<Of course it can lead to players growing to hate chess - I well remember one of the top Chinese players describing the country as a giant prison camp, which is probably not an entirely inaccurate assessment. However, some people actually enjoy playing chess and thrive on the lifestyle. My own first encounter with a Chinese player was at the Vidmar Memorial in then Yugoslavia in 1979. Chi Ching Hsuan (or Qi Jing Xuan , as he is now spelt, as the west makes further attempts to come to terms with the Chinese alphabet), then clearly the top Chinese player, made a promising debut on the international stage. A lesser known fact, though, is that his delegation included a 14-year-old girl called Liu Shi Lan. During the course of the tournament she asked my then wife, an experienced international with a rating of about 2200, if she would play a few games to gain experience. They did, at various time limits.

Of course with a seasoned international against a 14-year-old child the result was an unholy massacre. Such an unholy massacre that my wife threatened to divorce me if I ever divulged the details. However, since she did that some time ago anyway, I guess I am safe now! I do not recall the precise score, but my wife barely scored a point, and I received an advance warning of what was to come.>

She was the first Chinese woman who received this title from FIDE. She was nine-time China National Women's Champion.

In 1982, Liu came third at the World Chess Championship Interzonal Tournament in Tbilisi with a final score of 9/14. In 1983, she qualified for the Candidates Tournament in Velden, but lost in the quarterfinals to Nana Ioseliani.

Liu competed for China women's national chess team for five times at the Chess Olympiads (1980–1988) with an overall record of 68 total games played (+25, =27, -16). She had the second best Rating Performance and won a bronze medal at the first board at the 27th Chess Olympiad in Dubai, 1986.

She reached her highest FIDE rating of 2260 in July 1990.

Zeng Zilin and his two female disciples

'.. This 74-year-old grandfather from Chengdu is thin. These days he is not suffering from diabetes, he likes to meet three or five friends. He sits in the antique Heming Teahouse [鹤鸣茶社] in the People’s Park and orders a cup of tea. ..

He is Zeng Zilin. His time goes back to the 1970s and 1980s. He is the most famous chess coach in Chengdu, the "Chess City". If you are interested in chess, you may not know Zeng Zilin, but you must have heard of his two most famous female disciples - one is the pioneer of chess and the first female international grandmaster in Asia, Liu Shilan; the second even better at studying than playing chess is his daughter Zeng Bei, who once won the third place in the World Junior Girls Group, was known as the "Tsinghua Young Talent".

In the mid-1970s, the already respected coach Zeng Zilin began to be questioned. A chess school manager told him: "Some students reported that you often give female student Liu Shilan a small stove in class. In addition, it is said that when you often walk together, your 'back' [posture] looks like you are in love?!"

Zeng Zilin not shy replied like this: "First, any coach will prefer the best student in the class. Yes, Liu Shilan is the best one in my class. Secondly, I'm actually in love with her sister, is that okay?"

The storm subsided. Liu Shi Lan's sister, Liu Jixuan, became Zeng Zilin's wife after a long love affair, and Liu Shi Lan herself became Asia's first women's international grandmaster when she was runner-up in the 1982 World Women's Inter-Regional Chess Tournament in the former Soviet Union.

What made Liu Shi Lan, the best student of the year, so powerful? Zeng Zilin confessed: "She listened to her teacher the most, and when she participated in the competition back then, she basically deployed all the layouts I had and could execute them strictly. In addition, she is one of the most diligent students I've ever met. Lastly, Liu Shilan is best at holding up her own moves and will come up with her own when strictly executing the tactics deployed by her coach on the board, and will win the tournament as a result."

Yes, the "Two orchids of Shu" (Liu Shilan and Zhao Lan) are Zeng Zilin's lifelong pride.

..'

http://www.thecover.cn/news/1172628

from Th Cover, by Jia Zhiruo, 2018
(in Chinese)

Shu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shu_(...