es S ye ° ot eee sy : J, Je Liu WenzheThe Chinese School of Chess Liu Wenzhe Translated by Jiwu Wang Edited by John Sugden B.T. Batsford. London ANN. OT4Q-OXxT-XTZiFirst published in 2002 © Liu Wenzhe 2002 ISBN 0 713487739 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, by any means, without prior permission of the publisher Printed in Great Britain by Creative Print and Design (Wales), Ebbw Vale for the publishers, B.T. Batsford Ltd, 64 Brewery Road London N7 9NT A member of Chrysalis Books pic A BATSFORD CHESS BOOK Copyrighted materialFOREWORD TO TRE EXGLISK ENITNION n 1981, B.T.Batsford Ltd sponsored a British chess team on a visit to China. This opened a new chapter in the history of chess relations between the two countries, At that time I was a player in the Chinese team. Afterwards 1 often wore a good-quality blue T-shirt with “Batsford” printed on it. I never suspected that twenty years later, Batsford would gladly agree to publish my book. Surprisingly, my life is once again connected with them. I find this exciting and count myself fortunate, Allow me to take this opportunity to express my appreciation to the Batsford publishing house and its hard-working editors! Liu Wenzhe Copyrighted materialABOUT THE AUTHOR iu Wenzhe is Head Coach of the Chinese National Chess Team. He is Vice-President of the Chess Association of China, and Director of its Technical Committee. He is also Vice-President of the Beijing Chess Institute. He is the founder of the Chinese School of Chess. Liu Wenzhe was born in Harbin on 7 October 1940, His original family home was in Dalian city, Liaoning Province. In 1961 he became a chess coach in Beijing Chess Research Centre, Later he became a member of the Beijing chess team and a coach in the Beijing Chess Institute, Liu Wenzhe ‘was the first Chinese player to hold the title of International Master. He is also a Chinese Grandmaster. He won the National Championship in 1980 and 1982. He was appointed to his post of Chief National Coach in 1986, and has been a recipient of a special government grant since 1992. Liu Wenzhe is well known as an expert on Go, XiangQ and Bridge as well as chess. His main contributions to chess consist of founding the theory and philosophy of the Chinese School, achieving tremendous advances in the international performance of the Chinese Team, and fostering many world-class chessplayers. Under his coaching, the Chinese Women’s Team won the Chess Olympics in 1998, and successfully defended the title in 2000 and 2002. ed material Copyriga ) © CONTENTS Foreword. About the Author List of Games In Place of a Preface The Art of Thinking Strategy in Action The Origin and Nature of Chess Models of Chess Thought Opening Principles The Theory of Training The Strategy of Competition The Chinese Phenomenon The New Millennium Postseript Page 30 59 98 131 160 191 219 269 287 Copyrighted materialINDEX OF GAMES Liu Wenzhe - Donner Alterman - Peng Xiaomin Liu Wenzhe - Krogius Ye Jiangchuan - Short Zhu Chen - Tiviakov Korchnoi - Ye Jiangchuan Wang Zili - Portisch Xu Jun - Shirov Qi Jingxuan - Liu Wenzhe Kasparov - Suba ‘Speelman - Liu Wenzhe Kasparov - Khalifman Gheorghiu - Liu Wenzhe Qi Jingxuan - Liv Wenzhe Liang Jinrong - Torre Chiburdanidze - Xie Jun Zhang Zhong - Asrian Volkov - Zhang Zhong Xie Jun - Korchnoi Tosel Xie Jun Matveyeva ~ Wu Minggian Toseliani - Liu Shilan Galliamova - Xie Jun Xu Yuhua - Zhukova Zhe Chen - Smirin Gaponenko - Wang Lei Wang Pin - Marié Qin Kanying - Galliamova Xu Yuhua - Goletiani Xie Jun - Skripchenko-Lautier Zhu Chen = Cosma Vo Hong - Xu Yuhua Wang Lei - Sikorova Xie Jun - Zhukova Qin Kanying - Peptan Zhang Pengxiang - Karpov Zhu Chen - Kosteniuk 197 206 223 247 256 259 262 264 266 271 271 22 273 274 276 278 283 Copyrighted materialWN PLACE OF A PREFACE BY Y) SHU alf a century ago, Mikhail Botvinnik published his work The Soviet School of Chess. From that time on, nobody dared to mount a systematic challenge to the theory of the Soviet School—until Liv Wenzhe’s The Chinese School of Chess was published by Shu Rong Qiyi publishing house, The book is a theoretical summary of China’s chess practices, It is based on a solid foundation of experience, the experiences of Chinese players, coaches and researchers. I believe that Liu Wenzhe’s achievement in building up the theory of the Chinese School of Chess is insepar- able from his deep philosophical understanding. While still at elementary school, Lin Wenzhe spent “big money” on The Complete Manual of XiangQi. The term XiangQi denotes the Chinese version of