Go Legend

   Chapter 198 Overconfidence

   In the first stage of the just-concluded "Nongxin Cup", Li Xiangping's 6-game winning streak, which he did not expect, caused a great impact on the entire chess world. From the end of this streak to the start of the "LG Cup" semi-finals, almost everyone was talking about it.

   It's a pity that there seems to be no "hot search" at this time. It is better that Li Xiangping will definitely be on the hot search. Because during this period, from experts to chess fans, from inside the Go industry to other sectors of society, almost everyone was talking about Li Xiangping and his brilliant record.

   Thinking about this, of course, it is normal. You must know that the competition system of the ring match is like this, and these 6 games are still played together, so the impact of this winning streak on everyone is obviously bigger.

   In addition to this reason, the more important thing is that everyone has never seen Li Xiangping like this. To say that in the Go world, there is never a shortage of "genius" and "prodigy", but looking at the geniuses who have appeared in the Go world, even those who are as strong as Mr. Wu Qingyuan and Li Canghao, they are in Li Xiangping's age. At most, he just showed his talent to the world, his impact, and it usually takes a long time before the real chess skill is mature or the skill is completed, and it takes a lot of tempering and even setbacks.

   Who has seen Li Xiangping like this? Everyone often says that the peak is the peak. This word is originally a bit derogatory, which means the kind of "meteor" that has only one highlight moment in his life. However, when this word is used on Li Xiangping, so far I can't see any derogatory meaning. He is indeed the peak when he debuts, but his "peak" is different from others. As if the surging river is endless, it has lasted for more than 2 years now, and after this time, it has the trend of sweeping the world of chess.

"I don't want to talk about Li Xiangping's other issues now, I don't want to talk about whether he is a genius? I don't want to talk about whether he is a once-in-a-hundred-year-or-fifty-year-old? And I don't want to talk about how high his level is? I don't want to talk about him now. Is it such a boring question as to be super-first-class, I just want to discuss it with you: when do you think our talented boss will be able to dominate the chess world?"

   About a week before Li Xiangping went to South Korea to participate in the "LG Cup" semifinals, such a so-called "questionnaire" post appeared on the Qingfengweiqi forum, and once this post appeared, it instantly became a hot post in the entire forum.

   Well, this post also pretends to provide 4 options; A within two years, B within five years, C after five years, D never.

   In the choice of chess fans, not only more than half of them chose "A", but only a few tenths of a percent chose "D", and even quite a few people were dissatisfied with these four options.

  Many people think that an option needs to be added, that is, "within half a year", more precisely, at the end of the "LG Cup" final in February next year. ​​​

This is the last final of the four world competitions this year. Everyone thinks that if Li Xiangping can win four championships at the same time this year, it will be equivalent to a tennis player winning the four grand slams within one year. Of course Even if it can be regarded as a unified chess world.

   It was in this atmosphere that Li Xiangping went to South Korea to participate in the semi-finals of this year's "LG Cup".

   This semi-final is a standard Sino-Korea confrontation. Except for Li Xiangping facing Lao Cao again, the other side is Yu Bin facing Li Canghao. Due to the topic of Li Xiangping and the popularity brought by Li Xiangping, the domestic media was in high spirits. This time, a large number of reporters were accompanying. Not only has Li Xiangping never seen so many reporters, but even Nie, the elder of the Chinese delegation this time, said: Even when he played in the China-Japan Go arena, he never saw so many accompanying reporters.

   "This is normal, hahahaha" Li Xiangping and Lao Nie joked in a good mood:

   "Mr. Nie, don't even think about it. What year did you enter the ring? And now what is the era? More than ten years ago, even the central media didn't have much money to allow reporters to go abroad to watch the competition."

Not to mention, this time, there are reporters from the central-level “Quanmin Daily” to watch the game. In fact, the “Quanmin Daily” has its origins in the Go world. Many people may not know that the “Celebrity Battle” of Go in China is organized by it. In fact, Fang has always been the overseas edition of the "People's Daily", so it is not surprising that they sent reporters.

   The reporter surnamed Hu was sent by the "People's Daily" this time. This is an old reporter, and he is exactly one of the reporters who proposed the idea of ​​"Celebrity Battle". He is a senior chess fan.

  Seeing that Lao Nie and Li Xiangping were having a good chat, reporter Hu and reporter Zhang Da of "Go World" came over to join in the fun. Reporter Hu recalled the grand occasion of the ring competition and pointed out that the current popularity of Go is really nothing.

Reporter Hu said to Li Xiangping: "Xiangping, you may not know that after your teacher Nie helped the Chinese team win three consecutive victories in the ring competition, he sometimes went to certain cities to participate in activities, which may be necessary. The police car clears the way, now it’s up to you to see if you can do it later.”

   Everyone laughed when they heard it. Although everyone encouraged Li Xiangping to have such a day, in fact, everyone knew in their hearts that things unique to that special era were long gone.

