Four days ago, Jilin's player Wang Kuo（王廓）, like many other players who came to the Men's Individual Championship Tournament, hoped to play well and get at least a Xiangqi Master's title thus fulfilling their long-cherished wishes. And four days later, on January 15, Wang Kuo defeated Grandmaster Zhao Xinxin（赵鑫鑫）in the play-offs, and beyond all expectation, stood on the podium to receive the 21st Individual Championship title and the coveted Xiangqi King trophy.
Wang Kuo the new Champion
The situation was best described as "unprecedented". Years ago, Tao Hanming（陶汉明）had won the Championship as an amateur player, and now Wang Kuo doing the same, both of them are from around the mysterious area of Changbai Mountain（长白山）.
Born in Changchun（长春）in 1990's, he was winning competitions in his age group as a child, he was taught by master player Liang Wenbin（梁文斌）early on. After graduating from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics in 2016, he left the dazzling city of Shanghai and returned to his hometown, where he works in the Revenue/Judicial Services.
Some fans thought that the outcome of the Championship was a shocking upset, but in fact, it was not an upset, life rewards those who worked hard, he has been working tirelessly in a way that you can hardly imagined. Wang Kuo's reputation came out of the Northeast. In 2017, in the 13th National Sport Games Men's Open preliminaries, with Zhao Panwei, Sun Xinhao, Yao Hongxin, Ren Gang and other super strong players competing, Wang Kuo won with four wins and three draws to top them all, fans everywhere exclaimed: It turns out that Jilin still has such exciting masters!
In 2019, in the men's group of the 4th National Mind Games Open, he won 2nd place with 7 wins and 1 loss, and in 2020, he won sixth place in the qualifiers of the Chess League, the top spot of the "Airport Shuangliu Cup" Amateur Chess King Finals, with the title of "Amateur Chess King".
From amateur to Grandmaster around 30 days
It took only about some 30 more days for Wang Kuo to take the National Individual Championship trophy, he was simply superb, the social media have exploded, messages of congratulations, poetry, personal emotions, all kinds of talents emerged on the papers and screens endlessly.
Wang Kuo's phone at home was also ringing non-stop, aunts and uncles, cousins and nephews, friends and relatives, the leading officials of the Jilin Chess Academy all came to congratulate one by one, once the Xiangqi Crown was put up on him, he was worth a hundred folds. Let's calmly look back at Wang Kuo's promotion achievement in the Championship competition.
According to the rules, the 59 players in Group B premilinaries must reach the top 35 places to enter Group A, to qualify for the Championship tournament proper. In group B, Wang Kuo met the strong master Cao Yanlei（曹岩磊）, and was beaten as the Black's side. It was also the only game he lost in the entire tournament. Wang Kuo, losing the first game, changed his strategy, played steadily, drew four games and won two in the end, defeating Hubei's Liu Zongze（刘宗泽）and Shanxi's Zhou Jun（周军）respectively, joining the last batch of the promoted to Group A.
In Group A the single-defeat elimination system was adopted, in the 64 into 32, and the 32 into 16 knock-out games, Wang Kuo eliminated Hangzhou's Du Chenhao（杜晨昊）and Shanghai's Zhao Wei（赵玮）respectively, and successfully promoted to the rank of Xiangqi Master. After playing the game for so many years, once ranked as a Master, generally it is the biggest dream of every amateur chess player, there is nothing happier than that.
Wang Kuo was like a top magician now, the majority of amateur players after gaining the top 16 spot, usually they would most likely be eliminated well before the quarterfinals.
In the quarterfinals, Wang Kuo knocked down Xiangqi Master Wang Hao（王昊）, and people mostly paying attention to players such as Hong（洪）, Zhao（赵）, Zheng（郑）and others, and no one noticed the sharp sword that was secretly drawn out.
The semi-finals were composed of Zhao Xinxin, Hong Zhi, Zheng Weitong, and Wang Kuo, many people laugh when they see this lineup, hey, the three chess kings bringing out a bronze one, and the final must be either Zheng Weitong vs Zhao Xinxin, or Zheng Weitong vs Hong Zhi, one of the three "n crowns" is going to be upgraded to n+1 Champion.
Wang Kuo shocked the Xiangqi world
After a few hours, they couldn't laugh anymore, because Wang Kuo defeated Zheng Weitong with an extremely exquisite 3-Rooks versus Guards ending. It was only at this moment that the fans really turned their attention to this amateur chess player who had just been promoted to Xiangqi Master, what was the real reason? So powerful? So incredible?
