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

After all, it is only the qualifier stage, so the organizers did not hold an opening ceremony or anything, the chess players did not even have to draw lots by themselves, all the group arrangements were arranged by the organizers, except for the two women's groups, the more than 200 male chess players who signed up for the competition were all randomly mixed by the computer, neither seeded players, nor emphasized that the players of the same nationality should not meet in advance.

On the afternoon of the second day after everyone arrived in South Korea, when all the group match arrangements were completed, the deputy head of the Chinese delegation, the head coach of the national junior team, Wu, specially found Li Xiangping:

"Xiangping, the match is arranged, you see this is the situation of your group."

Coach Wu said this as he handed Li Xiangping a match schedule sheet.

"Coach Wu, thank you."

Li Xiangping thanked Coach Wu very politely, and then took over the matchup table. Coach Wu did not take all the matchup schedules, but singled out Group F where Li Xiangping was. This group has a total of 32 players, which means that they must win five consecutive games to win the first place in the group, so as to officially enter the "main tournament" of this year's Samsung Cup.

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

Li Xiangping's first concern is of course his opponent in the first round, judging from the name, he knows that this is a Korean chess player, but Li Xiangping has no impression of this name.

After reading this, Li Xiangping will pay attention to some other situations in this group, and his focus is to look at two, one is to see if there are other Chinese chess players in the same group as him, and the second is to see which more well-known foreign chess players are in this group.

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

"Huh! Mr. Kobayashi? Mr. Kobayashi would have come to participate in such a qualifier. ”

That's right, this chess player that Li Xiangping didn't expect is Kobayashi Koyichi, the former overlord of the Japanese chess world. In the early days of the World Series of Professional Go, it was when Koichi Kobayashi dominated the Japanese chess scene.

It was during that time that Kobayashi achieved 8 consecutive hegemony in Japan's "Chess Holy War", 7 consecutive hegemony in the "Celebrity War", and 6 consecutive hegemony in the "Small Chess Holy War". Kobayashi was notoriously reluctant to participate in the World Series in his early years due to the frequent clash between domestic and international tournaments, but now, he did not expect to come to participate in such a qualifier with a pitiful game fee.

"Hehe, Mr. Kobayashi has now lost all his domestic titles, and the so-called uncrowned body is light, so he has time to play in the international arena."

Coach Wu didn't talk much about Mr. Xiaolin with Li Xiangping, he probably felt that although Mr. Xiaolin was no longer at his peak, no matter how he said it, the skinny camel was bigger than the horse, Li Xiangping and others were not at the same level, and there was Luo Xihe in this group, so it would not be Li Xiangping's turn to stop Xiaolin.

It is based on this consideration that Coach Wu mainly analyzed the first opponent with Li Xiangping:

"Xiangping, do you know anything about this Jin Yuan Liudan?"

Li Xiangping shook his head.

"Hehe, this Jin Yuan Liudan is an old chess player, in terms of generation, he should be the same generation as Lao Cao of South Korea, but his age is about 10 years older than Lao Cao......"

Li Xiangping could see that Coach Wu didn't know much about the situation of Jin Liuduan, so after saying a few words, he patted Li Xiangping on the shoulder affectionately, encouraged him to "go well" tomorrow, and finally explained a detail:

"The game will officially start at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning, remember not to be late, if you are late for the game, the game time will be deducted, and the time will be doubled if you are late, and if you are half an hour late, you will be directly judged to lose."

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

Fortunately, Coach Wu told Li Xiangping about this, because on the second day of the game, Li Xiangping rushed to the arena early, and when he was 5 points away from 10 o'clock, he had already sat in his seat in a proper manner, but he waited left and right, but there was no trace of the opponent.

Sitting like this until half past 10 o'clock, Li Xiangping remembered what Coach Wu said, and he felt that he couldn't just wait stupidly, so he quickly got up and found Coach Wu, and after asking about the situation, Coach Wu also quickly negotiated with the organizer of the event.

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

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

What's the situation? The first time you participated in a professional tournament, did you win your first game of chess in this way without a fight?

Just when Li Xiangping was still a little confused, Coach Wu told him that this situation was normal, and almost every year in the qualifiers, there would be a situation where a chess player would abstain. Coach Wu smiled and said to Li Xiangping:

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

"Huh?"

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 chess players to abstain, especially Korean chess players.

Since the tournament is held in South Korea, Korean chess players do not need to consider the cost of participating in this competition, so many Korean chess players will sign up, but whether they will necessarily come to participate in the competition after signing up is another matter.

"If I'm Kim Hara 6 Dan, when I see that the first opponent is a China 5, then I'm likely to abstain."

Coach Wu continued to smile and said: "First of all, I know what level I have, I know that with my own level, it is definitely impossible to win 5 games in a row in this kind of game to enter this game, so when I meet your industry 5, I will definitely have to think about it, because I know that the chess players who dare to come to participate in this competition, especially the foreign chess players who dare to participate in this competition, then regardless of whether he is professional or amateur, there is basically no good stubble, so if I come to play with you, there is nothing to be proud of if I win." Because you're an amateur, but if you lose, it might be a bit of a problem, because I still have to teach chess for a living, and if people know that I lost to an amateur 5-dan ......."

Speaking of this, Coach Wu didn't continue, but he didn't need to continue, Li Xiangping completely understood what he meant.

Seeing Li Xiangping's expression, Coach Wu smiled and patted him on the shoulder:

"Okay, Xiangping, don't think about it, if you don't have a game today, you can walk around the arena at will, and prepare for tomorrow's game."

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

"Go, go, go."

So in this way, the first professional match 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 with the appearance of a child, no matter where Li Xiangping went, he could always usher in strange eyes.

It was this strange gaze that made Li Xiangping feel unbearable, so after he walked around hastily, he simply ran back to the hotel to rest.

At about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, Chen Yaoyue, who lived in the same room with Li Xiangping, would also come, just looking at his excited expression, Li Xiangping knew that he would definitely win the chess:

"Little leopard, have you taken down your opponent?"

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

Seeing that 11-year-old Chen Yaoyue was serious and modest, Li Xiangping couldn't help laughing again.

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

On the first day of the tournament, the Chinese players were generally not bad, losing only 4 of the 28 games, but this is nothing to be proud of, except for the top seeded players, these 20 players are the essence of the entire Chinese Go, so in the first round to lose 4 people, this result can only be regarded as decent.

Everyone paid more attention to their opponents in the second round, and when it was Li Xiangping's turn, Coach Wu said to him with a smile:

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

Hearing Coach Wu say this, Gu Dali shouted:

"Who's who, who will our "mastery" master meet tomorrow? ”

"One of the "Four Little Heavenly Kings" of South Korea, or the head of the "Four Little Heavenly Kings","

Coach Wu said word by word:

"Choi Myung-hoon."