After the quarterfinals of the "Toyota Cup", Li Xiangping returned to China with the army the next day.

The day after returning to China, Li Xiangping came to the Chinese Chess Academy, ready to find Zhang Wendong, the director of the competition department.

The office of the competition department is on the first floor, next to the referee department, Li Xiangping just walked to the door, and heard the loud voice of Lao Jin of the referee department:

"Alas, it's changed, since Li Xiangping appeared, he has changed all the judging criteria in the Go world."

Zhang Jiuduan's voice came: "Why did it change?" ”

"This hasn't changed," said Kim, continuing to talk in it:

"In the past, we often divided chess players into super first-class strong players, first-class strong players, and ordinary strong players, and so on, but after Li Xiangping, this set of standards is obviously not suitable, all need to make some changes, Xiao Zhang, don't you?"

Zhang Wendong Jiuduan said very cooperatively: "Then how should it be changed?" ”

"In today's world chess world, I think Li Xiangping is already the only one, you should have no opinion on this, right?"

Zhang Jiuduan didn't hesitate, he immediately agreed: "Not bad, Xiangping is indeed the only one now, don't look at his championship is a few fewer than Da Li, but how can Da Li be as stable as him?" 10 finals and 8 championships, never missed before the semifinals of the World Series, such dominance is simply terrifying, looking through the entire history of Go, in fact, there is no such player, so he is the only one who lives up to his name, and there is no problem at all. ”

"Yes, you also agree that he is the only gear, well, since there is a unique gear, the standard for judging the super-first-class will definitely have to be changed in the future, for example, behind Li Xiangping, which chess players can be drawn to the second gear?"

Zhang Jiuduan said very cooperatively again: "It seems to be true, hehe Lao Jin, then how do you say to row?" ”

Lao Jin said proudly: "This standard was not very obvious before, but this year, a new standard seems to be about to come out." ”

"Oh, what new standard?"

Lao Jin said: "Of course, the new standard is still Li Xiangping, Xiao Zhang, you see this year, he only lost a total of 3 games of chess, even if you add the previous Da Li, he has only lost to 4 people in the past year, so now some people say, maybe from now on, this will become the new standard, as long as you can win Li Xiangping in the future, it doesn't mean that you want to beat him completely, as long as you can win a game in his hand, you can call it a new super first-class ......."

Li Xiangping listened to Zhile outside the door, and at the same time secretly despised Lao Jin------- because this statement was not original to Lao Jin, but came from the Internet, and he actually openly brought it to the chess academy to show off.

Even Li Xiangping himself has seen it, and now there are chess fans discussing similar topics on the Internet, and as a "party", Li Xiangping himself knows more about it, he knows that the discussion of chess fans is not limited to the "new super-first-class", and what are the "super-first-class candidates".

According to the Internet, at this stage, in addition to Li Xiangping, there are only 4 chess players who are qualified to be called super-first-class chess players, and these 4 are the chess players who have won Li Xiangping in the past year: Li Canghao, Gu Dali, Li Shishi, Chang Hao. Whether a new super-first-class can be born after this depends on whether he can beat Li Xiangping, even if he can win one set, which is eligible for promotion.

It is along this line of thought that chess fans have proposed some "super-first-class alternate" lists, and in this list, the young master chosen by chess fans for the first place is Zhang Xu.

The reason why he was chosen is that the majority of chess fans think, especially some senior chess fans of the technical stream: Don't look at Zhang Xu has only played against Li Xiangping twice, and lost both games, but in the first game a few years ago, Li Xiangping fought hard most of the time, and fell behind for a long time, and finally relied on a mistake by the opponent to reverse.

In the recent "Asian Cup" final, Zhang Xu actually competed with Li Xiangping in rapid chess for most of the game, and Li Xiangping finally needed to rely on a good move at the level of "Wonder Player of the Year" to win the game.

It is precisely with this performance that many chess fans are optimistic about Zhang Xu, believing that he is the next most promising player to beat Li Xiangping before South Korea's Da Park and Kong Erjie.

Chess fans have actually seen these discussions, but he didn't pay much attention to them.

Because in his own opinion, such a layout flaw is obvious, and one of the most obvious flaws is this:

How do you arrange those old-timers?

