Go Legend

   Chapter 252 Try yourself

   After revisiting the place where he crossed, Li Xiangping didn't have time to make too many stops. He immediately rushed to Taizhou, Jiangsu, where the stadium is located. After arriving at the stadium, he found that the other contestants had basically arrived.

   The lineup for this quarter-final match is: Li Xiangping, Ma Xiaofei, Chang Hao of the Chinese team, Lao Cao, Da Li and Da Liu of the South Korean team, and Zhao Zhixun and Wang Licheng of the Japanese team.

   Well, on the surface, this top eight lineup is very bright.

   Seven of the eight contestants are former world champions.

   The only chess player who is not yet a world champion is Chang Hao, but he is now the number one player in China's Go ranking.

When it comes to grade points, Li Xiangping wants to complain. Don't look at how many world championships he won last year, he is now regarded by many people as the new king of chess today, but his current grade points are not the same. not tall.

   In the latest rankings just released, he didn't even make it into the top 10, and only ranked 12th in the country.

   There is no doubt that once such a ranking was announced, it was almost sprayed out by the masses of melon eaters, thinking that this thing is too unreliable.

   The reason why it seems so unreasonable is that Li Xiangping believes that the main reason is that the Go world has never classified events, and the weight of all games is the same.

   Take Li Xiangping as an example. His competition last year was divided into two parts: domestic and international. His record in the World Championships was great, but the results in domestic competitions were unbelievable. The winning rate in the Weijia arena is only over 40%. In addition, he also loses in the international arena, such as 3-2 like some time ago, his rating can't actually increase much.

   It is because of these reasons that his rank has not been able to rise.

You must know that when he went straight to the ninth dan and gave him the initial grade, it was originally based on the ordinary ninth dan score, which was a lot less than others, so now, he is called something under the age of 16. The "contemporary chess king" of , on the other hand, is only ranked 12th in grade points, and is still ranked 12th in China.

   Of course, Li Xiangping's situation is rather strange, and it belongs to the kind of extreme imagination. It can be said that it is precisely because of his extreme situation that some of the unreasonable aspects of the grading system are infinitely magnified.

   It is said that after the announcement of the rankings for the first quarter of this year, the management of the chess institute felt a lot of pressure, not only the management was under a lot of pressure, but even some chess players who were ranked ahead of Li Xiangping felt a lot of pressure. It is reported that under the strong appeal of everyone, the management has prepared some amendments to the current grading system.

   And the most important amendment is actually to consider the classification of the competition, giving different weights to different competitions.

To be honest, this is actually a rather troublesome matter. After all, the situation in the Go world is rather special, and there is no more authoritative international unified organization, so it would be difficult for the Chinese Go Association to do this alone. of.

   For example, you can set a weight for the domestic armor competition, and you can even set a weight for all the world competitions, but how do you decide the domestic competitions in Japan and South Korea?

  Compared with Japan's "Honinbo Battle" and South Korea's "National Hand Battle", which of these two competitions do you think is higher? Which match should have more weight?

   Judging from the current difficulty of the game, it seems that the Korean "national hand battle" is more difficult, but what about the prize money? Japan's "Battle of Honinbo" is N times higher than it.

   It is precisely because of such specific technical difficulties that the Go world has consistently lacked a relatively authoritative ranking system.

   Not to mention now, in real history, even in later generations, when Li Xiangping passed through, the world chess world has always lacked a more credible ranking system.

  Li Xiangping remembered that before he crossed over, most people cited the ranking made by a Korean doctor himself, but to be honest, that ranking was slightly higher than the average pheasant ranking.

   Even the doctor himself said that the ranking "only represents his personal opinion".

   After complaining about the rating, Li Xiangping also put it aside and focused on the next game.

After all, in his opinion, this thing doesn't really mean much, and the grade points are not linked to salary and bonuses. Ranking first will not give him a penny more. Now ranking 12, it doesn't seem to let him lose half of the bonus. .

The only function of the    domestic rating is that it may be used to determine the eligibility for certain qualifiers.

   As for the qualifiers, what a joke, Li Xiangping thought that if he really had to wait until he had to reconsider the qualifiers, then he could just retire, and what would he dare to think about teaming up with Lao Shi for a dogfight.

