The time came to the end of November, and the day of the first "Toyota Cup" final finally arrived, and Li Xiangping was about to leave for Tokyo to participate in the showdown with Li Canghao.

This is the first decisive battle in the "three major battles" in the Go world at the end of this year, because this concept has been hyped by everyone for a long time, as for the prediction of victory and defeat, there have been countless versions in the past month, so at this last moment, all kinds of voices from the outside world are less, everyone is wide-eyed, ready to see the result of the contest between the two.

It's just that although the voice has weakened, the Go circles of the two countries attach great importance to this final. On the Chinese side, it turned out that the former "Nie Ma Shuangxiong" in the domestic chess world accompanied Li Xiangping to Japan to compete at the same time----

This is of course extremely rare, although Lao Nie used to be the head coach of the national Go team, but this position has been canceled, and Lao Nie is actually an idler now. Although there are rumors that Ma Xiaofei is about to serve as the head of the coaching staff of the national Go team, so far, this claim is still only a rumor. So at this time, the two bigwigs went out at the same time, except to show that the domestic Go community attaches great importance to this game, it can't explain anything else.

In addition to these two, he was accompanied by Wang Yi from the Foreign Affairs Department of the Chess Academy, as well as a large group of media reporters, and after boarding the flight to Tokyo, Ma Xiaofei also pretended to explain to Li Xiangping:

"This time, I took the initiative to ask for an errand cheekily, hehe, aren't the two of us going to play the "Samsung Cup" next month, I'm actually going to spy on the military situation this time, and see what tricks you have prepared. ”

Li Xiangping smiled and didn't answer, of course Ma Xiao's words were just excuses and jokes, whoever wanted to take it seriously would lose. When everyone arrived in Japan and found that the lineup on the Korean side was also luxurious, Li Xiangping saw Lao Cao and Liu Chonghe in the crowd.

If you want to say that it is easy to understand when you see Lao Cao, after all, he is Da Li's master, so it is normal for him to accompany his disciples to participate in the competition, but it is different when he sees Da Liu, because South Korea is different from our country's system, and they usually do not emphasize the "collective sense of honor" like our country, so Da Liu can come this time, in addition to his excellent personal relationship with Da Li, of course, it can also be seen from another side that the Korean Go community attaches great importance to this game.

Not only that, with the arrival of Lao Nie and Lao Cao, the bigwigs of the Japanese Go world also went out, and when the group arrived at the hotel, there was an endless stream of people who came to visit, although they all said nominally that they came to visit the contestants, but Li Xiangping still has this self-knowledge, where is this to visit himself, all for Lao Nie's face.

During that period, Lao Nie's fame in Japan was also very famous in Japan, and many Japanese chess fans knew that there was a "Mr. Three Ears" in China.

And Lao Cao's situation is actually similar to Lao Nie, when Lao Cao learned chess in Japan in his early years, he was already quite famous, and it was recognized in the Japanese Go community that if Lao Cao did not return to China that year, then the Japanese chess world would not only be "six super", but would definitely become "seven super".

Not only that, but since Lao Cao is still a nominal disciple of Kensaku Sekoshi, that is to say, Lao Cao is actually the junior brother of Mr. Wu Qingyuan and Mr. Hashimoto Utaro, and his seniority in the Go world is extremely high.

With such a relationship and a representative of Korean Go, it is naturally normal for the Japanese Go bigwigs to go out one after another.

Since the two delegations were actually staying in the same hotel, Li Xiangping saw Lao Zhao Zhao Zhixun coming to visit at the hotel, saw Dazhu Hero coming to visit, and finally waited until Kato Masao and Lin Haifeng came to visit together.

The first two came over without Li Xiangping, except for the polite greetings in the past, it was mainly Lao Nie who was receiving, but the two came later, in addition to chatting with Lao Nie in a lively manner, they had to say a few words to Li Xiangping in the end.

Of course, with Li Xiangping's current age, he has nothing to talk about with these Go bigwigs, and after sitting there for a while, he actually only remembered two sentences, one was Mr. Kato Masao's sigh:

Alas, this is the real battle for the number one player in the world, but unfortunately there are no Japanese chess players among them......

Li Xiangping is still quite touched by this, although since the establishment of the first professional Go World Championship in 88, there have been so many classic confrontations in the Go world, but it is the first time that it can be so expected, and it is considered to be the "world's first" battle before the game.

Was the final of the first "Ying's Cup" considered the long-awaited battle for the world's No. 1 at that time? In fact, it doesn't count, although the prize money of that game is super high, and it is of far-reaching significance to watch this final after the game, but before the game, because Lao Cao was able to reach the finals, this seems to everyone to be an accident.

