The first weekend of April '91, Tokyo, Japan.

A total of 24 Go masters from all over the world gathered at the Japan Chess Academy. Here they will compete in the first two rounds of the 4th Fujitsu Cup Pro Go Championship.

The rules for the first two rounds of the Fujitsu Cup are as follows: out of 24 players, 8 seeded players are determined, and they have a bye in the first round. The remaining 16 players will fight each other for the first round. The winner of the first round will then face off against the eight seeded players for the second round.

After two rounds of competition, the top 8 of this competition will be produced. By this time, the first stage of the competition in Japan was over.

One of the characteristics of Go competitions held in Japan is that the competition time is very fixed. Let's take the "Fujitsu Cup" as an example, in real history, except for the first and last edition. The rest of the games are very fixed.

The tournament kicked off in April, with the top 8 in Japan. When it comes to the top 8, the organizers will often hold it in China, and generally speaking, the venue of the competition is either Beijing or Shencheng, and the time is the first weekend of June every year.

In the semi-finals, the tournament usually returns to Japan. However, the tournament will not be held in Tokyo, but will be held in Osaka or other major Go towns, such as Nagoya. The time is the first weekend of July every year.

When the competition reaches the finals, it is already the beginning of August every year. Often, at this time, the focus of chess fans will converge on Tokyo, Japan.

It must be admitted that Japanese Go has done a good job in this regard. Especially in the era when the world Go tournament was still relatively scarce. Only by doing this will it be easier to run a real "traditional event".

This time, there are 6 Chinese chess players who came to Japan to participate in the "Fujitsu Cup", including Li Xiaoqiang. In the early days of the Go World Championship, in order to emphasize the "world" of the competition, it was liked to allocate several places to each continent of the world. For example, the 24 places for this year's competition are allocated as follows:

There were 3 champions, runners-up and runners-up in the last year, 7 from Japan (including 5 from the Japan Chess Academy and 2 from the Kansai Chess Academy of Japan), 5 from China, 4 from South Korea, 2 from Taiwan (Chinese Go Club), 1 from Europe, 1 from the United States, and 1 from South America, a total of 24 winners.

The extra place for the Chinese team was actually won by Nie Whirlwind himself. He lost to Mr. Lin Haifeng in the final of the last competition. Won the runner-up. Therefore, he does not occupy a national quota. And in the last competition, the Korean team did not have a top 3 finish, so they only have 4 spots.

Interestingly, although the Chinese team has more participants than the South Korean team. But the Chinese team has fewer "seeded players" than others. Of the six Chinese players who participated, only Nie Whirlwind was seeded. He will have a bye in Round 1. South Korea, on the other hand, has two seeded players.

The reason for this is that this is the case. This is actually related to the rules of the tournament to determine the seeding of players. The Fujitsu Cup stipulates that the seeded players of this tournament will be determined based on the top 8 of the previous competition. For example, the Chinese team, although Nie Whirlwind won the runner-up in the last competition, he was actually the only player who entered the top 8 in the last competition. Therefore, there is only one seeded player for the Chinese team. Although no one from the South Korean team made it to the top 3, there were 2 of them in the top 8. So they have 2 seeded players.

When all the contestants arrive in Japan. According to the convention of the tournament, a "night before the race" will definitely be held on the night before the race. The two most important tasks of this ceremony, the first is to draw lots, and the second, of course, is to let the participating players give a "pre-match speech".

Although Li Xiaoqiang participated in the "Fujitsu Cup" for the first time. is a "newcomer" in this competition. However, he still received a lot of attention in this "Eve Festival". From a certain point of view, Li Xiaoqiang has received even more attention than those favorites to win the championship.

It's actually normal to think about it. In the current world chess landscape. It should still be an era of competition for hegemony. Standing at the top of the professional chess world, it is still the Japanese six super plus Nie Cao. These people are rightfully considered to be the "No. 1 collective". In the general perception, it is also believed that only these people have the strength to win the championship.

The current Li Xiaoqiang. Obviously, it won't be classified into this.

However, among the 24 participating chess players, there are many players who have the strength to win the championship. There shouldn't be many chess players like Li Xiaoqiang, right? So it's quite normal for him to be noticed here.

Since Li Xiaoqiang's "debut". He's been to Japan a lot. He comes here almost every year to compete a few times. Therefore, the Japanese Go community is very familiar with Li Xiaoqiang. Moreover, because Li Xiaoqiang's results against Japanese chess players are very good. And Mr. Hideyuki Fujisawa. Mr. Sakata Eio and other old-timers helped him brag about him, and they all praised him. As a result, Li Xiaoqiang became very famous in Japan. As long as you are a Japanese Go enthusiast, you don't know that China has a "Go genius". Out of a "wizard on the chessboard".

According to the Japanese character who likes to worship the strong, so in the past few years. Li Xiaoqiang also inexplicably has a large number of chess fans in Japan. Even organizations such as the "Li Xiaoqiang Support Group" have gradually formed in Japan, and according to the current situation, there is still a sense of slowly expanding.

If you want to talk about such things as "support groups" or "cheering groups", in later generations, it was very common in the entertainment or sports circles in China and South Korea, but the source of this kind of thing in Asia is actually still in Japan.

Therefore, in this "Eve Festival", Li Xiaoqiang naturally became the focus of the field and was the object of media reporters. When the Chinese chess players walked into the venue, all kinds of long guns and short cannons were aimed at Li Xiaoqiang.

