ended the semi-finals of the "Chunlan Cup", and the time came to September of 03.

Well, now is the day of the opening of primary and secondary schools in China, and from now on, Li Xiangping will also become a glorious sophomore in high school.

Of course, a scumbag like him, of course, doesn't have the heart to go back to study, not to mention that after entering September, it will be considered the peak season of the competition within a year, and there are many competitions waiting for him.

On the second day after returning to Beijing, Zhang Wendong Jiuduan from the Competition Department of the Chess Academy approached him and told him that the preliminary selection for this year's domestic "celebrity battle" would start in early September, and asked him to confirm whether he wanted to participate.

"Where?"

"Hey, this time it's in the chess academy, the qualifiers have already been compared, isn't it because of SARS, this year has only dragged on until now, Xiangping, you have never participated in these competitions in the past, so I came here to confirm."

Li Xiangping listened and nodded, the title battles of this kind in China are actually learned from Japan, and they are usually divided into three stages: "Qualifier", "This Competition", and "Challenge".

The "Challenge" is the final round. The "tournament" is the round of 32 or the round of 16, which consists of the players who played in the qualifiers plus the top players or the top players in the previous tournament.

As for the qualifiers, in the early years, they still need to have a certain number of qualifications, but after entering the new century, all professional chess players can sign up to participate. It's just that like these domestic title battles, although the name is good, the prize money of the game is not high.

Take this "celebrity battle" as an example, the organizer of this competition is still the party newspaper "Mass Daily", but even before Li Xiangping crossed, the championship prize of this competition was only 200,000 RMB, and the runner-up was only 80,000 yuan.

How few champions and runners-up are, then the game bonus of "this game" and the game cost of "qualifiers" can be imagined.

It is precisely for this reason that in fact, the vast majority of professional chess players in China do not attach much importance to this type of competition, belonging to the Chinese New Year's Eve to play a rabbit, more can be without, the real rice bowl still depends on the "armor".

It is precisely for this reason that Li Xiangping did not participate in this type of competition in the past-----

First, this kind of competition needs to run around, which is inconvenient to participate, and second, most chess players will not pay too much attention to this kind of competition, since others do not pay attention to it, it is not of high value to Li Xiangping. The third and most important reason: Li Xiangping in the past knew that his strength was not good, and he had little hope of winning the championship, so he simply did not participate in the past.

But this time it was different.

First of all, he agreed to participate in this competition before, that was when he was bored in his hometown some time ago, he promised Zhang Wendong Jiudan to participate in this competition.

Secondly, this game is held in the Chinese Chess Academy this time, anyway, in Li Xiangping's view, it has already started school, if you don't go to play chess, then you have to go to class, then there is no doubt that playing chess is better than class.

The third and most important reason: the current "celebrity" is still Ma Xiaofei, and in real history, he has been 13 consecutive hegemons and was taken away from his title this year, so considering the hatred of last year's "Samsung Cup", of course, there is nothing to say, Li Xiangping wants to see if he can seize this opportunity.

"Okay, Mr. Zhang, I'll go to this competition, by the way, when will the competition start?"

"Okay, okay, hey, Xiangping, you confirm the participation early, if you want to confirm it early, then the sponsor will be easier to find a lot, the game will start on the 3rd, by the way, the qualifiers have a total of 4 rounds, the first 3 rounds a day, there is a rest day between the 3rd round and the 4th round, if you can pass the qualifiers, "this competition" will start on the 25th of this month, this competition has a total of 5 rounds, 5 rounds of one-time competition until the challenger is decided, but the final challenge has not yet been determined. ”

This is Li Xiangping, so Zhang Wendong will introduce it in such detail in nine paragraphs.

"Thank you, Mr. Zhang."

"Hehe's okay, okay Xiangping, I'll leave first if there's nothing else, remember to come to the competition on time."

"Okay, goodbye, Mr. Zhang."

After sending Zhang Wendong away, Li Xiangping began to think about this month's competition, if you add the "celebrity battle", then he will have more games this month.

This month, there are a total of 5 rounds of "Wai Jia", of which two are in the capital and three are in the field.

There are 2 sets of international matches, including the "Samsung Cup" round of 16 in the middle of this month, and the "LG Cup" round of 8 matches on the 22nd of this month, which means that if he can pass the "celebrity battle" qualifiers, he will go to participate in the "celebrity battle" tournament immediately after returning from South Korea.

"Hehe, Brother Ding'an, how about discussing something with you?"

"What?"

"Didn't we say before, you are responsible for the "Chunlan Cup" this time, but now I think, since the opponent in this final is a domestic chess player, then we don't have to be so strict, how about we switch the game? "Chunlan Cup" you let me play one or two games, but this time the "celebrity battle" is up to you to play one or two games, what does Brother Ding'an think? ”

Li Xiangping also thinks about it this way, and it can be seen from this semi-final that Lao Shi is still a person, and he still has the problem of ups and downs.

Since there are still ups and downs in form, it is better to let him play an official game or two every month than to let him play the next game every few months.

"Hehe, it's okay, you can do whatever you want, by the way, Xiangping Xiaoyou, aren't there still two chess games this month, why don't you replace them with these two games?"

"Hahaha, Brother Ding'an, you know, these two games are unthinkable."

Li Xiangping laughed, how could he be willing to change these two sets of international matches, and now, winning a championship that is completely his own is his biggest wish at the moment, and it can also be said to be his only goal in the near future.

As far as this year is concerned, the "Fujitsu Cup" has ended, the "Chunlan Cup" does not need to be mentioned, the "Toyota Cup" is held every two years this year, and the "Yingshi Cup" is also not held every four years this year.

There are only two chances, and those two competitions are held by the Koreans.

In this case, Li Xiangping has already regarded these two competitions as his own land, how can he be willing to let his plug-in get involved.

Thinking of this, Li Xiangping himself was a little emotional, a year ago, he was still worried that Lao Shi's quota of 15 rounds was not enough every day, but now, he has to worry about Lao Shi's quota not being used up, and he has to deliberately arrange some games to keep him in shape, such a change is indeed a bit big.

"It's just a pity, what kind of competition should I use to practice the "combination of two swords" now......"

It was with such emotion that on the 3rd, Li Xiangping went to the chess academy to participate in the "celebrity battle" pre-selection.

After coming to the chess academy, he found that today's chess academy is very lively, not only there are chess players who participate in the pre-selection of "celebrity battles", but even many chess players who do not need to participate in the budget at all, such as Chang Hao, Gu Dali and other top 5 chess players in the ranking.

"Hey Brother Gu, why are you here today?"

"You play your qualifiers, and we want to play our qualifiers,"

Gu Dali smiled and said to Li Xiangping: "The pre-selection of the Nongshim Cup also started today. ”

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