Chapter 12 Ding'an Takes Action
In the fourth match between the Lianzhong Beggars' Clan and the Lianzhong Axe Clan, the Beggars' Clan* Honinbo Xiuqin VS the Axe Clan* Honinbo Xiudou, after just over 40 moves, Li Xiangping, who thought he had gained a slight advantage, was feeling proud. As soon as he felt proud, he thought of talking to Lao Shi:
"Brother Ding'an, what do you think of this change?"
"Not bad, not bad. I never thought that friend Xiang Ping's chess skills were so strong. So far, every move he made was correct without a single bad one. The move here is very clever and well-organized, especially the 'break' move. It is simply a stroke of genius and can be called the finishing touch of this move. With this move, friend Xiang Ping has gained the upper hand."
Li Xiangping felt more and more proud, thinking that of course, what I used today was a "dog trick", and it is natural for me to have the upper hand by showing the "dog trick" ahead of time, and it is also reasonable for you, Old Shi, to praise me.
That’s right, Li Xiangping did use a “dog trick” just now.
Since the emergence of AlphaGo in the past, various "dog moves" have become popular in the Go world. Some "dog moves" are too advanced or too obscure to understand, and even top professional players cannot figure out the full meaning of them, so such moves are unlikely to become popular in the Go world.
Other "dog moves" are relatively easy to understand. Once such moves are understood and mastered by humans, they naturally lead to a large number of chess players following suit.
The move that Li Xiangping just used might be the simplest of all the "dog moves".
This change first appeared in the second game of the second official "Man vs. Machine" match, and that game is recognized as the closest one between human players and machines. Ke Jie, the top human player at the time, played extremely well. According to the Go AI's own judgment, the situation was evenly matched for nearly 100 moves. Therefore, although Ke Jie lost the game, it can be said that he lost with honor.
In that game, at the beginning, both sides performed a new change, which later became almost a new Go pattern and was widely adopted by human players. Li Xiangping used it today, and he planned to use this "dog trick" created by humans and machines to teach his "nemesis" a lesson.
However, when Li Xiangping was still feeling smug, he heard Lao Shi continue to say to him:
"But my friend Xiang Ping, although you played very well here, I think your opponent is no ordinary person either. Especially since he made the first move at this moment, this move is a true chess master. Your black chess piece will gain very little. If you want to win this game, you need to continue to be careful."
"Um?!"
After hearing Lao Shi's reminder, Li Xiangping stopped being proud. He re-examined the chess game and found that the situation on the board was exactly as Lao Shi said.
"Damn, this guy Yan Qing can actually respond to all the 'dog moves' correctly. I really don't know what kind of shitty luck he has today..."
After all, Li Xiangping is a person who is close to professional level and is aware of this change, otherwise he would not have used this change in the first game after the time travel.
He knew that the essence of this change actually lies in the "cut" move that Lao Shi just mentioned, and this move was made by the Go AI at that time, so that move was the real "dog move".
Li Xiangping knew that the essence of this "dog move" was that it could work because of the idea of "sacrificing pieces to gain momentum". If this change was completed, the opponent's white pieces could eat up 4 of his pieces, gaining a total of more than 20 points of real territory in the corners, and his black pieces could take the opportunity to build a relatively complete external momentum.
You have to know that there are only more than 40 moves in total, which is considered the layout stage of the game.
Then according to the principle of Go that "the earlier the external situation is formed, the more advantageous it is", if one road goes all the way to black and the opponent has exhausted all the variations, it can be considered that in the end it will be your black pieces that will benefit, and this is the essence of this "dog move".
Therefore, to deal with this "dog move", the best way for White is not to use all the variations here, but to consider escaping first and then consider how to finalize this part according to the development of the situation later.
If this is the case, then this "dog move" will not gain much advantage, and the local score will basically be 2 points - when this change first appeared, Ke Jie responded in this way, and his response was recognized by the Go AI that was playing against him at the time. In addition, Gu Dali, who was watching the game at the time, also saw the mystery of this "dog move" at the first time and proposed the same response method. It is for this reason that this change later became a new pattern.
Of course, Li Xiangping now doesn't know that his current opponent is not Yan Qing, but Gu Dali, so he is confused and even a little indignant about the current situation.
Of course, Li Xiangping was only slightly indignant. His only thought now was how to defeat his "nemesis".
At the Chinese Chess Institute, Gu Dali was concentrating on staring at the computer, with no intention of giving up his position.
Since he didn't want to give up his position, Yan Qing certainly didn't dare to chase him away, so he could only stand by and watch him play chess. It wasn't just Yan Qing, after all, it was Gu Dali who was playing chess, so soon, a circle of young chess players surrounded Gu Dali to watch him play chess.
No, it's not just at the Chinese Chess Institute. On the dedicated server for the Lianzhong competition, Li Xiangping said that more and more people are crowding in to watch the game on the fourth station, and the number of spectators is obviously greater than that on other stations. However, Li Xiangping knows nothing about all this for the time being.
