Chapter 83: Chess Mastermind
By chance, he joined the "Longyi Research Society" and became the first official member of the society. Then, for the next period of time, Li Xiangping was happy as he got many opportunities to receive special training.
This situation is actually not surprising, because this "Long Yi Research Institute" was established by Nie and Ma to strengthen the training of disciples. The first rule they set is that members who enter the research institute in the future will have internal round-robin competitions every week and every month. The winners will have the opportunity to receive individual guidance from the two of them.
But now, there is only Li Xiangping in the entire research group, and other members are still being selected. Moreover, this research group is still a new thing, which was proposed by Nie and Ma. As for people, they will of course maintain enough enthusiasm for new things. Therefore, in the initial stage, who should they guide if not Li Xiangping?
So, in the next half month, in Lao Cai's "Fangyuan Chess and Card Room" , Li Xiangping took turns to receive guidance from Nie and Ma. Except for the few days when they had competitions or other things, they almost played a high-quality game of chess every day.
To be honest, even Li Xiangping himself was a little surprised about such happiness. He was not surprised by Lao Nie, because according to Li Xiangping's understanding of Lao Nie and his personality, it was not surprising that he was so enthusiastic now. What really surprised him was Ma Xiaofei. Isn't he a "loose immortal" in the Go world? He must have a good impression of him to do this.
Li Xiangping had no time to think about why Ma Xiaofei had taken a fancy to him. He was not the kind of person who did not know what was good for him. He knew very well that the treatment he enjoyed now and the resources he possessed were unprecedented in the Go world. From the "Seven Little Dragons" to Gu Kong and others, they probably had never had such learning conditions. If he could not even seize this opportunity, it would be really unreasonable.
It was late January 2001. On this day, it was Ma Xiaofei's turn to play chess with Li Xiangping. Today, Nie and Ma were both present. After the game, the two of them reviewed the game with Li Xiangping. When everything was over, Ma Xiaofei smiled and said to Li Xiangping:
"Okay, today is the last game. The next time we play against each other, I hope it will be in a formal competition."
Li Xiangping nodded and said to Ma Xiaofei sincerely, "Thank you, Mr. Ma. By the way, I hope you can successfully defend your title this time and achieve the feat of ten consecutive championships."
Li Xiangping knew this was the last game. Although Old Nie had started playing "Happy Go", Ma Xiao was still in the front line. Although his dominance in China was not as strong as in previous years, he still held several domestic titles. For example, he was about to go out of town to participate in the final of this year's "Celebrity Tournament", and his challenger was none other than Chang Hao, 9th Dan.
Ma Xiaofei waved his hand and said, "Why thank you? I should thank you too..." At this point, he turned to Old Nie and smiled :
"Old Nie, believe it or not, Xiao Chang was very arrogant some time ago, but in this celebrity tournament, I am confident that I can beat him to a pulp."
Old Nie laughed loudly, not caring at all about what Ma Xiaofei said: "Haha, really? Then what level is considered a loss of teeth on the ground?"
Ma Xiaofei smiled slightly: "Just defending the title is of course not a skill. Let's put it this way, if I can't shut him out this time, then it won't count as him being beaten to a pulp."
Old Nie continued to laugh: "Just keep bragging, Xiang Ping, you see, everyone says that I, Old Nie, like to brag, but in fact, your teacher Ma is the one who brags without limit."
Li Xiangping smiled foolishly, not knowing how to respond to the words of the two big names in the Go world.
At this time, Ma Xiaofei continued to speak. He did not talk about the celebrity battle, but said to Li Xiangping:
"Okay, let's not talk about him about the Masters Tournament. Since today is the last round, let's talk about your problem."
Li Xiangping put away his silly smile. Since this guidance had come to an end for the time being, Ma Xiaofei's next words should be considered his "closing statement". Li Xiangping wanted to hear what he said.
Ma Xiaofei looked into Li Xiangping's eyes and said, "You are very good at chess, much better than I expected. After playing with you for so many days, I feel that I have gained a lot. So I was not being polite just now. You don't have to thank me. I have actually learned a lot from you."
