In April, Tokyo, the cherry blossom season is in full bloom. Li Xiaoqiang, who has just entered the top 8 of the "Ying's Cup", is now in Tokyo.

As soon as I got off the plane, I was greeted by a staff member from the Japan Chess Academy. In the crowd, Li Xiaoqiang even saw Yukari Umezawa. After seeing Li Xiaoqiang, the bright and radiant Yukari Umezawa seemed very happy, she didn't care about others, she smiled and said to Li Xiaoqiang:

"Li Sang, congratulations on entering the top 8 of the Ying Cup, and welcome to Tokyo again."

“……”

The 2nd "Ying's Cup" ended the first 2 rounds in Shencheng, and Li Xiaoqiang lived up to expectations and successfully entered the top 8. However, the first stage of the "Ying's Cup" has also come to an end for the time being, and the top 8 matches will not continue until September.

Of course, the current Li Xiaoqiang is not idle, after the game with Liu Changhe, he stayed in Shencheng for a few more days, and got together with his eldest brother Li Xiaogang and "quasi-sister-in-law" Zhao Qinqin. The two of them are now older. I got together with Fang Lao and other old friends in the Shencheng chess world. Everyone unanimously decided to continue the study of ancient Chinese chess.

In April, it should be said that in the current world chess world, this is the season of the "Fujitsu Cup", and the first weekend of April every year is the opening day of the "Fujitsu Cup".

Therefore, as the defending champion after a short rest in Shencheng for a few days, Li Xiaoqiang immediately joined the other members of the Chinese delegation and came to Tokyo to prepare for the upcoming 5th "Fujitsu Cup" World Professional Go Championship in ∴.

In the just-concluded round of 16 of the "Ying's Cup", the Chinese chess players played quite well, at least better than the first round. In addition to Ma Xiaofei's loss to Zhao Zhixun again, Nie Xuanfeng and Rui Weiwei both defeated their respective opponents and successfully entered the top 8. In this way, in the new top 8, the Chinese team occupies 3 seats.

Nie Whirlwind defeated South Korea's Liang Jae-hao, and Lao Nie played so well in this game of chess that he didn't give his opponent any chance at all. He won in the same way as Li Xiaoqiang. It can only be described with "".

In the other set, Rui continued to break out strongly, defeating Mr. Hideyuki Fujisawa, the honorary chess saint of Japan. To say that in that game of chess, the old man's chess momentum has actually been good, but after all, Mr. Xiuxing is old, and his energy is not good, and in the face of Rui Liaowei's oppressive play, there were many missed moves in the second half of the game, so in the case of leading most of the game, he finally lost helplessly.

After the loss, Mr. Fujisawa Hideyuki was extremely depressed. He usually talks and laughs, but after losing chess, he has been with a dark face, basically not talking much, and finally accompanied by Liu Dazhui and others, the old gentleman is very drunk. No one can figure out whether Mr. Hideyuki feels ashamed to lose to a female chess player, or whether he is lamenting the ruthlessness of the years.

In other sets, Cao Yan defeated Kobayashi Koji again, and Seo Bong-so defeated Masao Kato. In this way, in the round of 8, the South Korean team occupies 2 places.

In the eye-catching "Bamboo Forest" battle, the big bamboo hero defeated Lin Haifeng strongly and successfully entered the top 8. In this game of chess. It wasn't the result of the game that came as a surprise, it should be said that it was normal for both of them to win and lose. What was really surprising was that Mr. Otake was in amazing form in this game, opening the game with two "eye-outs". The chess game is wide open and closed, and it is unrestrained. Gorgeously knocked Mr. Lin Haifeng down. How so? In modern popular parlance, in that game of chess. Mr. Otake's move was his own, and he was able to retract and release freely, and finally won by 7 points.

In fact, since the end of last year, the Japanese Go community has been exclaiming that the "Otake Volcano" has erupted again, and for a while, Otake Hero seems to have returned to his heyday, and his domestic and foreign records are amazingly good. In the country, Mr. Otake

Won the right to challenge the "Celebrity Battle" and returned to the 7th chess finals. In real history, Mr. Otake Hero in '92 is even more impressive, reaching the finals of the "Fujitsu Cup" and the "Oji Cup" in succession, and successfully reaching the top in the "Fujitsu Cup". Therefore, Li Xiaoqiang knows that in this year's international arena, Mr. Otake is definitely one of the most difficult opponents.

In the last game of the round of 16, Mr. Wang Licheng, who represented Taiwan, defeated "Tiger" Yitian Jiji, and he grabbed the last seat in the top 8.

After the top 8 were released, the draw ceremony for the top 8 was held, so that the matchup in September was also produced. At the draw ceremony, Li Xiaoqiang drew Zhao Zhixun, which was the second time they met after last year's "Fujitsu Cup". Nie's opponent is Seo Bong-so, and this is also their second meeting after last year's "Fujitsu Cup".

Because in last year's competition, Nie Xuanfeng and Zhao Zhixun both lost chess, so at the lottery ceremony, when the host asked them to give speeches, they both mentioned the word "revenge" in unison. Therefore, these two games have also been defined by many media as "revenge battles".

