Chapter 50: A New Interpretation of “Chinese Style”
"Brother Ding'an, we will meet this opponent tomorrow. He is a powerful figure in the Goryeo chess world. His strength... well, his strength should be at the same level as the 'Lei League Zhuan Zhu' and 'Lei League Nie Zheng' we met before. This person may be slightly inferior to those two, but the gap is minimal."
After knowing that his opponent for the next day was Choi Myeong-hoon, Li Xiangping began to prepare for the match. His "preparation" was of course very different from others. The first thing he needed to do was to quickly inform his "plug-in". So after dinner, the first thing Li Xiangping did when he returned to his room was to quickly communicate with Lao Shi and tell him some information he knew about his opponent.
"oh."
Feeling that the chess master Shi seemed a little absent-minded, Li Xiangping was unhappy. He said in a more serious tone:
"Brother Ding'an, although our opponent tomorrow is not the best, he is at his peak. He has been in great form recently. Not long ago, he defeated our country's number one player Chang Hao and entered the final of another world competition. This is something we need to pay attention to."
"Oh, then what are the characteristics of this person's chess style?"
"this……"
Li Xiangping was a little confused about the answer to Old Shi's question. Although Cui Mingxun was a little famous in this era, it was only limited to this era. Some less experienced chess fans in later generations may not know that there was such a figure in Korean Go in this era.
Because although he was touted by Koreans as the leader of the "Four Little Heavenly Kings", in retrospect, not only did they fail to take over the ranks of the "Four Heavenly Kings", their historical status may even be inferior to that of the "Three Calf Gangs" who were slightly younger than them.
To be honest, Li Xiangping really couldn't describe the characteristics of this chess player's style.
Since he couldn't come up with a plan, Li Xiangping rolled his eyes and came up with a solution:
"Brother Ding'an, how about this? I'll go find some chess records of this person and you can see for yourself what his chess style is."
"That's good."
Now that he had made up his mind, he would take action immediately. Choi Myung-hoon's chess records were easy to find, after all, he was still quite active at that time. If he randomly picked up a "Korean Go Yearbook", there would definitely be his chess pieces. However, the chess set...
"Li Xiangping, what are you looking for?"
"Well, I want to find a chessboard to play chess..." Li Xiangping casually responded to Chen Yaoyue, who lived in the same room with him, and glared at him: "Little Leopard, you really have no manners at all. If you want to call me boss, at least you should call me Brother Xiangping, right?"
"Oh, you want to set up chess pieces. I have some here."
Chen Yaoyue's eyes lit up when he heard that Li Xiangping wanted to set up chess. As he said this, he took out a set of chess from his luggage like a magic trick - it was a small foldable travel chess set:
"Are you trying to research some new changes? Can you let me see it?"
Looking at the clear and transparent eyes of 11-year-old Chen Yaoyue, Li Xiangping didn't know whether to laugh or cry:
"I just want to test the chess pieces of tomorrow's opponent. There aren't that many new changes. Just watch if you want."
Chen Yaoyue felt bored after staying with Li Xiangping for only a while, because he found that this guy seemed to have a quirk when he was setting up the chess pieces. Although there was no sound at all , his mouth seemed to be opening and closing all the time, as if he was mumbling something. Chen Yaoyue had never seen anyone set up chess pieces like this, so after watching for a while, he said:
"Boss, take your time to study. I'll go to other rooms to take a look."
"go Go."
After Chen Yaoyue left, and after watching Cui Mingxun's five games, three wins and two losses, Li Xiangping asked Lao Shi:
"Brother Ding'an, what do you feel after watching it?"
"Well, this person's chess style is just as what Young Friend Xiangping said. I can't see any weaknesses, nor can I find any obvious strengths."
"oh?"
Li Xiangping wanted to ask: "Old Shi, do you think you can beat this guy?" But thinking that the competition would start tomorrow, if he asked this question, it would seem to add pressure to him, so Li Xiangping changed the subject:
"Well, Brother Ding'an, now that we have a preliminary impression of this person's chess style, shall we study tomorrow's opening? For example, if we guess that the black chess piece is tomorrow, should I first set up the 'Diagonal Star' that Brother Ding'an is most familiar with?"
