The way of Xiangqi is like the way of life
Guest Interview at the Xiangqi Summit: The Way of Xiangqi is Like the Way of Life (Xu Yinchuan)
by Shi Shaozong
Grandmaster Xu Yinchuan, a 34-year-old Xiangqi world champion, national champion is an idol in Guangdong and the Xiangqi community all over the country, he is not only a superb player, but also has done much research and has deep understanding of the Xiangqi culture. The newspaper reporter interviewed the humble gentleman Xu Yinchuan during the the Guangzhou's Xiangqi Culture Summit, and talked about every aspect of the game.
Shi Shaozong: "The 2 Heroes of Lingnan" have been occupying the top two places in the Xiangqi for a long time, which is very rare in the history of Chinese chess, do you think such brilliant results have anything to do with our locality?
Xu Yinchuan: It should have a lot to do with it. I think there are mainly several reasons, the first is that our Xiangqi history is relatively long, in the 20's and 30's of the last century, Xiangqi was already very popular, various competitions were often held, and then in the 50's, we have already set up our own team. Secondly, there were many top players at various times, the earliest 4 powerful players were known as "4 great Tian Wang"（四大天王）, later there were players known as "3 great Phoenixes". In modern time, there was Grandmaster Yang Guanlin, a top Xiangqi player, and then Grandmaster Lu Qin, and then I myself. In the past 80 years, it should be said that the country's top players have appeared in Guangdong. The third reason is that Guangdong's chess foundation is very good, there is very strong popular support. I have lived in an atmosphere where many people play chess at a very young age, which is one of the important reasons why Xiangqi in our province can maintain a leading position for a long time. The last reason is that the social influence of Xiangqi is big, the public evaluation is also high, people from all walks of life paid a lot of attention.
Shi Shaozong: Do you think we still maintain this leading position?
Xu Yinchuan: We are still in the lead, but this lead has weakened, or it is already possible to be surpassed by other teams. There must be another player who achieves top results in national competition, so as to maintain our leading position in Guangdong. We should now focus on younger players and select talented, hard-working and persevering players to work on this project.
Shi Shaozong: When you first joined the provincial team, Grandmaster Lu Qin already began to win the national championship, was he an unattainable senior in your eyes at that time?
Xu Yinchuan: Yes, when I won the provincial junior championship, he was already a national champion, one of the top players in the country, and he was very famous. At that time, he was very tall in my eyes, like a mountain.
Shi Shaozong: How long did it take for you to catch up with him?
Xu Yinchuan: A landmark time was when I won the national championship and became a grandmaster, and the national rating score suddenly ranked me No. 2. It should be said that I was close to him at that time. For more than a decade, he and I have been winning and losing against each other, so everyone jokingly called us "The Twin Heroes of Lingnan".
Shi Shaozong: In the past ten years, in fact, the two of you have been competing for the top place, maybe more often than not, you are in the first place, you are both teammates and opponents, there is a competitive relationship with each other, do you think this relationship is very delicate?
Xu Yinchuan: It's quite delicate, I often tell my friends that my relationship with Grandmaster Lu is a colleague and a buddy, because I often go to competitions with him, living under the same roof, frequently in contact. It's very brutal that we have to face direct competition in the game, and often in the final stages of the championship, so the relationship is very delicate. In short, over the years, I have maintained such a mentality, respecting my Grandmaster brother, who is a mentor and a friend, in fact, I have gained a lot of Xiangqi knowledge from him, the achievement of Grandmaster Lu is the driving force for me to move forward.
Shi Shaozong: Do you think your rivalry is a good thing for Cantonese chess?
Xu Yinchuan: Right. This kind of rivalry is between the two of us in a narrow sense, but in reality we are also competing with others, as we are constantly improving and gaining useful knowledge.
Shi Shaozong: There is a calligraphy written by you in the Donghu Chess Academy, that is, "half of the country in attack, half of it in defence, half for success or failure, and half for enlightenment"（半壁河山半攻守，半争成败半悟道）, is this a kind of understanding of yours?
Xu Yinchuan: There is a song called "half and half song", it is better to do everything half, drink half of the wine, don't drink too fiercely, don't do thing too full, so I feel that in chess this seems to reflect such a spirit. Over the years of my playing career, I have gradually realized that in chess, finding the offensive and defensive balance is the most important key, if you can find a very reasonable balance, your chess will be played well, and there is half victory and half understanding. I have a problem now, there were so many winning success and sometimes failures, that now I take these more lightly, I am not nervous anymore, so I have no motivation.
Shi Shaozong: In life, if you can take the victory and defeat lightly, this is a very high state.
