Chapter 26: Genius Promotes Go
"Brother Ding'an, the opponent's opening is called 'wrong small eye', which is the most authentic opening of the 'small eye go' that originated from Japan. The reason why the opponent chose this opening must be that he has seen your strength before and deliberately avoided the 'star position' opening..."
In this game, "Lei Meng Zhuan Zhu" played black. When Li Xiangping saw that his opponent chose the "wrong small eye" opening, he was happy. He thought that the opponent was afraid of him. From the perspective of game psychology, the opponent chose such an opening, to put it nicely, it was "playing to one's strengths and avoiding one's weaknesses", but to put it bluntly, it was actually a sign of weakness. It was precisely because he was happy that he talked to Lao Shi while playing chess.
After choosing the "Two Stars" response, seeing the opponent's fifth move, Li Xiangping continued to talk to the chess master Shi: "Brother Ding'an, this move of the black chess is quite famous. It's called 'Worry-free Corner', which is the..."
"Oh, this move is also called 'Worry-Free Corner'?"
Hearing what Lao Shi said, Li Xiangping was stunned at first, then he reacted:
"That's right, this shape is also called 'Worry-free Corner', but it comes from the Worry-free Corner of Japanese Go, which is different from the Worry-free Corner of Chinese Go..."
What even many veteran chess fans don’t know is that there is actually such a thing as a “worry-free corner” in medieval chess . It’s just that because of the “star position” at the start of medieval chess, the two chess shapes are definitely different. The modern “worry-free corner” requires two moves, while the medieval “worry-free corner” requires three moves.
Therefore, looking at the problem from this perspective, if it is simply about "taking land", we must admit that "small eyes" have more advantages than "star positions".
Facing this opening of the black chess, Li Xiangping looked for another small eye by "hanging high in one room". When the black chess made the "three-way support" in the 7th move, Li Xiangping stopped and thought about it for several minutes.
"What are you thinking about, my friend Xiang Ping? I think this move is not difficult to deal with..."
"Of course it's not difficult to deal with." Li Xiangping smiled and said to Lao Shi: "Brother Ding'an, look at the opponent's opening. This is obviously a targeted move to take advantage of our unfamiliarity with small-eye Go. All right, then, Brother Ding'an, watch carefully and see how I use the purest small-eye Go moves to educate him."
While Li Xiangping was bragging, he started placing pieces on the chessboard.
"Top", "Pull", in the next few rounds, Li Xiangping made his moves very quickly, almost all of which were made without thinking. His opponent's reaction was the same as Li Xiangping's, and his moves were even faster. Both of them seemed confident and seemed to be very familiar with this change.
Of course they were very familiar with it, because what they were practicing now was a famous Go pattern. After a short while, a basic form of the "Big Avalanche Inward Turn Variation" appeared on the chessboard.
As an ancient pattern, it is nothing unusual for two people to play this variation, especially these days, "Big Avalanche" is still very popular in the world chess arena. Not only professional chess players love to play it, but ordinary chess fans also love to play it. It can be often seen in regular world competitions, and such online chess games can be seen everywhere.
However, after the two of them made this change today, the entire game room immediately became lively, and the crowd of spectators began to talk about it.
This is mainly because the starting point of the "big avalanche" should be from the "pushing" step under Li Xiangping, so in everyone's opinion, this change seems to be initiated by "Jueyi".
"Ha, Avalanche? Look everyone, Jueyi actually chose Avalanche. Why isn't he being so reckless today..."
"Maybe he didn't dare to play recklessly. You know, he won the game yesterday in a thrilling way. I think Jueyi is a wise man. He knows that his opponent will become stronger and stronger, so he won't play recklessly today and will play in a serious way..."
"That's good too. Only by seeing these serious moves can we see what level this new Z-9 is at..."
"What's so good about it? I still prefer the way he played the other day..."
"+1, I also like watching Jueyi's |sexy..."
Just when everyone was teasing Jueyi for finally playing "serious chess", just one round later, yes! When there were only two more pieces on the board, Li Xiangping's latest move once again set off the entire chat box:
"Hey! White's move... this move seems to be wrong..."
"What do you mean by 'seemingly'? This is a wrong move. White missed an exchange here..."
"Ha, I was just praising this Jueyi for finally getting serious, but I didn't expect him to start flirting so quickly..."
"This move can't be called a waste..."
"If it's not waves, then what is it..."
"He's courting death. If he misses an exchange here, the whole part will collapse immediately. If this isn't courting death, then what is it? Therefore, this is definitely not a deliberate reckless move. This is strange. According to the level of this 'Exquisite Art', he shouldn't make such a low-level mistake. What happened today? First of all, he didn't use those reckless moves today, and secondly, he made a wrong move. Could it be that he wasn't the one making the move today..."
In Jinling, Li Xiangping, who made this move, looked at the comments of the spectators with great interest. It should be said that this situation was within his expectations. He knew that as long as he made this move, it would definitely attract similar discussions.
The reason is very simple. If Li Xiangping was not a time traveler and had not seen the "dog tricks", if he was one of the onlookers today, he would definitely make similar noises.
