Just when we thought the hype was over, the Yunnan Shangri-la team announced on 22 March that Korean star Yu Ch'ang-hyeok 9-dan will join them this season to play in the Jiangling Cup - the A Division of the China Cities league. Yunnan is clearly determined to hold on to at least the second place they earned last year.
The Cup matches start with Round 1 on 5 April. Division B operates in a different way. It takes place in a single 10-day go fest in Jinan, Shandong Province, starting on 21 April. Another Korean 9-dan, Seo Pong-su, will be one of the stars in this division.
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Older News From 15 March 2001: TEAM ORDERS
Most of the hype and speculation over the new Jiangling Cup has abated, with Division A teams being announced on 14 March 2001. But one last-minute wrinkle was a change of name by Yunnan Reds to Yunnan Shangri-la and Secret Tibet, apparently a travel company. And note that the participation of Rui Naiwei and her husband Jiang Zhujiu has been confirmed.
Teams, in order of finishing last year, are:
Chongqing Jianshe Motorcycle Co. Team
Zhou Heyang 8d, Liu Jing 8d, Mok Chin-seok 6d (Korea), Gu Li 5d, Li Yonggang 4d, Gong Shiyun 4d Coach: Yang Yi.
Yunnan Shangri-la Team
Wang Lei 8d, Ding Wei 7d, Duan Rong 7d, Lu Jun 6d, Wang Yao 4d Coaches: Wang Lei and Ding Wei.
Fujian Reds Gutian Team
Cao Dayuan 9d, Zheng Hong 9d, Kim Yeong-sam 6d (Korea), Wu Xinyu 6d, Zou Junjie 5d, Xie He 4d Coach: Cao Dayuan.
Shanghai Yidong Telecommunication Corporation Team
Chen Zude 9d (special guest), Chang Hao 9d, Shao Weigang 9d, Rui Naiwei 9d, Liu Shizhen 6d, Hu Yaoyu 6d, Qiu Jun 6d Coach: Qiu Xin
China Telecom Three Majors Team (Beijing)
Wu Zhaoyi 9d, Luo Xihe 8d, Huang Yizhong 5d, Liu Xing 5d, Peng Quan 4d, Wu Jie 2d Coach: Ma Xiaochun
Beijing Dabao Team
Zhang Wendong 9d, Kong Jie 5d, Tan Yanwu 7d, Wang Yang 4d, Wang Bogang 4d, Lin Feng 3d Coach: Tan Yanwu
Hebei Hengxin Corporation Team
Dong Yan 7d, Zhao Yuhong 5d, Li Junkai 5d, Zhou Bo 4d, Zhao Xinghua 1d, Wang Lei 1d Coach: Zhao Yuhong
Pingdingshan Coal Group Team (also Pingmei Group, Henan)
Wang Dongliang 6d, Wang Xi 4d, Zhu Yi 4d, Yue Liang 3d, Jing Shang 3d, Wang Cheng 1d
Coach: Kou Guangliang
Sichuan Jiaozi Team (cigarette company in Chengdu)
Jiang Zhujie 9d, Song Xuelin 9d, Li Liang 6d, Yang Yi 4d, Liu Xi 3d Li Jie 3d
Coaches: Huang Dexun, Chen Anqing
Guangdong Quanqiutong Team ("Whole World Communications" - a mobile phone company)
Liao Guiyong 9d, Lin Zhaohua 6d, Xu Shuxiang 5d, Li Huasong 3d, Zhang Weijin 3d, Zhu Jianshun 1d Coach: Chen Zhigang
Tianjin Car Drivers Association Team
Li Yachun 7d, Niu Yutian 4d, Zhang Xuebin 3d, Zhang Dongyue 3d, Li Kang 3d, Xue Lei 3d
Beijing Go Friends and Guizhou TV Station Team
Nie Weiping 9d, Wang Yuhui 7d, Pak Seung-ch'eol 2d (Korea), Zhao Zhelun 2d, Zhao Shouxun 2d, Zhang Jiao 2d Coach: Nie Weiping
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Older News From 10 March 2001: MORE DEVELOPMENTS - MORE RUMOURS
Developments continue apace in the Jiangling Cup, China's new cities league tournament that is fast turning into a football-type franchise. The hype and the introduction of foreign stars mean huge free publicity for the many corporate sponsors, not least because the audience for CCTV's weekly broadcasts of league matches has been estimated to be potentially as high as 1 billion.
