On the day of departure, after Li Xiangping arrived at the airport, he was taken aback by the lineup of reporters accompanying the group this time, compared with Lao Xie, who only had a "sports world" with the group a few days ago, and this time, the more well-known full-time Go reporters in China were basically listed.

Li Xiangping smiled and asked the reporter Zhang Da, who he was most familiar with: "What is the situation?" I didn't come last time, but I went all this time, isn't it all the semi-finals? Do you think this contest is more important? Or what benefits does Samsung give you? ”

Reporter Zhang Da smiled: "Of course, the competition is a level, and there are no benefits, we will all go this time, that is because there is a gimmick in this competition." ”

"Gimmick?"

At this time, another reporter surnamed Zhang took over, he was Zhang Zhidong, a full-time Go reporter of Shencheng Xinmin Evening News, Lao Zhang's qualifications were older than Zhang Xiaoyong, he smiled and said to Li Xiangping:

"Xiangping, don't forget, if you win South Korea's Xiao Li this time, you will have to refresh another record."

"Records?"

"It's amazing to reach all the World Series finals in one year, and to do it two years in a row, and in any case, it's a very remarkable record in the Go world, so we all want to see this record in the tournament."

Li Xiangping was stunned when he heard this, to be honest, he really didn't think about this before the game, after all, at this time, he was still thinking about winning a world championship that completely belonged to him.

And from this point of view, it can also be seen that in a considerable number of times, the gap between one's own personal expectations and the expectations of the outside world is still quite large. For example, Lao Zhang just said that he was "ready to go to the scene to witness the birth of the record", as if he never thought that he would lose.

Lao Zhang's qualifications are still quite deep, so Li Xiangping used honorifics:

"Hehe, Uncle Zhang, don't say that, it's so stressful for me."

"Haha pressure?" Lao Zhang seemed to have heard something funny, and he joked with his peers around him:

"Let's talk about it, when we watched the Xiangping game, did anyone feel any pressure?"

The reporters laughed and said no, and the only female reporter Guo also further explained her feelings: because she doesn't know much about chess, so she is not sensitive to many technical things, Li Xiangping just debuted, because he didn't know this person at all, and he didn't know his strength at all, so there was no pressure to watch his game, thinking that he would definitely lose on the World Series stage.

And when he rockets, because he is invincible, everyone thinks that he is a rare genius, the kind of monster that is beyond the ordinary, then of course there is no pressure to watch him play-----

Since it's a monster, how can a monster lose a game against a normal person?

The logic of a female pseudo-chess fan caused everyone to laugh, and in the midst of everyone's laughter, Lao Nie, the head of the Chinese delegation, appeared, and Lao Nie waved his hand very imposingly:

"Let's go!"

There was nothing to say all the way, and the big guy arrived at the arena smoothly, but after arriving at the arena, Lao Nie had something to say:

"Alas, if you want to say that this Samsung Cup is good for everything, it's just that sometimes it's too shabby, Samsung Training Institute? Why do they always like to put the game here? ”

Li Xiangping was happy when he heard this, and said that the "Samsung Cup" and "LG Cup" held by Koreans are of the same nature, scale and format, and even the nature of the championship prize money and sponsorship is not much different.

The only difference is that it seems to be the route of the two, the "Samsung Cup" likes to take the people-friendly route, and likes to set the competition in some small places, such as this competition, the venue is in a rural place in South Korea, and it is also Samsung's own training institute.

As for the "LG Cup", they seem to prefer to take the elite route, and they also prefer to choose some high-end five-star hotels-----

This is actually one of the reasons why the reporter came more this time, you must know that it is only 2003, according to the statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics this year, our country's GDP has just reached about one-third of Japan's this year, and as we all know, in Japan, they have a Tokyo Greater Bay Area, and the GDP just accounts for about one-third of the country, so in this year, there is "the country's GDP has just reached the level of a city in Tokyo".

Well, if this sentence is left in this era, of course, it is a kind of sadness, but when you look at this sentence more than 10 years later, it is like a kind of pride. Who would have thought that in just over 10 years, our country's GDP will not only surpass Japan's, but also the entire economy will be three times their size at year-on-year prices.

Therefore, Li Xiangping has always thought that the development of our country in the past few decades sometimes looks really like a YY. Suppose there is such an Internet writer, he travels back to the seventies and eighties of the last century, if there was also YY in that era, then this Internet writer does not need any imagination at all, he will write the development of these decades truthfully-----

Li Xiangping can guarantee that this extremely realistic reality was too much in the eyes of most people at the time, and maybe a good urban book will be classified as a fantasy genre by everyone.

