Chapter 49: A Weird First Victory
The second day after the Chinese delegation arrived in South Korea, the qualifying round of this year's "Samsung Cup" officially began.
After all, it was only the qualifying stage, so the organizers did not hold an opening ceremony or anything. The players did not even have to draw lots themselves. All grouping arrangements were handled by the organizers. Except for the two women's groups, the more than 200 male players who registered for the competition were all randomly mixed by computers. There were no seeded players, and no emphasis was placed on players of the same nationality not to meet in advance.
On the afternoon of the second day after everyone arrived in South Korea, when all the group match arrangements were completed, the deputy head of the Chinese delegation, the head coach of the national youth team, Wu, specifically found Li Xiangping:
"Xiang Ping, the matchup has been arranged. This is the situation of group."
As Coach Wu said this, he handed a match schedule to Li Xiangping.
"Coach Wu, thank you."
Li Xiangping thanked Coach Wu politely, and then took the match schedule. Coach Wu did not take the entire match schedule, but singled out Group F, where Li Xiangping was. This group had a total of 32 players, which meant that they had to win five consecutive games to get first place in the group and officially enter the "main tournament" of this year's Samsung Cup.
Jin Yuan, professional 6th dan VS Li Xiangping, amateur 5th dan.
The first thing Li Xiangping paid attention to was of course his opponent in the first round. From the name, he knew that this was a Korean chess player, but Li Xiangping had no impression of this name.
After seeing this, Li Xiangping paid attention to some other situations in the group. He focused on two things. One was to see if there were other Chinese chess players in the same group with him, and the second was to see which well-known foreign chess players were in this group.
After reading all of them, Li Xiangping found that his group was more interesting. In addition to seeing the Chinese chess player Luo Xihe in his group, he also saw an unexpected name:
"Hey! Mr. Kobayashi? Mr. Kobayashi is actually participating in this kind of preliminaries."
That's right, the player that Li Xiangping didn't expect was Kobayashi Koichi, the former overlord of the Japanese Go world. When the professional Go World Championship was just established, Kobayashi Koichi dominated the Japanese Go world.
It was during that time that Kobayashi won the Japanese "Kisei Tournament" for eight consecutive years, the "Meijin Tournament" for seven consecutive years, and the "Kisei Tournament" for six consecutive years. Since the domestic tournament schedule often conflicts with international tournaments, Kobayashi was notoriously reluctant to participate in world tournaments in his early years. However, it is unexpected that he would actually participate in this qualifying tournament with a pitifully low match fee.
"Haha, Mr. Kobayashi has lost all his domestic titles now. So he has time to play in the international arena."
Coach Wu didn't talk much with Li Xiangping about Mr. Kobayashi. He might think that although Mr. Kobayashi is no longer at his peak, a lean camel is still bigger than a horse after all. Li Xiangping is not on the same level as him, and Luo Xihe is also in the group. Therefore, it is not Li Xiangping's turn to stop Kobayashi.
It was based on this consideration that Coach Wu and Li Xiangping mainly analyzed the first opponent:
"Xiang Ping, do you know this Jin Yuan 6th Dan?"
Li Xiangping shook his head.
"Haha, this Jin Yuan 6th Dan is an old chess player. In terms of seniority, he should be of the same generation as Lao Cao from South Korea, but he is about 10 years older than Lao Cao..."
Li Xiangping could see that Coach Wu didn't know much about this 6th-dan player, so after a few words, he patted Li Xiangping on the shoulder affectionately, encouraged him to "play well" tomorrow, and finally explained a detail:
"The game will officially start at 10 am tomorrow. Remember not to be late. If you are late for the game, your game time will be deducted. The longer you are late, the time will be deducted double. If you are late for half an hour, you will be directly judged as the loser."
After explaining the details clearly, Coach Wu said goodbye to Li Xiangping and went to take care of other things.
Fortunately, Coach Wu told Li Xiangping about this, because when the game officially started the next day, Li Xiangping arrived at the venue early. At 5 minutes to 10, he had already sat in his seat obediently. However, he waited and waited, but there was no sign of his opponent.
