It was finally the end of October 1991.

The day before the official opening of the 3rd Toyo Securities Cup World Professional Go Championship, Li Xiaoqiang and other members of the Chinese delegation flew to Seoul, the capital of South Korea.

It can be said that at this time, the best professional chess players of this era are basically gathered in this city. The competition of these people can also represent the highest level of Go in this era.

"Xiaoqiang, I suddenly remembered, this seems to be your first time in South Korea, and in my impression, you have never played against a Korean chess player. So I'm curious to know now, what do you think of Korean Go? ”

In fact, when he was still waiting for the plane, when the accompanying reporter Zhang Da suddenly asked such a question. This also aroused the interest of other members of the Chinese delegation. Including the head of the delegation, Team Leader Hua, Nie, Ma and others have surrounded them. Everyone wants to hear what the new "world champion" has to say about Korean Go.

Indeed, in the impression of most people in the chess world, although Li Xiaoqiang has never played against a Korean chess player, he has always attached extraordinary importance to Korean Go. Of course, this feeling is usually vague for everyone. Because Li Xiaoqiang usually doesn't talk much, he won't shout slogans like "the wolf is coming". However, when everyone carefully recalls Li Xiaoqiang's usual speech and behavior, everyone can still taste some unusual places.

For example, in the concept of most people in this era, Japanese Go is still the "boss" of course, and after decades of "tiredness", everyone's concept has not changed so quickly. Naturally, when Chinese Go mentions Japanese Go, it must be called "learning" when you open your mouth, and "catch up" when you close your mouth. Of course, there's nothing wrong with that. I think this is a very normal thing.

But what about Li Xiaoqiang? His attitude seems to be completely different from others. Li Xiaoqiang's attitude towards Japanese Go. He seemed to have been lacking in reverence, and he even ...... There is also an inexplicable sense of superiority when dealing with Japanese Go.

In this way, everyone is very strange, and they don't know where his sense of superiority comes from.

Of course, Li Xiaoqiang's attitude is only known to those who are familiar with him. Because this is a natural outpouring of his daily life, outsiders have no way of knowing. And everyone knows that Li Xiaoqiang also respects those Japanese Go superstars from the bottom of his heart. Li Xiaoqiang's real "disdain" seems to be the whole of "Japanese Go".

Of course, this would be strange. Because in the current era, Japanese Go is obviously still very strong, and when Chinese Go meets Japanese Go, at most it can only be said that "it has almost caught up". And it cannot be said that "it has been exceeded". Therefore, everyone doesn't know where Li Xiaoqiang's "sense of superiority" comes from.

But on the issue of Korean Go, Li Xiaoqiang's attitude is different. Everyone noticed: Li Xiaoqiang seems to attach great importance to Korean Go, usually when everyone chats together, when everyone talks about Korean Go, Li Xiaoqiang always reveals a feeling of "like a big enemy".

At this time. Everyone even recalled the final of the first "Ying's Cup" a few years ago. When everyone knew that Nie Whirlwind's opponent was South Korea's Cao Yanzi. Almost all Chinese are optimistic, believing that Nie Whirlwind's chances of winning are huge. At that time, only Li Xiaoqiang seemed to think so. Even before the finals began, he made a "Cao Yanzi album" with great difficulty. Use this way to remind Nie Whirlwind.

It's just that when the game was 2-1, everyone's confidence seemed to be even stronger. As for that "Cao Yanzi album". Of course, not many people take it seriously. And that year happened to be 89 years, and after Li Xiaoqiang participated in the competition at the beginning of the year, he ran back to his hometown for most of the year. Wait until Li Xiaoqiang appears in the public eye again. That was the end of '89.

By that time, the final of the first "Ying's Cup" had ended. Cao Yanzi won that championship at the same time. It also makes people know what the real "soft wind fast gun" is. It was at that time that many people in the circle understood Li Xiaoqiang's good intentions.

"How do you say that? On the surface, Korean chess players are the most impressive. It seems that their style is particularly tenacious. You say it's their chess style, or their national character. In short, in comparison, their second half of the game is generally a little more powerful. I've always thought that such an opponent is actually very difficult to deal with. Because in the game, you have to have the right mentality, and you have to be ready to play a long game. Otherwise, we are likely to suffer a big loss in the game. ”

"Impossible, is it because of this that you attach so much importance to Korean Go?"

