Chapter 65: How to Crack "Soft Wind and Quick Gun"
After the game started, Li Xiangping concentrated and prepared to watch carefully the contest between the "Ace of Clubs" and the "King of Spades" in his mind.
However, during the two-hour match in the morning, Li Xiangping was a little disappointed with the progress of the game. There were no exquisite ideas, nor any gorgeous tricks. Both players used very ordinary moves, and even Li Xiangping could understand the ideas. It can be said that it was a very ordinary opening.
During the two-hour game in the morning, both players seemed to be playing "stable" first. Both sides made more than 40 moves in total. The two players placed two very common fixed patterns at the two corners of the chessboard. Even though the morning time had passed, even such a speed of the game was very common in this era and seemed very ordinary.
Although Li Xiangping was disappointed with today's start, he was actually somewhat surprised. He originally thought that with the style of these two, even if they didn't use exaggerated rhetoric like "Mars hitting the Earth", it should at least not be like this.
However, near noon, Li Xiangping saw the calm expression of Lao Cao on the opposite side, and heard the calm voice of the great chess master Shi instructing him to make his moves slowly. Li Xiangping gradually came to an understanding. He now felt that it was inevitable that both sides would start the game like this.
The reason is very simple. As long as we guess the mentality of the two actual players, it will be easy to understand the strategies they adopted in this game.
It is easy to understand his own cheats . Although Lao Shi is an ancient chess master, he has only been exposed to modern chess for a short time. Although he used the purely modern opening of "Chinese Style" today, the great chess master Shi should know clearly that if he simply competes with modern openings, it will be difficult for him to gain an advantage over the top modern chess players.
So don't be too aggressive in the early stages of the game, and focus on stability. As long as you can achieve a balance in the early stages and then look for opportunities to play to your strengths after entering the middle game, this should be the most suitable strategy for Lao Shi.
It is easy to understand that Lao Shi puts stability first, but what about Lao Cao? In fact, his "stability first" is also easy to understand.
In fact, as long as we think about the problem from Lao Cao's perspective and consider that he is facing an "amateur chess player" who is only 13 years old, then his strategy for this game of chess is easy to understand.
Li Xiangping believed that when Cao Cao decided on his opponent yesterday, no matter how cautious he was, he certainly did not think that he would lose. Li Xiangping even thought that how to win the game in the safest way and with the least risk should be the question Cao Cao thought about the most.
And judging from the actual combat progress in the morning, Li Xiangping was almost certain that this was what Lao Cao was thinking when he was thinking about how to play this game!
The reason is very simple. When a professional chess master competes with an amateur chess player, how can he win the game in the safest way? Of course, it is like what Lao Cao is doing now, "stable" comes first, first stabilize his position and don't give the opponent any chance to take advantage of. This is actually the safest way for a master to win against an amateur.
"Hehe, this is interesting, really interesting..."
When he figured out the problem, it was more than 20 minutes before the market closed at noon. When Li Xiangping was sitting in his seat and laughing, he did not notice that just before that, Lao Cao had just made a move, which was the 46th move in the whole game. Since Lao Cao made that move, he had not received any instructions from Lao Shi until 12 o'clock.
So that move became the last move before the market closed at noon.
"Brother Ding'an, how do you feel now?" During the lunch break, Li Xiangping began to ask his external plug-in about the situation.
“It’s OK.”
Hearing Lao Shi's simple answer, Li Xiangping was amused: "Not bad? I also know that the current situation is not bad. You guys played so conservatively today, this game should still be a balance, right? I just want to ask Brother Ding'an, are you sure you can win this game?"
"Well, although I don't have the confidence, the opportunity has appeared now. Didn't my friend Xiang Ping realize that the opponent's last move is this problem hand. Ding'an is thinking about how to defeat the enemy."
"ah!?"
Hearing what Old Shi said, Li Xiangping was both surprised and delighted. He really didn't expect that in the eyes of the great chess master Shi, Old Cao had actually made a mistake.
“But I didn’t feel anything at that time…”
This thought flashed through Li Xiangping's mind, but he was soon relieved. First, although he saw the move made by Lao Cao, he was distracted at the time. Second, Li Xiangping also knew the gap between himself and Lao Shi. This is how Go is. Problems that can be seen by experts do not mean that novices can see them. Otherwise, how can there be a distinction between experts and novices?
