At the end of September, the last round of this year's siege.

At almost 5 o'clock in the afternoon, as the opponent signaled to admit defeat, Li Xiangping raised his head and said:

"Lao Mei, I have conceded."

That's right, Li Xiangping's opponent today is actually the first master of the "Lianzhong Beggars" a few years ago, "Gourmet", and he is also the main player of the Pingmei team.

The Pingmei team is a team of the nature of the "Industry Sports Association" in this year, their team does not have star chess players, and the strength of several chess players in this team is relatively average, so their team has no fixed main candidate, and Li Xiangping actually didn't know before the game, and today he will actually meet this former "helper".

"Alas, don't be polite in Baiyi, what do you admit, let me tell you, I tried my best today to use all the strength to breastfeed, but I still can't get you, congratulations to Baiyi."

Hearing the "gourmet" call himself "white", Li Xiangping's heart was touched.

Li Xiangping knew Lao Mei in his previous life, this is a professional chess player with excellent cultivation and excellent character, and when Li Xiangping rushed to the stage, Lao Mei gave him a lot of help---- it is the kind of real selfless, help between friends.

Therefore, although Li Xiangping failed to succeed in the end, this did not prevent him from treating the other party as a mentor and friend.

To put it mildly, in the deepest part of Li Xiangping's heart, he actually didn't want to meet Lao Mei in this game, after all, this is a rather cruel relegation battle, before the end of this game of chess, the two teams played rapid chess The stage has taken the lead in ending the game, and Li Xiangping's team won, so Lao Mei lost this game of chess, and he and his team have actually been relegated to the second division.

"Lao Mei, right.... Sorry ......"

Seeing Li Xiangping stammering and apologizing, it was the "gourmet" who became more open-minded:

"What kind of is Bai Yi, what is there to be sorry for, you won the dignified, and I also lost clearly, alas, in the final analysis, I am still inferior to others, in fact, it is normal to think about it, who are you in Bai Yi now, how can I be your opponent, it is because I was too self-conscious before the game, and I took the initiative to ask for the next game with you..... Baiyi, if you want to be really worthy of me, then make persistent efforts in the future and strive to win a few more championships in the World Series, which also makes me brag more in the future, saying that the dignified Li Xiangping has also accepted my guidance, haha......"

Seeing Lao Mei pretending to laugh easily, Li Xiangping of course could only laugh, he nodded heavily and said:

"Don't worry, I will."

But to be honest, although winning this game of chess made Li Xiangping feel a little sorry for his friend, he still felt his progress more clearly in this game.

Lao Mei's current rating score, about 30 to 40 in China, is the most standard "backbone chess player" in China, a year ago, like Lao Mei, which is definitely Li Xiangping's standard "handy", Li Xiangping and them, that is basically three seven to four or six open.

However, through today's game of chess, Li Xiangping already feels completely different, and it can't be said that this ratio has been completely reversed, but against Lao Mei's level, Li Xiangping thinks that he should already have the upper hand.

Li Xiangping believes that this should not be too much if evaluated.

If this assessment is really objective, it proves that you have indeed made great progress.

After the end of the competition, because he was about to leave for Japan to participate in the semi-finals of the "Toyota Cup", Li Xiangping didn't talk much with Lao Mei, but just left a sentence of "Come to me to play in the capital in the future", he said goodbye to the other party, went back to pack his luggage and prepared to leave.

In the evening of the next day, Li Xiangping and the Chinese delegation appeared at Tokyo's Haneda Airport.

Because Chang Hao and Li Xiangping broke into the semifinals this time, Lao Nie got the errand of the head of the Chinese delegation, and since getting off the plane, Lao Nie's big mouth has not been idle:

"The three major battles, the last three battles in the Go world this year, tomorrow this will be the first battle, I said Chang Hao, you have to give me a good game this time, this first battle is your heaviest task, if you can make a good start tomorrow, then I think you will always be able to overpower the Koreans once this year."

Lao Nie's "three major battles" refers to the "Toyota Cup", "Samsung Cup" and "LG Cup" these three competitions, these three competitions have been decided by the top four, and the champions will be produced recently, even the latest "LC Cup" finals will be completed before the Spring Festival in 2003, so the domestic media called the last three battles in the Go world in 2002.

Incidentally, there was originally a "Chunlan Cup", but the "Chunlan Cup" has now been changed to a biennial session, and the matches after the quarterfinals will be held next year, so this competition is excluded by everyone.

In these "big battles", due to Li Xiangping's strong rise, he broke into the semi-finals in all three competitions, which made the overall result of the Chinese team so far look quite good.

The "Toyota Cup" is Li Xiangping and Chang Hao breaking into the semifinals, the "Samsung Cup" is Ma Xiaofei and Li Xiangping breaking into the semifinals, and in the "LC Cup", it is replaced by Li Xiangping and Yu Bin breaking into the semifinals.

In this way, out of a total of 12 semi-final seats, the Chinese team grabbed 6, which is exactly half.

