Chengdu Weiqi Center

Kong Jie (interview en anglais uniquement)

Kong Jie

Yesterday, we went to a go club in Wangjing to watch a professional game and play friendship games with some of the club members. The games were mostly lost, but the visit in itself was more important than the result.

After the Chinese city league game, we had the chance to go for dinner with the professional players Kong Jie 7p and our teacher Wang Yang 5p. The team had just played the Guizhou team in the Chinese City league, and the Guizhou team had flewn in Lee Sedol from Korea to take part in the game. Of course, everyone was eager to watch the top players in person. When most of us had already entered the playing room (in teams of smaller groups) Lee Sedol commented to one of the judges that so many people entering was disturbing for him, and we were forbidden to enter. In fact, the only people entering the playing room during the games except for the group of 20 odd foreigners were journalists and 2 or 3 specially invited Chinese guests. Our teachers commented to us that this would not happen with Chinese professionals, since they are already good friends with our teachers Wang Yang, Chen Jia and Li Yuanbo. The conditions Lee Sedol has for his games may also affect this a little, he gets $10000 US if he wins his game, and nothing if he loses. Altogether, he participates in 8 of the 22 matches in a season. In comparison, a Chinese pro often has a base salary but may get a bonus of $1-3000 US for a win.

On the first board of the match Lee Sedol - Kong Jie, Lee Sedol 9p finally managed to win by killing a big group after trailing for most of the game. Lee Sedol is many times a world champion and one of the top players in the world, and Kong Jie is now ranked among the Top 5 players in China.

Lee Sedol was wearing a classy white suit with wide sleeves, and a pink shirt, and his hair was neat, making him look as much as a playboy as go player, some of the participants would comment that there was an aura or glow from him, and I think his clothing style and posture was responsible for most of it. Kong Jie was playing in a more conservative western style clothes, white shirt and dark blue trousers, and with a fan in his hand for most of the time, rather nervously shaking it back and forth, but rarely actually opening it and using it as a fan.

In the same room, 3 other games were going on. Zhang Wendong 9p played the speed go game for the Beijing team but unfortunately lost. He is a very friendly pro and has joined to show us around and comment his games from the league on our previous trip. During the first trip he and his wife also took Lasse Jakobsen, a young talented Danish player and his parents to the summer palace. Zhang Wendong also came with us to the restaurang to give a toast, but had dinner with the Chinese amateur team that had been our opponents earlier in the afternoon.

Our teacher Wang Yang played an excellent game and won against Wang Lei 8p (Some week ago Wang Yang lost to Chang Hao 9p by just 1/2 point, and when he comes to teach us, it is also easy to see that his mood is affected quite much by his winning or losing.) However, the 4th game was also lost by the Beijing team, so the match ended 3-1 in favor of Guizhou.

During dinner, Gu Weiying 5d, our female teacher, acted as a translator for Kong Jie in a round table question session, but no notes were taken. This script is based on my own recollection of his original answers.

When did you start playing go and why?

I was only 6 years old when I started. I had played Chinese chess earlier, but then saw go and took interest in it. When my mother saw that I was intersted in it she registered me for a special go class.

So, how is your level at Chinese Chess today?

It is not so good, I don¡¯t play it much. As soon as I started the go class, I almost stopped playing Chinese chess.

Nie Weiping took part in an activity where he played a Chinese chess professional in go and Chinese chess simultanously, would you like to take part in a similar activity?

(laughs) My level is not good enough, and definitely not as good as Teacher Nie. Teacher Nie has taken a greater interest in other games, he has also taught International Chess and Bridge on television, even commented high level matches.

When did you become a go professional?

When I was 12 years old. (ed. Kong Jie is 24 now)

Was the tournament to become a professional difficult? Can you remember any key game from it?

