Go Legend

  Chapter 126 Planning for the coming year

  Beijing, Fangyuan Chess and Cards Room, on a non-off day night, Li Xiangping was playing chess with the future "Chinese hero" Hu Yaoyu, and "Brother Niu" Qiu Jun was waiting for a training chess game.

   Since returning to the capital, Lao Cai's "Fangyuan Chess and Cards Room" has become Li Xiangping's main training base. There are two main reasons for being here. The first is that when the "Longyi Research Association" was founded, Lao Cai offered to provide this venue.

The second and most important reason is that compared with the Chinese Chess Academy, the hardware conditions here seem to be better. Not only is there food and drink, but also it is not so restrained. How can it be like the Chinese Chess Academy? Heating is not enough.

I believe that many senior chess fans have seen a photo. A certain important domestic game was held in the chess academy. It was the decisive battle of the challenger of a news chess battle, but it was such a heavy game. The photo is simply unbelievable:

The two players stared at the chessboard intently. Both of them were very thickly dressed. One of them was wearing a leather jacket and the other was simply wearing a leather hat. even tucked his hands into his sleeves

   This is like a game of Go, no matter how you look at it, it looks like two people are shivering in the cold wind.

   It is for this reason that not only Li Xiangping loves to come here, but also those young chess players who have joined the "Long Yi Research Association" actually like to come here.

  Li Xiangping has been back from Yangcheng for nearly a month now. These days, he mainly trains and plays chess with Hu Yaoyu, Qiu Jun and others. In fact, there is no way to do this, as long as you pay attention to the current situation of the domestic chess world.

The "Seven Little Dragons" are all born in the 1970s. After them, the most prominent chess players in China are Gu Dali and Kong Erjie. Most of them were born in the early 1980s. Most of them were 82 and 83. The ones that stand out after dialing are actually post-90s. For example, the future "leopard head" Chen Yaoyue, although he was born in 1989, was born in December 1989. It is not an exaggeration to say that he is a post-90s generation.

It is for this reason that Li Xiangping, who was born in 1987, does not seem to be able to find a suitable opponent in the same age group, and because he now has the aura of a world champion, he joins the group of young chess players such as Chen Yaoyue. The training doesn't seem right either. Therefore, through the arrangement of Lao Nie, Ma Xiao and others, Gu Dali and Kong Erjie became the first choice.

   This is the actual situation. In the past month or so, although Li Xiangping has played chess with players of other age groups, the most important ones are the players from the National Youth Team.

To tell the truth, Li Xiangping is very satisfied with the arrangement of Lao Nie and others, and the sparring that satisfies him the most is none other than Qiu Jun, who is currently playing chess with him. .

  To say that "Brother Niu"'s talent in Go is not outstanding. Although he is still outstanding among the "Little Tigers", he is definitely not the top. His highest achievement in real history is only 3 world runners-up.

   However, as a sparring partner, especially as Li Xiangping's "sparring trainer" at this stage, then "Brother Niu" is simply perfect. Even if Li Xiangping wants to break the sky, he can't think of other more suitable candidates.

   To know what Li Xiangping lacks most now? In what areas does he desperately need to improve? That is of course the basic skills. His most important task now is to lay a solid foundation for himself as soon as possible and make up for the basic skills.

So at this stage, in fact, there is no need for whimsy, and there is no need for those talented chess players to act as sparring partners. Anyway, in Li Xiangping's view, no matter how talented the chess players of this era are, it must be However, I remember so many chess records from later generations of Go AI.

   In comparison, those chess players with a simple and unpretentious style of chess, preferably with a bit of 'one tendon', are the most suitable for their current self.

   And what are the characteristics of "Brother Niu"? That is of course "one tendon". He is not only "one tendon", he is also an honest kid. He is not only an honest kid, but he is also very obsessed with chess. down, and it's still the kind that is always on call

   There is no need to go on, in short, "Brother Niu" with so many advantages in one body is simply too appetizing for Li Xiangping, and he is the kind of opponent he needs most at this stage.

   In fact, during this month, Li Xiangping played a lot of training games, and in so many training games, he played more than one-third of the total with "Brother Niu".

   So after training for this period of time, how is the training effect?

Well, Li Xiangping feels that the effect is good, which is manifested in that he has a better understanding of some basic chess shapes, his speed is faster and more accurate when judging the value of officials, and he has corrected some previous plausible or even completely wrong understandings. .

Especially the last point, Li Xiangping thinks this is very important to him, because compared with others, his situation is similar to "raw rice", which is more difficult to cook. This is common sense that everyone knows. The same is true for learning and improving.

