Chapter 64: The Mystery of Dang Lake
"Brother Ding'an, our opponent tomorrow is actually a hero in the rise of Goryeo Go. Goryeo Go rose rapidly under the leadership of this man, so he is called the 'Go Emperor' of Goryeo, and Li Canghao is his only disciple. By the way, let me talk about the characteristics of his style of play. As for his style of play, there is a very vivid description in the Go community, which is called 'soft wind and fast gun'..."
After returning home from the Chinese Chess Institute, Li Xiangping began his unique "preparation" method again, which was to first introduce the basic situation of his opponent with his own plug-in. But today's situation was different. He had just started when he was interrupted by Lao Shi:
"There is no need to say more about this young friend Xiang Ping. Ding An is familiar with the characteristics of this man's chess style. I know it well."
Li Xiangping was stunned when he heard this. Lao Shi said that he knew something about Lao Cao’s characteristics?
"Brother Ding'an, how do you know this person?"
"Haven't I been watching Li Canghao's chess these days? After watching Li Canghao's chess, I naturally have some understanding of this person."
Li Xiangping was amused when he heard this, thinking that this made sense. Although Lao Shi had been studying Li Canghao recently, who did Li Canghao play the most chess with? Of course, it was his master, Lao Cao. Therefore, although the chess records he showed Lao Shi were all played by Li Canghao, nearly half of them were also played by Lao Cao. So it made sense for Lao Shi to say that he also understood Lao Cao's chess style.
Li Xiangping was depressed. He saw that his only "war preparation function" was about to fail. For some reason, Li Xiangping felt a little disappointed.
But compared to that slight sense of loss, he is now more curious:
"Well, Brother Hao Ding'an, since you said you know something about this person, what do you think of him?"
Old Shi paused for a moment, as if organizing his words: "This person plays chess flexibly and flexibly. Many of his moves seem careless at first, but once he makes a move, the rubble and sand on the board turn into wind, clouds and lightning. He is truly a man of great talent and genius. From what I've seen, his chess style is quite similar to that of my senior brother Xiping, and his chess talent seems to be no less than that of brother Xiping. Alas, it is truly unusual that such a person could emerge from a small country like Goryeo. No wonder such a small country like this can be so prosperous in chess."
Li Xiangping was not surprised by Lao Shi's "great power chauvinism", and was not even surprised by his praise of Lao Cao for his "brilliant talent and outstanding gift". After all, "Cao Xunxuan is first, Ma Xiaofei is second". This sentence, said by the famous Japanese old charlatan Fujisawa Hideyuki, has been circulating in the Go community for decades, and Lao Cao's talent has long been recognized by the Go community.
What really interested Li Xiangping was that the chess master Shi mentioned Fan Xiping, his good friend Fan Xiping. He actually said that Lao Cao's chess style was somewhat similar to Fan Xiping's.
Speaking of Fan Xiping, this reminded Li Xiangping of another thing:
"By the way, Brother Ding'an, since you mentioned Senior Xiping, I have always forgotten to ask you one thing. You and him played 13 games at Zhang's in Pinghu. Who won in the end?"
What Li Xiangping was talking about was the famous "Ten Games of Danghu" in medieval chess. In fact, there are more than ten games in the "Ten Games of Danghu". Even the so-called "Ten Games of Danghu" that we can see now may not be the real "Ten Games of Danghu".
Because up to now, there are only 11 chess records of Fan and Shi Xiangxia surviving, and according to historical records, they played at least twice at the level of ten games or above. One was in the capital when they were both in their 20s, and the other was 13 games played at Zhang's house in Pinghu when Fan Xiping was 31 and Shi Xiangxia was 30.
In modern times, people simply refer to the 11 surviving chess records of the two of them as the "Ten Games of Danghu".
Many people today mistakenly believe that ancient chess players played fewer games. To be honest, this is a complete misunderstanding. They did not play fewer games, but we cannot see the games they played today. Take Fan and Shi for example. They are from the same hometown and are brothers in the same school. They have similar skills, experiences, and fame. So, is it possible that we can only see 11 games between these two people?
Gu Dali and Lee Sedol, who were later known as "lifelong rivals", only played against each other for more than 40 official games, while the number of official games between Fan and Shi must be more, not less than that.
"This... Little friend Xiang Ping, can you not tell me?"
Li Xiangping smiled and said, "Brother Ding'an, don't be shy. I think Senior Xiping has been dead for hundreds of years. Even if you had an agreement with him back then, if you only told me, I don't think Senior would blame you, right?"