In addition to the above, Li Xiangping thinks that if only one game of chess is used as the judging standard, this is really a bit too exaggerated.

The most obvious example is the last time he lost to Chang Jiuduan, Li Xiangping himself knew very well the situation of that game: it was a three-way chess, and it was a civil war between Chinese chess players, so when there was still room to win a game first, he tried Li Sedol's play and lost the chess.

It's a pity that he knows it in his own heart, and the majority of chess fans don't know, everyone only saw Li Xiangping lose chess, so they lined Chang Hao in.

Of course, Li Xiangping doesn't have any opinions on Chang Hao's nine sections, and even from a certain point of view, if Chang Hao wins that game, he can still maintain his spirit, maintain his enthusiasm for Go, and then continue to seek on the chess path, this is a really good thing, and it is also what Li Xiangping is happy to see, he just feels that this kind of arrangement is flawed.

It was precisely because he felt that the defects of this arrangement were obvious, so Li Xiangping didn't want to listen at the door, so he pushed the door directly and entered:

"Teacher Zhang, hehe, I'll talk to you about something......." After saying this, he pretended to see Lao Jin:

"Huh! Teacher Jin is also there......."

The two of them did not doubt him, especially Lao Jin, and he smiled even more when he saw that it was Li Xiangping:

"Hehe, it turned out to be Xiangping, I really said that Cao Cao and Cao Cao arrived, and you haven't been to the chess academy for a while....... By the way, you said that you have something to do with Wendong......."

Of course, there is something serious first, so Lao Jin didn't say too much, he asked Li Xiangping to talk about business first.

Li Xiangping's business is very simple, and he can say it clearly in one sentence, so after he finished speaking, Zhang Wendong opened his mouth in nine paragraphs:

"Hey, Ahantongshan Cup? , Xiangping, you said you want to sign up for this year's Ahantongshan Cup? Why did you suddenly think to participate in this competition, and why did you say it now? ”

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry Mr. Zhang, I forgot about this some time ago......."

Li Xiangping has nothing to hide, he went to Japan a few months ago to compete, and under the contact of Yukari Umezawa, Ms. Naoko Wada of Japan's Ahanzong gave his sister a gift, and then said a "snail hermitage".

Li Xiangping told the two in front of him the cause and effect of the incident.

Lao Jin had been listening happily, and after Zhang Jiuduan listened, he showed a little embarrassment.

This embarrassment was captured by Li Xiangping, so he asked:

"What's wrong with Mr. Zhang, I'm signing up now, is there a problem?"

The honest Zhang Wendong smiled at nine paragraphs: "The problem is indeed a bit of a problem, but it's not your problem, it's my problem here, it's a little mistake in my work as the director of the competition department, so Xiangping, I want to apologize to you first......."

Next, Zhang Jiuduan explained his "work mistakes":

"A Han Tongshan Cup" is the kind of open competition system that is open to all professional chess players, as long as you sign up, you can participate, but this competition also has seeded players, and the top 16 chess players in the domestic rating score directly enter the "tournament", isn't this because Li Xiangping basically does not participate in domestic competitions, this time he did not say it in advance, so when the competition department was seeding players, this time Li Xiangping was directly ignored, and they ranked from 2nd to 17th.

It's just that this is just a small mistake, after all, the registration has not yet closed, Li Xiangping wants to participate in the direct replacement of one, more troublesome is the schedule and the selection of the competition location, and now Li Xiangping suddenly proposed to participate, which is likely to cause a series of chain reactions.

is still that reason, because the competition department directly ignored Li Xiangping before, so they did not consider Li Xiangping's participation in the schedule of the "A Han Tongshan Cup" before, and some of the game times that have been arranged will conflict with Li Xiangping's own schedule.

This is about to be October, it is the most critical juncture of the whole season, this has to be replaced by other chess players, most of the chess players in the end of the tournament, the number of games began to decrease, even if the top part of the country, in fact, as long as a little statistics can be found: can participate in 10 international competitions a year, that only the national team chess players can do.

If you can reach 15 international tournaments a year, it's not much to say, the player must have been of a very high level and in good form at the time.

Li Xiangping's "unique gear" is also reflected here: he has been a professional chess player for 4 years, except for the first year, and the number of international games he has never played less than 20 games per year for the next 3 years, and can exceed 30 games at most.