"Recently, I have been learning Li Xiangping's chess. As everyone said, he is indeed an extraordinary genius. I was deeply shocked by his talent. In fact, it is not only me. In Japan, there are still many people who are fascinated by Li Xiangping's Go. For example, I went to visit Mr. Fujisawa Hideyuki some time ago. Do you know what he is doing in the sickbed? He is playing Xiangping's chess, and he is old now. , the body has also collapsed, otherwise you must see Xiangping with your own eyes and listen to his teachings. I'm not kidding. That's what my husband told me at the time. He also said that compared with other people's Go, Xiangping's Go is not in one dimension at all.”

   "So this time I was fortunate to ask Xiangping for a game. I felt very happy and excited. I didn't think about winning or losing. I just hope that I can play as much as possible, and don't lose too badly while learning the opponent's tricks."

   That's right, the above is Wang Licheng's 9th dan's "pre-match testimonials". Wang Licheng's 9th dan has always been a gentleman, so it's not surprising that he is so humble.

   However, although he spoke in a low-key manner, anyone who dared to underestimate Wang Jiuduan at this time would be very wrong.

   When Mr. Wang Licheng said these words, although Li Xiangping kept smiling and applauding, he did not dare to relax at all.

   Don't look at the top eight lineup this time, Wang Licheng seems to be the least famous one, even Chang Hao, the only non-world champion, is now more famous than him.

   However, now he is Japan's "chess master" plus "ten dan" plus "throne".

   is the number one player in the Japanese chess world today.

   Not only does he have a great record in the domestic arena, but he is also quite capable in the international arena.

   In real history, before Li Xiangping crossed, there were only three chess players in Japan with two championships. The first was Mr. Masaki Takemiya, who won four consecutive championships in the previous two "Fujitsu Cup" and the previous four "Asian Cup".

The era when Takehiya won the championship was still in the initial stage of the World Professional Championship. At that time, the Japanese Go game was still very good, so it was not surprising to everyone at the time that Takegiya's record was not overwhelming. Kobayashi Koichi and Zhao Zhixun.

   And no one thought at the time: Take Miya's record would become the best record for Japanese players in the international arena in the next few decades.

   The second two-time chess player is Zhao Zhixun. Lao Zhao's first championship was won by Qian Yuping's abstention in the final of the fourth "Fujitsu Cup". His second championship, in Li Xiangping's impression, seems to be this year's "Samsung Cup", he defeated South Korea's Dapu to win the championship.

   In addition to these two veteran super-class players who are now considered "ancient times", the third two-time chess player in Japan is Wang Licheng, Li Xiangping's opponent this time.

   He once defeated Ma Xiaofei in the 2nd "Chunlan Cup" to win the championship, and another time, it seems that he defeated Liu Changhe in a certain "LG Cup" to win the championship.

  The time he won the championship all happened in his peak period in recent years.

   In addition to winning two world championships, he has actually reached the finals of the World Series many times.

The earliest time was 10 years ago, when he reached the finals in the 5th "Fujitsu Cup" and lost to Otake Hero, and the most recent time was the last "Chunlan Cup", where he lost to Liu Changhe and finished runner-up. .

   So this is an opponent who can stay in good shape for a long time.

   This is an opponent who is currently at his peak.

   Not only that, but this seems to be a chess player who is more "destined" with the "Chunlan Cup".

It is good to say Li Xiangping, because he is familiar with the development of the world chess world in recent decades, and even has a good understanding of the ups and downs of almost all the well-known chess players during this period, so he has drawn such an opponent this time. After that, others may look down on him because of his absolute fame, but Li Xiangping won't.

   Not only will he not, he even thinks that compared to other people, the draw this time is actually quite ordinary. ​​​

   After all, whether it is the three kings of Korea or the old Zhao of Japan, Lao Shi has defeated them, so if they are fighting here, they will definitely be slightly inferior in momentum.

As for Wang Licheng, this is his first encounter with 9 dan. He will not be at any disadvantage psychologically in the game, so don't look at how modest he is, asking for advice and saying "I didn't think about winning", etc. But whoever takes it seriously loses.

   Of course, although Li Xiangping doesn't underestimate his opponent, it doesn't mean that he is afraid of Wang Licheng.

   After all, he is an upright and upright person who has truly defeated Da Li by his own strength, so Li Xiangping now positions himself:

  Relying only on one's own words, it must be nonsense to say "domination".

   However, now relying on his own strength, he should be able to wrestle with any human chess player in active service.

   Maybe against some chess players, he is still at a disadvantage, but by now, he has the possibility to win against any human chess player.

There is no doubt that meeting Wang Licheng at this stage is a very good touchstone. Therefore, after the "pre-match testimonials" ended, Li Xiangping quickly regained his energy and wanted to try what he was. .

   (end of this chapter)