Narita Airport, Tokyo, Japan. Li Xiaoqiang, Nie Xuanfeng and others stepped off the plane.

"I said, Reporter Zhang, what are you doing looking around?"

"I'm just going to see if your full-time translator will come to greet you."

"Get out!"

It is now the end of '92, and in a few days, the new year will soon be upon us. Li Xiaoqiang came to Japan this time to participate in the semi-finals of the 2nd "Yingshi Cup". After a busy year, this is the last major international tournament of the year, and it can be considered the final battle of the year.

After all, the "Ying's Cup" is a professional Go tournament with the highest prize money this year, and it has attracted unusual attention. As soon as the Chinese delegation walked out of the airport, Yukari Umezawa was not seen in the crowd, but everyone was surrounded by a large group of reporters. Especially Li Xiaoqiang, with all kinds of long guns and short cannons in front of him, he was a little overwhelmed.

“…… Li Sang, you are about to start a ten-match battle with Ma Jun in China, does this mean that you are ready to compete for the power of the Chinese chess world? ”

"Luck, pure luck, everyone knows that I was able to get the right to challenge the celebrity battle because Mr. Nie next to me gave me a beautiful assist, if he hadn't won Mr. Liu Da Hammer, I wouldn't have been able to win this challenge at all. So it's all a matter of luck ......"

“…… Li San, some time ago, you just lost to Mr. Kiki Ida in the Three Kingdoms Go Tournament, what do you think of Ida-kun's Go? ”

"Ugh! Mr. Yitian's chess style is very positive, and he is very difficult to deal with, as for the opinion...... Trust me the next time I meet him, I'm still confident that I can beat him......"

"Li Sang, first of all, congratulations on making it to the top 8 of the Toyo Securities Cup again, and we note that in the current world chess scene, you are the only player who has the hope of winning the world chess championship. What are your prospects for the next races? ”

"It's a fluke, it's all a fluke, I don't have any ideas at the moment, I just want to play every game well......"

Looking at Li Xiaoqiang, who was surrounded by a group of reporters, reporter Zhang Da smiled and joked with Nie Whirlwind:

"Lao Nie, see it, in terms of limelight, now even you can't compare with Xiaoqiang."

Nie Whirlwind laughed very cooperatively:

"Yes, if you want to be in the limelight, you have to keep winning like Xiaoqiang. So I'm here this time, I must take a good look and strive to be beautiful again......"

Indeed, in the last month or two, Li Xiaoqiang has been in the limelight and looks quite beautiful.

First up was the domestic arena, thanks to Nie's victory over Liu Da Hammer and Li Xiaoqiang's defeat of Yu Bin in the final round. This allowed Li Xiaoqiang to obtain the right to challenge the domestic "celebrity war". Then he immediately started a five-game chess competition with Ma Xiaofei. And in the "National Hand War", he won 2 games in a row, making Ma Xiaofei's "national hand" title in jeopardy. And that's not all. In the final of the "Celebrity War", Li Xiaoqiang still won the first game. In the second game, Ma Xiaofei worked hard to get back a set, and the first two games were tied at 1-1.

Although the battle for these two domestic titles is not yet over, anyone with a discerning eye can see it. Ma Xiaofei's status as the "domestic title king" is being challenged unprecedentedly.

The second is the international arena, under the strong request of Li Xiaoqiang's own strength, he served as the Chinese pioneer of the first "Zhenlu Cup" Three Kingdoms Ring Tournament. Supposedly, as China's only current world champion, the management initially did not agree to let Li Xiaoqiang be the pioneer. Later it was considered that this was the first competition. The management also hoped to get off to a good start at the beginning, coupled with Li Xiaoqiang's own strong request, so Li Xiaoqiang was sent to play first.

As a result, after the game started. Li Xiaoqiang can be regarded as living up to expectations. Almost all of the six games in the first phase held in Shencheng became the stage for Li Xiaoqiang's performance. He first came with a wave of 5 consecutive wins, but in the 6th game, he was unfortunately knocked out of the ring by Noriki Ida.

