The time came to August 2001, and the most important Go tournament in August was actually the "Fujitsu Cup" final held on the first weekend of this month every year.

This year's finalists are China's Chang Hao and South Korea's Lao Cao, who are battling it out for the title in Tokyo, Japan.

If you stand in the perspective of later generations, it is really difficult to understand the Go of this era, think about Lao Cao is now more than 40, if it is left in the future, he seems to have long ago gone to play "Happy Go", but this era is not like this, since 89 years to win the first "Ying's Cup" championship, Lao Cao in recent years seems to glow a second spring, he maintains an excellent competitive state, extremely active in the international arena, into the World Series semi-finals, finals, as a daily routine.

Even if he competed for the championship with Chang Hao in the younger round this time, the prediction before the game was mostly optimistic about Lao Cao.

Li Xiangping is in Lao Cai's house "Fangyuan chess and card room" to watch the live broadcast of this game, the process of the game really coincides with everyone's pre-game predictions, Lao Cao all the way to the tiger and tiger, and this year Chang Hao, his psychological quality of the competition is obviously not enough, although once had an advantage, but in the advantage but step by step retreat, to about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the overall situation of this game of chess has been decided, Chang Hao's small defeat is a foregone conclusion.

Li Xiangping was watching the game with Lao Cai, reporter Zhang Da and others, and seeing that the outcome had been decided, everyone began to discuss:

"Alas, it's a pity, it's a pity that Xiao Chang lost this game of chess, what a good situation ahead, but it's a pity that I still couldn't hold Lao Cao."

Faced with reporter Zhang Da's statement, Lao Cai scoffed: "What a pity? I think it's still Xiaochang's own problem.,It's the same way to lose chess every time.,It's really speechless.,I think this chess wants to say that if you want to let Xiangping go up.,It's impossible to output it.,Isn't it Xiangping? ”

For Lao Cai's words, Li Xiangping smiled and did not squeak, because this time he said to this old man that the reason for not participating in the "Overlord Competition" was to find Cai Shanshan to help him "make up his homework", so even if he was pretending, he had to find Cai Shanshan, but with Li Xiangping's sloppy habits, he was tutoring a fart, so since the summer vacation, he spent most of his time in this chess and card room, and he was more familiar with Lao Cai and Zhang Da reporter and others.

Regarding Lao Cai's words, Li Xiangping actually agreed with it in his heart, but out of politeness and age, there were some things that he was inconvenient to say. He believes that Chang Hao at this age does have the technical level of a world champion, but he does not have the psychological quality of a world champion.

In real history, there are two famous "Lianya" in the history of world Go, the most famous is Li Canghao's later "Jiulianya", and the other is actually Chang Hao's "Liulianya" at this stage.

It's a pity that Li Canghao's "Jiulianya" is too famous, and Chang Hao's "Liulianya" is covered up, otherwise just look at Chang Hao's career, he won 3 world championships in "Liulianya" in the early stage, which is simply a flawless inspirational story.

Today's game of chess is actually a clear proof that Chang Hao is still struggling in the quagmire of Lianya.

Everyone sighed, and the topic naturally returned to Li Xiangping, and reporter Zhang Da asked with a smile:

"Xiangping, why don't you go to participate in the "Overlord War"? Why, don't you like this level of competition? ”

Among them, Lao Cai understands Li Xiangping better, after all, he is a local tyrant like Li Yuanhu, and he knows that Li Xiangping is not a person who needs to earn bonuses to eat, since he doesn't care about money, then at Li Xiangping's age, it's really hard to say which is more important than academics and chess.

So Lao Cai smiled and helped Li Xiangping speak; "Of course I can't look down on it, I said that the chess academy is really, Xiangping is a world champion anyway, how can there be a domestic competition, not even a seeded player, and what qualifiers do you want people to participate in, if this is me, then I probably won't go, isn't it Xiangping?"

"There is actually a reason why I didn't get seeded." Reporter Zhang Da explained to the two:

"Now the rating system has been fully implemented, as long as the domestic competition is to determine the seed players, now only look at the rating of the chess player, and Xiangping's situation is more special, he is an amateur chess player turned professional chess player, that is, he did not have a rating before, so he set it for nine sections this time, and gave the initial rating of the nine sections, that is, 2560 points, I just checked it a few days ago, this score is currently ranked 18 in China, and this time, the "Overlord War" is set to 16 seeds, so Xiangping failed to rank. ”

The so-called "initial rating score" is the score set for chess players at the beginning of the implementation of the rating system, which is 40 points on a level, 2560 for 9 dan and 2520 for 8 dan...... And so on, but there were two special cases when this score was set for the first time in China, that is, Lao Nie and Ma Xiao set 2600 points, which is one step higher than the ordinary nine sections, and it seems that this 2600 points is a super first-class standard.