"That's up to you, but my friend Xiangping, I've been thinking about it recently, and Ding'an thinks that according to the current rules of Go, it's better not to play the 'Diagonal Star'."
"Oh, why is that?"
"Ding'an has now come up with something, but he doesn't know whether it is right or wrong. Ding'an thinks that if we play this kind of chess, the opponent's corner will be at a disadvantage if he takes the first move."
Li Xiangping laughed: "Haha, great minds think alike. Brother Ding'an, do you think so too?"
Indeed, a diagonal layout may be disadvantageous when playing handicap chess, but as Lao Shi said, although Li Xiangping also thinks so, it is only his personal opinion, and he does not know whether his opinion is right or wrong.
But it doesn't matter. Tomorrow's chess will be played by Lao Shi and I. Since both of us think it's inappropriate, then we won't adopt this way of playing.
"If we don't use the 'Diagonal Star', what would Brother Ding'an recommend?"
"Well, if we can play black first tomorrow, Ding'an likes this kind of start very much recently..."
When Lao Shi expressed his thoughts, Li Xiangping laughed again:
"Haha, 'Chinese Style'? Brother Ding'an actually wants to start with 'Chinese Style'. Why is that?"
"Well, this opening method can attack and defend, and the momentum is balanced. It really embodies the doctrine of the mean of China...'Chinese Style'? Little friend Xiang Ping said that this opening is called 'Chinese Style'?"
"Yes..."
At this time, Li Xiangping could only explain the origin of the name "Chinese Style" to old Shikop. This layout was created by Chen Chaoyue, an older generation of domestic player. When a Chinese Go delegation visited Japan in the 1960s, the Japanese Go community called this layout "Chinese Style" because Chinese players almost unanimously adopted this opening.
This story is widely circulated in the Go community, and any Go fan with a little experience knows about it, so Li Xiangping didn't take it seriously after he told it.
"Brother Xing Ding'an, since you like the Chinese style, let's play the Chinese style. This is the way to play with black. Let's discuss if we play with white..."
"Friend Xiang Ping, this national player Chen you mentioned, does he have any research on medieval chess?"
Hmm? Li Xiangping was a little surprised to hear Lao Shi's question. Among modern chess players, Lao Chen is of course an expert in ancient chess. However, when he was telling the story just now, he did not tell Lao Shi this:
"Master Chen is indeed well versed in medieval chess. By the way, he also highly praises you. But how did Brother Ding'an know this?"
"How difficult is this ? Just look at the third move of this Chinese style opening."
Li Xiangping was stunned. Just by looking at the third move of the Chinese style chess, he knew that Lao Chen must know about medieval chess? What kind of logic is this?
However, after concentrating on thinking for a while, Li Xiangping quickly figured out the key. After figuring it out, he laughed out loud:
"Haha, that's right, this layout is indeed closely related to medieval chess, and it's no wonder it's called 'Chinese Style'..."
What did Li Xiangping figure out? You can see that the first two steps of the "Chinese Style" are to place the pieces at the "star position" and the "small eye". This is what Lao Shi said, "being able to attack and defend, with a balanced position and terrain."
As for the piece that falls on the edge in the third step of the "Chinese Style", this move is also very famous. This is the famous "Nine-three Point Shot" in medieval chess.
The reason why this move is so famous, so famous that it has even become a signature move in medieval chess, is precisely because of this plug-in in his body.
As we all know, due to the "seat system" in medieval chess, the first four moves are actually fixed. Even the fifth move, since chess players of that era did not " point three three", they basically used "six, three hanging corner", so it can be said that the fifth move is also fixed.
The divergence begins at the 6th move.
Where is the best place to place the sixth move? Master Shi has something to say, and he strongly recommends this move, the "Nine-three Point Shot".
His theory is: "To make the enemy's layout most perfect by preventing them from having any large pieces of territory and breaking up into three parts"!
It is because of his words, coupled with his high level and strong strength, that since Fan Shi, the "Nine-three-point throw" has established a status similar to that of an "official move" in medieval chess.
Now that I think about it, when Lao Chen was creating the "Chinese style" layout, he must have been influenced by Lao Shi, right?
"Haha, that's fine, Brother Ding'an, let's use this method tomorrow to have a good fight with that Korean chess player."
The second day soon arrives, so how will the game between "Jueyi" and Choi Myung-hoon turn out?