Despite this, public opinion generally believed that Zhao Xinxin had a better chance of winning the Championship in the Final.
At half past eight in the morning, the Final began watched by tens of millions of Xiangqi fans.
In the first game with normal timing, both sides were relatively conservative, they made tentative and probing moves, did not dare to make any trouble, they quickly tried their best to make it a draw.
In the second game of ten minutes of rapid chess, Zhao Xinxin having the first move, he opened with his most convenient weapon "Pawns confrontation turned into Cannon behind the Pawn" formation, Wang Kuo's left-side Cannon crossed the river to blockade the opponent's Rook, and the right wing's Knight moving sideways allowing the Rook emerged out from the 3rd file. Xinxin seeing this, hurriedly rushed the 8th file Rook upward taking control of the river front line.
How to open up the 3rd file's Rook was the most important topic for Black at present, and Wang Kuo came up with the ruthless method of first sacrificing the 7th file Pawn by moving it across the river, then moved the 2nd file Cannon 2 steps back, while vaguely aiming at Red's 7th file. On move 17th, Xinxin's Rook attacked the undefended Knight. Wang Kuo drew out his concealed dagger, and the Cannon was moved from the 4th file into the 3rd file, sacrificing a whole Knight in order to launch the attack!
Wang Kuo, a player who had not even sat on the master's stool long enough, actually dared to sacrificed a piece in the opening stage against Xinxin, a number one player of attack, this called for great courage, a courage not seen on everyday indeed.
After the Red's Rook took the Knight, the Black's Cannon moved to 1st file, the double Rook fire power fiercely attacked Red's weakened left wing bottom rank, although Xinxin had piece majority, there were still problems in holding the situation, so he had to withdraw more pieces back for the defense, and when Black's Rook, Knight and Cannon fire power gathered to cross the river to launch the final assault, the Red's left wing Knight defence arrived in time, establishing communication with the river patrol Rook, exchanging and simplifying pieces, thus achieving a drawn situation.
A 5 minutes blitz game settled it all
In the third game, a terrifying five-minute versus five-minute blitz time began. Wang Kuo deployed the formation with Flying Elephant, Zhao Xinxin responded with the Crossed-Palace Cannon, and the two sides moved extremely quickly in the opening stage, the lightning moves hardly allowed fans to see all the tricks. Xinxin knocked out the Pawn with the Central Cannon, Red took the opportunity to advance the 9th file Rook to defend the Pawn's rank, bringing out the right wing Rook quickly. Black's advantage was to have a Pawn crossing the River, but to what extent can the role of this advanced Pawn be realized? The fact was that none at all, because Wang Kuo pounced extremely fast in the middle game stage with two Rooks and two Knights, and on the 20th move, Red played the 3rd file Knight to 1st file, threatening check with the Knight, combined with a powerful attack with the rib Cannon and Rook.
At this critical survival moment, Black's was under extreme pressure, quickened its own defeat by playing the Cannon from the 5th file into the 6th file, which was like injecting a lethal poison into the already bad situation, and Red's 2nd file Rook moved up one step, followed by a Knight check, followed by another Rook's attacking move, piling up more fire power, sending with a cool song to Xinxin...
At this point, the 2020 Jiucheng Cup（九城杯）National Chess Individual Championship was over, and the amateur chess king Wang Kuo officially became the twenty-first Champion, Zhao Xinxin the runner-up, and Hong Zhi the third runner-up.
Sixty years ago, fifteen-year-old Hu Ronghua participated in the individual competition for the first time, and no one would have thought that he would be able to win the championship from Grandmaster Yang Guanlin. Sixty years later, no one could have imagined that Wang Kuo, who was started as an amateur, would become the new chess king in the end, and history would repeat itself, amazingly!
Wang Kuo created his own legend, created the legend of Jilin, and also created a legend of the modern times, a new era of Xiangqi by amateur players to the Hall of The Great, he echoed with the person who shouted "the noble and prince will come from no difference and no distinction background" more than 2,000 years ago, and became a disciple of a different generation. From now on, Xiangqi has truely entered a period where professional and amateur players contested alike on one and same platform, which in turn has also inspired more amateur Xiangqi players to move forward towards their own great dream!
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Source : 百度.百家号
发布者：象棋微学堂
Dated: 2021-01-19
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