The Japanese have unfairly, though maybe unwittingly, spread the impression that go in China in the early part of the 20th century was moribund. I say "unwittingly" because, while they justifiably pushed the claims of their own players, they also gave immense encouragement and support to Chinese go.
The Chinese, for their part, have acknowledged the help they received, but players who made the grade with less outside help were, understandably, esteemed more.
There was one Chinese player, Gu Shuiru, who even studied in Japan with Hirose Heijiro. Despite being, effectively, champion of China in the early part of the 20th century, he is not made much of nowadays.
Among the players who followed Gu, two stood out and were referred to by Chinese go fans as Nan Liu Bei Guo: Liu Dihuai, champion in the south (Nan) and Guo Tisheng, champion in the North (Bei).
Liu was able to have many dealings with Japanese players because he was based in Shanghai. Maybe for that reason, though he was certainly venerated as one of the great statesmen of Chinese go and, at his death, was Deputy Chairman of the Chinese Weiqi Assocation, he is not mentioned today anything like as much as Guo Tisheng.
He too is venerated, yet is hardly known in the west. Let us rectify that.
Guo Tisheng claimed descent from the great Ming go master Guo Bailing, who preceded him by some 400 years. He was born in 1907 in She District in Anhui Province. He had a brother, Xuchu, four years older, and both learnt go from their father. Both became strong players, and Xuchu remained active in go long enough to became an advisor to the Beijing Go Association in 1980.
Their father, Mingxuan, was a scholar, a member of the Imperial College under the Qing dynasty, who ran a lively old-book shop and also offered private tuition, but who spent his leisure time on go. His children learned by watching him and accompanying him. They also spent every moment they could playing each other. Tisheng started when he was seven, had reached his father's level within two years, and by the age of 13 was already supreme in his district. Not surprisingly, he was banned by opponents from watching his father's games in case he gave help - games were often played for money in those days.
It was no mean achievement to be the best player in She District. It was also the home of the great 18th century master Cheng Lanru, and there had been a flourishing tradition of go in the area ever since.
In 1926 Guo Tisheng went to Shanghai to seek out stronger players, especially the famous local master Wu Xianglin. Though initially forced to play handicap games with Wu, his tactics so frustrated the master that within a year Guo became acknowledged as the top player south of the Yangzi River. He was able to survive by teaching people from his district who had formed an association in Shanghai, and by the odd foray against strong players, but he needed new mountains to climb, and so in 1927 went north to Beijing. There he sought the help of Gu Shuiru, who was then 36 and at his peak.
This was almost a Damascene moment for Guo. He certainly stayed in Beijing for a very short time before returning to Shanghai. For Gu already had a 13-year-old student called Wu Qingyuan, or Go Seigen, who was equal in strength to Gu. Guo was naturally anxious to play him and so a game was arranged in Go's home. Guo won a hard fight by half a point with first move, and was accorded the rank of taking Black and two stones alternately from Go Seigen. Whereas most people would be ecstatic at such a ranking, it is easy to imagine how much of a shock it must have been for a young man hitherto used to sweeping all before him.
Whatever the reason, Guo went back to Shanghai after only a little over a month in Beijing. But an invitation to head a Chinese Go Association (actually a local club) soon took him to Wuhan where he spent the next two years. Shanghai then beckoned yet again. With the impact of the western concessions it was probably the most exciting place to be in China at the time, but in truth there was no shortage of "excitement" in China then. Warlords were vying to replace the Qing dynasty, with the Japanese military watching vulture-like a short distance away.
One of these warlords, Duan Qirui, was a passionate go player. He had managed to get himself appointed provisional president of China from 1924 to 1926, and at the time dominated Beijing politics. While there he patronised Gu Shuiru and Go Seigen, amongst many others - the only condition was that they had to let him believe he was a great player - and he frequently invited top Japanese players to China. But, having shot his bolt, Duan decided to move to Shanghai in 1932 to retire and convalesce.
He brought with him players such as Gu Shuiru, and they set up a Shanghai Go Association. Initially overjoyed to have such calibre of competition, Guo Tisheng quickly joined, but it soon turned into a frustrating experience for gifted young players like him. Unlike Gu and the others, they had little experience of pandering to Duan and could not quite get used to the fact that the association was more about Duan's ego than igo.
What was probably a decisive moment was when some Japanese players came to Shanghai. Duan "borrowed" money from the younger players to entertain the Japanese, and the young Chinese naturally expected that in return they would get to play the guests. It worked that way for some, but not for Guo. Duan seemed to have little time for him. Yet within Shanghai Guo's stature was unquestioned. A friend, Cao Tisheng, wrote a poem about him and in the headnote explained that Guo and friends would meet to play go in Xiangyang Park, where Guo would regularly win nine out of ten games.
