Chapter 42 Samsung Cup Qualifiers
Two days after the "LG Cup" final, Li Yuanhu came to the "Fangyuan Chess and Card Room" near the Chinese Chess Academy.
Nowadays, most places with the name "chess and card room" are usually mahjong parlors, where you can only see "cards" but not "chess". However, this "Fangyuan Chess and Card Room" is an exception. It is a rare activity room in Beijing that focuses on chess games. The owner of this chess and card room is none other than Cai Zhixiong, the chairman of the Beijing "Fangyuan Group ".
When Li Yuanhu arrived, Cai Zhixiong just came out to greet him :
"Hey, Lao Li, you haven't been here for a while. Are you addicted to chess? Wait a minute. It seems that there are no masters here today. But I just called reporter Zhang and he said he will come as soon as he finishes his work."
Before coming here, Li Yuanhu had called Lao Cai. When he heard that Lao Cai was in the chess and card room, he didn't say what the matter was, but came directly to the door. Therefore, Lao Cai mistakenly thought that he was here to satisfy his chess addiction.
The "reporter Zhang" that Lao Cai mentioned is actually a reporter from "Go World" magazine, named Zhang Xiaoyong. He is not only a famous reporter in the Go circle, but also an expert player.
"Reporter Zhang will be here soon? But Lao Cai, I'm not here to play chess today. I have something to talk to you about."
"Oh, what is it..."
The two walked inside while talking.
A few minutes later, Cai Zhixiong looked excited:
"Haha, what did you say, Old Li? Your kid wants to participate in the preliminaries for the Samsung Cup?"
Compared to Lao Cai's excitement, Li Yuanhu looked helpless:
"Yeah, I don't know what's wrong with this kid. A few days ago, Old Nie said he was willing to accept him as his inner disciple, but he was pretending to be hypocritical. But yesterday he suddenly told me that he wanted to participate in the Samsung Cup preliminaries starting next month, and asked me if I had any ideas. This brat, he thinks I'm the chairman of the Chinese Go Association, what else can I do? My only way is to come to you, Old Cai."
"There may be some minor troubles in the procedures, but it will definitely not be a big problem."
Lao Cai still looked excited: "Don't worry, Lao Li, it's a good thing that he wants to participate. To be honest with you, I really want to see what "Jueyi" can do from the Internet to the real world, so just say it, I will take care of the registration."
Li Yuanhu reminded him, "Old Cai, maybe you didn't notice? I've read the competition rules, and it seems that there is no amateur group in this year's preliminaries."
"I know that," Lao Cai continued with a smile, "Among all the Go tournaments, the Samsung Cup is the most fickle. Every year, they come up with something new. So when the rules for this year's competition came out, I noticed that this year, the amateur group was cancelled and two women's groups were added instead."
"That's right……"
"But what if there is no amateur group?" Before Li Yuanhu could speak, Cai Zhixiong interrupted him:
"The Samsung Cup is known as an open tournament. Although there is no amateur group this time, it does not prohibit amateur players from participating, isn't that right, Old Li? So you just need to report to the Go Institute and indicate that your child is participating on behalf of the Chinese Go Association... How about this, let my club handle the registration and say that your child is a member of my team, then there will be no problem with the qualification to participate."
Li Yuanhu knew that Old Cai was well-known in the Go circle, and that this was just a voluntary qualifying tournament, so there was no question of competing with others for a spot. So after hearing what Cai Zhixiong said, he felt relieved:
"Okay, I'll leave this matter to you. Thank you, Old Cai."
Cai Zhixiong smiled and said, "What's there to thank for this? It's just a small favor. By the way, how did your child suddenly think of participating in the Samsung Cup qualifiers..."
"Who wants to participate in the Samsung Cup qualifiers?"
The person who said this was reporter Zhang Xiaoyong from "Go World", who happened to appear at the door at this time.
Since they were all chess friends, they were not close friends, but they were not strangers. So when Cai Zhixiong saw that it was him, he joked with him:
"We are currently discussing about letting Jueyi, the top network player, participate in the Samsung Cup."
Compared to Lao Cai, Li Yuanhu and reporter Zhang are actually even less familiar with each other. The two have only cut a few plates of noodles in this place. After hearing what Lao Cai said, reporter Zhang turned to Li Yuanhu and said, "It is said that Jueyi is a young man who is trying to get promoted. Could it be that the rumors are true? Is he really your child, Lao Li?"
After getting a positive answer, reporter Zhang was pleasantly surprised: "Oh, that's great, I was looking for him right now, Lao Li, so are you, why don't you bring him here today?"
Lao Cai next to him joked, "Why bring him here? Reporter Zhang, I'm not saying anything bad about you, but with your level, you're only as good as Qieqi Lao Li, but if you want to go up against Jueyi, then you're definitely not good enough."
"Haha, it's not good enough. Of course I know I'm not good enough, but I don't want to play chess with him. I want to interview him. Or, in fact, I want to ask him to do me a favor."
Hearing that it was for help, Li Yuanhu spoke up: "Oh, help? What else can he do to help?"
"Help me finish the review of the LG Cup finals."
Reporter Zhang said to the two men, "You two big bosses must not know that this kind of chess review about Chinese chess players losing is actually the most difficult to write. It is boring for me to write and it is also boring for readers to read. However, this is the finals and it would be bad if the magazine did not have relevant content. So this time I thought, why not just focus on the review of the fourth game? If I wanted to review this game, I thought of Fine Art. After all, Liu Changhe himself said after the game that the reason he won this game was thanks to a Chinese chess player who gave him great inspiration."
After hearing what reporter Zhang said, Li Yuanhu and Cai Zhixiong looked at each other.
Jueyi used a variation of "Yigai" to win three games in a row against Liu Changhe, and then Liu Changhe used another variation of "Yigai" to win the "LG Cup". Both of them know about this. However, not many people know about this. After all, for something like this, only those who are very thoughtful and like "technical flow" chess fans can connect the whole thing.
After listening to what Zhang Da said, Old Cai smiled at Li Yunhu and said:
"By the way, Lao Li, do you think your child thinks that it was because of him that the Chinese chess player lost a championship, so he wants to win back the championship, and that's why he wants to participate in the Samsung Cup?"
"Hahahaha, I'm talking to Lao Cai..."
Li Yuanhu laughed out loud: "I really can't believe you have such a rich imagination. I'm just surprised that your imagination is so rich, but your chess skills are still so poor..."
So what is Li Xiangping thinking?
While the three were chatting, Li Xiangping was also talking to Lao Shi at home:
"Brother Ding'an, you must know that this competition is very important, extremely important! It determines whether I can play chess in the future. If I don't play chess, then you certainly can't play chess either. Do you know the interests involved?"
"Don't worry, little friend Xiangping, Ding'an will save you money."
"Okay, there are less than 20 days left until the competition starts, so let's start special training online from now on."
