Chapter 81: Hate Kong's Problem
On the first day after the New Year's Day holiday, in the capital, at Nie Daochang, led by Lao Cai, Li Xiangping came here to visit Lao Nie.
"Hello, Mr. Nie."
This was the first time that Li Xiangping met Lao Nie face to face. Facing this representative of an era of Chinese Go, Li Xiangping was extremely polite and treated him as a junior.
"You must be Li Xiangping, not bad, not bad. You played very well in this Samsung Cup, especially the game against Lao Cao...Haha, I heard you came to see me specially, what's the matter?"
When the two met, some students and teachers were present. When Lao Nie mentioned Lao Cao, many people laughed silently. There is no doubt that the first "Yingshi Cup" final between Lao Nie and Lao Cao 12 years ago was like a "chess luck battle" between the two countries. After this battle, Korean Go began to rise, while Chinese Go fell into a long period of decline.
"It was luck that I won against Cao Jiudan, Mr. Nie. I came to see you today on purpose because... I met a master chess player online a few days ago. He had many tricks that I still don't understand, so I asked my uncle Cai to bring me to see you, hoping that you can give me some advice."
"Wow! How can this person be so amazing that he can play chess that you can't understand? Come and show us."
Many people laughed silently again. The first online league held by Lianzhong was quite popular. At least people in the industry knew about it. The most eye-catching battle in the past few days was naturally the late-night battle between the two players a few days ago.
The "young man in white" is Li Xiangping, and the "Guan Sheng with the big knife" is Lao Nie. Almost everyone knows this by now, and everyone believes that the two people in front of them must also know who their opponents were at that time.
But now both of them pretended not to know.
Old Cai sighed inwardly again, thinking that this child of Old Li's was really amazing, he was really very mature and very knowledgeable about the ways of the world. Because if you really want to ask someone for advice, it is best to pretend that you don't know, so that one can ask easily and the other can answer easily.
Most people who play Go are simple-minded. With Old Nie's shout of "Come and see", a chessboard soon appeared in front of Li Xiangping and he began to place the chess pieces.
The chess game he set up was naturally the five games that Lao Shi and Lao Nie played that day. And as Li Xiangping started to set up the chess pieces, Lao Nie started to talk, and then for a period of time, it completely turned into Lao Nie's criticism of Lao Shi.
First game: "...This move is wrong, totally wrong! To put it in a good way, this move is just a normal big move without any pursuit. To put it in a bad way, I think this move is a bit numb. Not only does it not have its own ideas, but it also fails to find the focus of the chessboard. The flow of the chess is definitely wrong..."
"So where do you think it should be placed?"
"Of course it should be here..."
Old Nie picked up a chess piece and slapped it on the chessboard in a very cool manner: "If it were me at that time, I would have played it here without hesitation. Although this cannot be said to be the only move, it is an emergency move and the best way to disrupt the opponent's plan. Don't you think so? It's hard to say about the other moves, but I think if I play this, it will be much better than the actual battle..."
The second game: "... I don't understand what you are saying. This move is totally incomprehensible! To put it bluntly, this move is too amateurish. It is hard for me to imagine that this move came from you. Break in here? Is it necessary to break in here? This is a typical 'hate the empty space' mentality. Usually, mistakes like this are only made by amateur players. Xiangping, I tell you, you really should play less moves like this in the future..."
The third game: "...I won't comment on this move, because I don't understand what it means at all. Well, let me put it this way, if this move was made by a chess player, then I might be able to understand it, but you are a Go player, and you actually made such a move, so I really don't know what to say..."
The fourth game: "... This is not chess! This is not chess at all! Is this Go? This is just throwing stones. I think this move is still the same as before, you hate the empty space! You hate the empty space too much, you need to change this habit..."
The fifth game: "...Tsk tsk, what can I say about this move? I can only say that young people are in good health. It is undeniable that the attitude of this move is very positive, but I still think that it may not be necessary to play like this, and it still seems a bit like a pity..."
Two hours passed when Old Nie helped Li Xiangping go through all five games. Although Old Nie said almost nothing good during these two hours, it must be admitted that his attitude was serious and his advice was sincere, because Old Nie himself was such a person, the famous "Big Mouth Nie", and that was definitely not worthy of the name.
People who hate him may dislike the fact that Lao Nie speaks harshly, but people who like him will also like his frankness.
Li Xiangping is just the type of person who likes Lao Nie's frank words. It is no exaggeration to say that from past life to present life, Li Xiangping has always been a fan of Lao Nie's chess. However, today, whether or not he is a fan of Lao Nie is not the point, and whether his words are pleasant to the ear is not important. What is important is what he said today and whether his cheats have gained anything.
While listening to Lao Nie's explanation, Li Xiangping took the time to communicate with his plug-in:
"Brother Ding'an, what do you think of this person's comments?"
"This is a great man! Ding'an has benefited a lot from listening to your words. I must admit that every word he gave is pertinent, especially the fact that he mentioned the word 'hate emptiness' many times. Alas! Now that I think about it carefully, Ding'an realizes that I do have this problem in my chess moves, especially under the current chess rules. This is indeed a major flaw of mine."
Li Xiangping was silent. After listening to what Lao Shi said, Li Xiangping noticed that although Lao Nie had made many suggestions, such as the direction and flow of chess, the big field and the urgent place, etc., the point that he criticized the most was only one key word, which was:
Hate emptiness!
The so-called "hate of empty space" in Go means "can't stand seeing others create big empty spaces". Even if the space created by others is not big and is just the normal "size", such empty spaces cannot be tolerated and one always wants to break the empty spaces created by others when playing Go.
This is what is called "hate emptiness".
And what Lao Nie said is right. The habit is indeed quite amateurish and is a common problem among amateur chess players.
But why did Li Xiangping sigh? This was certainly not because he was disappointed with his cheats, but because he felt that a great ancient chess master would make such an amateur mistake.
But Li Xiangping knew that Lao Shi's "hate for emptiness" was different from that of others. The reason why he had these problems that seemed very amateurish to modern people was related to the Go rules of his time.
In ancient Go, the game required "returning the chess piece head". One extra chess piece would deduct 2 points, which meant that a cut was worth 2 points, and sometimes 4 points. In extreme cases, a cut involving a ko fight could be even more valuable.
It is this rule of "returning the chess piece head" that caused the medieval chess players to generally "hate to leave empty space". Because of this rule, their chess thinking and chess habits are different from those of modern chess players.
It's a very simple logic. The same "break in" is just a "break in" under modern rules. If this move is judged as 10 points according to modern rules, then this move is 10 points.
However, under the medieval chess rules, this move may be worth 12 points, 14 points, or even more. So, would a move that seems "empty" in modern times still be considered "empty" by Lao Shi and others back then?
"This problem is a bit troublesome..." Li Xiangping sighed in his heart again.
Although he knew that Lao Shi had realized his problem when communicating with his plug-in just now, this problem was caused by the rules, but Li Xiangping knew that this problem was not so easy to correct.
The reason is very simple, because this is a mindset, a habit, just like a person who is born left-handed can never become right-handed immediately in a short period of time.
"What method can be used to help the teacher get rid of this bad habit as quickly as possible..."
Just when Li Xiangping was daydreaming , a voice came from Lao Cai:
"Haha, what a rare visitor! Ma Xiao, why are you here?"
Li Xiangping turned around and saw that the person coming was Ma Xiaofei, another great god of Chinese Go. Ma Xiaofei actually came to Nie Dojo.
