Chapter 9 Qingfeng's parallel imports of Lianzhong's cheating
"It's really amazing. This thing can actually... can actually play chess. My friend Xiang Ping, are these two people from different places really playing chess?"
Li Xiangping laughed: "Of course."
Considering that Lao Shi had just started playing chess, Li Xiangping did not immediately invite him to play chess. Instead, he first opened "Qingfeng.com" and randomly selected a game of chess between two 9D players to stop and watch.
While watching the game, Li Xiangping also introduced to Lao Shi the basic knowledge of online chess, including ranks, grades, nicknames, and some differences between modern chess rules and medieval chess rules.
It took more than 10 minutes to finish this scientific explanation . During these 10 minutes, the two 9D players played chess very quickly. In just a short while, there were more than 40 moves on the chessboard.
Feeling that Lao Shi seemed absent-minded about his popular science teaching and focused his main attention on the chess game, Li Xiangping changed the subject and said with a smile:
"Brother Ding'an, what do you think of the chess skills of these two?"
"The level is quite high, especially the white player. I think this person is close to the 'four-hand' level."
“…”
Li Xiangping really didn't know what to say about Lao Shi's answer.
There were no ranks in ancient Go. Although many people believe that the Japanese Go ranking system should have originated from the Chinese "Nine-Rank Go System", in the era when Lao Shi lived, they were more accustomed to using titles such as "national player", "famous player", "second-hand player" and "third-hand player" to divide the levels of players.
Lao Shi is the chess saint of medieval chess, so he is naturally the undisputed "national player". He just said "this person is close to the 'four hands' level". Translated into modern vernacular, this means: "If his level is a little higher, then I may have to give him 4".
This statement will easily lead to two questions. First, these two people are clearly not even at the "fourth level", so why does Mr. Shi still say that their "level is quite high".
Second, with the modern network 9D, can Lao Shi really still give others 4 children?
The first question is not difficult to understand. After all, Go was not as popular in ancient times as it is today. According to the "National Go Players' Name List" of the Qing Dynasty, there were only 169 people who could reach the level of "four hands" or above and left their names. Therefore, when Lao Shi saw two people close to the "four hands" level playing Go, he praised them for "a very high level". Li Xiangping thought that this could not be said to be pretentious.
What really interested Li Xiangping was the second question: Can Lao Shi really make the modern network 9D4?
With this question in mind, Li Xiangping also observed the chess game carefully. After just a few rounds, Li Xiangping felt angry and amused. He thought, "Qingfeng's fake products, Lianzhong's cheating", in the early years... no, in this era, this saying that was circulated in the online chess world was indeed correct. It is no wonder that in the future, these two websites could not compete with others.
Needless to say, "Lianzhong's cheating" is a very impressive term for chess friends who have played online chess in the past. "Qingfeng's parallel imports" refers to the fact that the rankings of Qingfeng.com are extremely weak, so weak that it is outrageous.
Take the two Qingfeng 9Ds in front of him for example. Even with Li Xiangping's level of less than a professional beginner, he can clearly see that if he goes up to play chess with these two, I dare not say how much, it will be very easy for them to win, and they should have no chance of winning against him.
The reason why Qingfeng.com's ranking is so low is due to some setting defects of the website and also because the website deliberately condones it.
The starting registration rank of Qingfeng.com is set at 5D, which means that when a person registers on this website, even if he does not know how to play chess at all, he can report himself as 5D and play chess on this website as a 5D.
Such a high initial registration level naturally caused the entire website to be ranked low. Li Xiangping even believed that this was one of the important reasons for the rapid decline of Qingfeng.com.
You should know that chess websites and other online games of killing monsters and leveling up are almost the same in some aspects. Since the highest score on the website is 9D, then after reaching 9D, it is equivalent to "clearing" other games of killing monsters and leveling up.
It is easy to imagine that if a game is so easy to complete, how attractive can such a game be?
Qingfeng.com has made this mistake. Because the ranks are too easy and it is too easy to reach 9D, it will inevitably lead to the loss of a large number of hardcore chess fans, and the entire website will be filled with a group of "fake chess fans".
Therefore, in real history, even though this website had the so-called "Eight Sons of Qingfeng" in charge, after some changes occurred within their group, the website quickly disappeared.
Since this game of chess was not of much reference value, Li Xiangping took Lao Shi out of the room and began to stroll around the hall. Unfortunately, after looking around, they still didn't see any high-level games.
"Strange, where did all the masters go today?"
Li Xiangping looked at the time. It was about 3:00 p.m. but less than 4:00 p.m. He thought that this situation was normal. This was the current situation of Go websites.
In the Go world, the online world can basically be divided into three stages.
The first stage was before 2003. During this stage, most professional chess players were not used to playing chess online. Players of Li Xiangping's level could stir up trouble online and easily become celebrities. Occasionally, top professional players would play chess online, and they could even become legends.
