Chapter 74: Alone in the Quarterfinals
After the game, Li Xiangping did not leave the Chinese Chess Institute immediately because there was a drawing ceremony in the evening. Instead, he reviewed the game with his opponent.
Well, Mr. Kato is quite gracious, because he is the first player since the preliminaries who is willing to stay and review the game after the game.
Unfortunately, during the entire review process, Li Xiangping was almost a bystander. The reason is simple. First, Li Xiangping does not understand Japanese. Second, and more importantly, after the game, Gu Dali, Kong Erjie, Coach Wu, and reporter Zhang gathered around. Naturally, the entire review process became a conversation between these guys and Mr. Kato, and Li Xiangping completely became a bystander.
"Sir, why did you accept this disaster? If you didn't accept it, wouldn't this killing be just a way for you to vent your anger?"
In fact, it was with Gu Dali's question that Li Xiangping finally realized how lucky Lao Shi was to win the game. Because only then did he really see clearly that it was just as Gu Dali said. In the actual game, Lao Shi actually found a blind rob, and the opponent could have simply not responded. At that time, as long as he simply gathered his energy and won the duel, the outcome of the game would have been reversed.
Hearing Mr. Kato answering Gu Dali's question, he couldn't understand what he was saying in Japanese, so Li Xiangping communicated with his plug-in:
"Brother Ding'an, is that so?"
"Yes, this round was indeed a lucky win."
After Mr. Kato finally finished speaking, Li Xiangping couldn't help but ask reporter Zhang:
"Reporter Zhang, what did Mr. Kato just say?"
"He said he had an illusion at the time." Reporter Zhang said to Li Xiangping with a smile:
"He even praised you for being amazing, because the piece you found was completely beyond his expectations. It was precisely because he had never thought of this move that he panicked and, firstly, he didn't calculate the size of the piece. Secondly, at the moment you made your move, he had an illusion that even if he responded, you would still be one piece short of the piece, so he responded."
Li Xiangping felt relieved after hearing this. He felt that what Mr. Kato said must be true, because this is a competition between people after all. So at Mr. Kato's age, it is completely understandable that he would make such a mistake.
"Thank you for your advice, sir!"
After the review, Li Xiangping said the following to Mr. Kato very politely. In order to express his seriousness, he even bowed solemnly.
Of course, the reason why Li Xiangping was so polite today was that he thought he had to bow for himself. Because he believed that through today's game, Lao Shi should have seen his weaknesses clearly.
Whether it was today's game or the game against Lao Cao the day before yesterday, it should be said that the great chess master Shi showed a strong fighting ability in the middle game. His fighting ability is in no way inferior to any modern chess player. However, what about his layout level under modern rules? We must admit that it is a bit boring.
In the first game against Lao Cao, it was because of Lao Cao's strategy that he did not think too much about the layout stage, which was why Lao Shi scored a "two points". But in the second game, as soon as Mr. Kato played a little, Lao Shi immediately fell behind and had to rely on others' mistakes to win the game.
This is how Li Xiangping understands his cheats, and he believes that for someone as smart as himself, he should be able to see his own shortcomings more clearly at this time.
Fortunately, after this game, the quarterfinals will not start until March next year. There are still several months in between, which is enough time for me to continue practicing and upgrading my plug-in.
"What method should I find to practice and upgrade in the next stage..."
Just as Li Xiangping was thinking about this, he asked casually:
"By the way, what are the situations of the other chess games?"
Reporter Zhang smiled bitterly and did not respond. Gu Dali and Kong Erjie also smiled bitterly and did not respond. Coach Wu also smiled bitterly, but he patted Li Xiangping on the shoulder and said:
"You are the only one left in the top eight, Xiangping, work hard."
"ah?!"
We must admit that Li Xiangping's "Ah?!" was not a pretense, he was really surprised. Although Chinese Go is at a low point these days, even in the low point, it is not common for only one player to be left in the top eight of the world championships.
In real history, the only few times these happened were mainly concentrated in recent years. Li Xiangping thought to himself, it can't be such a coincidence that I'll happen to happen to one of them?
"Okay, everyone, don't sit there anymore. Let's go check out the results of other matches. By the way, Xiangping, don't be in a hurry to leave. Stay and have dinner with us. After dinner, you can participate in the next draw."