Actually, the tournament was quite relaxed for me. I had participated the year before, and was number 10. That year, 9 people become professionals, so it was a great pity for me. The year I became a professional 10 people become professionals. The tournament format was such that you have to win 8 games to become a professional, out of 12. After 9 games, I had already won enough games, and did not have to play the remaining 3 games. So I never felt any real stress. (ed. Now around 20 people become professionals every year in China, determined by a single yearly national tournament, but the tournament also have a lot more participants. Every year, 2 of the positions are reserved for girls, so although the play in the same tournament as a boy it is easier to beome a professional as a girl, as the competition is not so fierce.) This also means that I can¡¯t remember the games from the tournament clearly.

Is there an age limit for becoming a professional?

Yes, 18 for boys and 20 for girls.

What is the biggest difference between professionals and amateurs in your opinion?

That professionals make a living of playing go (laughs).

Do you think it means that amateurs have more fun playing go than professionals?

In some sense, amateurs will have more fun, because if they don¡¯t have fun, they can always stop playing and start again when they like it. Professionals don¡¯t have this option. For a professional, you will also remember the grievance of a loss for longer, and it can be harder to get over a loss in an important game, as it affects your career and your salary. But amateurs will also be affected by losses. If you don¡¯t feel sad about your losses it is also hard to feel happy about your wins. (ed. as taken from a philosophy textbook).

How far can you read in the go game?

It is a difficult question to answer. But generally I may read 20-30 moves.

What do you think is the most important skill of go? Which is the most difficult part?

As for what is important, I think there are two things that is very important, and sometimes underestimated.

One is solving life and death problems. Even for professionals, it is important to solve life and death problems, and we have our secret books of compilations of especially difficult problems from recent games, or older collections. Some of them are also from Korea and Japan.

The second one is positional judgement as compared to reading. Take an example where can be two variations that all the professional players can easily read. Maybe their difference in the result is less than one point. If these variations are 20 moves long, it can be very hard to estimate the final result accurately, and it also takes a lot of time.

As for what is most difficult, for me it is the opening. The reason is that there are so few stones on the board, and so many options. With so many options available, it is difficult to know what to do, and it is difficult to read very far. To improve my own game, I also think the most important would be to improve the opening. But it is very difficult, and can only come with a lot of practice.

Playing a good opening is very important, because it makes the rest of the game much easier, and less stressful. If you play a bad opening, you have to spend a lot of energy trying to catch up.

Is there anything else you have to improve? Which level is it possible to reach?

Of course, I have to improve everything. To say what level I can reach is impossible.

But my use of the time is not very good now. I feel that I often use almost all the time in the opening, and play a good opening, but then I don¡¯t have any time for the endgame and make simple mistakes. Conversely, when I try to play faster in the opening, I seem to make simple mistakes there, and even if I have time I have already lost the game. I really don¡¯t know of a solution to this problem now.

For how long can you remember your games?

It is hard to say, I don¡¯t know exactly. But of course I can remember more important games for longer, they will leave a very deep impression.

Will you sometimes prepare special things or do research to trick or gain an advantage over your opponent?

(laughs) It happends, but not so much. In professional games, the risk is to great to try anything like that.

Does it give you any special feeling to play with a world top player like Lee Sedol? Does the difference in your styles affect the outcome between the two of you?

It is like playing several games at once, as I can remember our previous meetings and the feelings involved. But otherwise, there is no special feeling involved. Of course, I know that he is a very strong player. However, I don¡¯t think the styles has so much effect on the outcome.

Can you remember all of your previous meetings with Lee Sedol, or the standings between the two of you?

The standings are not so important to me, I don¡¯t remember. The games, I can not remember all of them exactly, but I can remember the general ideas and some of the games. (ed. Gobase only has a 2-1 lead in favor of Lee Sedol before this last meeting, but it seems it must be missing some games.)

Did you have any big ups and downs, or any crisis in your career?

Every player does, but you just have to be persistent and you can turn a bad trend around. I can not think of any special time, but it seems it always goes in periods, for one period you will feel that you play very well, and for one period very badly.

What about now, is it a good period or a bad one?

(laughs) I¡¯d have to say that it is a really good period. But the result in the game today was unfortunate.

Which is your next big tournament?

The Toyota Cup in August.

How do you prepare for big games?

