Chapter 69: A Masterful Hand Is Not an Accidental Result
After defeating Cao Xunxuan, 9th Dan, Li Xiangping stretched and prepared to walk around the stadium. After all, this was a world championship, and Li Xiangping had never had such an experience in his previous life. What's more, the second round of the competition would be held the day after tomorrow, and the draw would be tonight. Li Xiangping also wanted to take the opportunity to see the situation of other chess players.
"Xiang Ping, here..."
Unfortunately, he was stopped by someone before he started strolling. The person who called him was Zhang Xiaoyong, a reporter from "Go World". He waved to Li Xiangping at the door of the next door research room.
Li Xiangping looked back and found that most of the games had not ended yet, and at this time, most of the chess games should be at the critical moment of deciding the winner. So it seemed inappropriate to watch the game at this time.
So Li Xiangping left the competition hall and walked towards the direction of reporter Zhang. When he arrived at the door of the research room, reporter Zhang was all smiles. He punched Li Xiangping affectionately:
"That's amazing! You even defeated Lao Cao... Tsk tsk, Xiang Ping, come in and watch the game with us."
Li Xiangping knew that the man in front of him was a fan of Lao Cao. He published a collection of Lao Cao's games a few years ago. It could be said that it was he who introduced the name "Soft Wind and Fast Gun" to Chinese chess fans.
While walking on the road, Zhang Xiaoyong began to ask Li Xiangping for an article:
"Xiang Ping, do you have anything to do tomorrow? If you do, I'll come to you and give everyone a detailed account of today's game. Tsk tsk, your move today was simply brilliant move like a depth charge. I think it will be selected as the best move of the year by our magazine, so I must invite you to come and explain it in person."
"Tomorrow? I have to go to school tomorrow. Reporter Zhang, how about we set up the chessboard in the evening after we draw lots?"
Reporter Zhang was stunned at first, then he remembered that the person in front of him was still an amateur chess player, and his real identity was a second-year junior high school student. Then he laughed:
"Haha, fine. Let's do it tonight. Good evening. To be honest, I can't wait any longer. I want to know how you came up with this brilliant move during the competition."
"A good hand is not something that comes by chance..." Li Xiangping sighed in his heart.
To be honest, this is actually the reason why he wanted to take the initiative to explain this game today. Through today's game, Li Xiangping had a deeper understanding of his own external chess skills, especially the mid-game strength of the chess master Shi, which made him want to introduce it.
In Li Xiangping's opinion, it was no accident that Lao Cao lost to Lao Shi today. In hindsight, Li Xiangping believed that Lao Cao made a complete mistake in his strategic choice. Because of his approach of "not seeking merit but avoiding mistakes" in the layout stage, he did not have any advantage at the beginning of the game.
What does this mean? It seems that both sides skipped the layout stage and went straight to the middle game. And the result of the middle game competition between the two sides now seems to be that Lao Shi has a clear advantage.
Outsiders who saw this game of chess might praise Lao Shi’s “depth-bomb-like move”, but as a bystander who was closest to the game, Li Xiangping knew that the truth was not so.
Because he had communicated with his plug-in several times during the game, so in Li Xiangping's current view, that brilliant move was a natural product and could only be regarded as the "last blow" but not the entire reason for the victory.
People often praise "an accidental brilliant move", but to be honest, in the field of Go, a brilliant move that is not "accidental" is actually more valuable than "an accidental brilliant move". Because the former means normality, means a higher level, and means that such brilliant moves can be made frequently.
These are the reasons why Li Xiangping wanted to take the initiative to introduce this game of chess.
In the midst of a few words, the two came to the next door research room, the research room is very large, there are many people, but at this time, Li Xiangping did not see any famous chess players here. Li Xiangping was a little strange at first, but he soon felt relieved after thinking about it.
Although this is a world championship, it is only the first round after all. Therefore, the famous masters in the Go world are either still in the competition, or what about those famous masters who did not participate in the competition? Li Xiangping put himself in their shoes and thought that if it were him, it would certainly be unlikely for him to come here at this time.
The research room is divided into several areas mainly according to nationality. Reporter Zhang and Li Xiangping naturally came to the area where the Chinese were.
"Ha, our little hero has returned triumphantly, good, good."
Seeing the two people sitting at the top, Li Xiangping politely stepped forward and greeted them:
"Hello, Mr. Wang, and Mr. Hua."
