The founding of the new Taiwan Go Academy (Taiwan Qiyuan) in February 2000 was a welcome boost for the handful of pros there. But much responsibility now rests on the shoulders of their leading light, 20-year-old Zhou Junxun, the only Taiwanese of genuine star quality to stay and play at home.
He was born on 2 February 1980 in the town of Jiayi, near Tainan City. His father, Yanshan, was a go fan of about amateur 6-dan strength, and he had lots of go books in house. Notable among them was the 12-volume collection of Sakata Eio's games. This was Junxun's unusual introduction to go. Aged six and totally ignorant of the rules of the game, he began to copy Sakata's games from book to board as a sort of jigsaw puzzle. He did not learn go properly until he was seven.
Around then his family then moved close to Zhongzheng international port, which meant father could play in go tournaments in Taipei. But he was devastated one day to be beaten by a seven year-old. This turned out to be Cho U (or Zhang Xu in Chinese) who is now a pro 6-dan in Japan.
Recovering his composure father became fired with the ambition to groom his own son as a go star. Junxun was the only one of four brothers to show the aptitude, and he was given a diet of actual games and game records to play over, with toys as a reward whenever he made progress. His toy cupboard soon became the envy of his brothers.
Taiwanese go was fortunate at the time to start basking in the generous funding by entrepreneur Ing Chang-ki, who decided to give up the profits of one of his factories entirely to go. Among the many new ventures set up by his Go Foundation was the Jingying Group. Jingying means pick of the crop, or creme de la creme, but it derives from a commentary on the Classic of Filial Piety and so has the special significance of applying to children. Around 5,000 children were said to be benefiting in some way or another from Ing's support, but Junxun was soon to stand out as one of the top one or two.
His fame as a go prodigy brought privileges. From the third year of primary school his attendance became very poor. Apart from attending for exams, there didn't seem much point, according to father, and it seems even the school teachers wanted to indulge such a famous go player.
He was certainly working hard, a habit he has retained. 4-5 hours at a go board was a minimum each day. He had no other interests, except perhaps a special fondness for animals. As his talents rapidly outstripped what the Foundation could offer him, he was sent to live with Taiwan's top pros. He first spent nine months with Dai Jiashen 7-dan, and this was followed by a further six months with Lin Shengxian 5-dan. The stay with Lin brought him into first contact with the collected games of Go Seigen, Honinbo Dosaku and Honinbo Shusaku.
In 1991, when he was 11, he was invited to join a go youth exchange with China in Chengdu. This led to the opportunity to spend a further three months studying with Chengdu's top pro, Song Xuelin, then 8-dan but now 9-dan, in 1992. In martial arts terms, it was as if he was a foreigner being allowed to attend the Shaolin Temple.
At this time his real desire was, naturally, to go to Japan to be a pro there, but it was too costly for his family, and so, in 1993, when he qualified as a Chinese 1-dan, he began pro life in Taiwan. He was a 9-pin - Taiwan perversely sticks to its own system of grades that run from 9-pin up to 1-pin, the precise reverse of the 1- to 9-dan system used elsewhere. We will convert to dans here.
Professional go in Taiwan was still in its infancy. It had begun in 1970 in embryonic form, but in its modern form it is best dated from 1979, when Ing Chang-ki upped the stakes all round. In particular, he offered to match any investment from newspapers, though the quid pro quo was that Taiwan had to accept his versions of the rules of go (notably 8 points komi and the possibility of buying extra thinking time at the rate of 2 points for 35 minutes). Not everyone in Taiwan was happy with this, and the few tournaments were shunned by some pros, for this and other reasons.
By the time Zhou Junxun appeared on the scene, however, four tournaments had become established. There are two purely domestic events: the Mingren and the Guoshou (the earlier Qiwang is defunct). One is a unique win-and-continue tournament, the other a league, with game fees as well as prizes. These are modest - in US dollars top prize would be about $10,000 with game fees of $600 for the winner and half that for the loser. The big prize though is that the winner of both events qualifies for all international events that year. If different players win the two titles, they have to play off.
The other two events, the Zhonghuan Cup and the Yongdai Cup, are joint ventures with China, and are mainly focused on China's youngest stars. They are more lucrative but the competition is tougher. (It would also be fair to count the Ing Cup as a Taiwanese event but it is held only once every four years.)
Another special feature of Taiwanese pro go is the promotion system. There is only a handful of pros - less than 20, and two or three top amateurs were allowed to play with them. Reaching the main stages of any of the four tournaments brings automatic qualification as a pro. Depending on the grade, a winning ratio of 60-70% brings one dan promotion. A winning ratio of 80% or more earns a skip promotion of two dans.
Junxun's talent can be demonstrated most graphically by his promotion record:
But some perspective is needed. He has qualified also as a Chinese 3-dan, and that would be closer to his international strength. His Chinese qualifications come from frequent study visits there, and the opportunity to play in tournaments there. Though he has not fared too well in tournaments, he appears to improve overall, as his Taiwanese results show. In some years he has scored 90%.
He made an immediate impression, winning the 19th Mingren in 1994, aged 13, with victory over his teacher, Lin Shengxian. But 1997 was a special year, for he won all four tournaments, and he retained the two domestic titles the year after.
His success at home gave him the entree to the world stage. His debut was in the 8th Fujitsu Cup when he was 15, but the luck of the draw gave him Yi Ch'ang-ho in Round 1 and so it was no surprise that he made little impression. But he has pegged away, and the most significant result so far came in 1998 when he reached the last eight of the 3rd LG Cup. He still works hard, he still frequently goes to his "Shaolin temple" in mainland China to learn from the masters, and it is safe to conclude the best is yet to come. Before too long he will be able to buy all the toys he wants himself!
Here is a sample of Zhou's games in downloadable sgf format.
Game 1: Against Peng Jinghua in the 1995 Taiwan Guoshou. In this game Zhou played the Old Kobayashi opening of 3, 5, 7 which he picked up during his stay that year in China, and with which he scored a high percentage. Game 2: In 1996 against Taiwanese veteran Chen Guoxing. Game 3: In the 1997 Fujitsu Cup against Otake Hideo. Game 4: Against teacher Dai Jiashen in the 1998 Taiwan Mingren. This game may be of special interest to the rules mavens. It was said that White lost under Ing rules because of the mistake of 212, which meant having to play the final fill-in move of 218. Game 5: Against Lin Zhaohua in the 1999 Chunlan.
BIG FISH SEEKS BIGGER POND - ZHOU JUNXUN