Go Legend

   Chapter 49 Wonderful First Victory

  On the second day after the Chinese delegation arrived in South Korea, the qualifiers for this "Samsung Cup" officially started.

After all, it is only the preliminaries, so the organizer did not hold the opening ceremony or anything. The chess players did not even have to draw lots by themselves. All the grouping arrangements were arranged by the organizer. Except for the two women's groups, more than 200 men signed up for the competition. All chess players are randomly mixed by computer, neither seed players are set, nor is it emphasized that chess players of the same nationality do not meet in advance.

   On the afternoon of the second day after everyone arrived in South Korea, when all the arrangements for the groupings and matches were completed, the deputy head of the Chinese delegation, the head coach of the national youth team, specially found Li Xiangping:

   "Xiang Ping, the matchup is arranged, you see, this is the situation of your group."

   Coach Wu said this while handing Li Xiangping a match schedule.

   "Coach Wu, thank you."

  Li Xiangping politely thanked Coach Wu, and then took over the table for details. Coach Wu did not bring over all the match schedules, but singled out the F group where Li Xiangping was. There are a total of 32 players in this group, which means that they must win 5 consecutive games to get the first place in the group, thus officially entering the "this game" of this year's Samsung Cup.

   Jin Yuan's 6th dan professional VS Li Xiangping's 5th dan amateur.

   The first thing Li Xiangping paid attention to was of course his opponent in the first round. Judging from the name, he knew that this was a Korean chess player, but Li Xiangping had no impression of this name.

After reading this, Li Xiangping will pay attention to other situations in this group. He focuses on two, one is to see if there are other Chinese chess players in the same group as himself, and the other is to see if this group has any Which more well-known foreign chess players.

After reading all   , Li Xiangping found that his group was more interesting. In addition to seeing Chinese chess player Luo Xihe in this group, he also saw an unexpected name:

   "Huh! Mr. Kobayashi? Mr. Kobayashi actually came to participate in such a qualifier."

   That's right, this chess player that Li Xiangping never expected was the 19th Dan Kobayashi, the former overlord of the Japanese chess world. At the inception of the Professional Go World Championship, that was when Kobayashi Koichi dominated the Japanese chess world.

   It was during that time that Kobayashi achieved 8 consecutive titles in Japan's "chess holy war", 7 consecutive titles in "celebrity battles", and 6 consecutive titles in "small chess holy war". Since domestic competition schedules often conflict with international competitions, Kobayashi Koichi was notorious for being reluctant to participate in the World Series in his early years, but now, I didn’t expect him to come to participate in such a game with a pitiful fee. qualifiers.

   "Hehe, Mr. Kobayashi has lost all his domestic titles now. The so-called no-crown is light, so he has time to play in the international arena."

Coach Wu did not talk much about Mr. Xiaolin with Li Xiangping. He may think that although Mr. Xiaolin is no longer at his peak, no matter what, the thin camel is bigger than the horse. Li Xiangping and others are not on the same level, and this group There is also Luo Xihe, so it is not Li Xiangping's turn to stop Xiaolin.

   Based on this consideration, Coach Wu mainly analyzed the first opponent with Li Xiangping:

   "Xiang Ping, do you know the sixth dan of Jin Yuan?"

  Li Xiangping shook his head.

   "Hehe, this Jinyuan sixth dan is an old chess player. In terms of seniority, he should be the same generation as Lao Cao in Korea, but he is about 10 years older than Lao Cao"

Li Xiangping could see that Coach Wu didn't know much about the situation of the sixth dan, so after a few words, he patted Li Xiangping's shoulder affectionately, encouraging him to "get down" tomorrow, and finally explained another detail:

   "The game will officially start at 10:00 tomorrow morning. Remember not to be late. If you are late to the game, the time will be deducted, and you will be deducted twice as long as you are late. If you are late for half an hour, you will lose the game."

   After explaining this detail clearly, Coach Wu said goodbye to Li Xiangping and went to work on other things.

Fortunately, Coach Wu told Li Xiangping about this, because on the second day the game officially started, Li Xiangping rushed to the arena early, and when it was 5 minutes to 10:00, he had already sat in his seat properly. But he waited left and right, but there was no trace of his opponent.

