Wei Qian lost to opponents from Romania and Czechia in the first and last rounds of the Korea Prime Minister Cup, but in between he ran off four straight wins to score the second highest finish in the lower McMahon group. He was in the middle of his winning streak when he consented to an interview with Ranka. Here’s his story:

I was born in Shanghai, and I learned to play go because my mother thought it would be good for my mind. She arranged to have me coached. This was during the cultural revolution, when we weren’t able to study normal school subjects, and I found go quite interesting. It was the one interesting thing I could do at the time.

After the cultural revolution ended, I stopped playing go and studied hard to get a university education: first a bachelor’s degree in China and then a masters degree in electrical engineering in Australia. In Australia I played in local go clubs, and then when Pandanet started up I started playing on the net. Back in those days you had to buy the software, not like today when everything is free. But I bought it because go had become part of my life, something that was always with me.

I think go has helped me in my life. I work for a company that makes commercial refrigerating systems. I have to solve many problems in my work, and the go approach has helped me out. It teaches you to look for another way of doing something.

I played once for Australia in the World Amateur Go Championship, and also in the first Korea Prime Minister Cup. I’ve played in some Australian tournaments too, but mainly I teach kids. I live in Sydney. I have a small group of five or six kids who come to my home every Sunday, including my son, who is now ten. They’re still kyu-level players. The strongest is about three or four kyu.

Go is looking up in Austrialia. Compared with ten years ago, there are more tournaments, and a lot more young people are starting to play. I’m really too old to come here–now I just play for fun–but I came this time so that I could also visit my family in China. I’d like to encourage other people to come in the future.