As a young man he would roam the chess clubs of Taiwan looking for masters to play against. Whenever he found one, he would immediately ask for a match. It was unfortunate that Taiwan didn't have an island-wide Chinese chess event at that time. After he had beaten all the local masters, he had to forget about his Chinese chess and get ready for the university entrance exams.
台灣象棋佈局名家林政明，年輕時「一心一意只想當棋王」，他說，到處去藥店、棋社找看看哪裡有棋王，見了面不由分說就想將對方鬥倒，可惜當時台灣缺乏全國性比賽，他在市井小巷打遍對手後，也只好偃「棋」息鼓，乖乖回去考大學。