On the evening of the day the competition ended, Li Xiangping, accompanied by team leader Hua and Shao Weigang, attended the semi-final closing dinner .
Not long after the banquet started, the host was talking, and Li Xiangping heard Team Leader Hua say to him:
"Xiang Ping, hurry up, haha, the host wants you to go up and say a few words."
Li Xiangping looked around the venue and saw that when she stood up, Li Canghao seemed to stand up at the same time, and they both came to the host at the same time.
The host's microphone was first directed at Li Xiangping. In fact, at this moment, all eyes in the entire venue were focused on Li Xiangping. It is no exaggeration to say that Li Xiangping is now the focus of the entire world chess world.
After all, he is still an amateur chess player. After all, the information released to the public so far shows that he is not yet 14 years old. After all, he started from the preliminaries this time, defeating all kinds of strong opponents along the way, and got to this point with a record of 10 consecutive victories.
Then compared to the other protagonist of the final, Li Canghao, the current number one chess player who wins gold and silver medals in world competitions as if it were a piece of cake, he certainly has reason to receive more attention.
"Contestant Li..., congratulations on reaching the World Championship finals . How do you feel now that you have made it this far?"
Perhaps it was because Li Xiangping's situation was too special, something that had never happened before in professional Go competitions, and the host didn't know how to address Li Xiangping, and vaguely used the title "Player Li".
Li Xiangping acted calm and said: "Haha, actually I don't have any feelings. If I have to say something, it should be that I didn't expect it. Haha, I didn't expect it..."
It should be said that what Li Xiangping said was half true and half false. He must admit that when he decided to participate in the preliminaries, he really didn't think that Lao Shi could make it to the finals. However, he didn't know when it started, maybe it started from the game when he defeated Lao Cao, or maybe it was even later. In short, as Lao Shi improved, Li Xiangping's confidence became stronger and stronger.
The game that just ended was the moment when Li Xiangping was most confident. During the game, Li Xiangping seemed to have never thought that Lao Shi would be eliminated by Liu Changhe.
"In the final against the current top chess player, did Player Li ever think about how to ask for advice from his opponent?"
Listening to the host's questions and looking at Li Canghao standing next to him, Li Xiangping felt dazed. Li Canghao is just 25 years old now. He is at the peak of his career. Since he won his first world championship 9 years ago, he has been the number one rival of Chinese Go. No! It is not an exaggeration to say that he is the nightmare of Chinese Go in this era.
Ma Xiaofei and Chang Hao suffered N consecutive defeats at his hands. Several generations of Chinese Go masters were suppressed by him and could not move. In real history, this situation would continue for many years. It would take five years for the magical Luo Shenzhu to break the myth of Li Canghao.
Li Xiangping smiled slightly and said to the host, today's host is another beautiful lady who is not sure whether she is artificial or natural:
"I noticed that you used the word 'ask for advice' just now. What I want to correct you now is that I am not here to ask for advice when I have the opportunity to play five games with Li Jiudan this time."
After the translation, the host was obviously stunned: "Oh? Haha..."
Li Xiangping continued with a smile, "I don't mean to disrespect Li Jiudan by saying this. You should know that I am 14 years old this year. I first came into contact with Go when I was 6 years old. It has been more than 7 years now. Even if I have been learning Go formally, it has been nearly 5 years now. I am not afraid to tell you that over the years, I have practiced the most and played the most chess of Li Jiudan. So now, I am tired of it. I don't want to learn Li Jiudan's chess anymore. It is for this reason that I don't want to hear words like 'ask for advice' anymore."
"Hahaha..." Li Xiangping's words caused good-natured laughter in the entire venue. Indeed, in this day and age, if people of Li Xiangping's age are determined to pursue a career in Go, how many of them didn't grow up playing Li Canghao's chess manuals?
After Li Xiangping finished speaking, the microphone was passed to Li Canghao:
"This time, my opponent is very special, and his chess is very interesting..."
To be honest, Li Xiangping didn't really listen to what Da Li said. Anyway, with his "Stone Buddha" personality, he didn't need to pay too much attention to what diplomatic rhetoric he said.
The day after the competition, Li Xiangping and the Chinese delegation set off for home. On the plane, everyone started chatting, and the team leader Hua said first;
"This time, all the finals of the Samsung Cup will be held in Shencheng. The matches will start on May 30th, with one set every other day. If you can play a full five sets, the matches will end on June 7th, so Xiangping, you should prepare well during this time."
Shao Weigang was surprised and said, "Huh? The schedule this time is so tight. Isn't it usually divided into two stages before, with some games in China and some in Korea?"
Team leader Hua nodded and said, "It's probably because of the last final. They arbitrarily changed the schedule and caused Ma Xiao to lose the championship. As for the Samsung Cup, you know, they actually value the Chinese market very much, so they finalized the schedule for the final early this time."
"Is that so..." Shao Weigang turned around and smiled at Li Xiangping, "But this is good. I think such a tight schedule is still beneficial to Xiangping. After all, Xiangping is much younger than Li Canghao. Being young means being in good health, haha... Tsk tsk, Xiangping is not even 14 years old yet, right? Reaching the final of the world championship at the age of 14 is really amazing. I must cheer hard in the final."
Team leader Hua also said with a smile: "Yes, if I remember correctly, when Li Canghao won his first championship, he should have been the same age as Xiangping is now. However, that was only a domestic title, and we Xiangping are now directly competing for the world championship, so Xiangping, you must play well then. If you can really defeat him, you will have created a new record in the world chess world. Haha, you played so well this time, it actually posed a problem for us..."
Li Xiangping just smiled and did not respond to their words, because he could tell that although both of them said nice things and were mainly encouraging him, from their tone, even until now, they did not really believe that he could beat Li Canghao.
Li Xiangping himself didn't care. He said to his cheat:
"Brother Ding'an, did you hear that? Now you know why I put this person ahead of you, right? This is the deterrent power of the 'Ace of Hearts' in the chess world, so you must do me a favor when the time comes."
Because he was only thinking about Big Li, Li Xiangping ignored the last words of Team Leader Hua. When everyone returned to China, Li Xiangping naturally went home, but Team Leader Hua was immediately called back to the chess academy for a meeting:
"Mr. Hua just happened to be back. Come on, let's discuss Li Xiangping's matter now. There's nothing else to do. He has already made it to the finals of the world championship. If he continues to be an amateur chess player, it seems a bit inappropriate..."