"Of course not, the reason why I attach so much importance to Korean Go is because I have always believed that in the next few decades, Korean Go will most likely replace Japanese Go as our main opponent. So I have to pay attention to them. ”

"Oh? Xiaoqiang, why do you think about it? ”

"Do you even need to think about it? Let's take the lineup of China, Japan and South Korea as an example, as long as you analyze the age structure of the three delegations, you should know that my words still have some sense......"

Hearing Li Xiaoqiang give such an explanation, everyone finally didn't continue to ask. Indeed, Li Xiaoqiang's reasons seem to be very reasonable. It is no exaggeration to say that the lineup of this competition is the strongest lineup of each country. On paper, of course, the Japanese team's lineup is a little more luxurious. But what about in terms of age structure? The Japanese team has nothing to be proud of.

By this time, the decline of Japanese Go was already very obvious. They don't see any decent rookies in the country at all. In the past few years, everyone still had high hopes for Ita Kiki. However, when he was held down by Li Xiaoqiang in the 4th China-Japan Go Tournament. Ita Kiki doesn't seem to be so rampant anymore. He's still improving, but the pace of his progress isn't satisfying. So far, he has only been able to dominate the "rookie" game. Not to mention winning the title, in their domestic competition, he can't even get the "right to challenge" at all.

On the other hand, what about China and South Korea? Let's not talk about Li Xiaoqiang and Li Shifo, who are in their teens. The current Ma Xiaofei is only in his 20s, and South Korea's Liu Changhe is also in his 20s. Therefore, from the perspective of the "future", the competitiveness of Go between China and South Korea will only become stronger and stronger as time goes on. And Japan's "six supers" will always grow old one day. It's impossible to expect them all to be like Fujisawa Hideyuki, who claims to "play chess after the age of 50", right?

Of course, this is only the reason on the surface, Li Xiaoqiang attaches so much importance to Korean Go, and of course it is mainly because of Li Shifo. For his peers, Li Xiaoqiang can't pay attention to it. It's just that at this time, Li Shifo has not yet fully matured, let alone reached his peak. Therefore, Li Xiaoqiang has a lot of things to say.

In real history, it is precisely because of the emergence of Li Shifo that the overall strength of Korean Go has been enhanced. He even changed the way people think about Go. Of course, this should be 5 years later, so Li Xiaoqiang can't say it now, and no one believes him if he says it.

Interestingly, just when Li Xiaoqiang was "thinking" about Li Shifo, more people were also thinking about Li Xiaoqiang.

When the Chinese delegation arrived in Seoul, Li Xiaoqiang was sought after more than any other Chinese player. When everyone just got off the plane, almost all the "long guns and short guns" were aimed at Li Xiaoqiang. Fortunately, the team leader Hua is very experienced, and he hurriedly "protected" Li Xiaoqiang. This did not allow Li Xiaoqiang to be disturbed too much.

You can see it. Although Li Xiaoqiang is going to South Korea for the first time this time, the name of "chessboard wizard" seems to be quite loud in the Korean Go world.

At the opening ceremony that night, Li Xiaoqiang seemed to be mentioned more often. The so-called opening ceremony of the Go competition. In fact, the main content, of course, is to conduct the draw ceremony for the first round of the competition. This was originally nothing to do with Li Xiaoqiang. Because Li Xiaoqiang is a seeded player, he doesn't have to participate in the first round at all. However, since it is the World Go Championship that has just been established, Li Xiaoqiang also goes with the flow. Accompanied by the large army to this welcome reception.

In the first round of the competition, both in terms of the number of parameters and the fame of the players, it was of course the Japanese delegation that stood the eye. So in this round. It seems that it should also be the leading role of Japanese chess players. In the eyes of many people, the real competition in this competition still has to start from the second round. In the first round of the game, the strength and weakness are still relatively clear, and the main thing is to see if there are any upsets. Another highlight is the collision of Chinese and Japanese chess players, because only such a collision will affect the entire trend.

There are a total of 9 Chinese and Japanese players who need to participate in the first round, and in terms of probability, according to the principle of "domestic players do not meet in advance", then in the first round, at least one game will be played between China and Japan. Not only that, but there is a possibility of a 3-set Sino-Japanese matchup.

When the lottery ceremony began, the first person to be invited to the front desk was naturally Fujisawa Hideyuki, an old god stick. The old man actually has a good relationship with the Korean Go world. Therefore, like the stars holding the moon, he walked on the draw table together accompanied by two heavyweights in the Korean Go world.

