Chapter 76: Layout Special Training
After Lianzhong and Hongqiao Wolong had reached an agreement, Li Xiangping focused his main energy on the "first online Go League" on New Year's Day 2001.
Up to now, Li Xiangping is not worried about not having a chance to play chess. After all, he represented the Chinese team and made it into the quarterfinals of the "Samsung Cup". So at least before being eliminated in this competition, even if he is just an amateur chess player, Li Xiangping can go to the Chinese Chess Academy for training without asking anyone for help, and no one will gossip about him.
But even if the training conditions have improved, in order to prepare for the competition , for this only opportunity in Li Xiangping's opinion, and at the same time to upgrade his "plug-in", Li Xiangping still decided to focus the next stage of training on the league organized by netizens.
The reason is simple, because at this stage, he really wants the great chess master Shi to touch the label of an era in Chinese Go - "the duo of Nie and Ma".
Because Li Xiangping believes that perhaps only these two people can improve the level of their own plug-in layout.
It must be emphasized that it is certainly not surprising that Li Xiangping had such an idea.
After all, Li Xiangping came from the future, and he was someone who had seen Go AI.
Since the advent of Go AI, Li Xiangping has seen too many human players playing against Go AI, and humans often have no chance after 50 or 60 moves. To be honest, the games in which later Go AIs "win by layout" against human players left a deep impression on Li Xiangping. This also led Li Xiangping to believe that the biggest gap between human players and Go AIs may be reflected in the opening of a game.
A professional Go player in later generations once said: The boundaries of Go AI are based on global operations, while the boundaries of humans are only based on local operations.
When laying out the layout, some points are considered good by the Go AI. That's because it is based on the results of global judgment. If this is used to measure the level of human players, then the Go played by humans is basically "throwing stones" in the eyes of the Go AI. Therefore, don't force a comparison between humans and machines, because this may not be fair to humans.
How to say it? Li Xiangping basically agrees with the above statement. Since the advent of Go AI, it can be said that the development of human Go for thousands of years is still at a relatively low level, and the concentrated manifestation of this "primary" may be in the early stage of a game, in the layout stage of Go.
It is for this reason that Li Xiangping now attaches unprecedented importance to the opening techniques in Go.
And even if we don't talk about things that far away, Li Xiangping analyzed his current situation and where his "plug-in" could be upgraded. He still believed that the top priority right now was to improve Lao Shi's layout level as soon as possible.
In the two games of the "Samsung Cup" that just ended, Shi seemed at ease when facing Cao and could be said to have won relatively easily. However, he was in a tough battle when facing Kato and had to rely on a mistake from the other party to make a lucky comeback.
Why is this so? This is certainly not because Kato is better than Cao. In fact, in today's world, whether in terms of competitive status or overall level, Cao is one level higher than Kato.
Lao Cao is currently at his peak and is the second biggest enemy of Chinese Go after Li Canghao. However, Mr. Kato has long since passed his peak. To use the "jargon" of the domestic Go world, he is now in the stage of playing "happy Go".
The reason for this situation is, of course, due to the problem of chess path, or the problem of chess thinking during the specific game. In the game between Lao Shi and Lao Cao, Lao Cao might have been too cautious, or it could be said that he made the wrong strategic choice during the game. He did not pursue too much in the layout stage, hoping to defeat an "amateur chess player" with the most stable move.
The consequence of doing so was that he did not gain any advantage in the layout phase, forcing him to compete with Old Shi. However, if he only competed with the ancient chess master in the middle game...
However, the game with Kato was different. Although Mr. Kato was no longer at his peak, he started playing "happy Go". However, it was precisely because he was playing "happy problems" that made him more relaxed in the game. At least he was not like Lao Cao who wanted to win but was afraid of losing.
Li Xiangping believes that it is precisely because of Kato's "relaxation" that he has been able to maintain a long-term advantage in the game against the great chess master Shi.
Therefore, it can be said that through this game, Lao Shi's weaknesses have been clearly exposed: that is, under the modern Go rules, a player like Lao Shi, even if he is an ancient Go master, his Go layout is his shortcoming, and there is a big gap between him and modern top-notch players in the opening stages of a game.
