Yang Yilun

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Yang Yilun (楊以倫 Pinyin: Yáng Yǐlún) is a professional 7-dan Go player in the Chinese Go Association.

As of 2006, Yang lives in the United States. He is a popular teacher and author of several volumes on Go, including Yang Yilun's Ingenious Life And Death Puzzles, Whole Board Thinking in Joseki, and Fundamental Principles of Go.

Yang was born in Shanghai, China in 1951 and became a professional Go player in 1966 at age 14. In 1973, he joined the Chinese National Go Team and participated actively in the China-Japan matches of that period. In 1979, Mr Yang began coaching the Shanghai Professional Go team and trained many notable players, among whom are Chang Hao 9 Dan, Rui Naiwei 9 Dan and Hua Xueming 7 Dan. Since 1986, Mr. Yang has been teaching in the United States. He is the chief instructor of the American Go Institute in Los Angeles California. Mr. Yang also teaches students via the Internet using both KGS and IGS go servers.

Mr. Yang has won a number of titles including:

  • 1973: First Place in the National Young Men's Competition
  • 1978, 1979, 1980, 1985, 1986: National Champion in Team Competition
  • 1986: First Place in the Yuntze Cup Tournament.

Books:


Archival discussion based upon publisher's blurb at the end of Whole Board Thinking in Joseki, since replaced with the blurb from Fundamental Principles of Go published in 2004.

Mr. Yang has won a number of titles including the Chinese national championship in 1973, the Yunzu title in 1985 and five-time champion of the Chinese team tournament while representing his hometown of Shanghai.

John F.: "won first Chinese national championship in 1973" - No, he didn't. The first was in 1957, there was no event in 1973, and Yang has never won. What are you referring to?
Velobici: John F., this information comes from the biographical note about Mr. Yang at the end of Whole Board Thinking in Joseki. I have removed the notation first, that word is not included in the biographical note. Why do you say that there was not a championship in 1973? What happened that year to cause the championship to be skipped?
John F. There was a gap in the National Individual Championships between 1966 (Term 7) and 1974 (Term 8) because of the Cultural Revolution. A semblance of normal go activity was resuming at the end of 1973, but this was too late for the Nationals as they take place in the summer. Yang did not even feature in the top six in any year before or since, as far as I can see. The earliest reference I have to him is in 1974 when he was one of the minor members of the rather large team that played in the resumed Japan-China Goodwill Exchanges - though it has to be said he beat Sonoda Yuichi 7d (with Black and no komi, I believe). It's inherently unlikely he was anywhere near being a national champion anyway. In 1982 he was made 5-dan when the likes of Chen Zude and Nie Weiping were made 9-dan. It's true Shanghai ruled the roost in the team tournaments - they hardly ever lost till modern times - but Yang wasn't even one of their top players. The top of course was Chen Zude himself. In passing, I've never come across the strange-sounding Yunzu (mistake for Yunzi?) Cup and certainly nothing like it is listed in the usual tables. Obvious explanations such as winning junior or amateur events instead seem unlikely too: I've checked the tables for children's events at the time, and of course all events were amateur then. So I'm as puzzled as you are, but would like to know the explanation.

ihgo: I found that Mr Yang's lessons on KGS plus are amongst the best ones. He tackles a lot of fundamentals in a crystal clear way.

Anonymous: one of the best teachers for english speakers world wide


This is a copy of the living page "Yang Yilun" at Sensei's Library.
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