chess—a relative of standard or international chess. He won the title of Beijing Junior XiangQi Champion at the age of fifteen. He studied the game at the feet of Zhang Dekui, Hou Yushan and Xie Xiaoran. He also became acquainted with Xie Xiaxun, Yang Guanlin, Hu Ronghua, Guo Tishen, Chen Zude, Nie Weiping and other great XiangOQi masters of his generation, and kept up close relations with them. It is also worth mentioning that when he was still at middle school, Liu Wenzhe thoroughly read Mao Zedong’s On Practice, On Contradiction and On Issues of Strategy in the Chinese Revolutionary War, in addition to other philosophical and military works. He also studied Zhou Gucheng’s Formal Logic and other writings on aesthetics. From 1964, prompted by the need to develop chess in China, as well as for reasons of his own ambition, Liu Wenzhe shifted his focus to “standard” chess. He began to show his talent for this game in 1965. When he played against 2 Soviet Grandmaster in that year, Liu Wenzhe applied some modes of thinking from XiangQi to a game of chess, and won the game like floating clouds and flowing water. For well-known political reasons, he was deprived of the chance to play chess from 1966 to 1976. At that time, moreover, he could not even feed his family and himself. All his food for a day was two steamed buns. He would go in his shabby clothes to Beijing Library to translate Russian writings on chess, and would study them when he came back home at night. During those years, he translated more than a million words in total. Copyrighted material8 In Place of a Preface After the “Gang of Four” was de- stroyed, Liu Wenzhe returned to the chess world. He made a remarkable impact on the international scene in 1978, im his first major contest since the Cultural Revolution. He achiev- ed China’s first International Master title. Nonetheless, approaching the age of forty, he realized that his main duty would not consist. in winning honours for himself. He decided to use his chess knowledge and experience to train gifted young Chinese players to become world champions. At the beginning of 1979, Liu Wenzhe published an arti: cle entitled “The Art of Thinking” in Hong Kong’s “Da Gong Bao”. ‘The article discusses his famous game with the Dutch Grandmaster Jan Hein Donner, which Liu Wenzhe won in just twenty moves with a fine queen sacrifice. This article may be seen as the earliest manifesto of the Chinese School of Chess. After the Third Plenary Session of the th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, Liu Wenzhe's scope was incteased. He succeeded in blending Chinese modes of chess thought with foreign ones, and constructed the initial theoretical framework of the Chinese School. In 1986 Chen Zude, head of the Chinese Institute of Chess and Chairman of the Chess Association of China, had the unique insight to appoint Liu Wenzhe head coach of the national chess training team. Liu Wenzhe has held that position for fifteen years now. It is in this capacity that he is able to practise the theory of the Chinese School, to examine it constantly and develop it. In 1988 and 1989 he gave a series of speeches to a symposium of the Chess Association of China and the National Chess Coaching Confer- ence. He laid particular emphasis on “methods of playing chess by patterns of thought from XiangQi”, namely the issue of Chinese thinking, In 1991 Liu Wenzhe published an article in the Chinese Journal of Physical Education, entitled “The Chinese Phenomenon Arrives by Moving Mountains and Sweeping Back Seas.” In Beijing in September 1992, at the first national training course for chess coaches, Liu Wen zhe taught “basic concepts”, “basic technique”, “positional theory”, “the theory of strategy” and other sub- jects including computer chess and the history of the game. In 1994 and 1998, similar courses were held in Beijing and Shenyang respectively. More than 150 students attended these three training courses, which produced many outstanding coaches for China. Liu Wenzhe lives for most of the time in his training office. He treats his chess equipment and his com puter almost as family members. He immerses himself in hard work to scale the pinnacle of chess theory. Liu Wenzhe believes that chess originates in the Book of Changes, just as firmly as he believes that the Book of Changes is the source of the binary number system used in computing. The centre of gravity of the chess world is moving east- wards; in the twenty-first century, all eyes will be on the “Chinese phenomenon”, Copyrighted material