What makes Li Xiangping feel relieved is that now he is not the only one who has this idea. His "plug-in" which has its own thoughts seems to be aware of this problem as well.
It's interesting to say that although Lao Shi has always been very humble, Li Xiangping knows that he actually has a strong personality.
Think about it, Shi is a chess master, so no matter how humble and polite he is, he is arrogant at heart, and he will not easily be convinced in his field of expertise, which is human nature. This is not only true in the field of Go, but also in other fields.
But the situation is different now, completely different.
Li Xiangping has been with Old Shi for such a long time, and he found that after playing a game of chess with Mr. Kato, the chess master Shi was still as gentle as jade, and still looked like a modest gentleman in front of Li Xiangping. However, Li Xiangping knew that Old Shi was falsely modest before, but now he is truly modest.
Li Xiangping was of course happy to see this change in his plug-in. Although he did not say it explicitly, improving Lao Shi's layout level under modern Go rules as soon as possible was a consensus reached between Li Xiangping and his plug-in, or a tacit understanding that had already been formed.
However, although there is a tacit understanding and consensus, how to do it specifically? How to achieve this goal? Li Xiangping actually has no idea. After all, after seeing the power of Go AI, Li Xiangping knows how difficult the layout of Go is. If he wants to quickly improve the layout level in a short period of time, Li Xiangping thinks it is almost an impossible task.
At the very least, if you just go to the Chinese Chess Academy for training, you will not be able to upgrade your "plug-in".
You must know that according to the current environment of the world chess arena, due to the existence of Li Canghao, because he is the number one player in the chess world today, and because of his technical characteristics, the entire world chess arena now attaches unprecedented importance to the second half of the game technology of Go, and the trend of professional chess players paying attention to the second half of the game and despising the first half is becoming more and more obvious.
How serious is this trend? So serious that some young players even say that this is the so-called "second half of the game decides the outcome" era, and that the layout of Go is not important at all, and you can just make any move in the early stages.
To be honest, in his previous life, when Li Xiangping was still trying to get promoted to a professional dan, he actually agreed with this view. However, after witnessing the power of Go AI, he naturally overturned this view of Go.
Li Xiangping now believes that the opening game of Go is not unimportant, but too important. Its importance may even exceed the middle and late game skills of Go. A player with good middle and late game skills may become an excellent "winner", but only with super opening game skills can he become a true Go "master".
To be honest, it is precisely because of Li Xiangping's current view of Go that he believes that after Li Canghao, there has never been a true Go master among human players, and all those young players in later generations can only be called "win-lose masters."
For example, Li Xiangping is now training at the chess academy, and of course he has no shortage of opponents. Not to mention young chess players like Gu Dali and Kong Erjie, even the "Seven Little Dragons" who are currently at the top level, he can play with anyone he wants, and they are happy to accompany him.
However, Li Xiangping thought that letting Shi play chess with these people would not really help him much. Besides helping him keep his chess sense and maintain his proficiency, he would not make any substantial improvement. Because today's young chess players are only interested in routines and the middle and late stages of the game. To put it bluntly, if they only practice the middle and late stages of the game, then it is unclear who is helping whom.
On New Year's Day 2001, the first "Online Go League" was launched on Lianzhong.com. In the first round of the competition, two large clubs faced off against each other, with the old and powerful team "Lianzhong Beggars' Gang" VS the online upstart "Lianzhong Liangshan".
At the main general's seat, Li Xiangping put on the vest of "Beggar Gang*White-clothed Youth" and quietly waited for the arrival of his opponent. When he saw "Liangshan*Big Knife Guan Sheng" sitting in front of him, Li Xiangping was happy and said to his plug-in:
"Brother Ding'an, you must play well today. You should know that your opponent today is the 'King of Hearts' in my mind. His chess is very unique. His moves are concise and clear, and he has a great overall view. His strength in the opening game has always been recognized by the chess world. At his peak, he was praised as 'invincible in the first fifty moves'. Therefore, playing against him will surely be helpful to you."
