Chapter 51: The opponent takes a long time to fix his hair
Seoul, South Korea, the second day of the 5th Samsung Cup qualifiers .
When it was around 4 o'clock in the afternoon, China's coach Wu started to get busy.
Being the deputy head of such a Go delegation is actually quite boring, because there are too many things to worry about, especially since Coach Wu is mainly in charge of young players, not to mention the tediousness of the task.
You should know that chess players generally have poor self-care ability, so compared , young chess players are naturally even worse...
These are the things that Coach Wu needs to worry about. For example, now, Coach Wu is going to go to the competition venue to take a look around. He mainly wants to see which players will be eliminated today, so that he can appease those who need to be appeased, do ideological work for them, and also arrange for these eliminated players to go home.
However, there is a problem now. Due to the large number of players participating in the competition, there are more than 10 games that need to be supervised by Coach Wu alone, and it is only 4 o'clock in the afternoon. The "Three Star Cup" these days is still a slow game of 3 hours per side. Therefore, a game will usually end after 5 o'clock in the afternoon. At this time, Coach Wu is worried that he will not be able to take care of it.
Fortunately, when Coach Wu arrived at the stadium, he immediately found helpers, namely Luo Xihe and Gu Dali of the Chinese team. These two famous "quick shooters" had already finished their games and were chatting and laughing outside the stadium.
Just by looking at their expressions, Coach Wu knew that they had won the two games without a doubt. Therefore, Coach Wu did not waste any more words and immediately assigned tasks to the two of them:
"Xiaozhu, Dali, the two of you go around the stadium for me. Xiaozhu goes this way, Dali goes that way. Go and help me see what the current situation is. I may need to book some plane tickets tonight."
"okay."
Even though Luo Xihe is now a national team chess player, he was also raised by Coach Wu. Therefore, the two of them were obedient and followed Coach Wu's instructions as they entered the competition venue.
In less than a quarter of an hour, Luo Xihe came back to report:
Kong Erjie had a clear advantage in that game, and it could even be said that he had basically won it. On the other hand, Brother Niu was in an extremely unfavorable situation. Although he was still resisting stubbornly, he was very likely to lose in the end. Hu Yaoyu's game was a delicate one, and it was a delicate one that he was slightly inferior to, but based on his characteristics, it was not impossible for him to turn the tables in the end... Oh, and there was also Chen Yaoyue's game. He also had an advantage now, and his advantage was second only to Kong Erjie's...
"Oh? Xiao Chen is going to win too!"
Since Chen Yaoyue is the youngest, it is normal for Coach Wu to pay more attention to her. After Luo Xihe finished his report, Coach Wu concluded:
"From what you said, you lost 2 to 5 games. The minimum is 2 and the maximum is 5, right? Then today's game was not very good."
Luo Xihe smiled and said, "Coach Wu, you can't say that. In fact, I just made the worst judgment. In fact, if I really want to say, based on what I just saw, it is unlikely to lose 5 games. It is most reasonable for you to prepare 3 to 4 plane tickets..."
After the two stood there and chatted for a few minutes, Coach Wu suddenly said:
"Hey, where's Dali? Why hasn't Dali come back yet?"
After saying this, both of them looked towards the arena. Although the arena was large, most people were sitting there playing chess, with only a few standing. The two of them still found Gu Dali quickly.
Now Gu Dali is standing with his hands on his hips and his neck tilted. He is watching the fight with great interest.
Luo Xihe's eyes are sharper:
"That seems to be... Li Xiangping. Haha, Dali is watching Jueyi play chess."
After Luo Xihe finished speaking, the two looked at each other in tacit understanding, and then said in unison:
"Let's go and take a look."
After all, it was a Go competition, so the two of them approached the table cautiously. After approaching, no one spoke, but just concentrated on watching the chess game quietly.
After watching for a while and making a preliminary assessment of the situation, Coach Wu was surprised, because according to his assessment, at this point in the game, Li Xiangping, who was playing with white, was in a very good situation - not an ordinary "good situation", but a good situation that was close to "certain victory".