On the other hand, the South Korean team, Li Canghao has been eliminated in the "Samsung Cup", he is still alive in the "Toyota Cup" and "LG Cup", which is considered to have grabbed two of the 12 seats, and Lao Cao entered the "LG Cup" semi-finals, and Xiao Li broke into the "Samsung Cup" semi-finals, so that the South Korean team has only 4 of the 12 semi-final seats, 2 less than the Chinese team.

The other two semi-finals are occupied by Japanese players, in addition to Wang Mingwan Jiudan, who will play Li Xiangping tomorrow, and the other is Kiki Ida, who broke into the semi-finals in the "Samsung Cup".

The performance of the Japanese team is okay, anyway, their decline can be seen clearly by anyone, but this time they were able to overwhelm the Koreans in numbers, which made the domestic media start to get excited, and everyone felt that after being suppressed by Korean Go for so many years, this year finally had the opportunity to turn over and be a master.

In particular, there has been a "Fujitsu Cup" championship before, which makes everyone more confident, and thinks that this year's overall score is better than that of Korean Go, which should still be very promising.

It is precisely for this reason that after entering October, the domestic media began to discuss the issue of "turning over and becoming the master", and it was in this context that the "three major battles" were called out by everyone. And this statement seems to be very popular and lively. No, now even Lao Nie is already quoting this statement, and he is also taking the opportunity to educate his disciples.

Facing Lao Nie's chatter, the honest boy Chang Hao smiled humbly:

"Of course, I will play well, but if I want to say how much confidence I have, I must know that my opponent is Da Li, alas, for so many years, I have lost to numbness."

"Look at your little bit of interest."

It can be seen that Lao Nie was obviously dissatisfied with his disciple's words, and after he hummed a few words of dissatisfaction, he simply ignored Chang Hao, but instead talked to Li Xiangping, and when he talked to Li Xiangping, Lao Nie's tone was much more "kind".

Lao Nie said "kindly" to Li Xiangping:

"At the critical moment, it's still someone who can rely on Xiangping, how about Xiangping, it should be okay this time, right?"

Since Chang Hao's modesty is because of Lao Nie's dissatisfaction, then in this case, of course, Li Xiangping is not good at following modesty, he said to Lao Nie:

"Well, Wang Mingwan's nine-dan chess style is quite weird, and he is a famous strange chess player in today's chess world, I think if he can avoid his familiar routines, then there should still be hope of winning."

"Okay, hahahaha......."

Lao Nie seemed to be very satisfied with Li Xiangping's answer, and after he laughed, he actually turned around and "taught" Chang Hao:

"Chang Hao, listen, listen, do you know what Xiangping is called? This is called domineering, you, you, if you want to say that your kid is good at everything, but there is such a little less domineering, if you want someone to have this kind of temperament, then your current grades will not be like this. ”

Chang Hao didn't know how he felt when he heard this, anyway, Li Xiangping couldn't cry or laugh when he heard it. What I just said was obviously just a cliché, or simply nonsense without any nutrition.

Wang Mingwan's nine-dan is indeed a recognized "strange chess player", and Wang Mingwan's "strangeness" is specifically manifested in his uncommon openings such as "outside the eyes" and "high eyes" at the beginning, or choosing some unusual methods to defend the corners.

Please note what Li Xiangping just said, 'If you can avoid the routines he is familiar with...... then it is obvious that these Go opening things, are you avoidable if you want to avoid them?

So even Li Xiangping himself knows that what he just said is actually nonsense, he can't understand it, how can Lao Nie see the "domineering" from these nonsense?

After a nourishic exchange, everyone arrived at the hotel, and there was no word for a night, and before walking on the field the next day, Li Xiangping said to himself:

"Brother Ding'an, you heard it yesterday, the characteristic of our opponent this time is "weird", I think you should be prepared, right? ”

Lao Shi responded: "Xiangping Xiaoyou, rest assured, Ding'an is ready. ”

Li Xiangping said with a smile: "Okay, Brother Ding'an go down, I'll wait for your good news." ”

Li Xiangping is indeed more at ease with this game, you must know that you don't look at the "seat system" in ancient chess, but only a careful observation knows that in the handicap of ancient chess, the opening of the hand almost never plays the "star position" or "small eye", and more than 90% of the starting hands are "outside the eye" or "high eye".

Lao Shi, as a chess master of ancient chess, may have played more handicap chess in his life than he played against ziga.

In other words, the study of these uncommon moves by chess players like them is definitely much deeper than most people think.

In fact, it was not beyond Li Xiangping's expectations, although Wang Mingwan Jiuduan is known for being "strange", but his strange power is still not comparable to Lao Shi's wrist strength, around 5 o'clock in the afternoon, the overall 262 hands, Lao Shi who holds the white defeated Wang Mingwan with 4 and a half eyes, and once again entered the finals of the World Series.

On the other side, the result was also expected by everyone before the game, and after a hard battle, Chang Hao still lost with a disadvantage of one and a half eyes.

Lao Shi and Li Canghao met for the second time in the World Series finals.