At the end of September, the 15th Chinese Professional Go "Celebrity Battle" was held at the China Chess Academy.

"This tournament" is actually the top 32 battles, by 20 pre-selected chess players plus 12 seeded players, 32 people through 5 rounds of single elimination to compete for the right to challenge, the winner will play five games with Ma Xiaofei, and the final winner will become this year's Chinese Go "celebrity".

The competition started at 10 a.m. Beijing time, and on the first match day, Li Xiangping came to the chess academy relatively early because he lived relatively close. A little after 9:30, he appeared at the door of the training hall on the second floor of the chess academy, which is also the venue for today's competition.

"Damn, why are there so many people today!"

Li Xiangping is indeed a little strange, it is said that there are 16 games to be played today, so the chess academy must be more lively, but today's meeting is ..... It was much more lively than he had imagined.

"It's normal to have a lot of people," it was reporter Xie of Sports Weekly who heard Li Xiangping muttering in a low voice, and he explained to Li Xiangping with a smile:

"Our people are basically here for you, firstly, you rarely participate in domestic title battles except for the armor, and secondly, didn't you make a declaration of winning the championship before the game, then we don't want to come over and have a look."

Well, the first reason is barely plausible, but the second reason is it.....

"Hu ..... Nonsense, when did I make a championship announcement?"

"So not?" While Li Xiangping and Lao Xie were chatting there, some other reporters surrounded them, including reporter Zhang Da and Lao Jia of West China Metropolis Daily.

Lao Jia casually took out some paper media and smiled at Li Xiangping:

"Xiangping, see for yourself."

...... "Celebrity Battle" qualifiers surprised Li Xiangping! Having almost never competed in a domestic title fight, he actually appeared in this competition, and his terrifying iron hooves were ready to start trampling on the domestic stage.....

“...... Li Xiangping participated in the "Celebrity Battle", which was his first appearance in the domestic title fight, and he had already passed the pre-selection to win the championship......"

“..... Li Xiangping: Ma Xiaofei has been on the throne of "celebrity" for too long, and it's time to ask him to step aside this year......"

“...... I want to get rid of the hat of "civil war layman", and for any chess player, the runner-up is equivalent to defeat, and the upcoming Chinese Go celebrity battle, Li Xiangping made the strongest sound......"

Well, the above is a normal article, just make up it in your brain, and you can know that on the Internet and self-media, there is no need to list more exaggerated rhetoric than this.

Li Xiangping was happy while watching, he only paid attention to the discussions of Chinese and Korean chess fans about the "Chunlan Cup" and "LC Cup" during this time, but he didn't find that this domestic "celebrity war" had made such a big move.

"it...... I said that you people are also playing Go, and it is said that the style will be a little more elegant, but now it seems that I completely overestimate you. ”

Seeing how wide Li Xiangping's attack was, the reporters present were a little reluctant, and the Beijing News reporter Guo took the lead in making a difficulty:

"Hey Xiangping, although you are an unborn Go genius, but geniuses can't talk nonsense, what's wrong with our Go reporter's discipline, that report doesn't speak with facts."

"Hehe, Sister Guo, you're embarrassed to say that I'm talking nonsense, I think your reports are nonsense, right? Look at it, what else is it to win the championship, have I ever said such a thing? It's really made up like the real thing. ”

"You said it."

"I didn't."

Seeing that Li Xiangping and the beautiful reporter began to quarrel, Lao Jia came over to pull the shelf:

"Okay, okay, Xiangping, since you just said that our Go reporters are more elegant, and now you say that we are talking nonsense, then there is no way, we can only reason with you, now let's come one sentence at a time, you see if we are talking nonsense, let me ask you the first question first, when I interviewed you in the Weijia arena a week ago, did you say that you are going to get rid of the hat of the layman of the civil war this year?"

"This ..... Yes. ”

Of course, Li Xiangping can't deny this, because when Lao Jia interviewed him, his record in the armor this year had reached 9 wins and 4 losses, and just over half of the game, his victory had already surpassed that of last year, which of course made Li Xiangping very satisfied, so after winning chess, it was of course reasonable for him to say such a sentence casually.

"But this is ...... to win the celebrity battle"

But before he could finish speaking, Lao Jia continued to speak: "Okay, since you admit it, okay, the second question, Xiangping remembers that when you participated in the "LG Cup" quarterfinals, everyone inadvertently talked about this year's celebrity battle, did you tell everyone that you think Mr. Ma is estimated to be difficult to defend this year's title?" ”

Speaking of which, Lao Jia also turned to reporter Xie of the Sports Weekly:

"I remember Xiao Xie was there at the time, right?"