Li Xiangping personally thinks that it is closer to the "battle for the first place in the world", which should actually be regarded as the battle between Li and Ma Xiao in the "Toyo Securities Cup" in 96. Ma Xiaofei won the world double championship in 95, and then in 96, Li Canghao ascended the throne.

It's just that this is actually an afterthought.

Before the two of them played in the final, they only had 2 world championships in their hands, and Da Li would still be "afraid of life" at that time, and there was also the "nemesis" of Yitian Kiki, so before the game, it was far from being expected.

Only this time, Li Canghao has more than 10 world championships in hand, and his status in the rivers and lakes has been unshakable, and Li Xiangping has swept the chess world in the past two years, with two championships and 5 World Series finals, which made everyone have nothing to say, and he did "what everyone wants" before the game.

The second sentence that Li Xiangping remembered was said by Mr. Lin Haifeng, and he didn't actually say anything, but just said that because this final is very important and is the de facto world's No. 1 competition, the organizer Toyota attaches great importance to it and specially invited Mr. Wu Qingyuan to serve as the "Lihe person" in the final.

After Mr. Lin Haifeng and Mr. Kato left, Li Xiangping had a feeling of time and space confusion, Lao Shi and Li Canghao played chess, and Mr. Wu Qingyuan served as the referee?

"Hehe, Brother Ding'an, you have to give me a good look tomorrow, don't let people look down on you then......"

Without further ado, on the morning of the second day, the long-awaited Armageddon that attracted the attention of the entire Go world began.

Under the auspices of Mr. Wu Qingyuan, the two sides first guessed first, the first game was Li Canghao guessed the black chess, because Li Xiangping was younger, so before guessing the first, Li Xiangping was actually sitting in the "lower position", and the "lower position" was actually the position of holding black, so after guessing first, he and Da Li exchanged seats.

At 9:55 a.m. Tokyo time, a large number of reporters poured into the game room, ready to record the opening moments of the big win.

At 10 o'clock, Mr. Wu announced the official start of the game, Li Xiangping and Li Canghao bowed to each other, in a flash light, Li Canghao unhurriedly dropped the first chess piece, and participated in so many games, Lao Shi also became sophisticated, he was not in a hurry to fall, at 10:04, he signaled Li Xiangping to play the first chess.

Li Xiangping used the most standard drop gesture to drop the second hand of the whole world, and after falling, he even picked it up again and did it again-----

This is not a foul, Da Li will not have any objection to this, Li Xiangping's move is actually more convenient for reporters to take pictures, 5 minutes before the Go game, before the reporter leaves, Li Xiangping's move is allowed.

For this final, both sides have been preparing for nearly a month, especially in this nearly a month, Li Xiangping actually doesn't know what he has gained from plugging, he doesn't even know what Lao Shi thinks now, so after the reporter left, Li Xiangping quickly entered the state-----

It's the closest bystander state that's most engaged.

Like Li Xiangping, of course, there are still many people who want to know how this game of chess can be played, so from the beginning of today's game of chess, the viewing room next door was crowded.

Today's game speed is not fast or slow, at 11 a.m., more than 20 moves were played, so in the 3-hour slow game on each side, such a speed in the layout phase is very normal.

At the beginning of this game of chess, both sides actually played normally, whether it was Da Li or Lao Shi, neither played any "novice new type", nor did he have any weird moves.

However, Li Xiangping felt a little strange.

Not only Li Xiangping, but also the chess players and even reporters in the viewing room next door actually felt that the beginning of this game of chess was a little strange.

As for what's wrong? Perhaps what Lao Nie said around 11 o'clock in the morning is the most revealing.

When the latest chess game was transmitted to the viewing room, when Lao Nie had seen the latest chess played by Da Li, Lao Nie smiled, and he joked to others:

"Hey, who is today's notalist, he can't be the opposite of black and white, right? Today's black chess, how is this so similar to Xiangping's move, but it is the white chess play, but it is a bit of Li Canghao's charm. ”

That's right, this is what makes this game of chess feel strange, not only Li Xiangping in the game room, but also many people in the viewing room nodded in agreement after listening to Lao Nie's words.

Especially at about 11 o'clock in the morning, Li Canghao dropped the 33rd move of the whole world, which caused everyone to discuss, because this is a "sharp rush", which is the "sharp rush" that Li Xiangping has often played in the past two years inspired by Go AI.

"Hahaha, does Da Li really want to use his own way today?"

And after seeing this move, some people asked Mr. Wu Qingyuan, who had come out of the game room, because recently, Mr. Wu often recommended this move:

"Sir, what do you think this should be?"