Most of the heavyweight international competitions throughout the season, of course, are mainly concentrated after October, such as the Samsung Cup, LG Cup, Toyota Cup, Yingshi Cup and Nongshim Cup will be intensively fought until the final champion is decided.

Not only that, in addition to international competitions, Li Xiangping is now a Chinese Go "celebrity", and will at least have the next "celebrity" Wuban Chess Challenge.

Needless to say, Li Xiangping now suddenly proposed to add a "Ahantongshan Cup", which will of course make Zhang Jiuduan feel embarrassed.

Seeing Zhang Jiuduan's embarrassment, Li Xiangping actually blamed himself a little, he blamed himself for not notifying the competition department earlier, otherwise the current situation would not have occurred.

However, Zhang Wendong Jiuduan was not embarrassed for long, and he quickly said to Li Xiangping:

"Shh......h Xiangping, don't worry, since you came to sign up, then I will definitely guarantee that you will participate, not only to ensure that you participate in the Ahantongshan Cup, but also not to affect your other competitions...... Wait a minute, I'm going to squeak with Dean Wang now, and then coordinate your schedule......"

Seeing that people were worried about their own affairs, Rao is Li Xiangping has always been cheeky, and he is a little embarrassed at this time.

Embarrassed, he was not in the mood to chat with Lao Jin, and after a few more simple chats, he politely retired and habitually walked to the second floor of the chess academy.

While walking Li Xiangping, he thought, it seems that he has participated in a lot of games, not only may it cause some trouble to others like today, but in fact, from the perspective of "dog fighting", this kind of human game is too much, and it has little significance to improve the level.

“........ Well, it seems like it's time to think about cutting back on the number of games, and if you have that time, you might as well study more high-level dog tricks with Lao Shi......."

It's a pity that he just thinks about it, and this thing really doesn't have much operation. After all, nowadays, it is of course impossible for him to give up the World Series, Li Xiangping will not even think about it.

If you can't compete internationally, it seems like it can only be a domestic competition, but nowadays, he doesn't participate in many domestic competitions.

A "celebrity battle", it is impossible for him to voluntarily give up the title and not participate in the competition.

A "Ahantongshan Cup", which can be regarded as an initiative to participate in the competition in order to repay the favor.

In addition, there is also a wai armor, not to mention the friendship between the old man and Lao Cai, the team has only a few guns, if you don't participate, the lineup will not be complete.

“....... Now that I think about it, it seems that only the CCTV Cup can be given up, anyway, now that I have won the 'Asian Cup', I can participate as the defending champion next year, but the CCTV Cup has not many sets, and this kind of short and fast event, to be honest, has little impact on training, if you can cut a few sets of matches......."

In the midst of such cranky thoughts, he had already stepped on the second floor of the chess academy, but found that the largest training room on the second floor was very lively today, as if there was a game going on.

Just as Coach Wu came out of it, Li Xiangping hurriedly asked:

"Hey, Coach Wu, what's the game today?"

"A game that has nothing to do with you," Coach Wu laughed.

"The annual selection tournament of the national junior team, you haven't participated in it, no wonder you don't know."

"Huh."

After Li Xiangping laughed with Coach Wu for a while, he saw that he had something to do, so he said goodbye to him and walked into the largest training room alone.

As soon as Li Xiangping walked in, he saw a bearded man at a glance.

A small child with a beard.

Li Xiangping laughed at the time, because this kid with a beard was affectionately called 'Chu Lao' by chess fans in later generations, and at this moment, Li Xiangping seemed to help him find a substitute player, a substitute player in the armor.

Li Xiangping was quite calm at this time, not that he didn't know 'Chu Lao', but he didn't know his current basic situation, especially whether he had signed a contract.

The basic information of the bearded child was quickly found:

Chu Jiaxi 3rd Duan, born in 1991, entered the Duan in 2002, and has not signed any Weijia team yet.

"Hehehehehe......"

Li Xiangping laughed silently, then quietly exited the training room and came outside to make a phone call.

"Hey, Uncle Cai, where are you now? Is it in the capital? ”

"Haha Xiangping, I just came back, what's the matter?"

"Oh, where are you now?"

"It's at the club."

"That's okay, Uncle Cai, you wait, I'll come over right away."