In 2003, due to the SARS epidemic and the increasing popularity of the Internet, more and more professional Go players began to train online. During this period, Go websites became dominated by professional Go players. If you want to become an Internet celebrity, you must have a top professional level. Not only must you have a high level of skill, but you must also play a lot of games and spend a lot of time online.
As for the third stage, there is of course nothing much to say. That was after the emergence of "AlphaGo". By then, Go AI was the protagonist of the website, and no one even cared about the game between people.
It is only the year 2000, and it is afternoon on a normal day, so it is normal that we don't see any masters playing chess.
Seeing that there were no experts in Qingfeng, Li Xiangping led Lao Shi to Lianzhong.
Considering the notorious reputation of "Lianzhong cheater", Li Xiangping dared not invite anyone to play chess casually. What if Lao Shi met a cheater in the first game? To be honest, as a modern man, Li Xiangping really couldn't afford to lose face.
The reason why Li Xiangping came here was because Lianzhong was the number one chess and card game website of the era, with the highest popularity, and Li Xiangping was familiar with the most chess players. "Chance encounters" were not possible, but a game was still possible. Li Xiangping just wanted to see if he could meet a suitable chess player, and then arrange a game of chess to weigh the weight of Lao Shi.
However, what Li Xiangping did not expect was that as soon as he logged into Lianzhong, before he could find others, someone found him first.
"Bai Yi, is that you?"
Li Xiangping's current account is called "White-clothed Boy". Seeing this private message, Li Xiangping was happy:
"It's me, what's up, Boss Hongqiao?"
The chess friend who was talking to Li Xiangping has the online name "Hongqiao Wolong" and is a master of Qiangye 5 in real life. In addition, he has another identity on the Internet, that is, the leader of the "Lianzhong Beggar Gang".
Hongqiao Wolong: "Where have you been these days? I've been looking for you for days. I hope you didn't forget the game tonight. Remember to go to the dedicated server at 8pm."
Young man in white: "What, what competition?"
Hongqiao Wolong: "It's the ultimate 10v10 confrontation between our Beggars' Sect and the Axe Gang. Damn, I'm so anxious now. You actually forgot to wear the special vest of the gang at night."
The so-called special vest is actually adding a prefix to the nickname. For example, Li Xiangping is now called "White-Clothed Boy", so during the competition, he will be called "Beggar Gang*White-Clothed Boy".
The young man in white: "Haha, sorry, sorry, I will definitely be there tonight, but Boss, can the Axe Gang's guns compare to ours? We, the Beggars' Gang, have more soldiers and generals. I really don't know why you are so anxious."
Hongqiao Wolong: "Alas, you don't know. I received inside information this time. Duowen is planning to do something sneaky this time. He has hired several assassins. I guess we will meet several chess players from the national youth team tonight."
The young man in white: "Ah! That's impossible. Duowen doesn't have that much face."
Hongqiao Wolong: "Duowen doesn't have Duoqing, but I heard that Duoqing from the Axe Gang is now at the Chinese Chess Institute, participating in the trials for the national youth training team, so it's not too easy to find a few gunmen."
Li Xiangping felt depressed when he saw this news.
The young man in white: "Is that so? Then, Boss Hongqiao, who are we going to have tonight?"
Hongqiao Wolong: "Besides you, the only ones who can definitely go are Bagui and Daocao. No, no, I still need to contact Daidai and Laomei. If the two of them can go, then we will have a certain degree of confidence, at least we won't lose too badly. Okay, that's it. I'm going to work now, and you remember to come early in the evening."
The young man in white: "Okay, boss, take care."
After finishing the private chat with Hongqiao, Li Xiangping stared at the computer with a smile on his face.
"Bagui" is nicknamed "Bagui Mingjian" online. He is the best amateur chess player in Bagui in this era and has been among the top ten of the "Evening News Cup". "Daocao" is the full name of Pengcheng Scarecrow. He is a super chess fan who has participated in the "Evening News Cup" many times. Although he has never been among the top ten of the "Evening News Cup", he may be the most famous amateur chess player in the country outside the top ten of the "Evening News Cup", especially in the online chess world, where he is even more famous and has countless fans.
"Dai Dai" and "Lao Mei" are even more powerful. The former has won the "Evening News Cup" twice and is one of the four kings of domestic amateur chess in this era. He is the predecessor of the later "Hu Wang Bai Ma". "Lao Mei" is nicknamed "Foodie", but he is one of the few professional chess players in the Beggars' Sect and is now the main player of a team in the Weiqi League.
"Brother Ding'an."
Li Xiangping smiled and said to Lao Shi: "You'd better conserve your energy now. I will invite you to meet the heroes of the world tonight."