"Okay Coach Wu."
By the time everyone stood up, the top eight of this Samsung Cup had been officially decided. After looking at the list of top eight, Li Xiangping felt that the lineup of the top eight was a bit strange. In addition to the Chinese team, which only had himself as an "amateur chess player", the Japanese team had 4 chess players in the top eight, which surprisingly occupied half of the team.
"This...what's going on? When did the Japanese team become so awesome..."
You can't blame Li Xiangping for feeling strange. I believe that any chess fan from later generations would feel strange to some extent, just like Li Xiangping, if they saw that Japanese chess players could occupy half of the world.
Yoda Noriki 9th dan, Kobayashi Akira 9th dan, Wang Licheng 9th dan, Yamada Kissei 8th dan, these are the four Japanese players who made it to the top 8. Only 6 players participated in the "main tournament", and only two were eliminated after two rounds. In addition to Mr. Kato, the other eliminated Japanese player was Cho Chikun, who was eliminated by Rui Niwei 9th dan in the first round. But even so, the results handed in by the Japanese team so far are extremely excellent.
In addition to the four Japanese chess players, the remaining three are naturally Korean chess players. They are Lee Chang-ho, 9th dan, Liu Chang-hyuk, 9th dan, and Seo Bong-soo, 9th dan. They are the other Korean kings except Cao.
Li Xiangping didn't feel anything about this list. After all, in real history, before the rise of Xiao Li and their "Three Calf Gang", Korean Go relied on these few people to dominate the world.
Li Xiangping even believes that the situation of Korean Go also proves Cao's theory of "genius drives Go" from another perspective. If you want to know why Korean Go has risen, you don't really need to look for the reasons in "Go environment", "Go atmosphere", or "technical accumulation", "technical background" and so on.
There is no other reason. It just happened that during this period, from Cao to Li, some of the most talented Go players were born in South Korea. This is the real reason why Korean Go is so strong. Li Xiangping even believes that this is the only main reason.
If we compare it with others, to be honest, even if Japanese Go has degenerated to that extent in later generations, in terms of the norms of the professional system, Japanese Go is still far ahead of Chinese and Korean Go.
It's all in vain. No matter how standardized the professional Go system is, it still can't stop the decline of Japanese Go because there is no top talent. They finally got Iyama, who stood out among Japanese players. However, he cannot be called a "brilliant talent" on a global scale. His talent is at most at the same level as South Korea's young Emperor Park. In this case, it is certainly impossible to lead the comprehensive revival of Japanese Go by relying solely on such a person.
Li Xiangping believes that this is the truth, and this is actually the essence of Go. When playing Go, you really shouldn't emphasize too much on objective conditions and objective factors, especially when you reach the top human level. Things like "evolution" and "technical accumulation" are simply useless. Hard work determines your lower limit, and only talent can determine your upper limit.
Since he was the only one who represented the Chinese team and entered the quarterfinals, it would be hard for Li Xiangping not to attract attention when he had dinner at the Chinese Go Institute. During this time, Li Yuanhu came over, as did Old Cai Zhixiong. Although today's result was not good for Chinese Go, it was good for Li Xiangping.
After all, with only one young player left, this provides a convenient door for Li Xiangping's training. He believes that as long as he proposes any training conditions at this time, as long as the conditions are not too excessive, the management of the chess academy should agree.
Since he has seen the weaknesses of his plug-in, Li Xiangping is indeed prepared to make a few training requests, but there is no rush for all this and he has to wait until the opponent for the quarterfinals is determined.
Because there are 4 Japanese chess players among the top 8, there is no doubt that Li Xiangping will meet a Japanese chess player in the next round. Who will he be?
At around 7:30 in the evening , when Yamada Kissei, 8th Dan, unfolded the small piece of paper in his hand and the host asked Li Xiangping to go up and shake hands with him, Li Xiangping didn't know whether this draw was good or bad.
Because among the four Japanese chess players, Yamada Kissei, 8th dan, seems to be the least famous and the weakest one, but Li Xiangping knows that in real history, it was this guy who won the runner-up of this "Three Star Cup".
So this signing position...