To the left of Hideyuki Fujisawa is Cho Nam-cheol, a pioneer of Korean Go. In later generations, the story of his use of a small cart to promote Go in South Korea is familiar even to Chinese chess fans. At the same time, he is also one of the key figures in the professionalization of Go in Korea. He made great contributions to the establishment of the Korean Chess Academy. He is currently the honorary chairman of the Korean Chess Academy, so he is highly respected by the chess community.

Cho Nam-cheol's predecessor also studied chess in Japan when he was young, and he belonged to the first batch of "returnees" in Korean Go, so he is also familiar with the Japanese Go community. At the same time, he also has a more eye-catching identity, Mr. Zhao Zhixun, who is currently in the Japanese chess world, is actually his own nephew.

Accompanying Fujisawa Hideyuki to the right is naturally South Korea's "Go Emperor" Cao Yanzi. He and Hideyuki Fujisawa are actually in a relationship of "teacher and friend". Cao Yanzi's real master is Senkoshi Kensaku's predecessor, but according to the rules of Japanese Go, there are not many fights between master and apprentice. Generally, it is a game of entry and a game of teachers. Some don't even have these two games. Therefore, in Cao Yanzi's own words, when he was in Japan, he had a good relationship with Fujisawa Hideyuki, and "received a lot of support from Mr. Hideyuki". Therefore, Cao Yanzi was in front of Fujisawa Hideyuki, and he also had to "perform the disciple ceremony".

The old god stick seemed to have good luck today, and his first move seemed to take away one of the weakest players in the entire tournament. He was drawn from Europe and was the only amateur player in the entire tournament. In this way, the old gentleman was basically "escorted" into the second round.

Faced with such a result, the old man also seemed very happy, and he even ignored the feelings of his opponent and began to "look forward to" the second round. At this moment, his eyes swirled over all the "seeded players", and then he began to run the train with his mouth full:

"I said many years ago, "No. 1 Li Xiaoqiang, No. 2 Li Shifo." Now it seems that my prediction was very accurate. But then again, you people are too angry......"

At this time, the old gentleman pointed to Cao Yanzi and the Japanese Liuchao and Nie Ma.

“…… Can't even control two children, do you want everyone to think that Go is that simple? Now there is no way, it seems that the only way to do this is to let my old man take action himself, and I want to teach them how to play Go. Therefore, I am not afraid to tell everyone that in this competition, the two of them are actually the ones I want to meet the most. I must tell them in the game, Go, in fact, is not that simple. So you two listen up, in the next game, you must play well, and before you meet me, you'd better not be eliminated in advance......"

Hearing the old god's coaxing words, of course, the reporters present followed suit. And Li Xiaoqiang naturally won't take this stubble. So he had no choice but to follow Li Shifo's example and bow his head in contemplation.

However, since the old god stick has made a start, almost all the chess players who have come to the stage behind. When they made a "pre-game speech", in addition to mentioning their opponents in this round, they had to talk about Li Xiaoqiang and Li Shifo. It's not fashionable to say that. Especially Li Xiaoqiang, he has been mentioned a lot more times than Li Shifo. It's not just those Japanese chess players who "want to seek revenge on Li Xiaoqiang". One by one, Korean chess players also expressed their positions, and they all said "I want to meet Li Xiaoqiang".

What's even more excessive is that because no one asked Li Xiaoqiang to go up and "say a few words", when others mentioned themselves. Li Xiaoqiang could only pretend to smile there. After one night, Li Xiaoqiang felt that his cheeks hurt from laughter. Of course, while Li Xiaoqiang was on pins and needles, his vanity was also greatly satisfied.

It was in this ordeal that the whole lottery ceremony finally came to an end. Li Xiaoqiang was also relieved.

In the later draws, the luck of the Chinese team was also good. In addition to Ma Xiaofei who drew Masaki Wugong, Liu Dazhui and Cao Dafang both drew Korean chess players. For such a result, Li Xiaoqiang believes that he can still be satisfied. He even thinks that there is a great possibility that all three Chinese players will pass the test.

After the lottery ceremony, everyone naturally went back to recuperate. We are looking forward to the official start of Round 1 tomorrow.

At this moment, Li Xiaoqiang, like everyone, was quietly waiting for the coming of the competition. (To be continued......)