Now, a domestic title battle can make Li Xiangping stop, of course, it will not be because of anything else, just the word "chess saint".

After all, the "chess saint", what a noble title, it sounds full of style, especially when I think of the old Shi Ke is an ancient chess saint, so Li Xiangping also thinks about it, which is of course human nature.

And not only Li Xiangping himself, he knows that the domestic Go community has always been obsessed with the "chess saint", and it should be as early as 10 years ago, the domestic Go community had the idea of holding a "chess holy war".

It's a pity that there were still several obstacles to holding a "chess holy war" at that time.

The first obstacle is Lao Nie, after all, Lao Nie was the official "chess saint", so if you want to hold a "chess holy war", you must first let Lao Nie give up this title.

Of course, the "obstacles" mentioned here do not mean that Lao Nie himself will not agree, in fact, everyone in the Go world knows that if he really wants to hold a "chess holy war", then with Lao Nie's person, he guarantees that there will be no two words.

However, it is still the same sentence, most of the people who play Go are really kind-hearted people, even if Lao Nie himself agrees, then someone must be embarrassed to open up to him, right?

Especially considering that Lao Nie himself was still at the tail of his peak back then, and even Ma Xiaofei had not really taken his place, so although the Go world had the idea of holding a "chess holy war", it could only be shelved because the conditions were not ripe.

After a few years, when Lao Nie really slipped from the peak, and he also took the initiative to give up the title of "Chess Saint", the second obstacle appeared.

The second obstacle is nothing else, to put it bluntly, it is the word "money".

Because according to the idea of the Go world, since it is a "chess holy war", it must be the highest standard, the highest level, if the prize money of the "chess holy war" is not as good as "celebrity" or "Tianyuan", or even compared to the "overlord" or "Robust Cup" and the like, then isn't it ridiculous and generous? The Go world felt that it couldn't afford to lose that person.

Therefore, according to the design of the Go world at that time, if you really want to hold a "Chinese Chess Holy War", you must meet two conditions: first: this competition must be the largest competition in China, and all professional chess players must be able to participate in this competition.

Second: This competition must be the highest prize money in China, referring to the "celebrity" and "Tian Yuan" at that time The championship prize is about 100,000 yuan, everyone thinks that the prize money of "chess holy war" must be double or even more than three times, so at that time, everyone set a lower limit for the championship bonus of "chess holy war": it must be more than 300,000 RMB.

At that time, the Go world was looking for sponsors according to such criteria.

It's a pity that in the 90s of the last century, in fact, less than 10 years ago, such a standard was already a very high threshold, and the Go world searched for a long time but did not find a sponsor-------

Don't think it's incredible, and you can't look at things more than 20 years ago with the eyes of 2020: at that time, such conditions were indeed very high.

According to the idea of the Go world, if you really want all professional chess players to participate, then the total budget of a "chess holy war" should be about 4 million to 5 million, and if you want to hold a traditional event, the contract can not only be signed for one year, the first condition in the Go world is that it is at least 5 years, and later reduced to at least 3 years.

So from the sponsor's point of view, what kind of money is such a sum of money a year?

The most normal thinking seems to be to count this money as advertising expenses and include it in operating or promotion costs.

It's a pity that in the nineties of the last century, no, it should be said that at any time, most sponsors could not convince themselves with such reasons.

The so-called "high and low" should mean this, the image of Go is good, and the force is high, which is something that all sponsors know, but how much can the image of the product be matched with the image of the product, or the temperament of the product?

Can it fit with the building materials sold by Lao Cai? Can it fit with the house built by Li Datuhao?

If you think about it, you can find that there are really not many that can be compatible.

After all, in our country, Go can still be classified as "traditional culture", but throughout the nineties, many industries related to "traditional culture" in China are basically half-dead, and many of them are still waiting for others to transfuse blood, and their small lives have not yet been nourished by Go, so how can they sponsor Go in turn.

Well, if you really want to make it hard, Go can be regarded as a fit with brain platinum and the like, after all, you can be considered smart people when you play Go, and this kind of health care products are often advertised to become smart after drinking, so it seems that there is a little bit of fit.

It is rumored in the rivers and lakes that the old Shi Na of the "giant" was really ready to sponsor the "chess holy war".

