On August 18, at the Capital International Airport, Li Xiangping and other members of the Chinese delegation prepared to go to South Korea to participate in the 7th "Samsung Cup".

"Li Xiangping, what kind of thing did you put down yesterday? Well, it stinks! It stinks. ”

Up to now, people who can criticize Li Xiangping can't say no, but they can say it so ugly, so straightforward, and so ruthless in public, of course, only Lao Nie.

Well, Lao Nie is the head of the Chinese delegation this time, and the game of chess he said is actually a round of armor that just ended the day before, Li Xiangping was defeated again by Gu Dali, and was killed by others this season.

This is the third game Li Xiangping has lost in this year's Weijia, and it is also the first official game he has lost in nearly four months since April-----

Although he hasn't played many games in the past few months, after all, it's a wave of winning streaks that have been terminated, isn't it? Therefore, in the boring time of waiting for the plane, Lao Nie took it out to talk about it.

Listening to Lao Nie's words, the other participating chess players snickered, Li Xiangping himself laughed, and he also deliberately looked at Gu Dali----

He and six other Chinese chess players passed this year's qualifiers, plus Ma Xiaofei and Li Xiangping, the champions and runners-up of the previous competition, forming the Chinese team lineup for this competition.

"Yes, I'm also a little puzzled now, why can't I win Brother Gu now? Teacher Nie, give me a pulse, where do you think I lost yesterday? ”

"What's the pulse? You were a complete mess yesterday, well, what do you say? There's really nothing to say, is the chess you played yesterday called it, floating, I think you're really a little floaty now......."

Li Xiangping was happy, and he didn't take Lao Nie's words too seriously. To be honest, for yesterday's game of chess, Li Xiangping still has points in his heart.

Didn't he think that not long ago, he could completely suppress Lee Sedol with his strength within 170 hands, so he wanted to try it on Gu Dali, since these two are known as "peerless double pride", Li Xiangping wanted to weigh this one again after weighing it.

However, after weighing this he found that it was not the case at all, not that Gu Dali's strength was greater than Xiao Li's, but the two of them had completely different power points, compared to Xiao Li's sword going sideways, Gu Dali's chess was relatively positive, and Li Xiangping thought that Gu Dali's chess might be more in line with chess theory.

It is precisely because of this difference in style that two completely different results have been caused. Li Xiangping also resisted Gu vigorously yesterday, but he found that he couldn't take advantage of it, and in a hurry, he began to win and lose frequently, that is, Lao Nie said that he began to "mess around", so in this way, he played less than 200 chess, and he was defeated in a hurry.

"Well, to deal with Dali like this, it seems that you really can't resist him, at least you can't resist him in the case of obvious unreasonable fighting, if you want to take him like this, it seems that you have to take another way, so what is the most suitable way? There are two ready-made ones, one is to learn Xiao Li's feminine way, and the second is of course to learn from Chen Yaoyue, his "ditch flow" seems to have a good effect on Gu Dali...... Well, it seems that in the next period of time, it seems that you can also practice and cultivate these evil demons in Go, although these things are not the right way, but there is no harm in practicing after all, besides, isn't it often said in martial arts that "from the devil to the Tao", what if I also enter the Tao from the devil......"

Well, Li Xiangping was thinking about something about "entering the Tao from the devil", the flight took off, and at 5 o'clock in the afternoon of the same day, the group arrived in Seoul, South Korea.

The "Samsung Cup" is the most favorite Go World Championship, and this year, the organizers have played a new trick, that is, what has been added to the "group stage".

In other words, the 32 participating players are divided into 8 groups, with 4 players in each group, and the group stage adopts the "double elimination" rule, and the top 2 players in the group enter the round of 16.

Compared with the ordinary single-elimination system, Li Xiangping thinks that there is nothing else, the biggest feature of this competition system is actually to increase the probability of meeting with national chess players, after all, the whole world is China, Japan and South Korea, the three Go powers, so in the case of 4 people in each group, the probability of encountering domestic chess players is greatly increased.

"Haha Xiangping, how do I feel that this format is specifically for you."

"Against me? Mr. Ma, what do you mean? ”

Ma Xiaofei said with a smile: "Don't others say that you are a layman in the civil war, so the format like this ..... You know. ”

Li Xiangping laughed when he heard it, Lao Nie and other Chinese chess players also laughed when they heard it, everyone knows that this is of course just a joke, although the Koreans have a very poor character in the competitive field, but such a mentally retarded thing, then Li Xiangping believes that they still can't do it, at least the Korean Go world can't do it.

After arriving in South Korea, everyone did not rest much, and the group group lottery was held that night.

Because this is the first time this kind of tournament has been adopted, the grouping situation is relatively simple and crude, and the top 8 players in the last edition are directly divided into 8 groups, and as the seeded players in the 8 groups, the other participating players are randomly drawn.

Ma Xiaofei is the defending champion, so he is placed in the first group, while Li Xiangping, as the runner-up of the previous edition, is placed in the last group, which is Group H.

Since he didn't have to go up to draw lots, after the group draw began, Li Xiangping didn't care about anything else, mainly to see who would be in a group with him.

After a while, the first player to draw an "H" appeared, Japan's Naoki Hane.

Well, Li Xiangping thinks this is a good sign, after all, although Hane Kudan has also been Japan's "chess saint", he may be the weakest "chess saint", and another Yamashita Keigo often delivers food in the international arena, to put it mildly, the character that Japanese Go has accumulated for hundreds of years is actually defeated in the hands of a few of them.

After a while, the second player to enter the "H" group appeared, and he frowned slightly when he saw this Li Xiangping, because he was South Korea's "official god of death" Park Yongxun 9 dan.

Of course, Li Xiangping is not afraid of him, mainly because in real history, this person broke into the final of this "Samsung Cup", although he finally lost to Zhao Zhixun and achieved Lao Zhao's second world championship, Da Pu became a big background, but if he can break into the final, at least it shows that he has been in good shape recently, right?

If you still frown slightly when you see Da Pu, then when you see the last one, Li Xiangping will really become "frowning".

Gu Dali.

The last lot of this Nima "H" group was actually drawn out by Gu Dali.

O group of death! Li Xiangping sighed in his heart.

Well, if Li Xiangping was just pretending to be emotional when the draw was made, then when the game officially started the next day, Li Xiangping really smelled a little "death".

In the first round of the group stage the next day, Li Xiangping played against Naoki Hane, Li Xiangping thought that this should be the weakest opponent in the group stage, and Yugen Jiudan was a weak chicken.

However, this weak chicken is in a brave state today, pressing Li Xiangping all the way, on the other hand, Li Xiangping, his game is completely like sleepwalking, just after 4 o'clock in the afternoon, he lost in a daze.

There is no doubt that the biggest upset of this tournament has appeared, and the weak chicken of Hane has become the focus of attention of the audience in one fell swoop, and this is also the first time that Li Xiangping has been defeated by a Japanese chess player, which makes him ashamed after the game.

He is ashamed of himself, but Ma Xiaofei still has to say cool things after the game:

"Hehe, I said Xiangping, I guess the Koreans should regret it a little now, if you know that you will lose, isn't it good to use the original single elimination? Now, let's get a group stage, and that's a chance for you to turn over. ”

Li Xiangping didn't have time to care about Ma Xiaofei's jokes, because this group stage was a day after a set, and he was about to think about dealing with Park Yongxun, he lost to Gu Dali in the first round and fell into the losing group like himself.