In modern Chinese, “Lanke” is wildly used to suggest that a board game is competitive and engaging. (Legend has it that a man once went up the hill to gather firewood with an axe. Unexpectedly, he was enthralled by the board game Go played by a few boys in the hill. When he eventually realized his task of gathering firewood, his axe has rotted. This helps explain the classical allusion of “Lanke”, rotten axe. ) The Third “Lanke” Board Game Go Cup for faculty members, for example, is a famous competition that brought together many schools and institutions.
This year, the third “Lanke” Board Game Go Cup for faculty members was held from August 10th to August 13th in Quzhou City, Zhejiang Province. The tournament was co-directed by China GO Association and Quzhou Municipal People's Government. Go teams of faculty members from Tsinghua University, Peking University, Renmin University of China, Zhejiang University and other 18 "985" project universities participated in the game. The tournament was organized in 4 tables, a point system with 7 rounds of matches was employed. The number of tables for the four main players was confirmed at the time of registration and could not be changed after the first round of the tournament started. RUC Go team was led by Zheng Shuiquan, Vice Chair of the University council and Chairman of the RUC Labor Union. The other five members were Zhu Hu, Professor of the School of History, Mu Cheng, Associate Professor of the School of Science, Xu Yin, teacher representative of the School of Foreign Languages, Hu Shui Ming, Teacher of the Affiliated School of RUC, and Liu Jialing from the RUC Logistic Group.
RUC Go team: Hu Shuiming, LIU Jialin, XU Yin, ZHU Hu, Mu Cheng (from left to right)
During the opening ceremony, Zheng Shuiquan delivered a speech on behalf of the participating universities. Zheng praised the Quzhou Municipal People's Government and the organizing committee before extending his sincere gratitude to them for their efforts to provide the platform. He noted that the board game Go is a stellar example of the outstanding Chinese culture. Moreover, as a great component of the spare time of university teachers and students, the game deserves great publicity and attention. “RUC has always been supportive in launching competition on the board game Go, resulting in a good tradition of playing Go”, said him. “Last year, I led a delegation to attend the second “Lanke” Board Game Go Cup too. Our participation this year speaks well of our continued support of the game”, Zheng added.
On August 11, the first day of the tournament, RUC and Tsinghua University met in the first round after the draw. The two had a fierce competition. Xu Yin, Hu Shui Ming and Zhu Hu from RUC defeated their opponents eventually, winning their opponents in a row，getting their first win with all three points. In the second round of the match against Central South University on the afternoon of August 11, although chief of the RUC team won the match, the following three failed to capitalize on the advantageous situation and missed important scoring opportunities. Perhaps influenced by the loss in the second-round, RUC team did not perform well that day, only Hu Shui Ming won the third-round match against Tongji University that afternoon. At the end of the first day of the tournament, RUC had only one win, and the results fell short of expectations. RUC temporarily falling into a disadvantageous position.
Xu Yin in the game
Hu Yongming in the game
Three rounds of matches were played on August 12th too. In the fourth round, the RUC team was against the Beijing Normal University team. After fierce competition, RUC team secured a 3-1 victory. Since then, RUC performed well, defeating Peking University and Chongqing University successively. On the second day of the tournament, RUC team won all three matches, accumulating 8 points which added up to a total of 11 points, making it climbed to fourth in the league
Zhu Hu in the game
Mucheng in the game
On the morning of August 13, during the seventh round of the game, also the final game, RUC team faced the Wuhan University team, which was second in points in the league. During the previous game, Wuhan University team performed well, with a total of 14 points. Despite that, RUC team defeated it for three rounds of game in a row, earning a total of 14 points. Unexpectedly, RUC team narrowly lost the game by a single point in the end.
RUC won the third place of the team. In terms of individual results, the cheif player Xu Yin won six out of seven matches and won the gold medal firstly. Hu Shui Ming also won six out of seven matches and won the bronze medal.
Trophy and Medals
RUC team received their prizes on the podium
In recent years, under the support of the RUC Labor Union, the staff of Renmin University of China has been vigorously developing the game of Go. The team has won many successes in the competitions in Beijing and even in the whole country. After the match, the participating teachers made a timely summary, recognizing their shortcomings in personal skills and team cooperation. After the tournament, the team expressed that they will train actively to strive for a better result in the next national tournament.