Sitting like this until 10:30, Li Xiangping remembered what Coach Wu said. He felt that he couldn't just wait like this, so he quickly got up and found Coach Wu. After asking about the situation, Coach Wu also hurried to find the event organizer. Negotiate.

   After the negotiation was over, Coach Wu didn't talk too much after coming back. He just smiled and said to Li Xiangping:

   "Xiang Ping, congratulations on entering the second round of this competition."

what's the situation? When you first participated in a professional game, did you win the first game of chess by this way of winning without a fight?

   When Li Xiangping was still a little confused, Coach Wu told him that this situation was normal. Almost every year in the qualifiers, some players would abstain. Coach Wu smiled and said to Li Xiangping:

   "If you really want to say it, it's likely that you, an amateur chess player, made your opponent abstain."

"Um?"

   Seeing that Li Xiangping was still a little confused, Coach Wu patiently explained to him that in such a large-scale qualifier, it is normal for some players to abstain, especially Korean players.

   Since the competition is held in South Korea, Korean players do not need to consider any cost to participate in this competition. Therefore, many Korean players will sign up for registration, but whether they will definitely come to the competition after registration is another matter.

   "If I were the sixth dan of Jinyuan, when I saw that the first opponent was a Chinese industry 5, then I would very likely abstain."

Coach Wu continued to say with a smile: "First of all, I know what my level is. I know that with my level, it is definitely impossible to win 5 consecutive games in this kind of game and enter this match, then when I meet you When I am 5th grade, I will definitely think about it, because I know that a chess player who dares to participate in this competition, especially a foreign chess player who dares to participate in this competition, does not matter whether he is a professional or an amateur, basically There's nothing good about it, so if I come to play against you, there's nothing to be proud of if you win, because you're an amateur, but if you lose, it might be a little troublesome, because I still have to teach chess for a living now. Know that I lost 5 dan to an amateur"

   Having said that, Coach Wu did not continue talking, but he didn't need to continue, Li Xiangping fully understood what he meant.

   Seeing Li Xiangping's clear expression, Coach Wu smiled and patted his shoulder:

   "Okay, Xiangping, don't think too much about it. If you don't have a game today, just wander around the arena and keep your spirits up for tomorrow's game."

   "Okay Coach Wu, then I'll go see other chess players play chess."

"go Go."

   So, the first professional game that Li Xiangping participated in ended in this way.

Li Xiangping began to wander around the arena, but after a while he felt bored, mainly because it was still too early, and as a child, no matter where Li Xiangping went, he would always be greeted with strange eyes. .

   It was this strange look that made Li Xiangping feel unbearable, so after a hasty stroll, he simply ran back to the hotel to rest.

   At around 4 o'clock in the afternoon, Chen Yaoyue, who lives in the same room as Li Xiangping, will also come. Just looking at his excited expression, Li Xiangping knows that he will definitely win the game:

   "Little Leopard, have you won your opponent?"

   "Yes, I have completed my mission to Korea this time."

   Seeing 11-year-old Chen Yaoyue being so solemn and modest, Li Xiangping couldn't help but laugh again.

   After 5 o'clock in the afternoon, when all the games were over, Coach Wu gathered everyone together again to count the first day's battle situation, and secondly, more importantly, to confirm their respective opponents in the second round tomorrow.

On the first day of the competition, the Chinese players were generally pretty good, losing only 4 out of 28 games, but this is nothing to be proud of. Except for the top seed players, these 20 players It is the essence of the entire Chinese Go game, so in the first round, 4 people were lost, and this result can only be regarded as quite satisfactory.

   Everyone paid more attention to their opponents in the second round. When it was Li Xiangping’s turn, Coach Wu smiled and said to him:

   "Xiang Ping, it seems that your good luck ran out in the first round, and you will encounter a tough stubble tomorrow."

   Hearing what Coach Wu said, Gu Dali shouted:

   "Who is it, who will our "excellent art" master meet tomorrow?"

   "One of the "Four Little Kings" of Korea, or the first of the "Four Little Kings,""

   Coach Wu said word by word:

   "Cui Mingxun."

   (end of this chapter)