"In our country, I was defeated by the Stone Buddha, and my opponent tomorrow is Li Xiaoqiang, who is even more powerful than the Stone Buddha. What a headache...... Am I not a bad year? Why do I keep meeting these super junior chess players? Let's talk about how young people are so unruly now......"

The semi-finals of the 2nd "Yingshi Cup" are about to officially start. At the "Eve Festival" the day before, Cao Yanzi was giving a pre-game speech.

Cao Yanzi is different from many gentle Chinese and Japanese chess players, he is bold by nature and has a chivalrous spirit in his bones. For example, in the real history, it should be after 2000, Cao Yanzi once came to China to participate in the Weijia, and occasionally heard that a Chinese young chess player was in difficulty, and Cao Yanzi at that time took out a handful of money and stuffed it into the young chess player's hand without saying a word: "Go, give the money to your mother ......."

The chess is high, and it is righteous enough. Cao Yanzi's personality makes it easy for him to have a large number of friends in both the Chinese and Japanese Go worlds. And he once studied in Japan, as early as the early 70s, before he returned to China, his qualifications were a little lower than Masao Kato, Masaki Takemiya, and a little higher than Kobayashi Koji, Zhao Zhixun and others, at that time they were real competitors. It can be said that Cao Yanzi is quite familiar with the most active people in the Japanese chess world at present, and they usually get along well. Therefore, when Cao Yanzi said such things in his "pre-match speech", many Japanese chess players easily fell to his side, and everyone cheered him on, and at the same time gave laughter and applause very cooperatively.

Compared with Cao Yanzi, Li Xiaoqiang's speech is much more decent;

"I am very happy to have the opportunity to play against Mr. Cao in an official competition. Mr. Cao is talented and his strength is well known. I tell you, don't be fooled by what Mr. Cao just said. I think in this world, no one can have the confidence to win when they face him. I'm no exception. When I came to Japan this time, I was completely motivated to learn and prepare to learn from Mr. Cao's skills......"

Truly. In today's era, although Cao Yanzi always loses to Li Shifo in the domestic arena, when it comes to the international arena, Cao Yanzi is the absolute representative of Korean Go. This is an opponent that no one dares to take lightly. As for the logic in Cao Yanzi's mouth, "A is greater than B, B is greater than C, A must be greater than C", it will not work in the Go world. In the Go circle, everyone is more accustomed to all kinds of "chain sets" phenomenon.

"I don't know how, but as long as I run into Mr. Kato, it will be extremely difficult. I don't think I can win like this......"

Who said that? It's Mr. Lin Haifeng. After Mr. Lin defeated Sakata Eio back then, he was naturally ambitious and wanted to achieve his hegemony. However, Mr. Lin's luck was not good, he first met a Yoshio Ishida, this is Mr. Lin's nemesis, fortunately, Ishida's peak period was very short, and after Ishida went down, Kato emerged again. Looking through the historical records, you will find that Mr. Hayashi's record against Kato is also not good.

Therefore, it can be said that Mr. Lin is prevented from achieving hegemony. Actually, it's these two people.

Well, Kato can often win against Lin Haifeng, but he has not achieved his hegemony because he met Zhao Zhixun. Zhao Zhixun took Masao Kato, and he also took one and the other. But what happened when Zhao Zhixun met Lin Haifeng? Mr. Lim seems to have a lot of experience, and he is often able to beat Cho Ji-hoon in major competitions.

It can be said that it is precisely because of the phenomenon of various "serial sets". The stars of the Japanese chess world in the past few decades have been bright, and at the same time, there has been no absolute hegemon.

This is true in the domestic chess world, but also in the international chess world. In fact, there are many such phenomena. For example, in real history, just in the last few years:

"Cao Yanzi was defeated by Li Shifo's patience, and Li Shifo was completely defeated by Yitian Jiji's orthodox methods. But Yitian Kiki's orthodox methods can't find a direction at all in front of Cao Yanzi's soft wind and fast gun......"

Therefore, when Li Xiaoqiang met Cao Yanzi, although Li Xiaoqiang is now in the limelight, Cao Yanzi should not be underestimated. When everyone predicted the outcome of this game, the vast majority of opinions thought that it was "five or five open". In particular, the Chinese media, learning the lessons of the first "Ying's Cup", are even more cautious in predicting.

It was in such an atmosphere that the semi-finals of the 2nd "Ying's Cup" began.

On one side is Li Xiaoqiang VS Cao Yanzi, and on the other side is Nie Whirlwind VS Dazhu Hero. This is not only a contest between individual chess players, but also the honor of the three Go powers. Coupled with the relatively generous prize money of the "Yingshi Cup", at the end of this year, these two heavyweight matches attracted the attention of almost all chess fans around the world.

