As soon as the news of Li Xiaoqiang and the "International New Column" next ten lifting competitions was launched, it quickly attracted great attention from the outside world. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

At first, it was just a rumor, but the competition was implemented very quickly.

Reporter Zhang Da put forward this idea at the opening ceremony of the "Qiu Ju Cup." By the time the first two rounds of the first "Qiu Ju Cup" ended and Li Xiaoqiang successfully advanced to the top 8, the game had basically been finalized.

The main reason why it was so smooth was that the competition received an enthusiastic response from young people. Although this idea was supported by senior chess players such as Lin Haifeng and Cao Yanzi at the very beginning, if young people are unwilling to play, no matter how good the idea is, it will be in vain.

But from Gu Dali to Li Shishi, from the "red-faced chess king" Ah Xun to Yamashita Keigo, they all showed a strong desire to play against Li Xiaoqiang.

"The initial move is to give way first? It doesn't matter, and there's nothing fair or unfair, since it's a lifting race, you must have such psychological preparation. If you have enough strength, everyone will work hard to raise this chess position, but if you don't have the strength, even if you start to set the score first, you will eventually be beaten by Senior Li... ”

These are the words of South Korea's Lee Seok in an interview with reporters. His remarks are also considered to represent the basic attitude of new chess players.

Such a positive attitude naturally makes this competition no longer have any obstacles. From reporter Zhang Da to the announcement of Hu Yi's official holding of the competition, there was only less than half a month in between. And in the past half a month, what has given reporter Zhang Da and others a headache is not that there are no young chess players who are willing to participate, but that there are too many young chess players who want to participate. For example, like "Brother Calm" Sheikh, so reporter Zhang Da and others had to do some "persuasion" work to finally determine such a set of participating lineups that are representative enough.

And when the official news was released, Hu Yi's generosity was even more eye-catching.

Hu Yi mainly announced the following things at the press conference:

1: Li Xiaoqiang vs "International New Column" Shiban Lifting Tournament is hosted by the "World Go Federation".

2: Since it is a lifting match, the game will adopt the "flounder method" of Japanese and Korean rules, and a draw is allowed. Each of the 10 cutting-edge chess players played a game of chess with Li Xiaoqiang, and the order of appearance was uncertain, and the "international column" negotiated and resolved it by itself.

3. The game time adopts the most popular competition system in the international chess world, with 3 hours for each side and 10 times of 1-minute countdown.

4. The total budget of the competition is 5 million yuan, of which 2 million is the game fee, and the game fee for each of the 10 games is 200,000 yuan, of which the winner gets 150,000 yuan and the loser gets 50,000 yuan. The other 3 million is the winning prize. If Li Xiaoqiang wins more games in 10 games, 3 million will go to Li Xiaoqiang, otherwise it will go to the new chess player. In the event of a tie, the prize money is split evenly.

At this press conference, Hu Yi actually launched another thing in the name of the "World Go Federation", that is, the "World Professional Chess Player Rankings".

However, Hu Yi was still relatively low-key when he launched this thing, he first announced that this ranking is currently only in the "trial run" stage, and repeatedly emphasized that this ranking is "for everyone's reference only".

In the world's first professional chess player rankings, Li Xiaoqiang is naturally ranked first, and in second place is Li Shifo. The third-ranked chess player is somewhat unexpected, and Mr. Wang Licheng, who has just taken the position of Japan's "chess master" and won the "LG Cup" last year, is in third place.

This "World Professional Chess Player Rankings" was not eye-catching when it was first launched, and even many people of insight have realized the significance of this list, but they have not thought much about it at this time. There's another thing that's all talking about.

What could be more important in this world than a false name? That's all about money, of course.

"This guy is really a local tyrant."

This is a thing that everyone is talking about after Hu Yi walked down from the press conference. 5 million to hold such a tournament, in terms of prize money, this is no worse than any world series.

When Mr. Seo Bong-so from South Korea heard the news, he jokingly said:

"I protest against this tournament, why do I have to be a new chess player, in fact, I also want to participate in this tournament...

Generous prize money, a new competition system, and an exciting and fun lifting competition naturally made this competition attract great attention as soon as it was introduced.

According to Hu Yi's arrangement, this competition will start after the Spring Festival, that is, in March 99. Considering that although this competition is unique, it is not a mainstream event after all, Li Xiaoqiang's main focus must be on other world series. Therefore, the schedule is relatively relaxed, and the entire juban chess is played in 5 times, each time playing 2 games, and the whole game will be completed in about half a year.

Despite this, it still can't stop everyone's enthusiasm for this competition. Especially before the start of the first game, that is, around the Spring Festival in 99, everyone talked about this game.