Losing to Yida Kiki is not for other reasons, the main thing is that he is too tired. During that period, Li Xiaoqiang's schedule was already very busy, fighting hard with Ma Xiaofei in the domestic arena, and competing in the Three Kingdoms Tournament in the international arena. The Three Kingdoms Tournament is a one-hour rapid game for each side, and the tournament starts every afternoon, with no days off in between. Li Xiaoqiang fought with high intensity for 6 consecutive days, and when he played with Yitian Jiji, Li Xiaoqiang was finally tired, and his chess sense was completely numb, which was manifested in the continuous mistakes in the game, and some very simple chess could not be seen. So he lost to Noriki Ita.

After losing to Kiki Ita, the Japanese team and even the South Korean team were relieved. Li Xiaoqiang himself is haunted, hoping to have the opportunity to find this field.

At the end of the first stage of the Three Kingdoms Tournament, Li Xiaoqiang immediately moved to South Korea to participate in the 4th "Toyo Securities Cup". Compared with the previous schedule, Li Xiaoqiang seems to be more relaxed this time. Since he is the defending champion, there was a bye in the first round. In the second round, Li Xiaoqiang drew another good draw and met an unknown Korean chess player. It is relatively easy to enter the top 8.

After the first two rounds of the 4th "Toyo Securities Cup", another important international competition is coming, which is the semi-finals of the "Ying Cup". Li Xiaoqiang knew in his heart that this trip to Japan should not be so easy, because the opponent was Cao Yanzi.

"Mr. Cao is recognized as a talented chess player, and he is currently one of the best chess players in the world. To be honest, I admire his style of chess very much, and I used to play his chess when I was learning chess. Against him, I don't have any confidence at all. I came this time with a learning attitude, and I am very happy to have the opportunity to ask him for a few games in the official competition and learn what the real "soft wind and fast gun" is......"

Facing reporters, Li Xiaoqiang is now much more sophisticated, he is proficient in all kinds of tai chi, and continues to say some scenes that are not painful or itchy.

The person who picked up the plane finally came, and this time it was not the staff of the Japan Chess Academy, but the organizer of the "Yingshi Cup".

"Mr. Ying, why bother you to come in person......

Vice President Wang Lunan, who led the team, and Nie Xuanfeng and others expressed their politeness to Mr. Ying. Mr. Ying laughed, he patted Li Xiaoqiang's shoulder, everyone said a few words, and then galloped to the hotel that had been arranged a long time ago.

"Look, look, I'll just say how could Xiaoqiang's full-time translator not appear, it turns out that people just changed places to greet them."

As soon as he arrived at the place where he was staying, the sharp-eyed reporter Zhang Da winked at Li Xiaoqiang. In the face of his perseverance in the spirit of gossip. Li Xiaoqiang had no choice but to roll his eyes to express his helplessness.

Yukari Umezawa appeared at the hotel with Yamada Tsumiko reporter of the Japanese magazine "Chess". In addition to participating in the "Yingshi Cup" competition, there is actually one more thing when I came to Japan this time.

The reason is the series of articles co-written by Li Xiaoqiang and Fang Lao to introduce ancient chess. Fang Lao's excellent writing, rigorous research, coupled with the "technical support" of Li Xiaoqiang and the national junior team. This series of articles has become very popular with chess fans. To be honest, with the rise of Li Xiaoqiang's fame, this article on ancient chess has also received more and more attention.

For example, the Japanese magazine "Chess" is preparing to partially reprint this article, and Yamada reporter appears here today. Actually, I came to discuss related matters.

Of course, although it is a reprint of the article, the focus of the two sides is different. In China, Fang Lao and Li Xiaoqiang hope to introduce the ancient chess more systematically, accurately grasp the development of the ancient chess, and at the same time hope to give a more objective evaluation.

And what about the Japanese side? They were most interested in the comparison of ancient Chinese and Japanese Go. To be honest, since there has been very little exchange between China and Japan for a long time in history, it is of course very difficult to find content about the comparison between China and Japan.

