In the semi-finals of the 6th "Toyo Securities Cup", three Chinese chess players formed an "encirclement and suppression" posture against Cao Yanzi. Therefore, at the draw ceremony, when Cao Yanzi stretched out his hand to Ma Xiaofei, Ma Xiaofei undoubtedly became the focus of the audience.

Not far from them, Li Xiaoqiang looked at Ma Xiaofei quietly. Looking at this former "middle dragon" in the Chinese chess world.

This year is 94 years, and Ma Xiaofei, who belongs to the dragon, is exactly 30 years old this year. In the words of us Chinese, Ma Xiaofei has reached the "year of standing".

However, is Ma Xiaofei really "standing"?

Although as early as more than 10 years ago, Ma Xiaofei was the No. 2 person in the Chinese chess world who was second to Nie Whirlwind. Although the phrase "the first Cao Yanzi, the second Ma Xiaofei" came out of the mouth of the old god stick Fujisawa Hideyuki, it has now been circulated in the world chess arena for more than 10 years. Although it has been 7 years since the establishment of the first professional Go World Championship. But a strange fact, Ma Xiaofei has never fought with Cao Yanzi.

Now they finally met. What was everyone's first reaction? Are you looking forward to the collision of two geniuses? Are you expecting a battle of the dragons? No, absolutely not.

It is almost certain that many people at the scene may be sighing like this: After so many years, Ma Xiaofei finally walked in front of Cao Yanzi this time, and he finally obtained the qualification to challenge Cao Yanzi.

This is the current situation that Ma Xiaofei is facing, and this is the pressure that Ma Xiaofei needs to bear.

The world of professional chess is realistic and brutal. Although with the level that Ma Xiaofei is currently showing, it can be said that no professional master can be underestimated. Although not long ago, he showed his superb skills in the competition with the world's first "Triple Crown", he even had a slight advantage. But it must be admitted that in the circle of the world's top chess masters, Ma Xiaofei is just a newcomer, and he is not accepted by the vast majority of people. Based on Ma Xiaofei's previous achievements in world chess battles, his status is not recognized by everyone.

So for Ma Xiaofei. The upcoming semi-final with Cao Yanzi is crucial to his career. It is not an exaggeration to say that this is the most important test for Ma Xiaofei so far.

The semi-finals of the Toyo Securities Cup are a three-way match, which is not the same as a one-game tiebreaker. In this game, Tsushima Xiaofei is like an admission ticket, a ticket to the "super first-class club".

If he passes Cao Yanzi's test, then he will step into the ranks of the top players in the world chess world.

What if he can't get through? For a simple analogy, if he loses the match with Cao Yanzi, even if he wins Li Xiaoqiang 10 times in a row in the next domestic arena, he can get the title of "Li Xiaoqiang's nemesis" at most. and will not be recognized as super-class by the world chess world.

At this moment, Li Xiaoqiang didn't know what Ma Xiaofei was thinking. But maybe it's because he's been hiding behind Nie Whirlwind's shadow for too long, or maybe he's used to being the No. 2 person, Ma Xiaofei doesn't seem to be used to being focused. When he shook hands with Cao Yanzi, Ma Xiaofei, who was usually dashing and uninhibited, was obviously a little stiff.

"It's also Ma Xiao's turn." Nie Whirlwind, who was standing beside Li Xiaoqiang, muttered quietly.

"That's right, it's Mr. Ma's turn, and I'm confident that Mr. Ma will win." Li Xiaoqiang also echoed in a low voice, and couldn't help but act as a magic stick again.

“…… Hehe, Teacher Nie, don't look at me like this. Cao Yanzi can even deal with me. And Mr. Ma can overpower me, then I am optimistic about Mr. Ma, what's so strange about this. ”

Li Xiaoqiang used this reason to deal with Nie Whirlwind's inquiring gaze, but of course he didn't really have this logic in his heart.

The reason why Li Xiaoqiang said this. That's of course because of the memories brought by the previous life. In real history, Ma Xiaofei defeated Cao Yanzi in this crucial battle, and then joined Nie Whirlwind in the final. Brought the first world championship to Chinese Go. Ma Xiaofei also stepped onto the top of the world because of this

Because it was China's first world championship, Li Xiaoqiang was impressed. He subconsciously thought that Ma Xiaofei could win. Actually, it was just now. Li Xiaoqiang's main thought is not the question of whether Ma Xiaofei can win Cao Yanzi. Li Xiaoqiang glanced at Nie Whirlwind on the side:

"If Ma Xiaofei can really enter the finals, then who will be the teacher with him......"

Fortunately, this question does not need to be thought about. The semi-finals will be played in January '95, just over a month away. We'll see you all when the time comes. So for now, let's enjoy the joy of victory first.

At the draw ceremony, the qualifying chess players naturally have to pose or something. In the center of the stage, Li Xiaoqiang and Nie Whirlwind's hands were shaken together. Li Xiaoqiang smiled and said to Nie Whirlwind:

"Teacher Nie, isn't it a special taste to shake hands on such an occasion?"

"Hahahaha......" Facing a big victory in Chinese Go, Nie Whirlwind laughed heartily:

“…… You're right, it's a really special feeling. ”

On the second day after the competition, the Chinese delegation flew back to China.

After a busy schedule for several months, Li Xiaoqiang ushered in a relatively leisurely time after returning to China. It's the beginning of December, Li Xiaoqiang took a look at his schedule, and in the whole of the next December, he has no games to play. This means that his 1994 season is over.

In this year, the Chinese Chess Academy still has no official statistics on chess players. However, Li Xiaoqiang has his own chess records. After returning to China, Li Xiaoqiang was idle and bored, and one day he simply counted his own data. Overall, Li Xiaoqiang is still quite satisfied with his achievements this year. Not only won a world championship. Judging from the number of games, the number of wins, the winning rate and other data, his results are also quite good.

