Chen Zude

Chen Zude (陈祖德, 19 February 1944 – 1 November 2012) was a pioneering modern Chinese 9-dan professional Go player.

Table of contents Go career Family Illness and death Books Links Notes

Go career

Chen’s Go teachers were Gu Shuiru and Liu Dihuai.

As 5-dan, Chen won the Chinese National Go Individual tournament three times, in 1964, and 1966, as well as 1974. Between 1966 and 1973, the tournament was not held. In addition he placed second twice, third three times, and fourth once.

Chen reached 9-dan in 1982, becoming the first Chinese player to do so after the introduction of the modern professional system in China. He was a major exponent of the Chinese fuseki, and was the first President of the Chinese Weiqi Association (中国围棋协会) and Zhongguo Qiyuan (中国棋院) until his death.

Family

Chen’s first wife was former world women’s table tennis champion Zheng Minzhi (1945– ). They had one son together, Chen Yiqiu, but divorced in 1989. Chen’s second wife was Xia Caijuan, and they had twin sons, Chen Tianyu and Chen Tianning.

Illness and death

He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2011. He had surgery to remove his gallbladder and two-thirds of his intestine. Unfortunately the cancer returned and metastatized to his liver by October 2012. During his illness, he wrote an autobiography of his experiences with his battle and other events in his life—titled Striving for Excellence. He wished for no funeral, and for his ashes to be scattered in the Huangpu River in his home city of Shanghai.

Books

• Famous Games by Chen Zude
• Go and Me
• Strategies and Tactics A Case Study of Ten Games
• Striving for Excellence
• Ancient Chinese Go Games with Detailed Commentary Series (14 volumes)

Links

• Chinese Wikipedia
• GoBase player profile of Chen Zude
• Go Ratings and Games

Notes

Chen Zude is profiled in the fourth chapter of The World of Chinese Go.

Weiqi Tiandi devoted the majority of the 15 November 2012, issue to a retrospective on Chen Zude.