Since there are witnesses present, Li Xiangping certainly can't deny it. In fact, he is not ready to deny it, after all, Ren Ma Xiaofei Jiuduan is now "promoted" to the leader of the Ma team, and he is already ready to play Happy Go.

There is a saying in the Go world: if you don't practice for one day, you will know your opponent if you don't practice for two days, and if you don't practice for three days, the people of the world will know.

And Ma Xiaofei's current situation, in fact, belongs to the stage of "the opponent knows", don't look at him less than a year ago when he was the world champion, but for this "celebrity battle", ordinary chess fans may not know about it, and they will think that "Ma Mingming" still has the power to fight.

However, for Ma Xiaofei Jiuduan himself, as well as for Li Xiangping, a national team player who is on the front line, he knows this matter: he will definitely hand over the title of "celebrity" this year.

"I just said that Mr. Ma might hand over the title, but I didn't say that I ...... myself."

It's a pity that he didn't wait for Li Xiangping to finish defending himself, and a personal mending knife jumped out next to him, this time the mending knife was replaced by Zhang Da reporter, and this guy is still wilted:

"Okay, okay, I think you don't have to embarrass people Xiangping, people are about to compete, I'll ask one more question, now is the last question: Xiangping, tell me the truth, have you told me: For you, and even for all professional chess players, being runner-up means failure?"

“......”

Li Xiangping was speechless, he was completely speechless now, of course he had said all of the above, and said them separately, but what kind of arrogance did he say about winning the championship......

Well, if these words are connected, then now even Li Xiangping himself is a little convinced: he really said that he must win the championship in the "celebrity battle" this time.

"I said.... I'm talking about you guys," Li Xiangping scolded with a smile: "It's a pity not to go to Wenchun Weekly to work." ”

Reporter Xie in the sports world said: "Wenchun is a model for my generation, and we have always demanded ourselves according to the standards of Wenchun Weekly." ”

Li Xiangping had nothing to say at all, so he had to continue to laugh and scold: "Hehe, thank you, reporter, you cow, you cow..... Okay, stay away from me, don't interfere with my game. ”

To make a noun annotation here, the "Wenchun Weekly" mentioned by Li Xiangping is a gossip magazine in Japan. Well, this gossip magazine actually has nothing to say, if you follow the entertainment industry and have heard of Zhuo Wei, then it is much easier to explain. You must know that when Mr. Zhuo's reputation was at its peak, he was known as the "Chinese Wenchun-----

And this is not what others call him, but his self-proclaimed, he has such a vest on the Internet.

As a magazine that has been published for nearly 60 years, Fumiharu is an authority on gossip in Japan, and has made celebrities all over Japan look different. From the emperor's extravagance to the artist's scandals, they are all within the scope of the weekly Wenchun's revelations.

Well, the most awesome thing about "Wenchun Weekly" is that even as a "victim", Japanese artists will use "Wenchun never tells lies" as a weapon to hurt each other in the show.

Tsk, Li Xiangping must tell the truth here, in fact, compared with "Wenchun", many gossip magazines or tabloids of the same kind are much inferior, such as the British "Sun" and the like.

The biggest difference is that reporters like "The Sun" like to concoct or make up gossip news by themselves, but "Wenchun" never does this, they basically state the facts, and then all the rest is made up by the melon-eating masses.

This is actually the highest level of gossip, because the things that the people who eat melons believe most are always things made up by their own brains, this is the first, the second: you must know that the imagination of the people is infinite, and the things that most people's brains make up are definitely much more wonderful than the things made up by reporters.

"Wenchun" has grasped such an essence, so they have been able to stand in Japan for more than 60 years, and until Li Xiangping crossed, the gossip magazine was still thriving.

Lao Jia and Reporter Xie actually used the trick of "Wenchun" against Li Xiangping today, but Li Xiangping didn't care about it.

After all, although the game is a niche sport, there is one thing that still makes sense with other popular projects: that is, if the game is a competitive sport, then the project needs superstars.

Lao Nie has been the biggest superstar of Chinese Go in the past 15 years, and his personal influence has long gone beyond the scope of the Go world.

Similar to Lao Nie, Lao Cao was once a superstar of Korean Go.

Even going further, when Mr. Wu Qingyuan and Xiuya went to the "Battle of the Century" in the last century, the newspaper that serialized chess scores was robbed by people, reaching the level of "Luoyang paper is expensive".

The above is the role of superstars in the project, and it is precisely because of the existence of these chess players that the game of Go is more popular and influential.

Of course, Li Xiangping knows that these reporters in the Go world are preparing to package themselves as a new generation of superstars, to tell the truth, although Li Xiangping is not ready, but for the sake of the Go project, he will not resist too much.

It was in this kind of cranky thinking that the time for the game came, and Li Xiangping's first game in this year's "Celebrity Battle" officially began.