Mao Tianyou has always been a quiet child. Perhaps he inherits it from his reticent father, Mao Yi. While othe…
Mao Tianyou has always been a quiet child. Perhaps he inherits it from his reticent father, Mao Yi. While other boys his age dashed through the alleyways, shouting and chasing one another, Tianyou would appear in Forsaken Quarter, sitting silently beneath the old tree by the riverbank, watching Elderly Liu and the others play chess. Sometimes, he'd sit there the entire day. At first, his mother, Du Qiaolan, was worried. She feared something might be wrong with the boy and even considered taking him to a doctor. But Elderly Liu waved off her concerns, "That's not a problem. That's composure. He's got the makings of someone great." When Tianyou was eight, he followed his mother to the bustling market on South Gate Avenue. Amid the crowd's clamor, the two separated, but Tianyou didn't panic. He stood still, calmly scanned his surroundings, then walked to a chess stall and sat down. At first, the elderly men playing there paid him little attention. But as their game reached a deadlock, Tianyou quietly pointed at a piece and suggested a move that broke the stalemate. When Du Qiaolan anxiously rushed over and finally found him, she saw Tianyou was surrounded by elders. They were astonished, peppering him with questions: Who was his teacher? Tianyou calmly explained that he'd simply watched others play and figured a few things out on his own. That was the first time Du Qiaolan realized her son might be gifted in chess.