According to Titan Weekly
Zhou Zhenyu enters the competition Reporter Xie Rui from Beihai reported that the first Beihai Xinyi Cup public preliminary selection was open to amateur chess players, opening the barriers between professional and amateur. A total of 12 amateur green forest giants with more than 7 (inclusive) sections participated in the competition, and only Zhou Zhenyu passed the 8 sections and qualified for the tournament. As a result, although the gap between professional and amateur chess players in terms of strength is not large, the qualification rate is still very different. Amateur chess players are still considered as vulnerable groups when participating in mixed pre selection.
The amateur heroes who participated in this Beihai Xinyi Cup included Ma Tianfang, Zhou Zhenyu, Fu Li, Tao Hanwen, Zhao Jiannan and other veteran generals. After the first round of the competition, only 4 of the 12 people survived. Zhou Zhenyu's 8 sections quickly beat Lin Zijie's 3 sections, 14 year old Xing Hongcheng's 7 sections beat Wan Enze's 3 sections, Zhao Jiannan's 8 sections beat Wang Shunbo's 2 sections, and Weng Yike's 7 sections beat Jiabu's 3 sections.
Tianfang, the amateur chess super hero who just won the runner up of the Chen Yi Cup, was defeated by Zhang Baiqing, who was born in 2004 and won the 19th Yuan Cup in 2021. This is an event specially designed for beginners. Later, he entered the eight person circle of the 2023 Rookie Tournament, and was the backbone of the group of young players around 20 years old.
Zhou Zhenyu, who was once the fourth professional player, participated in the Weijia League on behalf of Dalian Shangshang Team in 2011. He was the champion of the national individual game men's group B at the highest moment in the professional chess world. After retiring in 2017, Zhou Zhenyu played in the amateur chess world, winning the championship of the 2019 Intelligent Games Weiqi Amateur Men's Individual Game and the 2021 Evening News Cup Amateur Weiqi Competition, After the Beihai Xinyi Cup was opened to amateur chess players, he came to the competition with a feeling of trying water, and won three consecutive rounds of Lin Zijie, Liu Qifeng and Liu Zhaozhe, becoming the only amateur chess player to advance.
In the three rounds of competition, only one of the 12 amateur chess players survived. It is a hoax to say that there is no strength difference between professionals and amateurs. Zhou Zhenyu is quite familiar with the rhythm of professional competitions because of his professional background. The three sets of victories are of quality and quantity, and he deserves to be a leader among amateur giants.
It is said on the Internet that Zhou Zhenyu is still a professional four section chess player, so his victory over three professional chess players cannot be called as amateur versus professional victory. This statement means that Zhou Zhenyu has been participating in amateur competitions since he left the stage seven years ago. Both the competitors and the competition rhythm are far from professional competitions. After seven years of immersion in the amateur competition environment, he came back to participate in professional competitions. All kinds of game psychology and habits are completely different. Therefore, it seems demanding to mention that Zhou Zhenyu was once a professional.
Although there is no gap between professionals and amateurs, it is still difficult to fully connect the two. Amateur competitions can be found all over the country. Because they are short and smooth and can be titled as national competitions, they are popular everywhere. As a result, a strange scenery of "professional not professional, amateur not amateur" has been formed. Zhou Zhenyu, Ma Tianfang, Chen Yang and other amateur chess players compete constantly all the year round, and they are real "professional chess players".
But amateur Go competitions cannot be simply opened to professional players, just as professional competitions cannot be opened to amateur players. Therefore, Liu Jing, Deputy Secretary General of the China Go Association, said at the press release of this Beihai Xinyi Cup, "This is the world competition hosted by China. It is the first time to break through the boundaries between professional and amateur. It is no longer the way to limit the number of people in the past, which also makes a positive exploration for promoting the development of event classification in the future."
In the future, the direction of domestic and international Go Open Tournament should be the same as that of tennis, regardless of professional and amateur, and the tournament should be graded and entered freely, so as to truly break through the fortress of professional and amateur.