Lao Cai knew about this, so he continued to argue with reporter Zhang Da;

"That's not right, I think the chess academy is still not neat enough, Xiangping is the second world champion in China after Ma Xiao, so why not directly set it at 2600 points? If you score 2600 points, you must be a seeded player, right? ”

In the face of Lao Cai praising himself like this, Li Xiangping really didn't know what to say, thinking of his "restricted-level plug-in", he became more and more entangled, he said in his heart that it was okay to set 2560 points, if it was really set at 2600 points to make himself a seeded player, then he didn't know what reason to refuse to participate this time.

Thinking of this, Li Xiangping was in no mood to continue to stay here, so he politely said goodbye to the two, and then went home silently alone.

"Now it seems that I need to find a way to improve my strength."

On the way home, Li Xiangping was silently thinking about this question, and his idea was warmly responded to by his plug-in:

"Yes, Xiangping Xiaoyou, your idea is very correct."

Li Xiangping didn't fake himself to himself: "Brother Ding'an, you don't want me to speak, I don't want to pay attention to you now." ”

Of course, Li Xiangping really doesn't want to pay attention to his plug-in, you must know that all this is his 15-game restriction now.

From the moment Lao Shi told him about this, Li Xiangping fell into an endless entanglement, and after nearly a month of entanglement, Li Xiangping found that he had no other way at all, and it seemed that there was only one way to go.

To be honest, in the recent period, Li Xiangping has not thought of other methods, the most extreme of which is to announce his retirement at this time, and not to take the road of professional Go in the future.

However, such a thought only flashed in Li Xiangping's mind, after all, such a thought, first, is too appalling, not to mention others, Li Xiangping doesn't know how to explain to his old man, and second, Li Xiangping is actually a little reluctant, he hasn't enjoyed enough flowers and applause, he is obsessed with that feeling.

Li Xiangping's second thought, isn't Lao Shi still able to play 15 games a year, then he will simply have the option to participate in some competitions in the future, although there are fewer flowers and applause, but it is better than nothing.

It's a pity that Li Xiangping soon found out that this idea doesn't seem realistic, after all, judging from the game between Lao Shi and Li Canghao, Lao Shi doesn't have the strength to crush together, since he doesn't have that kind of strength, he actually doesn't have the right to choose the game, because you don't know when he will lose.

Li Xiangping is most afraid of this situation: Lao Shi may participate in several competitions at the same time, Lao Shi lost in other competitions, in the quarterfinals or semifinals, but reached the final in a certain competition, but unfortunately at this time, his 15 sets were limited to ......

As long as he thinks about this situation, Li Xiangping shuddered a little, could it be that at that time, let himself be at the top of the 6th level of weak karma? It would be a big ugliness like that, and Li Xiangping would have to find a way to prevent this kind of thing from happening.

But how to put an end to it? After thinking about it, Li Xiangping seemed to have the only way, and that was to improve his own strength.

"Alas! It seems that in the next period of time, I may have to endure some hardships......"

When he was about to get home, Li Xiangping continued to frown, after all, he had formally learned chess in his previous life, and he also had the experience and insight of his previous life, he knew that "improving his own strength" was a simple thing to say, but it was extremely difficult to do.

For example, compare Li Xiangping with the current Chen Yaoyue, Chen Yaoyue has just entered the stage, and it seems to be similar to Ye 6, and Li Xiangping believes that with his own experience and insight, if he only talks about his understanding of Go, then his current self must be much higher than Chen Yaoyue.

However, all this is useless, if he plays with Chen Yaoyue now, he will lose at least 8 and a half games in 10 games, and he can win this game and a half, half of which belongs to luck, and the other game, he may be able to use the "dog tricks" of later generations to get a game away from Chen Xiaoqiang, as for the rest, there is no doubt that he will definitely lose chess, and there is no doubt about losing, and there is no suspense in losing.

The reason why this is the case is because his current basic skills are not good, and his basic skills are definitely not as solid as Chen Yaoyue.

And Li Xiangping has always believed that for himself at this stage, and even for human Go, basic skills are everything.

As Mr. Wu Qingyuan said: What is the essence of Go? The essence of Go is actually life and death and officials.

Although he has experienced the era of Go AI, Li Xiangping still believes that Mr. Wu's sentence may be invalid for Go AI, but for human chess players, this is still a wise saying.

It is also the direction that Li Xiangping needs to work on at this stage.