Chapter 41 Turning Point
The time came to September 2000, and before he knew it, Li Xiangping had been in Beijing for nearly half a month.
"boring!"
That afternoon, staying in Li Yuanhu's mansion, Li Xiangping pretended to sigh.
In Li Xiangping's previous life, he actually didn't come to the capital at this time, but had been attending middle school in his hometown of Ganyuan Province. He originally thought that after the reexamination at the hospital, he should go back to school, but he didn't expect that after more than 10 days of school, his old man had no intention of letting him go back.
By now, Li Xiangping certainly understood why his old man wanted to keep him, because just two days ago, the old man had asked him tactfully: Are you willing to continue on the path of professional Go? If you are willing, then this year he might as well stay in Beijing and find a dojo to learn Go, and prepare to make another attempt at the qualifying tournament next year.
Li Yuanhu also told him that due to the excellent performance of "Jueyi", his chess had attracted the attention of Lao Nie. Through the matchmaking of Lao Cai and others, Lao Nie even intended to accept him as his inner disciple.
I have to admit that this is a great temptation! Who is Lao Nie? One of the "Three Pings of Beijing", and he is as famous as the future "586". If I can become his inner disciple, it will not only mean that I can get along well in the Go world, but even if I don't play Go in the future, it will be of great benefit to me to work in other industries.
And everyone in the Go community knows that Lao Nie never accepts non-professional players as his disciples, because he made it clear long ago: for a person to make the leap from an amateur player to a professional player, that is still within the realm of Go basics, and it doesn't matter who you learn from. His strengths lie in the overall situation of Go and his understanding of Go. Therefore, if anyone wants to be his disciple, it would be best if they are young players who have reached the professional level of four or five dan or above and have great potential, so that they can learn from him.
And now, he was actually willing to make an exception for Li Xiangping, which was certainly a good thing that others could not even ask for.
However, despite the huge temptation, Li Xiangping told his old man the truth after struggling for a whole day: he was not going to pursue a professional Go career in this life.
Li Xiangping's dilemma is understandable. After all, he has been learning Go since he was a child. Although he is not as crazy about Go as "Brother Niu" of the national youth team, he still has feelings for Go. In addition, when he traveled through time, the "plug-in" he brought with him turned out to be an ancient Go master. Li Xiangping couldn't help but think: Is it destined for him to play Go after traveling through ?
It was these two reasons that took Li Xiangping a whole day to correct himself.
Compared to the entanglement, the reason why Li Xiangping refused was very simple: this was of course all because of the Go AI of later generations.
Having seen the power of Go AI and knowing how terrifying it is, Li Xiangping naturally feels that being a professional Go player is actually very boring.
Because in Li Xiangping's opinion, it is almost impossible for humans to defeat Go AI.
Although Go AI was not perfect when Li Xiangping traveled through time, the third-generation dog "AlphaGo", which represented the highest level of Go AI, still lost to the second-generation dog "Master" in 19 out of 200 test games. But so what? The "second-generation dog" was already able to easily beat humans, while the third-generation dog -
Although it has not been formally tested, Li Xiangping believes that if humans place two pieces in front of it, it may not be enough, and perhaps only placing three pieces will have a good chance of winning.
Li Xiangping has formally studied Go, so he certainly knows that the game is difficult. It is actually not easy for ordinary people to reach the top amateur level like him, let alone reach the top professional level.
However, the problem now is that even if you have achieved an extremely high level throughout your life, for example, the highest level of human beings, you may find in the end that there are still rows of foreign dogs and local dogs waiting for you, and you still have to put 2 to 3 pieces in front of these machines.
Of course, it's boring to think about such things.
Li Xiangping believes that he is not a fool like Don Quixote, and he has no interest in challenging the windmill. It is for this reason that he is not going to pursue the path of professional Go.
But the interesting thing is that although he told his father that he didn't want to be a professional chess player, he was a little vague when he expressed it. His vagueness was of course not for any other reason, but mainly because he had no reason.
It is easy to imagine Li Xiangping's current situation. Without revealing that he is a time traveler, he is a 13-year-old boy who was only one game away from becoming a professional chess player in this year's promotion tournament. Then he became a big hit on the Internet, defeating several professional masters in succession. So his father enthusiastically managed various relationships and created various conditions for him to continue on this path.
But the child suddenly told his father that he didn’t plan to take this path anymore. What excuse should the child give?
No matter what reasons others would use, Li Xiangping himself thought that this reason was actually very difficult to find. When he talked to his old man at that time, he actually didn't find any reasons. Since there was no reason, of course it could only be vague.
It was precisely because of Li Xiangping's ambiguity at that time that he was bored now.
The reason is simple. Although he himself cannot explain the reason, it does not prevent others from making up the reason.
For example, his old man Li Yuanhu got inspiration from that bullshit "avoidant self-enforced syncope". He thought that Li Xiangping was still traumatized by the failure of this year's professional qualification, at least he hasn't gotten over it yet, so he said something stupid about not wanting to continue learning chess.
It must be mentioned in particular that this was not Li Xiangping's guess, but just the night before yesterday, Li Xiangping accidentally heard his old man talking to his grandparents, and this is what Li Yuanhu said to the two elderly people.
After he said this, Li Xiangping would of course be bored for a while. He didn't have to go back to his hometown, and he didn't have to go to school for the time being. According to the wishes of his family elders, he could only stay in the capital and "recuperate" for a while.
"Friend Xiangping, since you feel bored, why don't you play chess online?"
"Hey, Brother Ding'an, playing chess online every day is actually not that interesting."
Hearing Lao Shi talking to him, Li Xiangping thought to himself that it was mainly because you, a guy, had no ability. You don't have an invincible plug-in like others. If you had an invincible plug-in, I wouldn't have to worry about it. I would definitely happily go and become Lao Nie's inner disciple.
It’s a pity that you are not. Although you have the qualities of a "chess saint", in modern times, you are at most a first-rate master. I estimate that you have little chance of winning against a top-notch master.
Even if we join forces, after a period of practice we might be able to reach the top human level and win a few human world championships. However, judging from the current situation, I really don't see the possibility of us challenging machines, which is why I don't want to go down this path.
Although he said "playing chess every day is boring", he was really bored now. After hearing Lao Shi speak, Li Xiangping still turned on the computer.
When he turned on the computer and saw the live broadcast of the game on the website, Li Xiangping remembered that today was the day of the first game of the "LG Cup" final.
"Haha, Brother Ding'an, let's not play chess today, let's watch a world championship final. You must know that these two lost to us some time ago."
"Haha, okay. Then, little friend Xiang Ping, who do you think will win this competition between the two of them?"
Li Xiangping laughed: "There's no need for me to think so. You know, I came from 18 years later. The Chinese player won the final. The result of the five-game match was 3 to 1. Now when I think about it, I am in tears. The championship won by Yu Jiudan was won by a Chinese player after a gap of 5 years, and he was only the third one."
"oh."
The finals of this "LG Cup" were played consecutively, so for the next week or so, Li Xiangping mainly focused on this competition.
After watching the first two games, Li Xiangping didn't think there was anything wrong, because the two sides were tied 1-1, which was the same as in real history.
But when it came to the third game, Li Xiangping was dumbfounded, because Liu Changhe won this game.
By the fourth game, Li Xiangping was no longer dumbfounded, he was completely stunned . Because not only did Liu Changhe win this game, but he also used a "Yigai" variation in the game - the same one that Lao Shi used against him some time ago, but Liu Changhe seemed to have made some corrections after some new research.
“This…what’s going on…”
After watching the game, Li Xiangping was in a daze.