Like in history. There has never been a comment on ancient Japanese chess by an ancient Chinese chess player. In fact, there are not many evaluations of ancient Chinese chess by ancient Japanese chess players, which first began with Lin 11th Lin Yuanmei's "Rotten Ketang Chess Words", which was finalized in 1849 and has a total of 11 volumes. 148 chess stories, part historical, part anecdote. There are also 72 games, including 9 games of ancient Chinese scores. Among them, Fan Shi played a game. The book includes the evaluation of the ancient Chinese national players Huang Longshi, Xu Xingyou, Fan Xiping and Shi Xiangxia by the "Four Masters" of Japan at that time through chess scores.

These comments, roughly speaking, are that Fan Shi is equivalent to their five dans, and Zhang He thinks that they are "Mizang-level" chess players. That is, the strength is similar to that of the four palaces of the two sons of the Zhang. Interestingly, at the same time, they also admired Xu Xingyou's chess.

Regarding this contradictory and insulting argument, Li Xiaoqiang of course resolutely refuted it in the article. Li Xiaoqiang even made it clear that if Zhanghe was lucky enough to meet any of Huang, Fan, and Shi. Then the famous strong man in ancient Japanese chess, known as the "strong wrist", is likely to be beaten all over the ground to find teeth.

Of course, Li Xiaoqiang can't just talk about it, he must have "dry goods". The dry goods prepared by Li Xiaoqiang are "better than good hands". Through vivid examples, he started from the ingenuity and complexity of the conception, the depth of the calculation and the rigor of the chess, and demonstrated how strong the ancient chess was.

In the face of the complexity of Go, the idea of winning in ancient chess in China and Japan is actually completely different. The emphasis of the ancient Japanese chess is to try to reduce the complexity of Go in the layout stage, and to achieve a balance by using thick to thick, and the two sides are in a stalemate confrontation, which is relatively a static balance. And what about ancient Chinese chess? Due to the reason of "seat", in this environment that is destined to be "difficult to attack and difficult to defend", the emphasis of ancient chess is to try to complicate the situation in the layout stage, to achieve balance by mutual containment, and to move the whole body, which is relatively a kind of dynamic balance.

All this is what Li Xiaoqiang wants to recommend to everyone. It can be said that due to the existence of the "seat system", this makes the medieval chess system of its own. Of course, this system is now lost, because the modern game of Go was developed from the Japanese system of Go. As a result, everyone is familiar with ancient Japanese chess, and they are also accustomed to appreciating it. However, it is not so easy to understand the medieval chess, such as the "gossip layout" in the medieval chess, which is not placed in another system, and it is very difficult to understand this layout, because it is not understood, so many people will not be used to it.

Since it is focusing on the comparison of Chinese and Japanese ancient chess, Li Xiaoqiang discussed with the Japanese "Qidao" magazine and is ready to increase the "dry goods" in this regard, not only that, but because in Fang Lao's article, it only started with Go in the Ming Dynasty, Li Xiaoqiang is ready to expand the scope of the comparison this time. For example, the first article prepared by Li Xiaoqiang is:

"The Comparison of the Xuanxuan Chess Sutra and the Theory of Fayang".

Li Xiaoqiang and Yamada reporters discussed relevant matters, and it was a little strange to see Yukari Umezawa sitting on the side. Eventually, he couldn't help but ask:

"Yukari, why are you here today?"

Yukari Umezawa looked at Li Xiaoqiang quietly, and she said with a smile:

"I have accepted the invitation of Qidao Magazine to cooperate with Li Sang to complete this series of articles."

“……”

After the Yamada reporter left, reporter Zhang Da threw an ambiguous look again, and he stabbed Li Xiaoqiang:

"Yes, yes, now I have changed from a full-time translator to a personal secretary. Xiaoqiang, come on......"

Li Xiaoqiang rolled his eyes helplessly:

"Get out!" (To be continued......)