So what happened on the chessboard? To explain it all, we must start with the ancient Go pattern "Avalanche".
As a typical "small eye pattern", "Big Avalanche" has been around for hundreds of years. For example, the "Big Avalanche Inner Turn Example" played by the two people today was first created by Mr. Wu Qingyuan, who played it in the early twentieth century.
Because it is so old, after so many years of development, everyone thinks that they have studied this pattern thoroughly. For example, in this "inner turn variation", when the black chess piece made the "inner turn", the next move of the white chess piece was to cut off the third road, and the next move of the black chess piece was to "capture". There is nothing wrong with these two moves, which can be regarded as the "correct variation" of this pattern. Li Xiangping and Wang Lei did play it in this way.
However, when it comes to the next step, Li Xiangping's method deviates from the research conclusions of this era.
According to the understanding of this pattern by everyone in this era, when the white chess piece is "captured" by the black chess piece, the white chess piece must first make an exchange at the corner before escaping this piece. That is, the white chess piece should make the next move at the "2, 2" road of the chessboard, and the black chess piece should be at the "2, 5" road of the chessboard. Only after making this exchange can the white chess piece escape that piece, otherwise the white chess pieces at the corner will be easily killed, and the local area will suffer a great loss.
However, in today's game, Li Xiangping did not make the exchange, but directly escaped the piece. So in this era, this move of his would certainly be considered a low-level mistake of "playing the wrong pattern", so it is normal that it caused a lot of discussion among the onlookers.
After making this move, the opponent seemed to be stunned, not knowing what the white chess player was up to, so he hesitated and did not make a move immediately. Taking advantage of this gap, Li Xiangping continued to browse the various comments in the dialog box, and while browsing, he sighed; it is said that the birth of Go AI has brought a subversive revolution to Go, and the move he made today is a good interpretation of this.
Who would have thought that the conclusions drawn by humans after hundreds of years of research would be wrong in the eyes of Go AI, that necessary moves are not necessary, and necessary exchanges are not necessary at all. So has the technology of Go really improved over the years?
The so-called theory of evolution, the so-called accumulation of knowledge, are these things really suitable for Go?
Li Xiangping expressed doubts about this.
Especially after seeing the "dog tricks", Li Xiangping sneered at this view. If the knowledge you have "accumulated" for hundreds of years is all wrong, then can this accumulation be considered progress?
Therefore, regarding the progress and development of human Go, Li Xiangping believes that what South Korea’s former "Go Emperor" Cao Cao said is right; the progress and development of Go has always been driven by only a few talented people.
"Brother Ding'an, what do you think of this change?"
Since he had nothing to do for the time being, Li Xiangping casually asked Lao Shi:
"Well, Xiang Ping, forgive me for being frank, but I don't like your move, especially the 8th move, 'top'. It's a common move. Try to avoid it as little as possible in the future. Also..."
"What else?"
"Also, I feel that the recent move of Mr. Xiangping seems to be lacking in refinement. It seems... it seems that it would be better to exchange a move at the corner."
Hearing what Lao Shi said, Li Xiangping immediately looked at him with admiration.
"Haha, Brother Ding'an really has a brilliant idea..."
The "top" move in the "Big Snow Avalanche" was originally a common move, and Li Xiangping himself did not like it. Not only Li Xiangping did not like it, but later Go AIs also seemed to dislike it. Anyway, Li Xiangping had watched so many games, and he had never seen a Go AI actively play the "Big Snow Avalanche". To be honest, if it was not for the purpose of introducing this change today, Li Xiangping would not have played it this way.
As for Lao Shi, he also feels that he should make the exchange first. Li Xiangping thinks this is normal. After all, Lao Shi is a human Go master, not a Go AI. However, he has never been exposed to the "Big Avalanche", but he can see the exchange in such a short time, which already reflects his quality.
Li Xiangping was thinking, when Mr. Wu Qingyuan created this pattern, he probably saw the exchange first like Lao Shi, and then thought of taking the "inward turn" step, right?
Because he had a new respect for Lao Shi, Li Xiangping asked another question, a question he thought was the most crucial;
"Brother Ding'an, what do you think of the situation between the two sides at this point?"
"Well, there are many clues to this shape. Let me think about it..."
A minute later, Li Xiangping asked again: "Brother Ding'an, have you made up your mind now?"
"Well, if you play like this, it looks like the corner is actually damaged, but the situation is open and has many uses. Combined with the two consecutive stars above, Ding'an believes that the white side should be in a position where it can fight."
Li Xiangping opened his eyes wide: "Really? Brother Ding'an really thinks White is fully capable of fighting?"
The chess master Shi Da seemed a little unhappy: "Of course, would I lie to you?"
"Ha ha ha ha!"
At this moment, Li Xiangping laughed heartily. He was really laughing happily. He smiled and said to Lao Shi:
"Okay, Brother Ding'an, let me make a few more moves in this game, and then I'll let you continue. I must teach my opponent a good lesson today."