Time passed, and the game continued step by step. When the clock struck 9 p.m., the game finally reached the 70th move. At this moment, Gu Dali, who was at the Chinese Chess Institute, finally stopped concentrating and his expression became less serious. After making a move, he shook his head, then smiled at Yan Qing standing next to him and said, "Okay, Yan Qing, you go now. I'm sweating now, and I really need to take a shower."
Yan Qing was of course too embarrassed to sit on it right away, so he pretended to decline, "Master Gu, please finish the game so that we can learn from your tricks."
"Need not."
Gu Dali still had his signature sunny smile:
"I was really scared at first, thinking I had met some master. The first few moves were quite interesting, but the opponent's true colors were exposed in the next dozen moves. Look at this move, the opponent left the main battlefield, this move, slow! And this move, I don't understand what it means, it's completely incomprehensible..."
It’s a pity that Li Xiangping couldn’t hear these words, otherwise he would definitely vomit blood if he heard them.
Gu Dali casually pointed out the mistakes of Li Xiangping's several moves, and then continued to say to Yan Qing:
"Look, after I make this move, you just need to do this, this, this, and this... If your opponent makes this move, you should do this, if your opponent makes that move, you should respond like this. Anyway, no matter how you make it, I think with your level, you should have no problem winning this game. Now, come on, I really need to take a shower now."
Having said this, Gu Dali stood up and left his seat, ready to let Yan Qing continue the game.
Just as Gu Dali was about to give up his seat, on the other side of the computer, Li Xiangping stared at the computer with a blank face, completely devoid of the pride he had before.
At least it is close to professional level. Although he doesn't know which move he made wrong, at this moment, he feels that there is no problem with his "difficult move".
In fact, the root of the problem lies in the "bad trick" that Li Xiangping himself used.
And the most crucial point is that although Li Xiangping has grasped the change itself, he is not very clear about the follow-up of this change.
You should know that the biggest feature of this change is that it is difficult for both sides to control the subsequent moves, commonly known as "because of this change, the entire chessboard becomes bigger."
Let's look back at that part again. If the white chess piece makes the first move, the white chess piece can capture 4 black chess pieces. If the black chess piece makes the first move, the white chess piece can capture 4 white chess pieces. In this way, the value of a move there is at least 20 points.
You should know that in Go, a move worth 20 points is already quite big. In most cases, if you can make such a move, it will basically not be a big problem.
But today, a move of such great value cannot be made randomly. If the timing is wrong, whoever makes the first move may suffer. For example, the game has progressed to more than 70 moves, and neither side has time to make the move worth more than 20 points.
It is easy to imagine that such a chess game is difficult to control.
When is the right time to make this move? Is it the 70th move? Is it the 80th or 100th move? Or is it the 50th or 60th move that is the best time? No one knows the answer to this question. Li Xiangping even believes that even the future Go AI, even the Go God, may not be able to give the most accurate answer.
Li Xiangping believes that if two people are playing chess, and if they encounter a similar problem during the game, the one with a relatively higher level may be able to seize the opportunity more easily and control the situation.
It was just like when this change was first made. Because the level of Go AI is higher than that of humans, even though Ke Jie made the right moves at the beginning, he still lost miserably in the end. It looked even more miserable than the first game when he was "completely defeated".
There is no doubt that the current Li Xiangping compared to Gu Dali is like Ke Jie compared to Go AI, so it is normal for him to be at a loss at this point.
There is another problem. Until this moment, Li Xiangping still thought that the person sitting opposite him was Yan Qing...
"I'm just wondering why every time I meet this guy, the chess game always seems so awkward..."
Yes, this was Li Xiangping's true feeling at the moment. Thinking that the person sitting opposite him was Yan Qing, he just felt that the chess game was a bit awkward. He had no idea that Gu Dali had already sentenced him to death and had even lost interest in playing with him.
When Li Xiangping was holding the mouse and finding a spot to make a move, the old Shi in his body spoke:
"My dear friend Xiang Ping, you can't place your chess piece here. If you do, it will be dangerous for the black chess piece."
"Hmm? Where do you think we should go, Brother Ding'an?"
"Your situation is already very bad. If you want to save the game, the only way now is to disrupt it. Well, I have a way. Now you place the piece 'Nine, Three', which is 'Nine Three' on the right side of the chessboard. This is the only feasible way to save the situation at the moment."
"Is my situation so bad?"
Li Xiangping was shocked by what Lao Shi said, but he didn't think much about it at this time. To be precise, Li Xiangping didn't have time to think about it at all. He did as Lao Shi instructed almost as a conditioned reflex.
After he made this move, he asked:
"Brother Ding'an, why did you come here, and why did you say that my situation was already very bad?"
"This is because……"
Just as the great chess master Shi was explaining to Li Xiangping, Gu Dali from the Chinese Chess Institute just stood up. He was about to take a shower, but he turned his head inadvertently and happened to see the move that Li Xiangping made.
Shi Xiangxia pointed out the next move Li Xiangping was going to make.
Gu Dali couldn't walk anymore. He stared at the computer screen for several minutes without moving his eyes away.
"Hehe, interesting, interesting, I can actually download it here..."
At the beginning, Gu Dali still had a smile on his face, but as time went on, Gu Dali's smile slowly disappeared and his expression became serious.
It looked like he couldn't take a bath again.