Now Li Xiangping wants to improve, in addition to mastering new knowledge, he also has to get rid of some wrong knowledge in his mind, so compared with other people, Li Xiangping needs to do more, and the difficulty is actually bigger.

   For this point, Li Xiangping has a clear understanding, so although he feels good about himself, he believes that after training for a month, his level should improve.

   But to what extent? Or this is just an illusion of his own. Li Xiangping doesn't know it now. After all, the progress and improvement of Go is definitely a arduous and long process. After eating an elixir or Zhuguo, one's skill will improve by leaps and bounds. That is a fantasy world or Xianxia. Things that can only happen in the world, in the world of Go, this kind of thing can never happen.

   Even if Li Xiangping is a traverser and a traverser with golden fingers, he also knows that such a good thing cannot happen.

   "Suddenly I really want to play the official game."

   After playing chess training with "Brother Niu" that day, Li Xiangping suddenly came out with such an emotion.

It should be said that his feelings are normal. In fact, it is not only him. I believe that most chess fans should have such an experience. No matter what kind of chess fan, even if it is a low-K level, as long as he feels that his chess skills have improved, it must be I really want to play chess, and have the urge to find a place to test it.

   When Li Xiangping posted this emotion, the time had come to December 2001, so he also knew that it was time to plan for next year's competition.

It is December now. In this month, Li Xiangping has no suitable competitions to participate in. However, it will be different in January. In the next month, two very important competitions are about to start, and this is also very important to Li Xiangping. two games.

   These two competitions are the domestic "Tianyuan Battle" and the domestic world competition "Chunlan Cup".

   Let's talk about the "Chunlan Cup" first. Why does Li Xiangping value this game so much? This is actually related to Lao Shi's 15-game limit.

Because Li Xiangping can participate in as many as 6 World Championships next year, with so many games, the "quota" of 15 games is definitely not enough. Li Xiangping knows that if his own strength is not enough, then in so many games In the game, you will definitely have to make some trade-offs.

   After some thought, Li Xiangping decided to focus on the two world competitions. One of these two competitions is the "Chunlan Cup" and the other is the "Fujitsu Cup" held in Japan.

   Li Xiangping's decision to focus on breaking through the "Chunlan Cup" is of course understandable. After all, this is the only Go World Championship held in the mainland. It is also a world competition that mainland players have not yet entered, and it will be the first World Championship to start next year.

  These factors add up, it is only natural for Li Xiangping to choose this event to make a major breakthrough.

   As for the other one, why is it "Fujitsu Cup"?

  This is of course not because this is the oldest professional Go World Championship, nor because of how rich the prize money is, and it is even more unlikely because Li Xiangping has a special fondness for the game held by the Japanese.

   The most important reason is because of the single-elimination format of the "Fujitsu Cup". This is also what differentiates the "Fujitsu Cup" from other world competitions.

   A chess player can go down to win the championship, at most 5 games or even only 4 games. Then it is completely conceivable, considering the unfortunate limit of 15 innings, how attractive this game is to Li Xiangping.

Of course, this is just Li Xiangping's preliminary idea, or just his current idea. After all, he knows Lao Shi's strength and knows that his plug-in does not have the strength to crush everything. It doesn't mean that he wants to break through and he wants to win the championship. can win the championship.

  If Lao Shi is eliminated in these two competitions, then Li Xiangping will of course want to play other events.

   After talking about international competitions, it is of course easy to understand the selection of "Tianyuan Battle" for domestic competitions. After all, before his own strength is improved, international competitions are mainly reserved for Lao Shi, and domestic competitions are Li Xiangping's own main battlefield.

   "Tianyuan Battle" is also the earliest game in China every year, so Li Xiangping certainly has expectations for this game when he feels that his chess skills seem to be improved.

   In December 2001, when Li Xiangping initially made plans for the coming year, to be honest, he couldn't wait.

  Because he looked back on the world chess world in 2002 in real history, there is a name that cannot be avoided. This person is Xiao Li of South Korea, the so-called Li Shishi.

   To be honest, although in the traditional sense, everyone has always regarded 1996 to 2005 as the "Li Changhao era", but such a division is not very precise.

   The year 2002 in real history was the year of Lee Sedol's inception and the year of the "Bird Island Boys". Strictly speaking, from 2002 to 2005, it was actually the era when the two Koreans were fighting for hegemony.

   "Hey, hey, it seems that my surname is Li too. Li Canghao is a lot older, so the title of 'Big Li' must be a fight for him, but if this "Little Li" is used"

   (end of this chapter)