Chapter 90: The Strongest Amateur Chess Players Duel
In early May, before the semi-finals of the "Samsung Cup", the most important competition in the world chess arena should be the final of the 4th "Ying Cup".
In the third game of the final, Chang Hao, who was 0-2 behind in the first two games, played very toughly and produced a beautiful dragon-slaying game, which also gave people a little hope of a reversal.
On the day of the fourth game of the final, Li Xiangping came to the Chinese Chess Institute and watched the game with other national players.
"Brother Ding'an, did you see that? That old man sitting in the wheelchair is the 'king' of the Go world in my mind."
Since the first competition, Mr. Wu Qingyuan has been the chief referee of the "Ying Cup". Therefore, he has never missed the finals as long as his physical condition allows.
Of course, although Li Xiangping admired Mr. Wu Qingyuan very much, when he saw him surrounded by a group of Go bigwigs, Li Xiangping did not go up to him, but watched the game with young players such as Gu Dali and Kong Erjie.
Since the two players who made it to the finals are both steady players, they competed with each other from the very beginning of the game, and the game became extremely delicate and subtle early on.
It was not until around 3 p.m. that Chang Hao, who was playing with white pieces, made a brilliant move. The young chess players watching the game with Li Xiangping began to cheer:
"Good! Brother Chang made a great move..."
"Sharp! It can be seen that Brother Chang is in very good shape. With this move, this part should be able to gain 2 points, right? And this game is also played by Brother Chang, so it seems that we can see the deciding game..."
Yes, Chang Hao's brilliant move was to dig out 2 points from a local fire. Considering that this game had always been a delicate one and that the black pieces in the "Ying Cup" had to hold 7.5 points, the Chinese research room was optimistic from that moment on.
This optimism lasted until 4pm and 5pm. Unfortunately, just as the game was nearing its end, the maximum chance of winning was only 3 points:
"This...! What does this move by Brother Chang mean?"
"It seems, it seems that we missed a switch in order? Oh, I guess Brother Chang is in a time panic now. He might be worried about being penalized, so he made a mistake in a hurry..."
It’s a pity that there are no ifs in Go games, especially when facing Lee Cang-hao in his prime, it is unlikely that mistakes made in the endgame will not be caught by him.
Starting from Chang Hao's mistake, after a series of unpretentious tactics, Li Canghao captured 2 pieces of his opponent. To be honest, the value of these 2 pieces was really not that great, they were the kind of 2 pieces that were only worth 4 points.
However, for this game, these 4 points were enough for Li Canghao to win the final victory, and relying on these 4 points, it was enough for him to win the championship prize of 400,000 US dollars.
3 to 1, just like in real history, Li Canghao defeated Chang Hao with this score and won the championship of the 4th "Ying Cup".
"Brother Ding'an, what do you think of the chess played by this current number one chess player?"
"Your style of play is exquisite and extremely precise, but my friend Xiangping, is this the 'Ace of Hearts' in your mind?"
"Hahaha, it seems like Brother Ding'an is still a little unconvinced? Well, in three days, you play well. As long as you defeat the next opponent, you should be able to go up and learn from him in person."
Li Xiangping was not surprised at Lao Shi's reaction. After all, Li Canghao's chess was just like that, and Lao Shi was not the only one who looked down on him. Not to mention that Lao Shi had never played chess with him. In this era, even many people who had played chess with Li Canghao, and even been beaten badly by him, still looked down on his style.
"Li Xiangping, why are you grinning foolishly there alone? Come here quickly, Mr. Wu wants to see you."
"oh?"
Led by the national youth team's coach Wu, Li Xiangping came to Mr. Wu. After coming over, Li Xiangping finally understood what was going on, because the person sitting next to Mr. Wu was Lao Nie, and he was saying something to Mr. Wu.
There was a chessboard in front of them, and on it was a chess pattern. Li Xiangping was very familiar with this chess pattern. It was the "Avalanche Inner Turn and Escape First Variation" that he had "created".
"You were the first one to come up with this variation? Great, great, very interesting idea, a genius idea, you are very talented..."
Facing Mr. Wu's praise, Li Xiangping could only smile foolishly. After all, he knew the "dumb move" but not the reason. After the Go AI made this change, he would certainly use it, but Li Xiangping actually knew nothing about the chess theory behind it and the logical relationship between these moves.
Since he knew nothing, he could only smile foolishly.
Li Xiangping didn't know what to say, but Old Nie didn't know what was going on today. Today was the final of the "Ying Cup", but he kept talking about Li Xiangping's chess:
"By the way, Mr. Wu, he just played a game of chess recently, and I would like you to take a look..."
The chessboard that Old Nie placed on the board was the one he had used to win against Yamada Kissou in the quarterfinals:
"Hehe, Mr. Wu, what do you think of this 'Sharp Charge' move? Does it have some of your style?"
In fact, Li Xiangping knew when Old Nie was making his move that he definitely wanted Mr. Wu to see that “sharp charge” move.
Sure enough, after seeing that move, Mr. Wu's eyes lit up. At this time, he finally took Li Xiangping seriously, even more seriously than he had done before when he made the "Avalanche Inner Turn and Escape First Change Example".
"Prodigy Pill! Haha, congratulations to Mr. Nie. Finally, a Prodigy Pill has appeared in the country."
Since Mr. Wu was very old after all, we didn't talk for long. After he said this, he was taken away by the nurse to rest.
"Haha, did you hear that, Brother Ding'an? Mr. Wu is praising you. The 'king' of the Go world is praising you. He said you are also a prodigy."
"What prodigy bowl? The bowl used by the prodigy?"
So Li Xiangping had to explain it to Old Shi again. After Mr. Wu Qingyuan went to Japan, there were "Three Maru" in the Japanese Go world: "Prodigy Maru" Wu Qingyuan, "Magic Maru" Kitani Minoru, and "Ghost Maru" Maeda Chener.
"So, Brother Ding'an, 'Prodigy Maru' is actually his own nickname. Now he calls you 'Prodigy Maru' as well. In fact, he is praising you for having a talent that is not inferior to his. So Brother Ding'an, you must strive to do well. At least in the competition in a few days, you must win for me..."
It was mid-May, and the day of the "Samsung Cup" semi-finals had finally arrived. The competition was still held in South Korea, so on the first day of the competition, Li Xiangping went to South Korea again. However, this time the team leader was not Lao Nie, but the national team's team leader Hua. In addition, in order to show its importance, the Chinese Chess Academy also sent the captain of the national Go team, Shao Weigang, 9th dan, to accompany them.
After all, it has reached the semi-final stage, so this competition still attracted widespread attention in the world chess community, especially the three-game match between Li Xiangping and Liu Changhe. Since Li Xiangping is currently an amateur chess player, and Liu Changhe was also an amateur chess player who turned professional only after winning the runner-up in the World Amateur Go Championship at the age of 18.
Therefore, this game was jokingly called "the strongest amateur chess player showdown" by many chess fans.
How will such a match play out? What topics will come up?
It seemed like he never let anyone down from the beginning of the first game.
In the first game, Li Xiangping guessed that the black chess pieces would appear. At around 10:30 in the morning, when the first chessboard was just delivered to the Chinese Chess Institute, Gu Dali, who had come to watch the game early in the morning, could no longer sit still.
He began to look for someone in the chess academy, and the person he was looking for was Kong Erjie:
"Haha, Kong Er, come and see, Jueyi has chosen 3-3 again, and he has chosen 3-3 for the 5th time..."