The semi-finals were played in a best-of-three format. In later generations, almost all tribals in world chess battles were played in a two- or three-game "back-to-back" format, which meant that between the first and second games, there might be one rest day. If the first two games are tied, then there is absolutely no gap between the second and third innings, as if the time is rushed, it must be back-to-back consecutive games.

But this is a different time, it is a relatively slow time. For example, in the semi-finals of the "Yingshi Cup", the first two games are played every other day, and if the game is 1-1, there is not only an interval in the middle, but also for fear that the chess players will not rest enough, and there will be 2 rest days in the middle. In this way, if the game is full of 3 rounds, Li Xiaoqiang will have to stay in Japan for about a week.

To be honest, compared to the "fast food" competition in later generations, Li Xiaoqiang prefers the current competition system. This kind of competition system looks a little more user-friendly and is more conducive to the creation of high-quality chess games.

Before the start of the first game, Li Xiaoqiang walked to the arena accompanied by reporter Zhang Da.

"Oops, infinitely nostalgic for the days when Coach Luo led the team. Eating that sashimi every day, Mr. Nie is happy, he can eat it to his heart's content. But I can't stand it, Reporter Zhang, why don't you help me find it and see where there is a tooth festival in Tokyo? ”

"Hehe, Xiaoqiang, you won't be so squeamish. If you want to be comfortable, it's okay, I have two options, it's up to you which one you choose. ”

"Oh? There are two more ways, let's hear about it. ”

"Number one, don't you have a personal secretary now? You can ask her to arrange your food and drink. You know, she's a rich man now. If she can really win the "Female Streamer Ben Yin Fang", then don't look at you now, if you really compare the total number of bonuses, you may not be as good as the master. ”

"That's the same, so this time I tried to cut Cao Yanzi off the horse and ensure that $100,000 was in the bag. So that they will not be worse than her. ”

In the Japanese professional Go world, female players are actually a relatively comfortable group. Not only can they participate in all news chess battles, but there are also many special women's chess battles. The prize money for these games is also very generous and not very competitive. To be honest, if there is a female chess player who is a little stronger, she can win several titles in female chess battles. Then she could easily enter the top 10 in Japan in the prize money rankings.

If Japan can enter the top 10, then it will at least enter the top 20 or even the top 15 in the international prize money rankings, and this is the current situation in the world chess world. So Li Xiaoqiang and Zhang Zhidong chatted with various emotions.

"By the way, you just said that there are two ways, so what is the second way?"

"The second option is even more straightforward, don't you feel uncomfortable staying in Japan? Then you can end the game early, if you can beat Cao Yanzi 2-0, then you can return to China early. ”

"Well, it's a good way, I like it. But then again, Cao Yanzi is really not that easy to deal with. Korean players are not the same as Japanese players, they are quite tenacious. I've always believed that you have to be more patient when playing chess with Korean players. If you have the idea of a quick solution, you may suffer a big loss. ”

"Xiaoqiang, you won't say kind words in front of me, will you? It's not like you haven't played chess with Cao Yanzi. Didn't you win quite easily last time? ”

Listening to reporter Zhang Da talk about the past, Li Xiaoqiang himself smiled. During the participation in the 3rd "Toyo Securities Cup". Li Xiaoqiang and Cao Yanzi "sparred" a few games, and also won 150,000 won from Cao Yanzi. Since this is a private game of chess, it is not publicized everywhere, and not many people in the outside world know about it. However, reporter Zhang Da was obviously not among them, and he was quite clear about the situation at that time.

"It's different, it's obviously very different from the official game. Besides, the last time it was blitz, and the Ying Cup was a game without counting. Speaking of which, I still regret it a little, if I hadn't been exposed last time, maybe I could have used a few steps to novice yin him. But not now, he will definitely be more vigilant against this hand, if he wants to use that trick this time, I don't think it will be easy. ”

"And what tricks are you going to use against him this time?"

"If possible, then of course it is best to use Li Shifo's tricks. But it's a pity that Li Shifo and I don't have the right chess style, and we may not be able to show the essence of his "control flow". Anyway, let's adapt to the situation and see what we can do with Cao Yanzi. But seriously, I'm really looking forward to having a real fight with him and learning what a soft breeze quick grab is. ”

"Hehe, it seems that you are full of fighting spirit today. Alright, it's almost game time, you go inside. ”

Li Xiaoqiang walked into the game room.

The contest between him and Cao Yanzi in their first official competition began immediately.

After entering the game room, Cao Yanzi has not yet appeared. But Li Xiaoqiang's eyes widened:

"I said Yukari, why are you again?" (To be continued......)