get big money prize for that, so you can improve your life in some way? Liu Huan replied with a light smile: "There was no money prize." According to Wen Pengjian's explanation, there were no material prizes offered in these national championships, chess players were competiting mainly for their ranking, for their better names recognition, for building a foundation to take part in international tournaments in the future.

Intending to 'avenge' on behalf of her father, unexpectedly she brought back a National Xiangqi Master's crown, Liu Huan was very happy, and now, she is aiming for the National Xiangqi Grandmaster's 'Precious Seat' (chess throne).





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