Not surprisingly the Chinese Weiqi Association is now said to be seeking a higher fee from the television company. At the same time, to protect native regional talent, it is reported to be making moves to impose a limit of two trades per team from next season.
The latest player moves are dominated by the news that Korean 9-dan Seo Pong-su will play for Shenzhen under new sponsors Hyatt Ginseng in the B Division. Shenzhen is the money capital of China and is claimed to be paying Seo 300,000 yuan to play in the week-long go binge that constitutes the first part of the B Division games. This runs from 2 to 10 April 2001 in Jinan (the A Division plays all year round and travels around).
Apart from Seo, Shenzhen will have the services of Liang Weitang 9-dan (formerly the star of
Guangdong 999 in Division A), Fang Tianfeng 8-dan and Kim Yeong-Sam 3-dan from Korea.
Neverthless Shenzhen will not have it all its own way in its quest for promotion. Much of the pre-season activity has centred round other B Division teams with the same goal. We have already mentioned Hong Kong's New World team led by ex-Yunnan Red star Yang Shihai 8-dan (he now lives in Hong Kong). He is joined by Yang Hui 8-dan, Zhou Junxun 9-dan from Taiwan and Kim Su-chun 7-dan from Korea.
Zhejiang, one of the traditional centres of go excellence in China, has its own dream team, thanks to the reported financial help of millionaire Ma Xiaochun 9-dan. He is said to be contributing 500,000 yuan to the team's operating budget as well as his own services. He will be joined by Yu Bin 9-dan, so that the only two Chinese ever to win a world title will be on the same side. They will be joined by Chen Linxin 9-dan and 23-year-old local boy Zhu Songli 5-dan.
Beijing has a team (Dabao) in Division A but its second-string outfit in Division B will be hoping to join them with a line-up of Liu Xiaoguang 9-dan, Zhang Xuan 8-dan, Wang Qun 8-dan and Fang Jie 7-dan.
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Older News From 7 March 2001: MORE FOREIGN PLAYERS FLOCK TO CHINA
Amid suspicion that it's all part of the hype, the raging pre-season uncertainty over who goes where in the Jiangling Cup continues.
The latest report claims that 22-year-old Kim Su-chun 7-dan of Korea (though also a long-time player in Japan where he was called Kimu Shujun) will represent Hong Kong's New World team in the coming season. He will join Yang Shihai 8-dan and Yang Hui 8-dan (Cao Dayuan's wife) and Zhou Junxun 9-dan from Taiwan. The Hong Kong supporters are hoping to make a big push for promotion from Division B this year.
Zhou's appearance on the Hong Kong team sheet contradicts an earlier report that he had signed up with the Division A Chengdu side. Trust nothing until kick-off seems the best advice.
There is also a report that up to 10 top Japanese players are interested in playing, too. The names include current and past title holders. This may be yet more hype, but it cannot be denied that the Chinese do appear to have found a winner in this new format. It involves all regions (especially important in China), and unlike the knockouts gives a huge number of players a regular game. It also spreads the load among many different sponsors. Indeed, it seems to create an element of competition among the sponsors as well as the players. The endless pre-season speculation, aided by the international dimension, is ensuring constant publicity.
We may soon see the usual marketing spin-offs - team shirts, baseball hats, supporters clubs. Possibly even go hooligans?
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Older News From 2 March 2001: EXCITING INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS
The Korean Baduk Association appears finally to have cleared the last obstacles to players registered with them playing on this year's Cities League (the Jiangling Cup). And at the last moment it looks as if the floodgates have opened. Six players now have their "passports", and they will be joined by a player fromTaiwan.