They sat like this until 10:30, when Li Xiangping remembered what Coach Wu had said. He felt that he could not just wait like this foolishly, so he quickly got up and found Coach Wu. After asking about the situation, Coach Wu also quickly went to negotiate with the event organizer.
After the negotiation was over, Coach Wu came back without saying too much nonsense. He just smiled and said to Li Xiangping:
"Xiang Ping, congratulations on entering the second round of this competition."
What happened? Was it my first time participating in a professional competition, and I won my first game without fighting?
When Li Xiangping was still a little confused, Coach Wu told him that this situation was normal. In almost every qualifying round, there would be players who gave up. Coach Wu smiled and said to Li Xiangping:
"To be honest, it's probably because of your status as an amateur chess player that your opponent gave up."
"Um?"
Seeing that Li Xiangping was still a little confused, Coach Wu patiently explained to him that in such a large-scale qualifying competition, it was normal for some players to give up, especially the Korean players.
Since the competition is held in South Korea, and Korean chess players do not need to consider any costs when participating in the competition, many Korean chess players will sign up. However, whether they will definitely participate in the competition after registration is another matter.
"If I were Kanehara 6th dan, when I saw that my first opponent was a Chinese player, I would probably give up."
Coach Wu continued with a smile: "First of all, I know my own level. I know that with my own level, it is impossible for me to win 5 games in a row and enter this kind of competition. So when I met you, an amateur 5th dan, I must think carefully, because I know that the chess players who dare to come to participate in this competition, especially the foreign chess players who dare to come to participate in this competition, no matter whether they are professional or amateur, are basically not good people. So if I come to compete with you, there is nothing to be proud of if I win, because you are an amateur, but if I lose, it may be a bit troublesome, because I still have to make a living by teaching chess. If people know that I lost to an amateur 5th dan..."
Coach Wu stopped talking here, but he didn't need to continue, because Li Xiangping completely understood what he meant.
Seeing Li Xiangping's understanding expression, Coach Wu smiled and patted his shoulder:
"Okay, Xiang Ping, don't think too much. If you don't have a game today, just wander around the stadium and get yourself ready for tomorrow's game."
"Okay Coach Wu, I'll go watch the other players play chess then."
"go Go."
And so, Li Xiangping's first professional game ended in this way.
Li Xiangping started to wander around the stadium, but he found it boring after a while, mainly because it was still too early. With the appearance of a child, no matter where Li Xiangping went, he would always be met with strange looks.
It was this strange look that made Li Xiangping feel unbearable, so after a quick stroll, he simply ran back to the hotel to rest.
At around 4 p.m., Chen Yaoyue, who shared a room with Li Xiangping, also arrived. Just by looking at his excited expression, Li Xiangping knew that he had definitely won the game:
"Little Leopard, have you defeated your opponent?"
"Yes, I have completed my mission in Korea this time."
Seeing the 11-year-old Chen Yaoyue being so serious and modest, Li Xiangping couldn't help laughing again.
At around 5 p.m., when all the games were over, Coach Wu gathered everyone together again, firstly to take stock of the first day's results, and secondly and more importantly to confirm their opponents for the second round tomorrow.
On the first day of competition, Chinese players performed well overall, losing only 4 out of 28 games. However, this is nothing to be proud of. Apart from the top few seeded players, these 20 or so players are the cream of the crop of Chinese Go. So losing 4 players in the first round can only be considered a mediocre result.
Everyone was more focused on their second round opponents. When it was Li Xiangping's turn, Coach Wu smiled and said to him:
"Xiang Ping, it looks like your luck has run out in the first round. You'll be facing a tough opponent tomorrow."
Hearing what Coach Wu said, Gu Dali shouted:
"Who is it? Who will our 'Exquisite Art' master meet tomorrow?"
"One of the 'Four Heavenly Kings' of Korea, or rather the leader of the 'Four Heavenly Kings'."
Coach Wu said word by word:
"Choi Myung-hoon."
