When Ma Xiaofei and Cao Yanzi had a tiebreaker, the time was already at the end of January 95. There are not a few days left before the Spring Festival.

"It's best for Ma Xiao to win today, so that everyone can have a good year, and let chess fans have a comfortable good year."

Shortly after the start of the game, members of the Chinese team, Nie Xuanfeng, Team Leader Hua, Li Xiaoqiang, Li Yiyi and reporter Zhang Da all appeared in the viewing room of the Korean Chess Academy. The reason why everyone came here so early and gathered so together was not because everyone was nervous about the game, but because everyone really didn't have anywhere to go, so they had to come here.

"Lao Nie is right, if Ma Xiao can win it today, it will be in the past year...... Tsk, Xiao Zhang, do you think our Chinese Go has been a fat year? ”

After everyone sat down in the viewing room, the first chess game had not yet been transmitted. So everyone can only make small talk. Starting from Nie Whirlwind, Team Leader Hua took over, and everyone first talked about such a topic. After listening to Team Leader Hua's words, everyone was happy, so they began to discuss the question of "whether it is a fat year".

In today's world chess world, the most important thing is of course the world's three major tournaments. The "Ying's Cup" is once every four years, but not this year. In the remaining two world competitions, the "Fujitsu Cup" was won by Li Xiaoqiang. If Ma Xiaofei can defeat Cao Yanzi today, what does it mean? It means that another heavyweight championship will also be won by Chinese Go. If it is calculated according to this standard, then of course, Chinese Go will be regarded as having a fat year.

Next, everyone was still unsatisfied, and took stock of other international competitions. It should be said that in the past year, Chinese Go has also achieved good results in other international competitions, especially in several bilateral confrontation events, Ma Xiaofei won the "Sino-Japanese Tianyuan Confrontation Competition", and Li Xiaoqiang won the championship of the "China-Korea Hand Competition". The oldest and most traditional Sino-Japanese Go tournament. Due to Chang Rensheng's outstanding performance, the situation of the Chinese team is also very good. Although the match is not over yet, no one thinks that the Japanese team will be able to turn the tables.

Everyone chatted and chatted, and when they lamented the decline of Japanese Go. Among them, Li Yiyi, who has the least "qualifications", seems to have discovered some new continent, and he suddenly came to this sentence:

"I suddenly realized that as long as it's a slow chess game. We seem to have been really bulls in the past year, and we have reached the point where we can see who kills whom......"

Hearing what Translator Li said, everyone naturally talked about the topic of rapid chess again. Indeed, in the past year's international competitions, Chinese Go has only left the championship behind in two competitions. One of them is the "Asian Cup", which has been held for 6 times so far, and the championship has been taken away by Japanese chess players, and last year's champion happened to be Japan's "fairy of rapid chess" Otake. In addition to the "Asian Cup", the remaining one is the three-country tournament that just ended. And the two competitions have a common feature. It's that both games are rapid chess.

At this time, Team Leader Hua spoke: "Speaking of the rapid chess game, now we find that this is really our weakness, Old Nie ......" Speaking of this, Team Leader Hua turned his head to Nie Whirlwind: "...... I wonder if we will work hard to go back and strive to start one or two rapid chess tournaments this year...... "At this time, Team Leader Hua turned his head to Li Xiaoqiang...... It's one thing to increase training in this area, but the most important thing is that you have to find a way in this area. ”

Hearing Team Leader Hua say this, everyone naturally turned their attention to Li Xiaoqiang, even Nie Whirlwind. Seeing this scene, reporter Zhang Da sighed with emotion.

Everyone turned their attention to Li Xiaoqiang. Of course, it doesn't expect Li Xiaoqiang to have any way right away. It's just a habit, a dependence. Just like a few years ago, everyone was used to relying only on Nie Whirlwind alone.

It is now exactly ten years since the first China-Japan Go Tournament. Ten years in the blink of an eye. And the habitual sense of trust in Chinese Go seems to have gradually shifted from Nie Whirlwind to Li Xiaoqiang.

Such a transformation certainly does not happen overnight. Such a transformation took Li Xiaoqiang ten years of work!

To create a sense of trust in people's families, this needs to be supported by results. For example, half a year ago, when Li Xiaoqiang broke into the top 8 of the "Fujitsu Cup" alone, could you discuss the topic of "Fat Year" at that time? Including the "Fujitsu Cup", which has already ended. Including this "Toyo Securities Cup", it can be said that it is Li Xiaoqiang who has supported most of the Chinese Go, and now he is the main pillar of Chinese Go.

The reason why everyone can be so relaxed when chatting now, and why everyone's mentality can be so peaceful. Perhaps many people themselves do not realize that in the subconscious mind of many people:

This time, even if Ma Xiaofei loses to Cao Yanzi, it doesn't matter. Because we still have Li Xiaoqiang!