In addition to the generous prize money, there are of course other attractions to this competition. As the initiator of this competition, reporter Zhang Da spared no effort to promote this competition, he wrote in an article before the game:

"Li Xiaoqiang is currently the first person in the world chess world, and no one should have any objection to his status, right? So what is the first person? According to my understanding, there is a certain gap between any chess player in this world and Li Xiaoqiang. In other words, any chess player in this world who plays against Li Xiaoqiang first should theoretically be at a disadvantage. There is a gap between anyone and Li Xiaoqiang, which is a fact that we all know. But a rather regrettable thing: we all know the objective existence of the gap, but how big is this gap? That's not something we can know. Why is this happening? This is actually one of the flaws of the modern Go system. Because according to modern rules, even if a chess player loses 100 games to Li Xiaoqiang in a row, when it reaches 101 games, he will still play against Li Xiaoqiang first... Therefore, the significance of holding this lifting tournament is actually to measure the gap between Li Xiaoqiang and other chess players. Although this measurement may not be accurate, but I think it is better to have this competition than not to have this competition, and I believe that everyone will be able to feel a little different in this competition... ”

When everyone heard it, it seemed that this was really the case, and everyone thought that Zhang Da's words made sense. In this way, everyone's interest in this competition will naturally be stronger.

And that's not all, when another voice emerges, from inside the Go world to outside the Go world, from professional players to ordinary chess fans, everyone gives this game another layer of meaning.

The cause of the incident is hilarious, and nothing can be supported by everyone, such as this competition. When the idea of the competition was first proposed, there were also people who questioned the competition. Skeptics say that if there is a lifting competition, why should they find some young people? Doesn't that lower the level of the game?

It's a pity that this questioning voice was completely interrupted by a sentence:

"In this world, the total number of professional nine-dan people should be more than 100, right? If you don't go through careful selection, use a random selection method to pick out 10 professional nine-dans, and then let these 10 nine-dans and these 10 young people have a 10-game confrontation, who do you think has a greater chance of winning... ”

It must be admitted that as soon as this argument came out, all the voices of doubt disappeared without a trace.

Yes, don't look at these 10 up-and-coming talents, although they are young, the oldest Keigo Yamashita is only 20 this year, but these people are carefully selected, and in the foreseeable future, a new generation of kings will definitely be produced among these people. If you let some ordinary nine dan and these young people fight against each other in the next 10 rounds... Of course, they didn't continue to discuss this issue, but everyone knew very well in their hearts that not only would these young people not lose badly, but they would also have a very good chance of winning.

Li Xiaoqiang represents the highest level of Go today, so what does Jiudan represent? It's not too much to say that it represents the average level of professional chess players, right?

Therefore, this competition can actually be regarded as a competition to measure the "highest level" and "average level".

When the game is given such a layer of meaning, the subsequent results can be imagined, and this game has attracted more and more people's attention. Especially when the first game is approaching, the attention of this game is at its peak.

At this time, everyone has another concern, that is, among these 10 young chess players, which young chess player will come out to take the lead.

Indeed, this question is important because it is a game of ups and downs, and each game has a big impact on the next one. Then in this case, the person who takes the lead is especially important.

Holding such a promotion tournament, the order of young chess players is actually a headache. To solve this problem, there is a simple and crude way to solve it, that is, to draw lots to decide, and whoever is drawn should play, so that everyone has nothing to say.

However, when reporter Zhang Da first proposed the idea of this competition, in order to make the competition more interesting, he refused to draw lots to decide this way, and let the participating chess players negotiate and solve it themselves.

Of course, this is not necessarily a good idea, what if everyone disagrees and fights over the order of appearance? It should be that the current reporter Zhang Da is still more thoughtful about the problem, he has already considered this issue, and he has also made preparations for it.

He hired three leaders for this "international column", and if the players disagreed, the order of play was decided by the three leaders.

Of course, this kind of game is not good for bothering the old-timers in the chess world. Therefore, the team leaders hired by reporter Zhang Da are China's "children's leader" Yu Bin, South Korea's Liu Changhyuk and Japan's Ita Kiki. The closer the age, the better it is to discuss everything.

The first game is finally coming. Now the three team leaders are worried about the first place to play. When I asked the players for their opinions, there was no consensus among them, some wanted to be on the first one, some didn't want to be on the first one, and of course it was more of an indifferent attitude. In the end, everyone agreed that it was left to the three team leaders to decide, and whoever was arranged would be on it.

"Who is going to go first?"

The 3 team leaders are a little worried, how to find the most suitable candidate? The 3 team leaders have no clue for the time being.

At this time, Li Shifo ran out to join in the fun, and he made a suggestion to the three team leaders:

"To find the right person, I think the most important thing is the idea of the game. Since the first game is to give the lead, in the first game, is it more appropriate to find a player with a relatively stable chess style and stronger kung fu in the second half of the game? ”

Li Shifo's suggestion made the eyes of the three team leaders shine. Yes, Li Shifo's words still sound very reasonable, so let's determine the candidate according to this idea.

After going through the list of 10 participating chess players, the 3 team leaders shook their heads:

Today's young people are all militants, and it seems that the only people who meet Li Shifo's conditions are China's Kong Erjie and South Korea's Park Yongxun. So be it, the pioneer candidate is one of them.

The Spring Festival of '99 is over, and the first game is coming soon.

"Xiaoqiang, your opponent in the first set will be one of Kong Erjie and Park Yongxun, what do you think about this?"

Li Xiaoqiang laughed:

"I don't know anything else, the only thing I know is that Li Shifo's decision this time is definitely a bad idea." (To be continued.) )