He immediately rushed to Taizhou, Jiangsu, where the venue was located, but after arriving at the venue, he found that the other contestants had basically arrived.

The lineup of the quarterfinals this time is: Li Xiangping, Ma Xiaofei and Chang Hao of the Chinese team, Lao Cao, Da Li and Da Liu of the South Korean team, and Zhao Zhixun and Wang Licheng of the Japanese team.

Well, on the surface, this set of top eight lineups is very glamorous.

Seven of the eight competitors are former world champions.

The only player who is not yet a world champion is Chang Hao, but he is now the No. 1 Chinese Go player.

Speaking of ratings, Li Xiangping wants to complain, don't look at the fact that he won so many world championships last year, and now he has been regarded by many people as the new king of today's chess world, but his current rating is not high.

In the latest ranking that has just been announced, he didn't even enter the top 10, and only ranked 12th in China.

There is no doubt that as soon as such a rating ranking was announced, it was almost sprayed out by the vast number of melon-eating people, who felt that this thing was too unreliable.

The reason why it looks so unreasonable is that Li Xiangping believes that the main reason is that the Go world never classifies events, and the weight of all games is the same.

Take Li Xiangping as an example, his competition last year was divided into two parts: domestic and international, and the record of the World Series was awesome, but the results of the domestic competition could not be seen. The winning rate in the Weijia arena is only about 40 percent, plus he will lose in the international arena, such as 3 to 2 like some time ago, his rating score actually can't go up much.

It's because of these reasons that his rating has not been able to rise.

You must know that when he was promoted to the ninth dan and set his initial rating score, he was originally given according to the ordinary nine-dan score, which was a lot less than others, so now, he is called the "contemporary chess king" who is less than 16 years old, but on the other hand, the rating score is only ranked 12, and he is still ranked 12th in China.

Of course, Li Xiangping's situation is rather strange, belonging to the kind of more extreme imagination, and it can be said that it is precisely because of his extreme situation that some of the irrationalities of the grading system have been infinitely magnified.

It is said that after the announcement of the ranking in the first quarter of this year, the management of the chess academy suddenly felt a lot of pressure, not only the management was under great pressure, but even some chess players with ratings in front of Li Xiangping also felt a lot of pressure. It is reported that, in response to strong demands, the management is ready to make some changes to the current grading system.

And the most important correction is actually to consider grading the event and giving different weights to different competitions.

To be honest, this is actually a troublesome matter, after all, the situation in the Go world is relatively special, and there is no more authoritative international unified organization, so it is actually difficult to let the Chinese Go Association do this alone.

For example, you can set a weight for domestic league competitions, and even for all world competitions, but how do you decide for domestic competitions in Japan and South Korea?

Which level do you think is higher in Japan's "Honinbo Battle" or South Korea's "National Player Fight"? Which game should be weighted more?

Judging from the difficulty of the current competition, it seems that the difficulty of South Korea's "national hand battle" is greater, but what about the prize money compared to the competition? Japan's "Honinbo War" is N times higher than it.

It is precisely because of these specific technical problems that the Go world has unanimously lacked a relatively authoritative ranking system.

Not to mention the present, even in the real history, even in the later generations, when Li Xiangping crossed over, the world chess world has always lacked a more credible ranking system.

Li Xiangping remembers that before he crossed over, everyone quoted a ranking made by a Korean doctor himself, but to be honest, that ranking was a little higher than the average pheasant ranking.

Even the doctor himself said that the ranking "only represents his personal opinion".

After complaining about the ratings, Li Xiangping put this matter aside and focused on the next game.

After all, in his opinion, this thing actually doesn't mean much, and the rating score is not linked to the salary bonus, ranking first will not give him an extra penny, and now ranking 12th, it seems that he will not lose half a penny.

The only role of the domestic rating may be to determine qualification for certain qualifiers.

And when it comes to qualifying..... What kind of joke is that, Li Xiangping thinks that if he really needs to reconsider the issue of the qualifiers, then he will simply retire, and dare to think of joining forces with Lao Shi to fight dogs.

“...... Recently, I have been learning Li Xiangping's chess, as everyone said, he is indeed a genius who is not born, I was deeply shocked by his talent, in fact, not only me, I tell you that now in the whole of Japan, there are many people who are fascinated by Li Xiangping's Go, for example, some time ago I went to visit Mr. Fujisawa Hideyuki, do you know what Mr. Fujisawa is doing in the sickbed? He was playing Xiangping's chess, and said that he was now old and his body had collapsed, otherwise he would have seen Xiangping with his own eyes and listened to his teachings...... Hehe, I'm not kidding, that's what Mr. told me at the time, and Mr. also said that compared to other people's Go, Xiangping's Go is not in the same dimension at all......"