Perhaps dispirited, however, he moved back to Beijing - or Beiping as it then was - in 1936. There he formed, with friends and strong players Cui Yunzhi aznd Jin Yaxian, a go society in Zhongshan Park known as Siyixuan, which gave a much needed impetus to go in the capital. Guo remained in Beijing until the war with Japan. When fighting erupted in 1937 he fled Beijing and moved to the area controlled by the Chinese army, where he provided (just as Japanese players did on the Japanese side) a go service for soldiers.
Immediately after the war he settled again in Shanghai, still as a full-time go player. Although Shanghai had earned great credit as the hothouse of the now victorious Communist Party, as structures stabilised, the emphasis switched back to Beijing. Guo therefore moved there for a third time. One day in 1951, he was in the house of teacher Li Jichen when he met Comrade Chen Yi.
Chen said: "When I was fighting as a guerilla in Wannan, I heard that you and your brother were playing go there and I very much wanted to come to your hometown and play you both." Chen was a devoted go player and can take credit for much of the development of modern Chinese go. He urged Guo to form a new Chinese go movement and to produce go literature. Specifically, he told Guo to set up a Beijing Go Association. Chen said: "This is not just from me. I speak also on behalf of Chairman Mao Zedong and Prime Minister Zhou Enlai."
Guo grasped this opportunity and by 1956 had achieved enough that he could be introduced to Mao and Zhou - nay, even be photographed with them - at that year's Chinese People's Consultative Conference, the revolutionary united front organisation led by the Communist Party. No doubt genuinely inspired and enthused, he took over as Director of the Beijing Go Association, and - annus mirabilis - had the great satisfaction of winning the first ever Chinese National Championship that year, ahead of Chen Jiamou.
The following two years it was won by Liu Dihuai, Guo finishing second in 1958. But Guo had the further satisfaction of winning again in 1962 before the new guard led by Chen Zude and Nie Weiping finally took over for good. Guo coached these young players - others were Wu Songsheng, Wang Runan, Shen Guoxun and Luo Jianwen - though the presence of Chen Yi must never be overlooked. As foreign minister Chen always had an eye on re-establishing Chinese prestige by bringing go there up to the level of the Japanese.
But Guo himself was never able to get near the Japanese 9-dans, even with Black (in 1964 he was awarded 5-dan by the state, which was a fair estimation of his calibre internationally). He therefore began to channel his still considerable energies almost exclusively into teaching someone who could. He became de facto the national go trainer but the favoured recipient was Nie Weiping, who did indeed become the first player the Japanese truly accepted as their equal (though Chen Zude was the first to defeat a 9-dan).
But the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) was a nasty hiatus for many go players. Indeed, Chen Yi himself was a primary target for the Red Guards, who rejected most of China's traditional culture. Guo's official positions came to mean nothing, except as a threat, and eventually he was forced, in 1975, to embark on a new career writing books. One is particularly esteemed: Weiqi Zhanli (1980), which is "an overall diagnosis and elaboration of go's inherent laws." It was something of a novelty at the time. Thankfully, Guo's incisive views on go can be enjoyed in English, too: the Yutopian book "Strategic Fundamentals in Go" can be highly recommended.
In 1979, normality well nigh restored, he was again brought back into official life. He was appointed to the Chinese National Physical Education General Committee as Beijing representative, amongst other positions, and served assiduously until his death on 7 December 1989.
Originality was always one of Guo's strong suits. His go style was very different from the old Chinese game and he was noted for his lightness of touch and willingness to sacrifice. He was especially strong in middle-game fighting.
The Japanese 9-dan Kajiwara Takeo, one of those who most often played the Chinese in the early goodwill exchanges, said of him:
"He has a peculiar sort of power that Japanese players do not have. A Japanese player stresses boldness of vision and faces the board wanting to be imbued with great fighting spirit. Guo Tisheng is the opposite of this. He is cool-headed, steady and has abundant resilience. In the game here [see below] I was put completely in the position of responding passively at the pace dictated by Guo's tenacious play, and suffered a hard fight. Indeed, his middle-game fighting strength is definitely first rank."
Incidentally, it may help to view this as the difference between the hard art of Japanese karate against the soft art of Chinese taiqi, but in any event the word "tenacious" probably conveys the wrong impression whenever it is used of go in English. If you are familiar with what martial artists call "stickiness" (being so attuned to your opponent's movements that you, in effect, control him) you will get a better idea of Guo's style.
The best way to appreciate Guo is through his games. Here is a baker's dozen:
