I started learning at age 7. Took me 18 years to be promoted to B grade. But there are many others who do it in a shorter time. Xiaobeidou rose from zero to national champion in 10 years, i think.

In the 7 games so far, he has yet to use his most powerful opening. He has been using elephant and horse openings which are definitely not his forte. In other words, he has been fighting with with his sword undrawn.

What is amazing about Darryl Leow is his young age and how much he has improved over the past 2 years. Still, players of his standard are a dime a dozen in A division. According to legend, Hu Haiyu and Lin Zi Chong were 2 players who won all their games from start to finish in the B division (back then there were 11 rounds and more opponents). Yet within the A division, there lies even stronger players. Our GM Alvin Woo has been ranked 6th in 2 international individual competitions this year and recently in one game, he defeated Vietnam's top player Nguyen Thanh Bao by winning 3 seeds.