Time flies, and 2002 is fast approaching. In the middle of January, the 4th "Chunlan Cup" World Professional Go Championship was grandly opened in Beijing, and Li Xiangping attended the opening ceremony held at the China Chess Academy as a free-of-choice chess player.

The "Chunlan Cup" is an invitational tournament, not as large as the open tournament, with only 24 players participating, with the top 8 players seeded in the second round and the other 16 players competing for the other 8 top 16 spots. Therefore, although Li Xiangping is exempt from selection, he did not have a ranking in the last session, so he also has to participate in the first round of the competition.

Since this is a competition held in the mainland, the number of Chinese chess players is naturally a little more, including Li Xiangping, there are as many as 9 Chinese chess players participating in this competition, 5 from Japan and South Korea, and 5 representatives from other regions.

Among all the participating Chinese chess players, no, perhaps among all the participating chess players, Li Xiangping is the most concerned, not to mention that the reporters of the domestic media basically focus their cameras on him, and the Japanese and South Korean media and even those foreign chess players who do not know Li Xiangping also frequently pay attention to him.

The youngest world champion, the once-in-a-century genius in the world chess world, and the youngest participating chess player in this tournament, it should be said that these things have enough reasons for Li Xiangping to attract attention.

The key is not only these, but another important reason; This supernova in the world chess world, who rose last year, seems to have returned to silence after a whirlwind in the "Samsung Cup", no, it is not an exaggeration to say that he was beaten back to his original form.

Last year's 5-8 in the national individual competition is okay, after all, there is an excuse to say that it is "hand-born", isn't it? And although he only has 5 wins, these 5 wins seem to have a lot of gold, and the champions and runners-up of the competition were all defeated by him.

However, in the "Tianyuan War" competition that just ended a few days ago, Li Xiangping's performance was severely criticized.

There is no qualifier for the domestic "Tianyuan Tournament", Li Xiangping started directly from the top 64, he won 2 games in this game, and then was eliminated by Luo Xihe in the 16-8 game, missing the top 8 of this year's "Tianyuan Battle".

Obviously, his result does not meet everyone's expectations, you must know that since becoming China's second world champion after Ma Xiaofei, he has high expectations, such as last year's championship, some media recognized him as "the savior of Chinese Go".

Now the dignified "savior" can't even enter the top 8 of an ordinary title battle?

Not only that, but the technical level he showed in this "Tianyuan War" was also questioned by experts. For example, Lao Nie, don't look at his personal relationship with Li Xiangping, it seems to be very good, but after watching Li Xiangping's 3 games of chess in 'Tianyuan War', he wrote a special article to write a chess review in a sports media.

The chess critics criticized Li Xiangping harshly, saying "shocked", "unbelievable", "off the mark", and "completely throwing stones", such words filled the entire chess review.

Another giant in the Chinese chess world, Ma Xiaofei Jiuduan, also spoke out, he did not write a chess review, but said in an interview with reporters, saying that he felt very confused, because Li Xiangping's performance in these three games of chess did not meet the level of a world champion at all......

It is under this premise that Li Xiangping will immediately participate in this "Chunlan Cup", so it is natural that he will receive extraordinary attention.

Li Xiangping looked like everything was business as usual.

Of course, he is not ignorant of the discussion and criticism from the outside world, but he doesn't pay attention to it at all, and it can even be said that he has been prepared for a long time---- since he knew that his plug-in is a "restricted" plug-in, he has been prepared for this.

In fact, from his heart, he was satisfied with his performance in the "Tianyuan War", these 3 games were all played by himself, not only won two sets, even if he lost to Luo Xihe's game, judging from the dismantling after the game, he also had a chance to win in the game, but after all, his strength was not good and he didn't grasp it.

However, from no chance to a chance, from being powerless to barely being able to fight back, Li Xiangping saw his own progress.

In just a few months, there has been such obvious progress, and Li Xiangping certainly has nothing to dissatisfaction with.

Not only will he not be dissatisfied, but he is also faintly excited now, because now it is Lao Shi's turn to make a move, as long as Lao Shi makes a move, he will definitely win the championship, but he will definitely face a lot less doubts.

It is precisely for this reason that when Li Xiangping and other participating chess players stood on the stage, he also introduced other participating chess players with great interest, mainly those that Lao Shi did not know before:

“..... Brother Ding'an, that person is Mr. Lin Haifeng, he is Mr. Wu Qingyuan's tall feet, Mr. Lin is also an evergreen in the chess world, now in his 50s, and still maintains a very good competitive state, although the hope of winning the championship is not big, but the quarterfinals and semi-finals are still commonplace for him now, and he has a nickname called "two waists", which means that his chess style is thick and his ability to resist blows is super strong......."

