(Ed. A story by the former women's world chess champion Ms Xie Jun about her visit to France in mid October 2003, when she was participating in the Franco-Chinese chess exhibitions as part of a cultural exchange. There and then, Grandmaster Hu Ronghua became her Xiangqi teacher. The article sheds light on some aspects of Chess, Xiangqi and Weiqi (Go)'s relationship.)
Cultural Exchange in Paris
by Xie Jun
Three different kind of games performing on the same stage at the same time was rare, it was ground breaking and has never attempted before. If you ask me what I gained most from participating in the friendly exchange activities during my stay in France, I would say that I had found a renown and respected Xiangqi coach to teach me.
A once-in-a-lifetime visit to a famous teacher
My Xiangqi coach is extremely well-known. The game of Xiangqi has been the art handed down from generation to generation, and yet how do I still need to travel to far away France to find a foreign coach to learn Xiangqi? Forget it, don't hang everyone's appetite, my new coach for the game of Xiangqi is no other than the great and amazing Grandmaster Hu Ronghua in person.
I guess when my friends at home seeing this, they will definitely say that is not possible, Mr. Hu Ronghua a player of Xiangqi to teach Ms Xie Jun Chess? Is it possible that Ms Xie Jun is tired of playing Chess, and now she wanted to change her career to Xiangqi halfway? In reality, no matter what kind of chess we play, the truth of chess playing remains the same. Often, when our chess technique and skill reaches a certain level, the player's understanding of the game is key to victory or defeat, as a proverb pointed out the essence and secret is outside of the game itself. Therefore, for a Grandmaster like Hu Ronghua, his knowledge and understanding of Xiangqi is an inexhaustible wealth, of great benefit for younger players.
In 1960 Hu Ronghua won his 1st National Xiangqi Championship at the tender age of 15, and 40 years later, he won his 14th National Xiangqi Championship in 2000. He holds the record of being the youngest champion, the oldest champion and the highest number of national championships won, so Grandmaster Hu Ronghua is definitely the most legendary player in China, and his brilliant career is a miracle in itself. When he swept through and beat his rival and opponents with brilliancy, his friends and admirers called him "Commander Hu". Nowadays he is still active on the front line aged 58, so Grandmaster Hu Ronghua has got added the title of being called an "Immortal Bird".
Since I started to play Chess, I have heard about Grandmaster Hu Ronghua's name very often, however, because the Xiangqi and Chess competitions were rarely held at the same time in the same venue together, I have not had much direct contacts with Grandmaster Hu Ronghua himself over the years. In addition to a few brief encounters at some large-scale events, the longest time we gathered together was in the festival of the 10 outstanding chess players during the 50th national anniversary in 1999. Now, to have the guidance and help of a Grandmaster of this level is definitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me.
He remembers he met me twenty years ago
However, Grandmaster Hu Ronghua said that he had mentored me at the Beijing Chess Academy as early as the 80's in the last century, and he still remembers what I looked like at that time. Hey, this is all complaining about my bad memory, throwing such a valuable experience out of cloud nine, more than 20 years ago I was an 11-12-year-old little hairy girl (毛孩), I didn't remember what was of anything.
Because many Chess players are migrated from Xiangqi, hence I am not the only admirer of Grandmaster Hu Ronghua in our delegation. I remember when our Chess team visited Europe a few years ago, I saw my "full-time" coach Grandmaster Ye Jiangchuan holding a copy of Mr. Hu Ronghua's Xiangqi score sheet all day long during his leisure time, trying to think about and deeply concentrating. I have never seen Grandmaster Ye Jiangchuan admired anyone, even facing world Chess legend Grandmaster Kasparov, Mr. Ye Jiangchuan still went on to evaluate and analyze with an objective attitude.
However, it was different towards Mr. Hu Ronghua's chess score, and while looking at it, he would murmur : "Master, really a master, he simply understands everything in Xiangqi." Seeing that my coach was so respectful to Mr. Hu Ronghua's Xiangqi scores, I piled up a little more of admiration to "Commander Hu". This time we are together in France, I am not going to miss the good opportunity, I humbly asked Mr. Hu Ronghua to be my Xiangqi teacher coach.
Cameo performances are fun
Although the delegation's visit to Paris lasted only a short week, the daily schedule during that time was very full and the event was completely covered by the local newspapers. Exhibition matches large and small took place almost every day. Once, in order to seize the time to let the local fans and friends practice more, the Chaozhou Guild Hall, which was responsible for receiving the delegation, even set up the challenge venue in a Chinese restaurant. The enthusiasm of overseas compatriots and the degree of obsession of chess fans and friends was really very touching.
Maybe because local fans and friends want to win against the grandmasters over the board, they care about winning or losing a game quite seriously. Although these fans and friends have an objective evaluation of their own strength, in any case, the reality of repeated defeats no doubt made them feeling strange and not happy in their hearts. Thus, as hinted by my Xiangqi coach Grandmaster Hu Ronghua, and as a sort of little encouragement, our delegation launched a "cameo performance" of chess players in a timely manner, which means that when we played in exhibition with local chess fans and friends, we did not use our own professional projects, but play another discipline of game of chess.