Ma Xiaofei paused, then continued with a smile: "Of course, whether it's me or Teacher Nie, our chess is just like this now, and there's no way we can make any substantial progress. But you're different, you still have a lot of room for improvement. I heard from Teacher Nie that he once diagnosed you and said that you have a habit of 'hating space', and you yourself want to change this habit, right?"
Hearing what Ma Xiaofei said, Li Xiangping nodded repeatedly like a chick pecking at rice. Ma Xiaofei's words touched his heart. If he wanted to upgrade his "plug-in", wasn't this the first level he had to pass? This was also the thing he had been thinking about the most recently.
"Then Mr. Ma, do you have any good ideas?"
Ma Xiaofei smiled and said, "Of course I don't have a good idea, but after all, I have played chess for a few more years than you, so I can still give you some suggestions."
Li Xiangping couldn't wait any longer: "Teacher Ma, please tell me quickly."
Ma Xiaofei once again stared into Li Xiangping's eyes: "First of all, everyone thinks that 'Hate the Void' is a shortcoming, but if you think about it carefully, is this method really completely wrong? Or, is 'Hate the Void' completely useless?"
"this……"
Seeing that Li Xiangping couldn't answer, Ma Xiaofei smiled and said, "Xiangping, let me be honest with you. Teacher Nie and I have played so many games with you these days, and we both feel a little overwhelmed. Do you know what makes us most uncomfortable about you? I tell you, it's actually your 'hateful empty' way of playing. So this may be a shortcoming, but it is also your greatest feature or specialty."
Li Xiangping turned to Old Nie in disbelief. You know, Old Nie has told him many chess games in the past few days, but whenever he mentioned "Hate Kong", he never heard a good word from him. He almost vomited shit. Is he really like what Ma Xiao said?
Seeing Li Xiangping looking at him, Old Nie said as a matter of course: "Of course, everything has its two sides, this is dialectics... By the way, you are still young, and you may not understand what dialectics is, but Li Xiangping, I tell you, people who play Go must understand dialectics. Take 'Hate the Void' for example, this is an aggressive way of playing, which may be considered a shortcoming in many cases, but from another perspective, this way of playing is actually positive, proactive, and even sharp. Take your 'Hate the Void' for example, it often gives me and Teacher Ma a headache. He and I often sigh in private, saying how come you are in such good health, and you have so many unexpected little tricks."
Hearing this, Ma Xiaofei laughed, and Li Xiangping also laughed embarrassedly. Then Ma Xiaofei continued:
"The reason why Teacher Nie and I brought this up first is that we hope you will pay attention to this issue in your future training. Just as Teacher Nie said, dialectics! It's a good thing that you realize that hating empty space is a problem, but you can't correct mistakes just for the sake of correcting them. Everything should be left to nature. Otherwise, after a period of time, you may no longer have the problem of hating empty space, but while getting rid of the problem, you may also lose your characteristics and strengths. If you lose these things, your chess may become mediocre, which is not beautiful."
Li Xiangping remained silent after listening, because he was not a real 13-year-old child after all. He could understand what the two meant and knew that what they said made sense. It was precisely because of this that Li Xiangping didn't know what to do next.
And at this moment, Ma Xiaofei's words rang out again:
"So in order to correct this bad habit of hating empty space, please note that you should correct this bad habit while maintaining your sharp style of play. I think you can do this in your next training..."
"what should I do?"
Sensing Li Xiangping's impatience, Ma Xiaofei smiled and said, "I think your next step is to try more extreme moves, such as extreme moves to gain territory or extreme moves to gain momentum. In short, when you start the game, deliberately choose difficult starts and make some extreme moves. Over time, you may be able to get rid of this bad habit."
Li Xiangping was skeptical, but when he was about to ask, "Are these effective?" he didn't ask the question.
Because at this moment, he heard his plug-in talking to him:
"Ah, this is a true insight. Ding'an admires it! My dear Xiangping, I heard you say that this person once wrote a book called 'Go and the Thirty-Six Stratagems' and was known as the master of Go. Now it seems that this person is indeed worthy of his reputation. What he said just now is indeed a good method. Then our next step is to follow his method."
Hmm? Although Li Xiangping himself didn't know what the use of this kind of training was, since the great chess master Shi approved of it, Li Xiangping naturally had nothing to say.
"Okay, Mr. Ma, I will follow your advice next."