It's a pity that although Lao Shi is smart, he is not stupid in the Go world, and Brain Platinum is interested in Go, but Go is not as good as this kind of product.

As a result, the "Chinese Chess Holy War" has never been able to find a suitable sponsor.

So later, Go wanted to find sponsors, and finally embarked on an old path of "generating electricity with love".

This old path is both the luck and sorrow of Go.

The sadness does not need to be explained, because Go relies too much on power generation with love, so this project has never been better developed.

Of course, luck is also very easy to understand, because of the image of Go, the forced style of Go, so all along, Go does not worry about sponsors, and can always find someone to pay for it with love.

For example, the "Chinese Chess Holy War", by the end of the 90s, finally found a sponsor to pay for it.

And this competition is the "Chinese Chess Holy War" that Zhang Wendong Jiuduan and Li Xiangping said just now, and this year, it should be the 5th.

Do you want to sign up? Li Xiangping fell into a deep groan at that time.

After thinking about it for a while, Li Xiangping still felt like giving up:

"Hehe, Teacher Zhang, you see that I am going to take the college entrance examination this year, so, so I ......."

Zhang Wendong graduated from the Department of History of the National People's Congress, and he is actually the first professional chess player in China to go to university at the peak of his career.

So when he heard Li Xiangping say this, he expressed his understanding at the time, and he smiled at Li Xiangping:

"Hehe, that's it, understand, that's okay, I won't sign you up for this competition."

"I'm bothering Mr. Zhang, and I specially mentioned it, that's okay, I'm going to Japan tomorrow, I'll leave first."

"Okay, okay, goodbye Xiangping......."

After leaving the office of the competition department, Li Xiangping was still thinking about the "Chinese Chess Holy War".

At the same time, the reason for refusing just now, of course, is that there is only one reason for taking the college entrance examination, but the more important reason is ------

He knew that this year's tournament actually died halfway, the kind of Go event that died halfway through the qualifiers and then died in the middle of the tournament before a few rounds of the tournament.

As for the reason for the untimely death, it is very simple, the sponsor of the family love power generation did not manage well, suddenly encountered a financial situation, and finally had to give up sponsoring the competition.

This is the helplessness of "generating electricity with love".

Of course, what Li Xiangping was thinking about at this time was not the "Chinese Chess Holy War" that had died young, but the "Chinese Chess Holy War" that had been restored after about seven or eight years in real history.

Again, the Go world is really obsessed with the "chess master", so in 2012, in real history, this competition was forcibly resurrected.

At that time, the "Chinese Chess Holy War" had matured, and there was already a little shadow of the cultural tourism project------ the Chinese Chess Academy was cooperating with Luoyang City in the Central Plains Province at that time, and the New Chess Holy War was also named by the Luoyang Longmen Grottoes World Cultural Heritage Park.

Li Xiangping now thinks: It may be that according to the characteristics of our country's vast land and resources, and according to the national conditions of our country, the Go competition should be made into a cultural tourism project, which should be the most suitable way for the development of Go.

However, at the same time, Li Xiangping's other point of view has not changed: it is not easy to take the road of cultural tourism projects, and this road is destined to be difficult.

If you want to do a good job in a cultural tourism project, you must be calm, you must endure loneliness, and you must not rush for quick success.

Regarding this point, the "Chinese Chess Holy War" that was restored in later generations should be able to better illustrate this point.

Needless to say, the "Longmen Grottoes Cup" Chinese Chess Holy War in later generations was of course not successful, and after only two sessions, it was renamed the "Luoyang Baiyunshan Cup" Chinese Chess Holy War.

As far as Li Xiangping's personal opinion is concerned, he believes that the reasons for the failure of that project are nothing more than a few points: First, the economic strength of China's Central Plains Province and Luoyang City was not strong at that time.

Second, Go and Longmen Grottoes are still not particularly compatible.

Of course, the Longmen Grottoes are a very high-quality cultural heritage in our country, but unfortunately, this cultural heritage does not seem to have much to do with Go, which makes people want to follow the routine of the cultural tourism project, and there are not many stories to tell in "storytelling".

Although the above two points are somewhat related, they are not the main reason for the failure of the project. Although the local economic strength is not strong, at that time, the cost of a Go game was not high, and a prefecture-level city could afford it a long time ago.

