Career
He is a native of Shanghai. (Due to Culture Revolution, the Chinese national Xiangqi competition was not held annually during that period). By the mid 1990s, people thought that he was past his prime, and that younger generations of top players would eventually replace him.
See here for the complete list of national champions.
Hu has advocating for a revival of Xiangqi. In 2011, Hu launched a reality show called Let"s Play Chess to find an a new apprentice.
Hu made great contributions to chess theory, including the pioneer work of the elephant opening (飞相局) and Back-Palace-Knight (反宫马) opening. Hu Rule of Xiangqi： Hu devised a new rule of Chess, that is the chance of playing black is obtained by auctions of two players.
The player who offers less time wins auction.
If the game finally ends with a draw, black wins. Hu Rule is aimed at eliminating negative draw games in Xiangqi and making Xiangqi more spectating. However, Hu Rule is boycotted by professional players after one year of its birth.
Besides chess, Hu also has many other interests.
In his early years, he was trained for a short time period about Go. He also plays a game called dhagualhuzi (大怪路子)， a popular local game of Shanghai.