To say that in the past few years, Li Xiaoqiang has gone through a lot of such occasions. Although he usually doesn't say much, in such an occasion, although he can't be called "at ease", he still copes with it very decently. In fact, there is no difficulty in dealing with such an occasion, as long as you can do the 4 words "neither humble nor arrogant". Then there won't be any problems. Li Xiaoqiang usually copes with this kind of occasion according to this standard. So nothing went wrong.

But on this occasion today, many reporters who are familiar with Li Xiaoqiang suddenly discovered: Today's Li Xiaoqiang seems to be a little wrong, to be precise, after walking into the venue, Li Xiaoqiang seems to be attracted by something. He's distracted! As a result, I was absent-minded when answering reporters' questions.

That's right, because when Li Xiaoqiang walked into the venue. All his attention was drawn to the other 4 people in the venue.

These four people are the four participating players of the Korean delegation. I don't know if it's a coincidence, these 4 chess players also happen to be the famous Korean Go "Four Heavenly Kings" in later generations.

The four of them, led by the leader of the Korean team, lined up in a row at the venue, looking calm and low-key. Throughout the venue, except for a few acquaintances who would go up to greet them. The surroundings were deserted, and there weren't so many reporters chasing them.

At this time, the name of the "Four Heavenly Kings" has not yet taken shape in their country. Although some people have already begun to call it that. However, it has not yet been recognized by the Go community. Their awesomeness has only just been revealed now, and not many people have yet to understand it. Only Li Xiaoqiang knows in his heart that these four people will set off a bloody storm in the Go world. They will completely change the entire world chess landscape. They will make future generations of Korean Go media often triumphantly declare:

"As the ...... of the world's most powerful Go country"

Li Xiaoqiang, who was an ordinary chess fan in his previous life, saw these 4 people in countless Go reports. He has also read a lot of chess reviews about the four of them. So I'm familiar with a few of them. However, in this life, this is the first time Li Xiaoqiang has seen these 4 Korean Go king-level figures.

Among them, Li Xiaoqiang's attention is, of course, more on his peers. Li Shifo calmly stood beside his master Cao Yanzi. His face was expressionless. It looks harmless to humans and animals. He had his timeless poker face, and his gaze even looked a little dumb. Even in this noisy occasion, he looks like he is wandering out of the world. It seems out of place in this field.

Li Xiaoqiang noticed that when his people walked into the venue. Li Shifo also looked up. His gaze even swept over his own. But he still looked like a shy big boy, and he quickly lowered his head after sweeping it. I can't see any "eyes and eyes" and the like.

To be honest, this made Li Xiaoqiang a little disappointed. I said in my heart, Li Xiaoqiang, has always regarded you as a benchmark. So far, I, Li Xiaoqiang, am a little famous in the world chess world, right? Even the old god stick of Fujisawa Hideyuki said: "No. 1 Li Xiaoqiang." The second is you, Li Shifo." Why did I walk by your side and you didn't even look at it? It hurts my self-esteem too much, doesn't it......

Of course, Li Xiaoqiang's cranky thoughts are only so much. Because when all the players are there. The official draw ceremony is also about to begin. In the draw of the 1st round. As 8 seeded players do not participate. And these chess players are precisely those favorites to win the championship. For example, China is Nie Whirlwind, which goes directly into the second round. Japan is Lin Haifeng, Kobayashi Koji and Zhao Zhixun do not need to draw lots. South Korea has also decided to seed Cho Lee's apprentice.

In this way, among the remaining 16 chess players, Li Xiaoqiang is even more prominent.

"First of all, congratulations to Li Sang on winning the Chinese Go Tianyuan title. Li San: This is the first time to participate in the Fujitsu Cup, right? How do you feel now? ”

"As you said, this is my first World Series. Therefore, I can only be regarded as here to increase knowledge. It's certainly a joy to have such a good learning opportunity. ”

"Li Sang doesn't need to say polite words. Can you tell us about your goals for this competition? ”

"Hehe, if I said I didn't have a goal, I don't think you would believe it. Then I'll have to be honest with you. My goal is actually very obvious, I want to be able to save my capital and try to win 1 game. Of course, if everyone agrees, let me enter the top 8. Then I will be even happier. As for the top 4 and stuff like that...... Can you allow me not to say it? You'd better make this a dream of mine. ”

"Hahahaha."

After everyone listened to Li Xiaoqiang's speech, the whole venue resounded with good-natured laughter.

Indeed, Li Xiaoqiang's speech is actually very much in line with the current situation in the Go world. So far, there have been 4 World Championships in the Go world. Has there ever been a non-top player who has made it to the top four of the World Series? No, not once!

Take Chinese chess players as an example, before this competition, except for Nie Whirlwind, did Ma Xiaofei enter the top 4 of the World Series? Not once, and their best result is the top 8 at most. Therefore, Li Xiaoqiang said that "I dream of entering the top 4", and everyone will feel very decent.

Li Xiaoqiang said so, but what did he think in his heart? Now no one knows. What made Li Xiaoqiang even more unexpected was that when his opponent in the first round came out, he became the focus of the court again.

His opponent in the first round is Mr. Masaki Takemiya.

He is the only super-first-class chess player in this tournament who has not been able to become a seeded player!

At this moment, Li Xiaoqiang's eyes found Mr. Wu Gong in the crowd.

The two looked at each other and smiled.

There is no doubt that the matchup between them will be the most eye-catching match of Round 1. (To be continued......)