However, don't underestimate the chess skills of these masters in the "other side of the business", Grandmaster Hu Ronghua's Weiqi at least belongs to the level of professional dan players, and coach Ye Jiangchuan's Xiangqi was excellent since he had participated in national competitions. Only me, who once won the Beijing Children's Xiangqi Championship when I was 10 years old, is not strong enough anymore, but I can still give a good game on the chessboard, which is in line with the "market demand" and is most suitable for friendlies. Although everybody's level is purely amateurish, almost all games got into the stage of both sides going back and forth, the games became more interesting, tasteful, the results of a draws also made people happy and satisfied.
Teaching by example has benefited a lot
Although our time in Paris was just one short week, Grandmaster Hu Ronghua "coached me seriously and strictly", which made me benefit greatly. For example, Grandmaster Hu Ronghua repeatedly emphasized that players should always evaluate correctly their position in actual situation, so as to maintain a normal state of mind and a clear visualization. When it comes to how players can maintain a first class competitive mood, Grandmaster Hu Ronghua's views are very inspiring to me. His experience is that players cannot blindly stay or remain in the "illusion" of their heyday glory when playing. A qualified player must not only face the practical difficulties brought about by the increasing of age, but also must constantly challenge themself and maintain a high fighting spirit and a determined desire to win. No matter what stage you are, players have to put themselves in a state of openness to continuous learning, and when you have the desire to constantly improve your skill level and the ability to improve, you will be a fighter on the board regardless of age. Grandmaster Hu Ronghua also gave an example in life, half-jokingly, saying that he was most afraid of going to some elementary schools to participate in chess activities, because the children called everyone grown up by saying "Grandpa Hu is good". This made him really older and instantly soft in heart.
Whether it were the days in the past or the days spent in Paris, whether he was happy or troubled, Grandmaster Hu Ronghua was always in rather care free mode, laughing and scolding as the world goes by, and it was difficult for outsiders to see the true feeling of his inner world from his poker face. As a battle-hardened player, Grandmaster Hu Ronghua has had experienced by himself too many victories and defeats, defeats and victories, what is valuable is that he can always maintain a peaceful and tranquil attitude both in mind and in action.
In 2002, Ms Xie Jun had just started to take up the leadership of the Beijing Qi Yuan, so she had many opportunities to consulting with Mr. Hu Ronghua, who had been president of the Shanghai Qi Yuan for many years, in terms of administrative management. From the daily routine of a manager to how to improve the training quality and competitive performance of the players, from strengthening the professional ability of staff to mobilizing the enthusiasm of everyone in the organization, Grandmaster Hu Ronghua gave me a lot of guidance and precious advice of his valuable experience.
The leading character of the lively atmosphere
Since the main task of the trip to Paris was to carry out friendly cultural exchange, our delegation also has a lot of partying and entertainment activities. When Grandmaster Hu Ronghua became my Xiangqi coach, every day at the table, lunch or evening meal, I firmly occupied the position on the left-hand side of my teacher, and Mr. Hua Yigang, secretary general of the Weiqi Association, sat on the right-hand side of GM Hu Ronghua, calling him "master brother". Every time the two of them sat at the dinner table they were definitely the leading performers of the gathering, enlivened the atmosphere as soon as one of them start to talk, the dinner table became alive, they were a pair of old urchins really. If all their jokes and wise-cracks were compiled, that would be a formidable "Paris Quotations".
Coach Hua Yigang is known as the "king of stories" in the Weiqi circle, and encouraging him talking about something is like listening to a direct commentary, and from time to time Grandmaster Hu Ronghua beat the side drum, and with Mr. Hua Yigang as partner, the two of them can always make everyone laugh when they got into singing and pretending to work out a reconciliation. Once everyone was happy, and the two leaders drank a few more glasses, it so happened that Mr. Hua had to perform a one-legged squat demonstration to prove that his drinking was under control. At that time, no one could believe Mr. Hua's words, not to mention that he was "drunk" under the influence of a few bottles of wine, as even in normal circumstances it was difficult for Mr. Hua to complete such difficult movements as squatting on one leg. But incredibly, after doing a warm-up exercise in the "imitation model", Mr. Hua actually easily squatted down with only one leg, and all of a sudden, everyone was amazed and applauded.
It seems that each of these older generation chess players has a lot of unique skills, and next time I have to find an opportunity to humbly ask Mr. Hua also to accept me as his student.
A small regret
If I have any regret with my Xiangqi coach, it is that Grandmaster Hu Ronghua said that because I came to him already having some good skill, I can only be counted as his named disciple but not to be included in the ranks of those official acceptance. Hey, then I don't have the good grace of being his closed disciple. As I much admired the "overseas" coach in Paris, I counted myself very fortunate to be taught by Grandmaster Hu Ronghua, I should not be too worried about what disciple name I am given or be known.
Our 8-members all stars chess delegation visited France from 11-18th October 2003 to take part in Franco-Chinese cultural exchange activities. The delegation was led by Mr. Pei Jiarong, Secretary of the Chess Academy（棋院）, with top players of Xiangqi, Weiqi (Go) and Chess included.
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Source : Hebei Xiangqi Website
~ a XIANGQI EN BLOG translation ~
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