In the other two games, Rui Liwei met Dazhu Hero, and Cao Yan will fight Wang Licheng. This is the current situation of the 2nd "Yingshi Cup".

However, the story of the "Ying's Cup" will not continue until September, and in April, the center of gravity of the world chess world will return to the "Fujitsu Cup".

Since Li Xiaoqiang won the championship of the last competition, he automatically became the tournament type, so a total of 6 Chinese chess players participated in the competition of this "Fujitsu Cup". Of course, in the Chinese chess world in this era, the people are still relatively thin, and there are always those old faces who turn over and over. In addition to Nie Whirlwind, Ma Xiaofei, Liu Dazhui and Li Xiaoqiang, the more innovative thing in this competition is: Zhang Wendong, who has risen rapidly in recent years, and Che Zewu, a local chess player, also represented the Chinese team in the World Series for the first time this time.

In addition, the members of the Chinese delegation also included Wang Lunan, the head of the delegation, Vice President Wang Yiwuduan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Zhang Zhidong and Zhang Da, reporters accompanying the delegation.

Seeing that Yukari Umezawa actually appeared at the airport to greet him, the members of the Chinese delegation were surprised at first, and then they all glanced at Li Xiaoqiang with a smile in their gossipy eyes. Among them, even Wang Lao is included. Of course, the most exaggerated is still a few big reporters. As soon as he saw Mei Ze, he immediately laughed and joked with Wang Yi beside him:

"See, see? I told you a long time ago that your visit to Tokyo is a waste of airfare. What's the use of you saying you're here? Do we Xiaoqiang still need you, the director of the foreign affairs department, as a translator, people already have full-time translators. No, as soon as Xiaoqiang got off the plane, he was greeted by a full-time translator. Tsk, this treatment ......"

Why did Yukari Umezawa appear at the airport, and in the end, it was Tanaka Rokudan of the Foreign Affairs Department of the Japan Chess Academy to solve the mystery:

"Now I would like to introduce to you that this is the new beginning of the Japanese Chess Academy, Miss Yukari Umezawa. Tsk, Miss Umezawa is amazing, in the spring big hand that just ended, Miss Umezawa was successfully promoted to the early stage of her career with a good score of 1st place. She lost only one game in the entire big hand match. You may not know that the incident of Umezawa entering the stage in first place caused a sensation throughout Japan. You know, after so many years of establishment of the Japanese Chess Academy, this is still the first female champion, Miss Umezawa is amazing......"

Speaking of this, Tanaka Liudan also glanced at Li Xiaoqiang with a smile:

"Through media reports, many chess fans now know that Miss Umezawa has achieved good results because she has been receiving it in your country for half a year. And everyone has heard that Miss Umezawa's special training plan was completely formulated by Li Sang. Li Sang may not know, but you are very popular among Japanese chess fans right now. Miss Umezawa just wanted to express her gratitude, she thanked your Chess Academy for its help, and thanked Li Sang for his guidance, so she strongly asked to come with me to the airport to greet everyone. ”

"Oh!"

"Congratulations, congratulations, ......"

Hearing such a "lofty" reason, Zhang Da reporters were stunned at first, and then they all expressed their heartfelt congratulations to Yukari Umezawa. Indeed, the Chinese Go people are genuinely happy. For a long time, in front of Japanese Go, Chinese Go has been in a weak position, and Japanese Go has been in a difficult position for Chinese Go, and Chinese Go has never forgotten the guidance and help of Chinese Go. Well, now, although it is only a small matter at the level of Go exchanges between the two countries. But in any case, at least half of the freshly baked "Umezawa early stage" can be considered "Made in China". Her success is inseparable from the help of Chinese Go. This is the reason why Nie Whirlwind, including Wang Lunan and others, are happy.

"Everyone has worked hard, let's go to the hotel to rest first. The "Eve Festival" of the tournament is scheduled for tomorrow. By the way, this "Eve Festival" is a bit special, it just so happens that the Japanese Chess Academy has produced a few new early stages, and we are going to arrange a few exhibition matches, and the protagonists are Umezawa and a few of them, and I hope everyone will enjoy their faces. ”

"Oh, how was the event arranged?"

From the airport to the hotel, everyone quickly figured out the ins and outs of the event.

In the Japanese Go world, there has always been a tradition that whenever a new first dan is created, a well-known player with high moral standing will be arranged to play a commemorative game with them. And this well-known chess player is generally the title holder of Japan that year. In the well-known anime "Chess Soul", there is actually a similar description. When Hikaru Shinto entered the dan, Taya played a commemorative game of chess with him in "". This chess battle is called the "Sarka War". This is not a nonsense, and there is indeed a tradition in the Japanese Go world.

This year's "Battle of the Lions" coincided with the opening of the "Fujitsu Cup", where the world's top players gathered, so the organizers came up with an idea to see if any masters from other countries were willing to play this commemorative chess. According to the organizer's assumption, there are exactly 3 new beginners this year, and it is best for China, Japan and South Korea to send a well-known chess player to play this "lion battle", which is more fun.

"Hehe, it's kind of interesting......" (To be continued......)