Over the course of the year, he played a total of 67 professional games, averaging a little more than one Monday set. That's a lot of games in this era. What's more, I didn't have to participate in the rank competition, nor did I participate in this year's national individual competition. In this case, he was still able to complete more than 60 games, which fully demonstrated his "activity".

Of these 67 games, he won 54 games and lost 13 games, with a win rate of a little more than 80%. Admittedly, such a win rate can be taken anywhere. Li Xiaoqiang also noticed that among the 13 games he lost, the games he lost to Ma Xiaofei accounted for more than half. In this year's "Chess King Battle". In the finals of the "National Hand Battle" and the "Celebrity Battle", he lost to Ma Xiaofei in a total of 8 sets.

Of course, in these 3 games, he also won 6 sets against Ma Xiaofei. In addition, he also won a game against Ma Xiaofei in the previous "top ten battle", and his overall record against Ma Xiaofei this year is 7 wins and 8 wins. Although the two are still about the same from this data, the data can sometimes be deceiving. At least from the perspective of the domestic chess world, it is the difference in this game, which gives people the impression that they were obviously overpowered by Ma Xiaofei.

"Losing to Ma Xiaofei accounted for 8 sets, so what about 5 more sets? Who the hell did I lose to in the 5 sets? ”

Li Xiaoqiang continued to look at his chess records with great interest:

“…… Lost a game to Luo Shen Pig in a rapid chess match...... Well, that plate was an accident. And it's a loss at the hands of a ghost......"

“…… Lost to Liu Da Hammer in two sets...... Both of these games were lost in the knockout round of the title match, and this year, apart from Ma Xiaofei, I have played against him the most. It's normal to win a lot of him this year, and it's normal to lose 2 sets......"

“…… Lose to Nie Whirlwind...... But it was an invitational game......"

“…… Also lost to ...... also lost to Li Shifo in a game ......"

Li Xiaoqiang's record of flipping the chess game was flipped from behind. When he turned to the front, Li Shifo's name entered his eyelids. It was still at the beginning of 94 that Li Xiaoqiang lost to Li Shifo in the top 8 of the last "Toyo Securities Cup".

"I really didn't pay attention, my first game of the year was lost by you."

After seeing Li Shifo's name, Li Xiaoqiang began to pay attention to his schedule in January. If you say you're free in December. Then in January '95, I may be busy again.

The first domestic chess battle is the "Tianyuan War" at the beginning of the month, which has been a practice for many years. At the end of the month, there will be a semi-final of the "Toyo Securities Cup", and he will play a trilogy with Nie Whirlwind. And what about the middle of the month? In the middle of January '95. I may have to play a lot of chess with Li Shifo.

The first is the Three Kingdoms Tournament, which has entered the final stage, and the competition time is in the middle of next month. There are currently two players left in each of the three countries. The next game was guarded by Mr. Masao Kato of Japan and attacked by Chinese chess players. At present, the management has not yet clarified who will be sent to the game. However, Li Xiaoqiang himself estimated. There is a great possibility that you will play first. This is considered from two aspects, the first is that Mr. Kato has not opened a beard in his own hands. So in such a format, in such a stalemate. It's normal to give priority to sending yourself on the field. The second consideration, of course, should consider Ma Xiaofei's preparation for Cao Yanzi. In fact, this game is not only important for Ma Xiaofei personally. The entire Chinese Go community values it. Whether Chinese chess players can meet in the World Series finals for the first time depends on Ma Xiaofei.

If you play by yourself first, if you can win Kato smoothly. Then Li Xiaoqiang thinks that there is a great chance that he and Li Shifo will meet. Because at this time, Li Shifo was not the "Nongshim Cup Iron Gate" like in his previous life. At this time, the Korean chess world is still more accustomed to letting Cao Yanzi be the main player.

If the Three Kingdoms Tournament is only a possibility, then another competition has already been finalized. Soon after Li Xiaoqiang returned to China, China and South Korea announced to the outside world at the same time that the first "China-South Korea Go National Players Competition" would be held. The format is a trilogy, and the first confrontation is scheduled for mid-January. The contestants on both sides are China's "national player" Li Xiaoqiang and South Korea's "national player" Li Shifo.

The game is finalized, but that's next month. Taking advantage of this rare leisure time, Li Xiaoqiang decided to relax. Therefore, he ran to Lin Mengyu's school if he had nothing to do during this time.

When the time came to late December, when Li Xiaoqiang was still preparing to have a "romantic Christmas" with Lin Mengyu or something, it was okay to be unaccustomed to Li Xiaoqiang's idleness. On this day, the management found Li Xiaoqiang.

"What? Going to Japan? Why did you send me to Japan? ”

"Who is going if you don't go? You're also the vice-coach of the ring, and you're bored right now. Consider that you and Chang Rensheng are the same age. Therefore, this time it was decided that you would lead the team, so that he could be pressed on the formation. ”

"......" (To be continued......)

PS: It suddenly turned out that it was already the last month of 15 years. It's been more than 2 years since the book was opened, and it's really a bit embarrassing to code such a braille code. My goal is to finish this book next year. However, at the pace of this year, it is estimated that it will be more difficult. However, I specifically checked my update from last month. In November, I updated a total of 31 chapters. It's not easy, it's the first time I've reached a daily average in more than a year.

Today is the 1st.,I don't dare to say big words.,But I hope that my update volume this month is more than last month.。 For the sake of me, I can finally save it. Guaranteed monthly passes or something, also give me a few more. Thank you.