   This time, the Chinese delegation came relatively early. 2 days before the official competition, everyone arrived in Seoul, South Korea. This time, because there are so many reporters, and the group of reporters, of course, can't be so peaceful.

On the morning of the second day after arriving in South Korea, that is, the day before the first game of the three chess games, reporter Zhang Da and several other people found Li Xiangping excitedly. Reporter Zhang Da Yangyang held a large stack of newspapers, which were all read by Li Xiangping. Don't understand Korean:

   "Xiangping, you are now considered a celebrity in Korea. Look at you, so many newspapers are introducing you."

"Oh?"

Li Xiangping casually said "oh" and then there is no more text. At this time, it may be the most prosperous period of Korean Go. There are more than 10 news chess battles in China, and it is claimed that one out of every three Koreans can play Go. , then in this atmosphere, it is of course very normal to report on Li Xiangping before the competition.

  Reporter Zhang Da didn't seem to notice Li Xiangping's inattentiveness, and he continued to say:

   "Look, look, there is also an exclusive interview with Lao Cao, here is his evaluation of you and his outlook on the game"

   "Oh?" Li Xiangping became a little interested: "What did Lao Cao say?"

  Reporter Zhang Da didn’t understand Korean, of course, so the accompanying translator came up with a smile:

   "Old Cao said that if your strength increases by one point, then his belief in a decisive battle against you at Korean Go with them will also increase by one point."

After saying this, the accompanying translator briefly described the content of Lao Cao's exclusive interview to Li Xiangping. The general meaning is as follows: First of all, Lao Cao admitted that Li Xiangping is very strong and is a rare Go genius. After saying this, Lao Cao started to talk hard. He said that although he lost in the last game, he found out that Li Xiangping was not without weaknesses, and his weaknesses were still very large. He is still very confident about the next game.

In what follows, Lao Cao's words are nothing new. They are nothing more than rhetoric unique to Koreans, such as "As the strongest Go country in the world, he will defend the honor of Korean Go this time", "Betting on his Go life, This time, I will also fight to the death with Chinese geniuses."

  Li Xiangping laughed after listening to it. It must be pointed out that Li Xiangping's smile certainly did not mean to laugh at Lao Cao. In fact, he also believed that what Lao Cao said was true. After all, he played all the chess games by himself, so as Lao Cao's level For a master of the game, it is of course quite normal for him to find his weakness.

   He just laughed that Lao Cao would never know, that he was the one who opened the door. Tomorrow his opponent will be Lao Shi, so what weakness he found was actually useless for the next game.

   Reporter Zhang Da and others came here for nothing, of course. After Li Xiangping finished laughing, reporter Zhang Da asked on behalf of everyone:

   "Xiang Ping, do you have anything to say about Lao Cao's attitude?"

  Li Xiangping smiled, thinking that you reporters just want me to have a war of words with Lao Cao, okay, I will fulfill you:

   "Cao Xunxuan is a senior chess player I respect very much. What I admire most about him is that he can maintain his peak for such a long time. I really hope I can maintain such a high level and state at his age."

   After saying this, Li Xiangping took an excuse to get away, and everyone didn't care about his departure, and they wrote happily in the notebook.

   Only one of the rookie reporters was unclear. Therefore, he humbly asked reporter Hu of the "People's Daily":

   "Mr. Hu, what Li Xiangping said"

  Reporter Hu Da took a photo of the rookie reporter:

   "Idiot, Li Xiangping's words have special meaning in the Go world, sigh, look down on the old comrade, Li Xiangping obviously looks down on other people's old Cao as an old comrade, and is going to bully others on this point"

  Reporter Hu Da is of course not wrong. Although it can't be said that he really wants to bully Lao Cao, he is old, but Li Xiangping's unwillingness to be outdone is obvious. Think about it, how could Li Xiangping be willing to show weakness at this time, thinking that he can even cut Lao Cao a plate, then for the next Lao Shi's shot, then Li Xiangping is of course full of confidence in his cheating, he will not hesitate He hesitated to vote for Shi Daqisheng.

However, it turned out that Li Xiangping was a little overconfident this time. In the first game of the three chess games, Lao Shi defeated Lao Cao with a hard fight, but at this time, Li Xiangping didn't care too much about Lao Shi. After struggling hard, Lao Shi's continuous victories made him blindly confident in his cheating, and he was ready to meet the feat of reaching the finals in all four competitions.

   However, in the second round, Lao Cao played to a very high level. He was like a hang-up, and he gave full play to the characteristics of his "soft wind and fast gun".

  1 to 1, the two sides returned to the same starting line!

   This is the first game Lao Shi has lost this year, and it is also the second player to defeat Lao Shi after losing to Li Changhao.

   At the same time, in the semifinals on the other side, Li Changhao successfully defeated Yu Bin, and he entered the second World Series final this year after the "Toyota Cup".

   Who will be Lee Chang-ho's opponent in the final? On the second day after the end of the second game, the decisive game between Lao Shi and Lao Cao began to fight.

   (end of this chapter)