Of its 88 games, the Chongqing Bikers - champions in Term 1 too - won 64. At the other end, the Hubei Hacks won 19.
We have not seen the full team line-ups. Though patchy, the information we have may still be of interest:
Team
Players
Chongqing
Zhou Heyang 8d, Gu Li 5d, Liu Jing 8d, Yu Bin 9d
China Telecom
Luo Xihe 8d, Peng Quan 4d, Liu Xing 5d, Huang Yizhong 5d
Shanghai
Chang Hao 9d, Qiu Jun 6d, Hu Yaoyu 6d
Beijing
Nie Weiping 9d, Zhang Wendong 9d, Kong Jie 5d, Wang Yang 4d, Wang Bogang 4d
Chengdu
Song Xuelin 9d, Yang Yi 4d, Liu Xi 3d, Yu Ping 6d
Guangdong
Liang Weitang 9d, Xu Shuxiang 5d
Yunnan
Wang Lei 8d, Li Jie 3d, Ding Wei 7d, Wang Yao 4d
Hebei
Dong Yan 7d, Li Junkai 6d, Wang Lei 1d, Zhao Xinghua 1d
HOW DOES THE JIANGLING CUP WORK?
China's 250 players are divided into 24 regions or national institutions, each of which has a pro team of six players. The 24 teams are split into two divisions, A and B, of 12 teams, and within each division they play from April to June then September to December on a round-robin basis, home and away (i.e. a total of 22 games per team). Only four team members actually play and the league points are allocated according to the match score, 2 points for a win, 1 for a draw. The "B" Division winners earn promotion to the "A" Division.
The teams are all sponsored locally. Apart from travelling expenses, the pros also get at least a small but stable salary, vital now that state support of go players has been so eroded. Since 1999, teams have been able to recruit players from other regions, so the system is rapidly becoming like that of football or baseball teams. Indeed, in the case of, say, the Sichuan team sponsored by Chengdu Wuniu [Five Cows] cigarette factory, the local soccer team is run by the same company. The same applies with the Yunnan Hongta Group, also a tobacco company.
The range of sponsors is wide. Looking just at the 2000 "A" Division, The main Beijing team has the support of the famous Dabao cosmetics and biochemical company. Chongqing is famous in China for its huge motorcycle industry, and appropriately the go team is sponsored by the Chongqing Jianshe Motorcycle Co. which has a tie-up with Yamaha.
The Guangdong team, based in Guangzhou, enjoys the support of the Sanjiu Automobile Co. (also known as the Guangdong 999 Auto Co.), which is wholly owned by Sanjiu Enterprises Group, one of top 100 enterprises in China.
Support for the Hebei team comes from the Hengxin Corporation, part of the Hebei Trade & Industry group that specialises in paper, chemicals, metals & minerals.
The Shanghai team, which has been getting into a bit of a tizzy as other teams have been ignoring their divine right to first place - they were perennial champions in the old days of the state-sponsored team championships - has the backing of one of the few IT companies so far attracted: Shanghai Yidong Telecommunication Corporation.
China Telecom has its own team, of course, operating out of Beijing. The Hubei team, which will start 2001 in Division "B", represented Yangzi River Newspaper. About the other two teams we are a little bit ignorant. The Fujian Reds Gutian team we assume may with the Red Yeast Co. of Hutian County, and the Henan Zhengzhou Jiaoxing is clearly an institution based in the capital of Henan (Zhengzhou), but what sort? We are also not clued up on the Pingmei Group.
It should be pointed out that this impressive list has not always been matched by an equally impressive turn out of players. There have been several instances of players not turning up, or turning up late and so requiring a fast game. There have also been cases of unsatisfactory games caused by manipulating the board order. Although within the rules, this has led, for example, to a 9-dan star being pitted against a 1-dan on Board 1, so that the star player of the other side could have a chance of winning on Board 2 (he did).
