In the News

Taiwan prodigy takes Japan’s women’s pro Go by storm

Hsieh Yi-min (second left) with her family and Go teacher Huang Meng-cheng (second right) at the Female Kisei award presentation ceremony in Tokyo in March 2010. (Courtesy of Hsieh Yi-min)

• Publication Date：01/21/2011
• Source： Taiwan Today
• By  Meg Chang

For those who have no idea about Go, the ancient Chinese board game with more than 2,500 years of history may appear to be overwhelmingly complicated. But as Hsieh Yi-min told Taiwan Today during an interview Nov. 8, 2010, “Go is a colorful world worth a lifetime of pursuit.” Hsieh is the current holder of all of Japan’s three major female Go tournament titles.

The game, called weiqi in Chinese, is played by two opponents who take turns placing black and white stones on the vacant intersections of a grid of 19×19 lines, with the aim of controlling a larger portion of the board than one’s opponent. It is very popular among countries influenced by Chinese culture, including Taiwan, Japan, mainland China and South Korea, where professional Go players often enjoy a great amount of prestige.

Different from chess, in which the number of pieces each player holds decreases as the game proceeds, Go matches begin with an empty board, where opponents gain ground by placing more stones. While the rules are simple enough, game strategies are unusually sophisticated with the number of stones increasing with time, ultimately resulting in puzzling game patterns. Not only is Go an intelligence game, it is also highly physically challenging given the long hours it takes to compete.

But none of these appeared to be a problem to Hsieh. Born in 1989 in the northern city of Miaoli, the prodigy picked up the game at the age of five, when her talent was spotted by a Go teacher after a brief and casual conversation. “The teacher told my mother that I could become a professional Go player,” she recalled. Hsieh’s parents believed in their little girl’s potential, and their decision has made all the difference to her life.

Instead of playing with dolls, Hsieh spent most of her time practicing Go, attending private lessons and competing in tournaments. The young player displayed her strong ambition from early on. “I made up my mind to be a pro player at five years old,” she said. “While still in kindergarten, I already recognized the names of all major titles available to female Go players in Japan. I told my mother that they would all be mine some day,” Hsieh said. She soon grabbed her first title, and throughout her elementary school years, she was a regular tournament winner both at home and abroad.

But the prodigy has also had her share of frustration and depression. “When I lost in one competition at the age of eight, my father asked me to think seriously if I wanted to continue playing Go. I almost gave up then. For a young child, the pressure was overwhelming,” Hsieh recalled. She managed to turn those negative feelings into inspirations, and proceeded persistently in her pursuit. “I did not and could not quit, because I did not want to be looked down on for chickening out.”

To bring her skills to the next level, Hsieh moved to Japan in 2002 and trained under Huang Meng-cheng, a Taiwanese Go master living in Japan, with the aim of entering Japan’s professional league. Her hard work paid off in 2004, when at the age of 14 she became the youngest female professional player ever to be certified by the Japan Go Association.

“Turning professional was very important to me, because it meant that every game I won afterward would count toward my personal record, and it allowed me to support myself with cash prizes,” she said.

The young phenomenon’s first big win came in 2006 when she won the Female Strongest Tournament to become Japan’s youngest female title holder. More victories followed and Hsieh became the youngest player to win the Female Honinbo title in 2007 and the Female Meijin title in 2008. She has been the reigning champion in the two tournaments since then.

Beating her opponent in three straight sets in a best-of-five series, Hsieh (right) successfully defended her Female Honinbo title for the third consecutive time in October 2010. (CNA)

Hsieh continued her record-breaking performance in 2010 with her Female Kisei title, completing the first ever grand slam-equivalent performance in the Japanese female league.

While it is important to enjoy the game, Hsieh takes her Go career very seriously. “Being a pro player means more than just playing for fun,” she said. One can have even more fun being an amateur contestant. “But being a pro, you have to keep winning to survive,” the young master pointed out.

“More importantly, I think it is my responsibility to bring my very best into play in every competition. In that way, I can help attract more fans to support the game. I have to live up to the expectations fans have for me and earn their respect. I cannot fail them.” It is a very demanding job, not just for Hsieh herself, but for all the people surrounding and supporting her, she added.

While some might doubt whether Hsieh had a childhood at all given the amount of time she spent practicing Go, Hsieh said she has gained much more from the path she chose than what she gave up for it. “I did have a childhood, it is just that mine is different from most people’s,” she stressed.

“Because of Go, I had the chance to meet with some of the most extraordinary people in the world, including internationally acclaimed grandmasters and business leaders who sponsored me in the past,” she said. While she did not have as much formal education as her peers in Taiwan did, “I learned even more from the people I met along the way. Not many children have had the experiences I’ve had.”

While Hsieh earned her championship with hard work, “luck also plays a role in every competition, especially in Go tournaments,” she said. “There are so many brilliant female players in Japan, mainland China and South Korea who are much stronger than I am. I still have a long way to go.”

The young master would love to collect as many more titles as possible, but the more challenging task for Hsieh is not to dominate Japan’s female Go, which she already did at the age of 21, but to compete with male players on an equal footing.

“Female players still lag behind their male counterparts given the physical disparity and the many demanding roles women have to play in their lives,” she said. At her current level of Go skills, Hsieh said she does not fancy herself challenging her male Taiwanese counterparts such as Cho U, holder of all seven of Japan’s Go titles. “But my goal is to compete with male players in major tournaments and make it to the advanced rounds,” she said.

Just entering her 20s, Hsieh said it is still too early for her to say what Go means to her, or how the game has changed her philosophy toward life. “I only know that all of my best and worst memories have to do with Go, and I simply cannot imagine my life without it,” she said. (HZW)

Write to Meg Chang at meg.chang@mail.gio.gov.tw