Mok Chin-seok 6-dan has the plum, signing up with the league leaders, Chongqing. The financial terms have not been released officially, but judicious leaks by the club manager suggest he is on a par with the other team stars, Liu Jing 8-dan and Zhou Heyang 8-dan. They are reckoned to make 10,000 yuan a week before win bonuses. Liu and Zhou reportedly made 200,000 yuan in a very successful 2000.
Mok will also have his air fares and accommodation provided, but will have to pay a portion of his earnings to the KBA. He will settle in well. He speaks Mandarin and Cantonese (learnt from watching Hong Kong TV and playing on the Qingfeng server run by the young stars of Chinese go - Liu Jing, especially). His first game should be in April.
Shanghai will be delighted to get Rui Naiwei 9-dan back to her home team. The Korean teenager Pak Seong-ch'eol 2-dan will go to Nie Weiping's Satellite TV team in Guangzhou. They will also have the services of Yu Bin 9-dan, incidentally. It was his place on the Chongqing team that Mok took. Nie himself has transferred from Beijing. Pak's name sits oddly among this company, but it appears he is a replacement for the Korean teenager they really wanted, Ch'oe Ch'eol-han 3-dan, who started off last year's Nong Shim Cup in spectacular fashion with three straight wins.
Ch'oe's health held him back. Pak has his own merits, though. He won all his games in last October's match between the star pupils of Kweon Kap-yong 6-dan (the Korean Kitani) and those of Nie Weiping's stable. Guangzhou is clearly looking forward to continuing the momentum of having won promotion to Division A last season (it's a two-up, two-down system).
Rui's husband Jiang Zhujiu 9-dan is one of the other three Korean-registered players and one report suggests he will play for Chengdu Sunny Boys in Division A. The other two will play in Division B. They are are Kimu Sujun 7-dan and Kim Yeong-sam 3-dan. We are not certain who they will represent but it appears to be Hong Kong Good Sounds and Shenzhen 999 respectively. One report from China claims that Korean Seo Pong-su 9-dan will also play for Shenzhen, but we have not yet seen this in a Korean source. Hong Kong will also have the benefit of Yang Shihai 9-dan on a free transfer from the Yunnan Reds. It sounds more and more like football all the time.
Zhou Junxun 9-dan from Taiwan is yet another league signing this year. Zhou already has vast experience of playing and studying in China, and he too is going to represent the Chengdu Sunny Boys in Division A. It was apparently a toss-up between them and Hong Kong.
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Older News From 27 January 2001: NATIONAL TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS
We reported earlier that moves were afoot to recruit Rui Naiwei 9-dan back from Korea to represent Shanghai in the 2001 Jiangling Cup - the national team championships - and to allow Korean Mok Chin-seok 5-dan to play for champions Chongqing. Both possibilities still seem to have a green light.
We have so far held back from reporting this event in its own right, partly because we have been unable to get all the information we would like. But as we now judge that this team event will become rather more important, not just in itself but as part of the future of go, here is a belated summary of the 2nd term, and the details we have so far. We would welcome further details from readers.
Why do we believe this event is important for future go? Mainly because it has effectively brought the franchise system of American sports to the game. Although the event as a whole is sponsored by the Jiangling Motors Co. of Nanchang, Jianxi (which has international tie-ups with Ford and Isuzu, be it noted), each team has to find its own local sponsor, so that in all there are 25 sponsors. It is presumably easier to find several small sponsors, rather than one large one, and this may be a way forward for teams from the west.
Furthermore, the principle of a team tournament seems to suit the conditions of vast China better than individual tournaments, especially now that state backing has weakened and many players have to fund their own travel and accommodation.
Finally, the success of the international team events, especially the Nong Shim Spicy Noodles Cup, suggests that more could be on the cards. The increasing internationalisation of companies is an obvious factor, too. Japan will possibly have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century, since so many players there still live in a huge comfort zone. But many younger Japanese pros are less sanguine about the future and have urged more support for international events.
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).