If I know who my opponent will be, I will prepare by looking over his recent games to understand his way of thinking and playing. But the most important is that the mind is relaxed, and that I get enough rest before the tournament so that I don¡¯t feel tired during the games.

Can you explain the fashion of some openings in pro games?

(thinks for quite a long time) I think there are two major groups of players that contribute to this fashion. One is weaker pros or pros who are not confident in their opening who will play recent openings to avoid suffering a loss early on. The other is strong players who take time to research modern openings, and thus feel confident in a certain opening. Of course, playing a standard opening is also a way to save time for using later, and may benefit players who like the midde and endgame.

Which players do you admire?

I admire players who have to work very hard to play well. Cho hun-hyun is one of the players I admire the most. (ed Kong Jie did not say which group he himself belongs to.)

How much time do you spend playing go every day?

Around 8 hours, like a normal job, including games, but the time is not fixed, sometimes I will play more and sometimes less.

Do you spend any time teaching go?

No, I never spent any time teaching go. I think playing gives me more happiness.

Would you be disturbed if a lot of people came to watch your games or talked during the games?

People watching does not affect me. People talking, that¡¯s not allowed! I guess I would be a little disturbed, but as I am concentrating so deeply on the game, I don¡¯t think it would affect me very much.

In fact, there is a new tournament called NEC cup on TV, where the players are playing on a stage, with an audience, and pros commenting the game live. The players can hear the commentary, but the commentators will never mention coordinates or the names of the players, so it is not possible to get any hint from the commentary. (ed. Kong Jie did not say it explicitly, but seems to support this development.)

What do you think of the future status of go?

I hope it will be bigger in the whole world. But there is also a worry, in that most Chinese players are in their 40s or even older. There are relatively few young players in China today. The young people today pay less attention to the classical arts and achievements (ed. calligraphy, classic music, painting, go etc.).

What difference do you see in playing on the Internet compared to playing in go clubs?

There is a difference in the feeling, that exists for professionals also. First and foremost the real board is much bigger than the board on the computer. But, looking at the computer screen will also make the eyes tired, and make it harder to concentrate deeply, so I don¡¯t think I can play as well on the computer.

I get the impression that most go players and go schools are in Beijing, is that true?

I don¡¯t quite agree. The players originally come from many different cities. But the professionals meet to train together at the Chinese go association in Beijing, and in addition, there is a higher concentration of go schools that train kids to become professionals in Beijing (ed. The Nie Weiping 9p and Zheng Hong 9p go schools are both located in the south of Beijing) it makes it a center in some sense. (ed. There are big concentration of (especially amateur) go players in many other cities, and more clubs than in Beijing, for example in Chengdu, Guilin/Nanning and Luoyang.)

Do you feel tired after a game like this?

Of course I feel tired, and my mind is also exhausted. But, after a night¡¯s sleep, it is usually okay again. I think I could play game for 2 or 3 successive games without being affected very much. But for a full week, it would be too exhausting. Luckily, we have at least one rest day between successive games in most big tournaments.

So, after the game, you will go home to sleep directly?

No, it is not possible. Because I become very excited during the game, it will take time to calm down. This means that even though I feel tired after the game, it is not so easy to sleep early that night.

What are your hobbies other than go?

I like traveling, watching movies and my girlfriend (laughs). As for traveling, I have of course been to Japan and Korea many times to take part in go tournaments, but the only trip outside Asia was to Canada. I hope that one day I might be able to travel around the world. (Participants, in semi-chorus: Welcome to come visit me in my country!)

Do you play any other games or sports other than go?

I like to play badminton. Also, I occasionally play some computer games (mentions some online multiplayer games, among them Red Alert, and some modern Chinese online Massive Multiplayer game).

If you did not play go, what would you do instead? What are you planning to do after your go playing career?

(laughs) I have never thought about that. I think I will try to travel after the career, but I don¡¯t know what else I would do. Luckily, an important difference between go player and many other sportsmen is that go players can go on for much longer, sometimes until they are 40 or 50 years. So I do not have to think about it just yet.

Liens