Xu Yinchuan: That's right, but if you participate in the competition, you can't look at it this way, you have to invest time and energy in the competition to win, then you can come out, see it more lightly, this is actually a spur to myself, or a feeling. I can't tell what this is, is it the way of life, or the way of chess?
Shi Shaozong: So what do you think of the way of chess, what do you think is the charm of this culture? What attracted you?
Xu Yinchuan: The connotation of Xiangqi culture is relatively rich, Xiangqi first reflects a kind of military's wisdom, it has a very distinct war mode, in which, many of our strategies can be used in the chessboard, such as the Thirty-Six Plans, "Sun Tzu's Art of War".
The golden mean can also be reflected in chess, we often say drawing, now there is a trend which is to criticize the draw, but I think there are two sides in it, and there is also a good side too. Our time especially needs the peace, a draw to some extent is a kind of harmony, we are not actually talking about the lack of a sense of contention, everyone is struggling, fighting, but "drawing" things are less, so for thousands of years, we have been advocating this "harmony", including the "harmony in society" we are now proposing which is too. Xiangqi's draw actually provides you with a retreat between victory and defeat, so players will not simply pursue just victory and defeat, they have another choice, which is conducive to harmony between people. Of course, this is not a negative harmony, this harmony should be a high degree of harmony after being aggressive.
For so many years, I have been thinking, but not very systematically, because the profession of a chess player makes me unable to think very detached to some other issues. My more serious thinking is occupied by this kind of victory and defeat, by specific techniques and tactics, so I rarely think about other things, but I feel that there are still a lot of cultural things in it, we need to dig and sort out, the Xiangqi is a good promotion, so I plan to sort out the process, technique and tactics, experience, etc. of my chess game, as well as my chess life, philosophy, thirty-six plans, the power of the soldiers, etc. Although I know that my culture education is limited, I still hope to do my best for a little more of exploration, opening ways for other scholars to engage in the research, so that Xiangqi will not be limited to competition, we can raise it to a higher level, not only competitive sports, as there are other higher things, we can form a sort of movement, I think in this way, chess may contribute more to society.
Shi Shaozong: Who is your biggest opponent now? Is it Lu Qin or Zhao Xinxin, Jiang Chuan, Wang Yang and other rising stars?
Xu Yinchuan: The current opponent does have some differences from previous years, in the first ten years, the younger generation was actually me alone, there were several who were more than ten years older than me, and now in addition to a few chess players who are older than me, there are also a generation younger than me, forming such a competitive pattern, there are several very good young players behind me, and there are several senior chess players who have maintained a very good state in front of me, so in a way the competition is very fierce.
Shi Shaozong: What level of competitive status do you maintain now?
Xu Yinchuan: My current situation is okay, but I obviously feel that the pressure of competition is very high. However, I think competitive sports itself is stressful, is always dynamic, you can't stop here and enjoy the fruits you already have, if you don't work on it, you will be eliminated, so I will use this idea to push myself to keep improving, if I am willing to continue to be a Xiangqi player, I will definitely give it my all, if I really can't, then it really can't carrying on.
Shi Shaozong: Is playing chess a career for you?
Xu Yinchuan: For me, it was an interest at the beginning, then it became a career, and then it became a business career, and I should now be at the stage of treating it as a business career, interest has taken a back seat, and more importantly, it is a strong sense of professionalism, at such a height, I have to pursue it very zealously. I think it is difficult to completely separate life from chess, many of my life views, and some life insights and thoughts, are improved from playing Xiangqi, because I entered the Guangdong chess team at a very young age, I was exposed to it rather early, I didn't have much contact with the outside world, I now understand the cause and effect of things from the truth of Xiangqi, and know how to face life.
Shi Shaozong: There is a very famous "Danghu Ten Games" in the history of Weiqi (Go), and now some people have also proposed to say, that we should also engage in a "Lingnan Ten Games", what do you think?
Xu Yinchuan: This formulation is quite good, because each era needs something specific to express the characteristics of its time. The confrontation between two very high-level Xiangqi players who represented the highest level at that time will surely influence future generations, and can be passed on, and can promote the current trend of chess. If there is such an opportunity I am willing to join in, not only with Grandmaster Lu, in fact, no matter who, as long as it can represent the highest level, I think it is very meaningful, and it is not limited to the two of us, other people are also good to do the challenge.
If it is our Lingnan culture, from the national level, now by me and Grandmaster Lu Qin, the confrontation between our "Lingnan double heroes" should be said to be one of the forms that can better express the characteristics of Guangdong Xiangqi.
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Source : 白鹿城主的博客
Dated 2015-March-13th
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