The "Mr. Wang" mentioned by Li Xiangping is Wang Lunan, who is currently the vice chairman of the Chinese Go Association. Now everyone knows that he is about to take over from another Chinese Go veteran, Chen Chaoyue, as the president of the Chinese Chess Academy.
The "Teacher Hua" mentioned by Li Xiangping is of course Hua Yigang, another veteran of Chinese Go. He is currently the director of the Go Department of the Chinese Chess Academy and the leader of the national Go team. However, in a while, he will be promoted to vice president of the Chinese Chess Academy.
It should be said that both of them are big names in the Go world, but at this time, Li Xiangping was not familiar with these two, let alone any friendship. Similarly, these two were also unfamiliar with Li Xiangping. After all, in recent years, thanks to Old Nie, more and more children have learned to play Go, and there are a lot of young people like Li Xiangping who are trying to become a professional chess player.
It is precisely for this reason that although the two bosses were very polite and friendly to Li Xiangping, after a few polite greetings and congratulations to Li Xiangping, they did not communicate any more and focused their attention on other games that had not yet ended.
Li Xiangping noticed that there were two chessboards placed in front of the two big guys. These should be two games that were still in progress. After listening to everyone's discussion for a while, Li Xiangping knew that one of them was Chang Hao's game and the other was Yu Bin's game.
As for why these two games were chosen? This is easy to understand. After all, these two are currently ranked in the top two in the domestic ranking. So when Ma Xiaofei is not participating, these two are naturally expected to win and are considered to be the most competitive among all the participating Chinese chess players. Therefore, it is normal for them to attract the attention of the two big guys.
You have to know that the perspectives of these big guys are of course different from those of ordinary chess fans. For example, in the first round of the game, in the eyes of ordinary chess fans, the game between Jueyi and Lao Cao is more eye-catching than that between Chang Hao and Park Ji-eun. But in the eyes of the big guys who focus on results, Chang Hao's game is more important. This is why these two games are placed in front of the two big guys.
Seeing this scene, Li Xiangping certainly did not feel any "indignant" emotions, but as a reborn person, he felt a different kind of emotion in his heart.
From the perspective of future generations, Chinese Go is currently in a very low period. Why is it so low? Li Xiangping believes that the two games in front of him can actually give us a rough idea of the situation.
Are Chang Hao and Yu Bin qualified leaders? To be honest , Li Xiangping believes that neither of them is qualified. Yu Bin, a 9th dan player, is a natural "eternal runner-up" and although Chang Hao is already ranked first in the domestic ranking, Li Xiangping knows that he is far from mature and has immature shoulders. He is not yet able to shoulder the big chess of Chinese Go.
To be honest, in the current Chinese chess world, the truly reliable chess player is still Ma Xiaofei. However, Ma Xiaofei just can't beat Li Canghao. This is the real reason for the so-called "dark decade" of Chinese Go.
"Well, with the ability of 'brilliant moves are not accidental' that Old Shi showed in this game, I wonder if he can shorten the dark period of Chinese Go by a few years..."
Just when Li Xiangping was daydreaming.
"Xiangping, Xiangping..." It was Team Leader Hua who took the initiative to talk to Li Xiangping. Team Leader Hua said to Li Xiangping with a smile:
"Xiang Ping, can you help us determine the outcome of these two games?"
Since both games were coming to an end, and he had a cheat, Li Xiangping quickly made a judgment, and it was a very positive one:
"Teacher Chang has definitely won, but Teacher Yu... I think he has definitely lost..."
After 5pm, the first round of matches began to end one after another. The second player to finish the match was Gu Dali, but he lost the game. He was defeated by Kato Masao, who was already over 50 years old. It seemed that he would continue to wear the hat of "Gu Yilun".
Immediately afterwards, Chang Hao defeated Korean female chess player Park Ji-eun, Yu Bin lost to Japanese chess player Wang Licheng, and Li Xiangping predicted two games accurately.
Immediately afterwards , Wang Lei defeated his opponent and Zhou Heyang won the game. China now has four chess players entering the top 16.
Unfortunately, there was no news of Chinese players winning games after that. As a result, by 6 o'clock in the evening, all the games were over, with 4 wins and 5 losses for Chinese players, and only 4 players entered the top 16.
At 7:30 in the evening, the draw for the second round of the competition was held.
After confirming his opponent, Li Xiangping smiled, because he didn't know whether this draw was good or bad.
Because his opponent was Kato Masao, the 9th dan who eliminated Gu Dali in the first round.