Li Xiangping originally wanted to continue asking questions, but he was afraid of disturbing himself who was thinking about "strategies to defeat the enemy", so he forced himself to endure it throughout the afternoon.
Fortunately, there was only an hour's break at noon. When they sat down in front of the chessboard again at 1 pm, it seemed that the great chess master Shi had not made up his mind yet. He was slow to give any instructions to Li Xiangping. So Li Xiangping took this time to carefully examine the last move made by Lao Cao in the morning.
It's a pity that even with the hint from the chess master Shi, Li Xiangping looked at this move with preconceived notions. But with his professional level, he still couldn't see what was wrong with Lao Cao's move.
Even in Li Xiangping's opinion, Cao's move seemed to be a good one! At the very least, it should be a move that reflects Cao's "soft wind and fast gun" style .
Experienced chess fans know that Cao plays with a light style, earning him the name "Cao Swallow". His style is gorgeous and smooth, his moves are fast and light, and his overall sense of balance is excellent. He also has strong offensive and killing capabilities.
His greatest characteristic or advantage is that he often initiates active challenges during the game. He can seize the opponent's weakness which is not a weakness and deliver a sharp blow. If the blow misses, he can quickly avoid the opponent's edge and continue to deal with the opponent with light dodging tactics - this is actually the origin of "soft wind and fast gun".
And the move that Li Xiangping saw now was clearly the one that best reflected Lao Cao's style.
You should know that at the beginning of this game, both sides were very stable. The moves they made were not efficient, but at least there were no flaws in the chess shape. However, this is how Go is. There is no such thing as a perfect chess shape, especially now that more than 40 moves have been made, so there will always be some flaws in some places.
From what Li Xiangping saw, it seemed that Cao's move just now had seized an obscure flaw in the black chess and actively launched an attack.
Although Lao Shi played very steadily before, so this flaw is not very big, which also means that Lao Cao's attack may not be very severe. But after all, he is the one who took the initiative to attack, right?
And from the perspective of chess theory, there should be no problem with the way Cao played. It is completely in line with chess theory. But why did Lao Shi say that he was a problematic player?
Li Xiangping did not think about how the great chess master Shi would deal with this move, because he knew he would not be able to figure it out. The reason was simple. Old Shi thought it was a problematic move, but he thought it might be a good move. The starting points of the two people's thinking were different, so of course they could not think of the same thing.
Li Xiangping did not think about how Old Shi would crack Old Cao's "Soft Wind and Quick Gun", but while the great chess master Shi continued to think, Li Xiangping was a little distracted. He was wondering who among the current chess players could crack Old Cao's move?
Although Lao Cao's "Soft Wind and Quick Gun" is powerful, even in 2000, this move is not invincible. Among the active chess players, there are at least two players who are very experienced in dealing with him.
Needless to say, one of them is his disciple Li Canghao, and the other one is of course China's former top master, the "Demon Sword" Ma Xiaofei.
Interestingly, both of them were able to break Lao Cao's "Soft Wind and Quick Gun", but the methods they adopted were very different. Li Canghao liked to use his extraordinary endurance and "wait like a crocodile" to attack his master. He waited for the moment when his master showed a flaw, and then launched a fatal blow.
As for Ma Xiaofei, he likes to compete with Lao Cao in "lightness". You should know that although Lao Cao is known as "Cao Swallow", if we only compare "lightness and elegance", then China's Ma Yaodao is still better. Therefore, among the current chess players, only these two players are most confident in dealing with Lao Cao.
"So how will Mr. Shi deal with Mr. Cao today..."
Just when Li Xiangping was daydreaming, Lao Shi's voice rang out:
"Friend Xiang Ping, please help me place the piece somewhere..."
Li Xiangping looked at the chessboard according to Lao Shi's instructions. He was surprised and confirmed his cheat:
"Brother Ding'an, are you sure you want me to land here?"
"Yes, it fell right here."
Li Xiangping began to get excited because he realized that if he could win this game, he would have found the third way to crack "Soft Wind and Quick Gun".