Old Shi was silent again for a while, and then finally spoke:
"In the incident at Zhang's house in Pinghu, Ding'an won one more round in the end."
Li Xiangping nodded after hearing this. This is the same result as that obtained by modern research.
Of course, this research is not as the Go community originally said: it is because in the 11 chess records handed down by Fan and Shi, Fan Xiping played white first in 6 games (in medieval chess, white played first), and Shi Xiangxia played white first in 5 games. From this small gap, people inferred that the "Ten Games at Danghu" might have been one more game won by Shi.
However, this inference is actually unreliable. As mentioned earlier, the 11 chess records of the two that have survived may not even have been played by Dang Hu, so the inference just now is obviously unconvincing.
Later, more convincing research came from other documents. According to local chronicles and records of the descendants of the Pinghu Zhang family, the reason why Fan and Shi were invited by the Pinghu Zhang family to play chess there was simply because the Pinghu Zhang family (the ancient local tyrants) wanted to hire a Go teacher.
In modern terms, the two chess masters merely went to apply for a job, and their chess playing was equivalent to the job exam. However, they did not expect that this job exam would lead to the famous "Ten Games of Danghu" that have been passed down through the ages.
Although various documents only confirm that the two of them did play 13 games, there is no mention of the final outcome of this series. However, judging from the whereabouts of Fan and Shi afterwards, the person who stayed at Zhang's house to teach chess after the "Ten Games at Danghu" was exactly the chess master Shi.
Therefore, from this perspective, many people believe that the final winner of the "Ten Games at Danghu" should be Shi Xiangxia.
Today, Li Xiangping finally got the answer from the great chess master Shi himself, which solved a mystery in his heart.
Of course, at this moment, what Li Xiangping cares about most is certainly not the mystery of the outcome of the ten games in Danghu, but tomorrow's game:
"Brother Ding'an, you just said that tomorrow's opponent looks like Senior Xiping, and Senior Xiping was defeated by you before, so what you meant is..."
Old Shi pretended to be serious and said, "Little friend Xiangping, don't talk nonsense. I have always respected Brother Xiping, but I am not sure that I can win against him."
Li Xiangping laughed: "Haha, I see. You yourself only said 'I'm not sure of winning'. I'm afraid that in Brother Ding'an's mind, the word failure has never occurred to you, right? Okay, Brother Ding'an, since you said that you know tomorrow's opponent very well, let's not talk about chess today. Let's rest early and get enough energy to face tomorrow's big battle."
Nothing happened that night. The next day, although the official competition was not to begin until 10 a.m., Li Xiangping still arrived at the Chinese Chess Institute early. At a quarter before 10 a.m., Li Xiangping had already found his seat and sat down. He sat upright and waited for Lao Cao to arrive.
At 10 minutes to 10, the Korean delegation left the hotel, chatting and laughing, and the players headed to the competition venue. The person walking with Lao Cao was none other than Liu Changhe, the "world's best attacker".
"Cao Guoshou, your opponent today is a bit special. You know, I lost to him three games in a row before."
"oh?"
Lao Cao laughed loudly: "Is this the person you said you wanted to thank after winning the 'LG Cup'? Then I really need to learn a lesson from him today."
Liu Changhe smiled and stopped talking. He knew that people like Lao Cao had rich practical experience. At his level, it was basically difficult for him to have emotional fluctuations. He would neither underestimate his opponent because he was an amateur chess player, nor be scared because of his opponent's glorious deeds. In short, Liu Changhe thought that he only needed to finish this sentence.
At 5 minutes to 10, Lao Cao entered the game room, and he and Li Xiangping saluted each other.
At 2 minutes to 10, the referee announced the start of the game. Cao grabbed a bunch of chess pieces and asked Li Xiangping to guess the first move. Li Xiangping guessed that the black piece would move first. However, this was not good news, because at the beginning of this game, the black piece had a 6.5 point handicap.
At 10:00 am, the game officially began. Because of what Old Shi said yesterday, Li Xiangping was a complete spectator in today's game. From the first move, all moves were decided by the great chess master Shi himself.
Li Xiangping was delighted as he quickly made the first few moves according to Lao Shi's instructions.
"Chinese style"!
Lao Shi actually chose the "Chinese style" to start.
Thinking back to the game with Jin Chenglong, 7th dan, Lao Shi also made all the decisions on that game, but at that time, Lao Shi chose the "Diagonal Star" which he was more familiar with.
Does the great chess master Shi think he can make good use of modern layouts in just over a month?
As the game slowly unfolded, Li Xiangping began to look forward to the performance of chess master Shi.