Although Go and Longmen Grottoes are not particularly compatible, if you think about it carefully, another relatively successful cultural tourism project in China, "Tongli Cup Tianyuan Competition", Tongli Ancient Town and Go are also not particularly compatible, at least they can't tell many good stories.

The real reason for the failure of that project was that it was too quick to achieve quick results.

According to Li Xiangping's understanding in his previous life, after the project has not seen obvious benefits for two years of operation, when the local chief official is changed, the system is mixed, especially the main leaders of the same place, one of the favorite things to do is to overturn some of the practices of his predecessor and start anew.

The name of "Chinese Chess Holy War" was changed again for this reason.

So the later "Luoyang Baiyun Mountain Cup", how long can this title be played, Li Xiangping is now seriously skeptical.

"Alas~~~ Brother Ding'an, let's wait a few years, and after a few years, my buddy will have money, so I will consider taking over this chess holy war, and then let Brother Ding'an you go to play and become a real chess saint who has traveled through the past and the present, Brother Ding'an, do you say it's okay?"

"Hehe, it doesn't matter if I can win the chess saint or not, if Xiangping Xiaoyou can really run a successful event, then it is the real merit."

Li Xiangping laughed: "Hahaha, the merit is immeasurable? Brother Xingding'an, then you just wait for the day when my merits are immeasurable, but for now, let's go home and pack our things first, we only have 12 championships now, and there are already 13 Da Li, and they have already reached the "Chunlan Cup" finals, so the road to surpass him is still a little far. ”

On the second day, Li Xiangping and other members of the Chinese delegation converged to start the official journey of the new season.

This time, the Chinese delegation was headed by Team Leader Hua, and now, the trend of younger members is becoming more and more obvious. For example, this time, in addition to Li Xiangping, the other 4 players who went on the expedition were Ding Wei 9th Duan, Gu Dali 7th Duan, Kong Erjie 7th Duan, and Chen Xiaoqiang.

The youngest of the "Seven Little Dragons" turned out to be the oldest chess player.

There is nothing special to say about the first two rounds, Li Xiangping and Gu Dali had a bye in the first round, and the other three chess players played.

The other three players all passed the first round.

In the second round, Li Xiangping was considered to have drawn a good lottery, and he encountered a Japanese veteran, the former "infiltration flow" Yamashiro Hiroshi Kudan.

Yamashiro Kudan, the current director of the Japan Chess Academy, has focused part of his energy on management, so there is nothing special in this game worth mentioning.

153 hands, Li Xiangping won in the middle game.

It's just that in this round, the Chinese team lost two generals, Kong Erjie lost to Xiao Li in the middle game, Chen Xiaoqiang accidentally lost to the ninth section of Takao Shinji in Japan, and the two generals of the Beijing Weijia team were out of the game.

Coincidentally, in the draw for the quarterfinals after the game, Li Xiangping happened to encounter the ninth section of Takao Shenlu, who had just eliminated Chen Xiaoqiang's classmate.

For such a signing, Li Xiangping didn't have much feeling.

Although the opponent is also a little famous, he is ranked as Japan's "Heisei Four Heavenly Kings", but with Li Xiangping's current mentality, he has little feeling for anyone else except for a few people such as South Korea's big and small Li and Gu Dali.

If I had to say something, Takao Shinji was the only personal disciple admitted by Fujisawa Old God Stick, which could make Li Xiangping feel a little.

"Alas, the old god stick, it seems that there are not a few years to live.......

Just when Li Xiangping thought of the old god stick, it just so happened that after the lottery ended, something related to the old god stick of Fujisawa really happened.

As soon as he stepped down from the draw table, Team Leader Hua said to him:

"Xiangping, just now the Japanese side informed me that people from Fuji TV in Japan are waiting to visit you."

"Fuji TV in Japan? I don't know them, how ......"

Before Li Xiangping's words fell, Wang Yiwuduan of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs led two Japanese people over:

The two Japanese are still very polite, and after seeing Li Xiangping, they both bowed seriously---- the most formal Japanese bow:

"Hi Lisan,"

"I'm Masao Fukuda,"

"I'm Kiyoshi Oshima,"

"Please advise."