(;GM[1]FF[4]CA[UTF-8]AP[CGoban:3]ST[2] RU[Chinese]SZ[19]KM[0.00] PW[Chen Zude 陈祖德 6p]PB[Liu Xiaoguang 刘小光]EV[1980 1st National Go competition]C[铭心棋局09_刘小光1 徐莹 天元围棋 "Games engraved into your heart" Liu Xiaoguang 刘小光 9p 1 (interviewed by Xu Ying 徐莹 5p) tianyuanweiqi Translated by Daniel Hu 6d 20210213 Xu: Passing through the memory tunnel, sharing the player's go thinking and clever ideas, feeling the happiness, anger, grief and joy (喜怒哀乐) of go games on and off the board. Hello to our viewers I am Xu Ying. Welcome to entering with me into today's heart engraved games. We all know that every professional player has their unique style. Some like Nie Weiping are imposing and majestic (大气磅礴) others are agile and elegant (轻灵飘逸), a representative is Ma Xiaochun Laoshi. But there is another that is attacking style with big chops and big kills. And this style I feel that go amateurs are particularly keen on these sort of players. And in mentioning the representative figure (代表人物) for this attacking style, I expect our viewers will certainly have a person come to mind. Today we have invited him to our broadcasting studio to discuss Go together. That's right, we are very honoured to have invited Liu Xiaoguang Laoshi. Liu: Hello, hello everybody. Xu: I think that your attacking style, whether in the amateur world or the professional world is well known. To speak of Liu Laoshi's process of learning Go, it is already several decades right? Liu: Right. Xu: Liu Laoshi learnt Go at the age of 13 right? Liu: Yes. At that time, because it was after the Cultural Revolution, Go was in a recovering state. At that time, I learnt it a bit late. Everyone was just starting to learn Go. Xu: You call it late, I would call it too late. Because, we are know that today's young players at the age of 13, not just 13, perhaps at 8 or 9 may already be famous. So at that age, starting to learn at age 13, you just question whether you can manage to learn it? And how come you only started learning at age 13? Liu: It was related to the historical context at the time. It was just recovering right? So I was at Henan Kaifeng at the time. At school. It was said that as Go was recovering, competitions would be organised (组织比赛). Xu: Had you heard of Go at the time? Liu: No, I just saw that they were having fun there. Xu: I have seen that you have a small book, an autobiography. It said inside that in primary school year 5 (presumably age 13), you started to study Go with Ban Zhuren Laoshi. Because he seemed to be a mathematics teacher right? Liu: Ban Zhuren? No. He was just teaching normal things. Xu: In any case this teacher liked to play Go, and organised the class to study Go. Before this had you heard of Go? Liu: No. Xu: How did you feel the first time you heard of Go? Liu: Just black and white stones. Xu: Was it like me thinking they were like buttons? Liu: Hehe. At the start at beginner level, I was just placing stones for fun. In fact, I didn't even know about ladders. Xu: You didn't know anything. How strong was that teacher? Liu: Just ordinary I think. Perhaps around amateur 1-2 dan. Perhaps it was like this. Not so high. So at Kaifeng, he just got the class's children to try it and try learning it. Xu: At that time, the schoolchildren, because it was a unique era, they didn't properly study, and were there not many things to play? Liu: Yes, you say it right. From the point of view of time, a unique era. The weight of study, real general knowledge courses didn't have much time on it. Xu: In fact, I feel that your Ban Zhuren was a teacher with a particular sense of responsibility. He felt that the children didn't study properly, isn't that right? So he was very anxious. And he was a Go player. So he taught you Go and perhaps it would help you out in future. Liu: In that environment, because it was just starting to, maybe my teacher received the news, that they were setting up Go competitions. So for the time being (临时) he gathered together some children and tried to let them learn. After everyone had learnt for a very short time, where we at, in Henan Kaifeng city, in the city there was a competition. Among us three, we chose one, so in the end I was chosen. Xu: We all interested to know Liu Laoshi. After having studied Go for half a month, could you play double atari? Liu: Double atari. Perhaps I had just been initiated (启蒙) in double ataris. Xu: So you might be able to see it, you might not. Liu: I wasn't even necessarily able to play ladders. Very low. In fact we were all like that at the competition. We had all only just heard the news and just chosen. It wasn't like now, the children of today. Xu: Today's children. "You don't even know the ladder! Even like this you come to compete! Hurry up and go home!" Liu: Needless to speak of joseki. Even less capable. Xu: Of course. You had only studied for half a month. Liu: You had only just started studying. Just an initiate. Joining in to compete. Xu: And Liu Laoshi was really strong right. Having only learnt for half a month, you received Kaifeng city's junior tournament's number three. Liu: hehe. Xu: You gained the right to take part in the provincial level competition. And one year later, Liu Laoshi was so superhuman (神勇?) (in braveness) representing the province passing successive hurdles on his path, all the way to becoming champion. Liu Laoshi, among your the province level opponents, did you meet any Go players who are well known. Liu: Famous now. I reckon everyone's not so clear. Perhaps you need specialists. Perhaps zhuang1mei2bing1 was from Henan. Xu: Yes, yes, this is a female 4p. Liu: She participated at the time. Xu: Oh Liu: Including perhaps Li Yachun 李亚春 7dan, he didn't participate the first time though. He participated the second time. (photo of Li Yachun) Xu: To speak of it, your Go route was rather smooth. As soon as you made your debut (出道), you quickly had success. And after one year, you made the Henan province junior tournament's champion. Did this mean you caught the attention of the teachers? Liu: Yes. At the time, in the historical context, Henan, in the country, had a relatively strong go skill. The reason was that originally, Go needs to continue to have seeds. At the time, the first secretary (第一书记) (i.e. CCP committee secretary) was Liu Jianxun. Promoted to first secretary. Xu: He must have been a Go player right? (photo of "the then appointed as first secretary of Henan province") Liu: He was crazy (酷爱) about Go. When I was young I was pleased to often chat by hand (手谈) (i.e. play Go) with him. The situation at the time was the disbanded (解散) national Go team, many of them were concentrated (集中) in Henan, absorbed into Henan. Xu: That's right, wasn't there two hubs in the country? One was in Beijing, the other was in Henan. Liu: Yes. For example Luo Jianwen. Xu: Huang Jinxian laoshi Liu: Huang Jinxian, Chen Ximing, Shao Futang Xu: Shao Futang (simultaneously) Liu: As well as Nie Weiping later would often come to Henan for training. Xu: Well Henan had more top players right! Liu: Exactly. (smiling) Because back to our discussion that I had become the junior champion, I am also baffled (莫名其妙) that. At the time of competing, I also didn't imagine it. And then there was this opportunity and this environment. Xu: So you started taking it seriously. Liu: After this, Henan then wanted to set up a provincial team. So chose me as the only junior player on the team. So my luck on this entire path is really hard to. The chance was very small. Xu: The path of Go has some inexplicable origins. This sort fate between people (缘分) is always following (伴随). Say, half a month. Say if children today could only learn for half a month, you know, they could barely play Go. But Liu laoshi was also like this, one year afterwards won a championship, and thereafterwards made the provincial team. So as I see it, your path was smooth sailing (一帆风顺). Liu: Yes it was so, absolutely so. Xu: Right? I say, might there be this sort of factor. For example when we were young, studying go at sports schools. Other than obviously feeling that go was fun in itself, there was another thing that attracted us. It was that when you study go at a sports school you were given all sorts of allowances (补助) given some tasty foods such as desserts, Liu: Yes Xu: In your time did you have these? Liu: Yes, yes, there were these then. The first time we assembled for training (集训) we were given subsidy moneys. I recall it strongly. The first time I somehow managed to earn money. Xu: You must have been happy and very proud. Liu: Yes, yes, yes. Although it was very little at the time, I recall that after training for twenty something days, they subsidised, was it 0.8 or 1 yuan? In any case it was over 20 yuan in the end. You could send it all home. Xu: At home they would say how much money is this! Liu: Relatively. Xu: Very proud! And you could share responsibility for hardship with your parents. And so then you entered the provincial team. Upon entering the provincial team, that is to say, the ones giving you training. Were they the teachers we just mentioned? Luo laoshi Liu: Yes, Luo laoshi, Huang Jinxian, Shao Futang, Chen Ximing. They were all my teachers. So many of them teaching me so I definitely Xu: At the time, they were all you fellow teammates right? So many of them teaching just you alone. Liu: Hahaha. They had the burden of teaching me. In fact Go is just everyone, trainers and players weren't distinguished so distinctly like that. 10:26/1:29:52 ])