"Actually, I don't really like to play rapid chess much compared to slow chess." Seeing that everyone was looking at him, Li Xiaoqiang opened his mouth and said such a sentence.

"Why?"

"I always feel that in rapid chess competitions, it is difficult to leave a hand-me-down chess book, and if rapid chess tournaments are too widespread, I don't think it will necessarily be beneficial to promote Go......

After listening to Li Xiaoqiang's words, everyone looked at each other. Although many chess players like to talk about "playing good chess". But it must be admitted that there are many chess players who are just talking about the scene, but the current situation is different, now it is just a private occasion, Li Xiaoqiang actually said this, which is enough to make everyone more impressed with him.

Of course, everyone is more interested in Li Xiaoqiang's later sentence. For a niche sport like Go, how to popularize it? How to promote? In fact, it has always been a hot topic within the Go world. Especially in recent years, seeing that the pattern of the world chess scene has undergone drastic changes, from the dominance of Japanese Go to the current Three Kingdoms, the topic of popularization has become even more popular.

At present, when people talk about this topic, there are two most popular theories, one is that people with a "multi-sports complex" think that if Go can be squeezed into the Olympic Games or Asian Games, then Go will definitely be very popular. The other is that if you want to make Go more enjoyable, you have to add some rapid chess, because it can be more adapted to live TV.

How so? Both of these views seem to be very reasonable, at least in the current mainstream of the world chess scene. Li Xiaoqiang thinks that such a view just looks beautiful. There are also a lot of underdog sports in the Olympics, and many of them have not become more popular just because they have joined the Olympics. As for the latter point of view, Li Xiaoqiang scoffed even more.

In Li Xiaoqiang's view, the game of Go is fast, which can only lose the characteristics of Go itself, and in a popular phrase, it will lose the "core competitiveness" of Go. Due to the characteristics of Go itself, it is naturally inferior to football and basketball in terms of ornamentation. So you want to compete with these projects in terms of ornamentality, can this lead to any good results? No, there is no good result at all in doing so.

In real history, especially when Korean Go dominated the world chess scene, the Go world did just that. But as you can see, from 1995 to 2015, the game did not become more popular. So what is the "core competitiveness" of Go? Some of the things that have happened in the past in the Go world may be instructive.

"Even if it's a glance, can you show me the scene......

"From the beginning to the end, even if you want to watch the game by the chessboard for many days......"

This was when Mr. Wu Qingyuan and Mr. Minoru Kitani played "Kamakura Juban Chess", and some reports from the Japanese media at that time. Look, this is the force of Go, and this is the real charm of Go.

Li Xiaoqiang has always believed that the "core competitiveness" of Go lies in its high forcing and its complexity. As long as you grasp the point that "Go is the most complex board game invented by mankind", Go does not have to worry about its future at all, and it does not even have to care about the popularity rate.

Compared to popularity, complex games will never be as good as simple games. For example, many chess fans should have experienced this first-hand. If you go into any chess hall or teahouse, there will never be as many people playing Go as there are people playing cards or mahjong. However, many chess fans may have experienced this, even if you are a rookie, you may receive envious glances when you tell someone that you can play Go.

"You can play Go......"

Therefore, Li Xiaoqiang has always believed that Go wants to be popular, and wants more people to know and accept Go. It is important to emphasize the unique charm of Go. What is the best thing about Go? One is that the image is good, Go has always given people an elegant feeling, such intangible assets, which many projects can't ask for. And the other one, of course, is the complexity of Go. As long as these two points are strengthened, Go will not have a market at all.

And some of the practices in the Go world in real history are obviously a bit of putting the cart before the horse.

"Okay, okay, I think we'd better leave that out for now. This question is too complicated to be clear in a few words. Now that the chess game is coming in, let's take a look at Mr. Ma's game of chess. This is directly related to the question of whether our Chinese Go can have a fat year......"

Although he has his own unique understanding of the popularity of Go, Li Xiaoqiang is not like talking about it at this time. He believes that instead of rhetoric here, it is better to prove his point with practice.

If there is anything in common with other competitive sports, it is that Go, like other sports, needs stars and superstars. A lot of practice shows that if a sport has a superstar, then the sport tends to find well. In this regard, Go is no exception.

What Li Xiaoqiang wants to do now is, of course, to become a superstar in the field of Go.

"Huh? The start of this game is exactly the same as the second game? What does that mean? Mr. Ma lost the second game, it seems that he is very confident in himself......"

After the first game came in, everyone stopped talking about the topic and began to study the last important game in the world chess world before the Spring Festival.

A game is underway to decide whether Chinese Go can "have a fat year". (To be continued.) )