“..... So this time I had the honor to ask Xiangping for advice, I felt very happy and excited, I didn't think about the victory or defeat, I just hope that I can play as much as possible, and don't lose too badly while learning the opponent's tricks......."

That's right, the above is Wang Licheng's "pre-game speech" in Jiuduan, Wang Licheng Jiuduan has always been a gentle gentleman, so it is not surprising that he is so modest.

However, although he spoke in a low-key manner, if anyone dared to underestimate Wang Jiuduan at this time, it would be a big mistake.

When Mr. Wang Licheng said this, although Li Xiangping kept smiling and applauding, he didn't dare to relax in his heart.

Don't look at the top eight lineup this time, Wang Licheng seems to be the least famous, even Chang Hao, the only non-world champion, is now more famous than him.

However, now he is Japan's "chess master" plus "ten dan" plus "throne".

He is the first person in the Japanese chess world today.

Not only does he have a great record in Japan, but he is also quite capable in the international arena.

In real history, before Li Xiangping's crossing, Japan only had three two-time chess players, the first was Mr. Masaki Takemiya, who won the first two "Fujitsu Cups" and the first four "Asian Cups" four times in a row.

When Takemiya won the championship, it was still in the initial stage of the World Professional Championship, and the Japanese Go at that time was quite awesome, so it was not surprising that everyone was surprised by Takemiya's record at that time, and he was not able to overwhelm Kobayashi Koichi and Zhao Zhixun because of this record at that time.

And at that time, no one could have imagined that Takemiya's record would become the best record of a Japanese chess player in the international arena in the next few decades.

The second two-time chess player is Zhao Zhixun, Lao Zhao's first championship was won in the final of the fourth "Fujitsu Cup", relying on Qian Yuping's abstention. His second championship, in Li Xiangping's impression, seems to be this year's "Samsung Cup", he defeated South Korea's Dapu to win the championship.

In addition to these two veteran super-first-class players who are now considered "ancient times", Japan's third two-time chess player is Li Xiangping's opponent Wang Licheng this time.

Once he defeated Ma Xiaofei to win the championship in the 2nd "Chunlan Cup", and the other time, it seems that he defeated Liu Chonghe to win the championship in the "LG Cup".

The timing of his championship has occurred in his peak in recent years.

In addition to being a two-time World Champion, he has also reached the finals of the World Series several times.

The first time was 10 years ago, when he reached the final of the 5th Fujitsu Cup, when he lost to Otake Hero, and the most recent time was the last "Chunlan Cup", where he lost to Liu Chonghe and was the runner-up.

So this is an opponent who can stay in good shape for a long time.

This is an opponent who is currently at his best personal level.

Not only that, but this seems to be a chess player who is more "fateful" with the "Chunlan Cup".

To say that Li Xiangping is good at this, because he is familiar with the development of the world chess scene in recent decades, and even knows the ups and downs of almost all the more well-known chess players in this period, so after drawing such an opponent this time, others may look down on him because of his absolute fame, but Li Xiangping will not.

Not only does he not, but he even thinks that compared to others, this signing is actually quite average-----

After all, whether it is the three kings of South Korea or Lao Zhao of Japan, Lao Shi has won against them, so if they fight here, they will definitely have a slight advantage in momentum.

And Wang Licheng Jiuduan is the first time to encounter it, he will not be at any disadvantage psychologically in the game, so don't look at him talking so modestly, asking for advice and "never thinking about winning" and the like, but whoever wants to take it seriously will lose.

Of course, although Li Xiangping will not underestimate his opponent, it does not mean that he is afraid of Wang Licheng.

After all, he is a person who has really relied on his own strength to defeat Da Li, so Li Xiangping now positions himself:

Relying only on one's own words, it is certainly nonsense to say "dominance" and the like.

However, now relying on his own strength, he should be able to wrestle with any human chess player in the current service.

Maybe you're still at a disadvantage against some players, but by now, you have the potential to beat any human player.

There is no doubt that meeting Wang Licheng at such a stage is a good touchstone, so after the "pre-game speech" ended, Li Xiangping quickly shook his spirits, and he wanted to try what he was.