“...... Brother Ding'an, see that young man who is lonely like snow and standing there like a lone wolf, yes, he is the Lee Sedol I mentioned to you, and he is also one of the chess players who needs the most attention in this tournament......"

However, before Li Xiangping finished his introduction, Chang Hao, who was standing next to him, pushed him:

"Xiangping, Xiangping, don't be stunned, the host asked you to go up and say a few words." It turned out that it was time for the chess players to testify.

Li Xiangping walked to the front desk and smiled at everyone:

"Some time ago, I had a bit of a problem, so I won't say anything like trying my best in the game, because I believe that any participating chess player will definitely do his best in this high-level world competition, I just want to say: I am not here to play soy sauce in this "Chunlan Cup". ”

As soon as Li Xiangping's words came out, there was a buzz in the entire venue.

Li Xiangping came over for a long time to react, it seems that such a classic golden sentence as "playing soy sauce" has not yet appeared in this era, do you want to lead a wave of Internet terminology trends?

Leading the way is not the point, the focus is on the next game. I don't know if it's a coincidence or a deliberate arrangement, Li Xiangping's first-round opponent is precisely Mr. Lin Haifeng. This is the match between the oldest and youngest of the 24 participating players. Mr. Hayashi is also a world champion, and he is the winner of the 3rd Fujitsu Cup.

Therefore, in the first round, the collision of the old and new champions in this game is still quite eye-catching.

Because this is China's priority, so when the game began, a large number of chess players and reporters gathered in the viewing room, and in a usual training room on the second floor of the chess academy, everyone took Lao Nie as the center to study the chess game of the game.

Although there are 9 Chinese chess players participating in this year's "Chunlan Cup", 5 have byes, so there are only 4 Chinese players in the first round.

In addition to Li Xiangping's game, Yu Bin played against an American player, Ding Wei played against a Chinese Taipei player, and Kong Erjie played against a European player. Naturally, the Chinese research laboratories must be focused on Li Xiangping's game of chess.

"No, the state is worrying, I really don't know what's going on with Li Xiangping now?"

When the plate was sealed at noon, Lao Nie expressed such an emotion in the research room. However, as the closest bystander, Li Xiangping felt normal.

If there is any weakness in his plug-in, it may be that for modern chess, Lao Shi's weakness is mainly reflected in the layout.

Just like the game of chess against Mr. Masao Kato in the second round of the "Samsung Cup" last year, in the face of these old Japanese super-first-class, Lao Shi could not take advantage of the modern layout.

Compared with Mr. Kato Masao, Mr. Lin's layout skills are better, he is one of the few chess players of the older generation who can compete with Lao Nie in terms of layout, so he is not advantageous or even slightly worse for today's start, whether it is Li Xiangping or Lao Shi, in fact, they are mentally prepared.

There's really not much to say about the course of this game, just like the usual routine for young players to beat old players. Don't look at Lao Shi, this guy is hundreds of years older than Mr. Lin, but he behaves like a young man on the chessboard.

After the start of the afternoon competition, the research room could no longer hear the voice of criticizing Li Xiangping, and some only sighed and praised:

"Yo! This move is sharp, from an unexpected place to kill the general, tsk, seeing this kind of chess I can only say, young people's health is really good, young is good......"

"Oh? What's next? It's a good move, it's good, it's good, it seems that Xiangping's state is recovering well today, this move is a bit flavorful....."

"Huh?! Next this! How tough, let's do the math, let's see if this move is established, if it is established, then I will praise Li Xiangping, and I will not be soft at the critical time, this is the proper attitude of winning and losing......"

"Huh? What does Mr. Lin mean by this move, and does anyone understand what this move means? Why do I think this is a dead move......"

"Okay, call it a day, there is no suspense in this chess, Mr. Lin is also a pity to say it, it was a good situation, and the overall situation was buried in a few inconspicuous steps......"

At about 5 o'clock in the afternoon, the whole game ended, and Li Xiangping nodded politely to Mr. Lin Haifeng:

"Sir confessed."

After losing the chess, Mr. Lin also seemed relatively calm, he calmly reviewed with Li Xiangping, calmly discussed the overall gains and losses, and said a lot of praise and encouragement during the period, showing the cultivation of a great chess player.

The first round of the game ended uneventfully, except for his game, the other 3 games were clearly distinguished, which led to all 9 Chinese players entering the top 16, and the other 7 places were divided between Japan and South Korea. It is worth mentioning that the Japanese players of this era are actually quite able to play, at least better than later generations, and they also grabbed three places in the round of 16.

The focus is on the 2nd round, and when the draw was made and Li Xiangping's opponent in the 2nd round was confirmed, even he himself smiled.

Lee Sedol!

His opponent in the 2nd round is Lee Sedol!

"Hehe, I just said something about the "Xiao Li dispute", but I didn't expect it to happen. ”