This game of chess has been played for about 150 moves so far, and based on the situation, it has entered the endgame stage. According to Coach Wu's own judgment, he believes that it is now a "game of victory or defeat", that is, the number of points for both sides is basically the same. In addition, the thickness of the black and white sides is also similar.
The number of points and thickness are almost the same, but don't forget that Li Xiangping is playing with white pieces in this game!
Especially starting from this "Samsung Cup", black chess has to give 6.5 points!
Well, in a match of this level, with such a huge gap, it is certainly no exaggeration to say that “victory is certain”.
It’s not Coach Wu’s fault for being surprised, mainly because there seems to be a huge gap between the two players.
On one side is Choi Myung-hoon, a famous Korean player and the leader of the "Four Little Heavenly Kings", while on the other side is a 13-year-old boy who can't even get to the first dan level and can only compete with the title of amateur 5th dan. Although he has been very popular on the Internet recently, it is only the Internet after all, right?
To be honest, before this game started, Coach Wu didn't have much hope for this game. He even included Li Xiangping's plane ticket early on, but now...
Coach Wu looked up at Luo Xihe, then at Gu Dali, and the three of them laughed silently. Then, all three of them remained silent and slowly retreated to the entrance of the stadium.
When they got outside, Coach Wu finally asked, "Did I see it right? Was it Li Xiangping who was playing with white that had a big advantage?"
Luo Xihe nodded slightly, but Gu Dali said cheerfully: "Of course it's a big advantage! To be honest, I couldn't believe it when I first saw this game, because from the perspective of the game, it clearly looked like a game of Kung Fu chess. And to gain such a big advantage over Choi Myung-hoon in such a short number of moves, even Lee Cang-ho would probably find it difficult to do it, right?"
"Is that why you were looking there for so long?"
"Yes, because at this point, there is no need to continue the game. If it were me, he would have stood up immediately. So I was waiting for Choi Myung-hoon to admit defeat, and waited for them to review the game to see how Jueyi did it. I didn't expect him to refuse to admit defeat. He neither admitted defeat nor made any moves. He just sat there."
"That should be fixing my hair, um, fixing my hair in my mind."
"Haha, that's right, he should be fixing his hair right now..."
However, any hairstyle has to be finished. For example, this time, just when Coach Wu and the other two were talking about this with great interest, Choi Myung-hoon's "hairstyle" was finally finished. He muttered something in his mouth, then picked up two black pieces and placed them in the center of the board.
This action has a special meaning in a Go game, as it indicates that he is giving up in the middle of the game.
Perhaps it was because Cui Badan felt a little embarrassed about losing to an amateur chess player. After calling the referee to sign to confirm his defeat, he did not review the game with Li Xiangping, but quickly withdrew from the competition.
After his opponent left, Li Xiangping certainly had no reason to sit there idly. When he staggered to the door, he was quickly surrounded by Coach Wu and his two companions. Gu Dali excitedly punched Li Xiangping:
"Hahahaha, I bow down to you. How did you manage to play this game of chess?"
"Nothing, it's just that he suffered a big loss right at the start, so it was easier for me to win."
"Ah! I suffered a big loss right at the start ?"
Gu Dali's eyes lit up when he heard this. You know, in a professional game, when will you "suffer a big loss right at the beginning"? Of course, when you are hit by a flying knife and encounter a chess shape that you are not familiar with, then you may suffer a big loss.
And then considering the guy in front of me...
Gu Dali was almost impatient: "Hurry up, Boss Jueyi, go back and show me your chess game."
Li Xiangping certainly would not refuse such a request, so except for Coach Wu who stayed at the stadium to watch, the other three immediately returned to the hotel.
When Li Xiangping started to place the chess pieces and reached the place where he thought "the opponent suffered a great loss", Gu Dali showed a strange expression. Not only him, but Luo Xihe also faced a strange expression:
"This...this change, do you think Black suffered a big loss?"