After Li Xiangping did this in his heart, he didn't continue to think about it, after all, as a member of the crossing army, the path he chose was different from others, others relied on YY, but he relied on playing chess, he now thinks that only by playing chess well, then he may not live up to his crossing.

There is nothing else to say, go directly to the topic, on the second day after Lee Xiangping arrived in South Korea, the semi-finals of this year's "Samsung Cup" officially began.

In addition to the game of Li Xiangping VS Lee Sedol, on the other side is Da Li vs. Japan's Lao Zhao. Although in real history, Lao Zhao is the winner of the "Samsung Cup", but considering his one-sided record against Da Li, it is really difficult to find a victory in Da Li, and the time he won the championship in real history, he did not meet Da Li in the game.

So now don't say that others think that there may be no suspense in that game, even if Li Xiangping is a traverser, he has nothing to say about the game over there, and even faintly feels in his heart that if he can pass Xiao Li's level this time, it is more likely that he will still have to touch Da Li.

Of course, the premise of all this is that you can pass Xiao Li's level first.

At 10 o'clock in the morning Korean time, the referee gave an order to announce the official start of the first game of the trilogy game, and today the referee is none other than Liu Chonghe, the king of Korean chess.

A dignified king-level person, but now because of a major change in his life, he is now reduced to sitting in the referee's seat, which makes Li Xiangping sigh and make him feel a little sorry for Liu Langguan.

It's just that Li Xiangping soon didn't have time to feel sorry for others, this game of chess is Xiao Li guessed the black chess, more than 10 moves in front, both sides fell quickly, less than a quarter of an hour, the two sides in the lower left corner of the chessboard after a common set, the two sides have played the 20th chess.

The first 20 moves are not much to say, this is a very common opening routine, which is the kind of common play in which black takes the ground and white takes the momentum.

On the 20th move, Xiao Li's black piece gets a fat corner in the lower left corner, while Li Xiangping's white piece controls a black piece and the position is relatively open, which is the kind of "two-point" play that even dogs recognize.

Under normal circumstances, when the 20-hand game is partially over, most players always think about it when they make 21 moves.

However, Lee Sedol did not.

Almost without thinking, he quickly fell to the 21st hand overall.

And this move immediately became the first major divergence point of the game.

At 10:15 a.m., in the face of the chess hand that Xiao Li had just played, Li Xiangping's hand stopped.

To be honest, he couldn't feel anything in the face of such a move.

"Tut-tut, it's really as promised, I have long known that when playing against Xiao Li, such a move must be inevitable, but I really didn't think that it would appear on the chessboard so quickly and so early....."

That's right, in Li Xiangping's eyes, the step Lee Sedol just took was an "unreasonable hand".

At the very least, this is a slightly excessive "breakup".

Li Xiangping has always believed that this kind of way of wandering between unreasonable and excessive, that is Xiao Li's signature move, is his uniqueness, and it is also the essence of his "zombie flow".

It is precisely because of this that Li Xiangping's previous preparations, he mainly came to this point, how to prevent himself from being recruited, and how to punish Xiao Li's unreasonable hands, this is almost Li Xiangping's preparation before the game, all his thoughts and thoughts.

So according to common sense, Xiao Li's move "came as promised", Li Xiangping should be happy, at the very least, he should feel "right in the middle".

It's a pity that Li Xiangping doesn't have it now.

Not because of anything else, the method of this move was expected, but the timing was not expected.

Li Xiangping never thought that this was the beginning of the first game, and the opponent would come here immediately, he was so straightforward, and even judging from the speed and demeanor of his falling just now, he was so resolute and so unhesitating.

"Alas, master demeanor, I said Xiao Li, Xiao Li, you are a few years older than me, don't you talk about the master demeanor at all, give me this ...... so early"

Li Xiangping complained in his heart, but because of Xiao Li's move, he was still "stopped" by his opponent, and in the face of Xiao Li's unconventional approach, of course he had to think about how to solve it.

"Well, this chess piece was dispatched so early, and it was still killed from the slit, so what do you think of my external potential? It doesn't matter if you don't agree with me, you have to know this external trend, which even dogs agree with, if you don't give you some punishment, it will be in vain for me to specialize in dog tricks for so long......"

At 10:20 a.m. Korea time, Lee Xiangping began the first long test of this trilogy.