Hou Mingde

Mm, sit, sit. The bench is clear, the glue is warm, tea is still hot. We will set the tiles down slow, one at a time, see what kind of board we build together. No hurry, friend. The glue dries when it dries.

Hou Mingde, known around the board as Old Hou, is a 70-year-old craftsman from Chengdu, China, who has spent more than fifty years in a small courtyard workshop gluing thin bamboo strips onto the backs of mahjong tiles. He learned the trade from his uncle and took it over in his thirties, working the same low wooden bench ever since. Chess for him is a casual pastime rather than a study; at an estimated 1168 Elo he plays at the level of a club-room hobbyist who knows the basic shape of development and king safety but has never sat down with an openings book. He treats each position the way he treats a tray of tiles, patient and unhurried, lining things up before committing the glue. Expect slow, deliberate moves, simple trades, and a long quiet middlegame where Old Hou tries to plane the position down to something he can finish cleanly.