"I've never played a two-day tournament, so I'd love to try out what it's like to play a tournament if I have the chance. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ。。 ”

The top 16 of the first "World Chess Holy War" were produced, and in the words of Chang Rensheng: At this point, this competition has gradually improved. At the draw ceremony for the next round of the tournament that night, world No. 1 Li Xiaoqiang took the stage for the first time to give a "pre-match speech", and he expressed his desire to achieve good results in this competition in such a way.

Because Li Xiaoqiang mentioned the "two-day system", and the "two-day system" was unique to Japan in the past, this is the first time that the "two-day system" has appeared in the world chess battle. Therefore, in the "pre-match testimonials" later, many chess players mentioned the "two-day system".

"I used to have the opportunity to play the "two-day system", and I used to listen to Zhao celebrities boasting about how the "two-day system" was... Thank you for this contest and hopefully I will have the opportunity to make up for it. ”

Cao Yanzi's speech drew a smile from everyone. When Lao Cao returned to China because of his military service, and stayed because of Xu Bongsu, there was one less "super first-class" in the Japanese chess world, and there was one more "Go emperor" in the Korean chess world.

In addition to Lao Cao, Zhao Zhixun's "pre-game speech" also made everyone laugh:

"Although Li Xiaoqiang is the No. 1 in the world, in this competition, I hope that in the end, Li Shifo and I will compete for the final championship, as for the reason, I think everyone understands...

Of course, people who are familiar with the inside of the Go circle understand, I don't know what the reason is, although Lao Zhao's record against Li Shifo is extremely poor, but he just can't look down on Li Shifo's chess, 93 years of "Toyo Securities Cup" finals Lao Zhao was Li Shifo "clean sheet", Lao Zhao also used to be hard-mouthed:

"If it's a "two-day system", Li Shifo may not be my opponent... ”

And that's where his "pre-match remarks" come from.

The atmosphere at today's draw ceremony was very good, and the chess players who spoke on the stage were more humorous than the other, and each was more witty than the other. The reason why the atmosphere is so warm is because after today's round of 32 matches, the qualifying situation is present

China, Japan and South Korea are all happy results.

In the top 16 that have been produced, the Chinese team occupies 5 seats, they are Li Xiaoqiang, Chang Rensheng and Zhou Dayang in the "Eight Horses", supplemented by Ma Xiaofei and Yu Bin. There is no doubt that this should be the strongest lineup that the Chinese team can put out at the moment, and this lineup is very competitive. Therefore, the Chinese side is satisfied.

Coincidentally, the number of qualifiers for the Japanese team and South Korea this time was exactly the same as that of the Chinese team. South Korea's advance to the round of 16 is their "Four Heavenly Kings" plus Lee Stone. The Japanese team qualified for the "Six Supers" Masao Kato, Kobayashi Koji, Zhao Zhixun, and "Mesozoic" Wang Licheng and Kobayashi Jue.

5 players from each of the 3 countries is 15 people, and among the top 16 that have been produced, the last place belongs to Taipei chess player Ah Xun. For such a top 16 composition, it is natural that all aspects are very satisfied. The players are full of ambition and ready to play in the next game.

"In such a competition, reaching the top 8 is equivalent to winning an ordinary domestic championship, and entering the top 4 is equivalent to winning another world championship. There are only a few top players in the Go world, and it is much easier to get to the top 4 than to win the championship. If you can break into the finals or even win the championship in this competition, it will be a double gain of fame and fortune. So it's conceivable that what player wouldn't take this game seriously? ”

In a corner of the venue, reporter Zhang Da used these words to explain why chess players from all over the world attach so much importance to this competition.

"It's such a rare event... In that corner of the venue, reporter Zhang Da continued to sigh to several of his colleagues: "... In other world competitions, it is already difficult to get such a neat lineup, and this round of 16 can appear in such a grand event, this tournament is destined to leave a strong mark in the history of Go. ”

The real situation is indeed as Zhang Da reporter said, probably because the world ranking is used to determine the seeded players, avoiding a lot of random lottery accidents. So far, it cannot be said that there have been no upsets in the first "World Chess Holy War", but compared with the previous World Championships, this time there are indeed many fewer upsets.

The top 16 that have been produced undoubtedly represent the highest level in the world chess today. If you can fight all the way out of these people to win the final championship, then such a championship is undoubtedly full of gold.

After everyone's "pre-match speech" was finished, the draw ceremony for the round of 16 officially began.

Since it is claimed to be the largest and most important Go tournament in the world, and in order to minimize accidents, Hu Yi and his team designed the entire schedule to be extremely complicated.

The previous qualifiers were single-elimination matches until the round of 32, and the later rounds were all single-elimination matches from the top 8 onwards, from the trilogy of the top 8 to the nine-game chess of the finals.

In the round of 16 stage, the organizers came up with an ingenious "group double-elimination tournament", that is, the 16 chess players were divided into 4 groups, with 4 players in each group, and the top two players in the group advanced to the top 8, and the last two players were eliminated.

On the rostrum, Li Xiaoqiang, Li Shifo, Ma Xiaofei and Cao Yanzi were lined up, which are the top 4 players in the "FIDE" chess player rankings. The group group of the round of 16 is also not a random draw, but a reference to the group draw of the football "World Cup", where they divide the teams into tiers, and here the chess players are graded.

Since none of the top 4 players in the world have been eliminated this time, the 4 players are automatically seeded in the 4 groups. Next, according to the world rankings, Yoo Chang-hyuk, Chang Ren-sheng, Cho Zhixun and last year's new "LG Cup" champion Yu Bin became the second tier.

Next are Koji Kobayashi, Masao Kato, and Masei Wang. And the current Li Shishi, Ah Xun and others can only be aggrieved in the 4th grade.

The draw is mainly the matter of these players, and the draw at this time is random, and does not consider the "principle of avoiding players from the same country", if there is an extreme situation, it is entirely possible that a group of 4 players from the same country will appear.

Of course, this is an extreme case, and in fact there are not so many coincidences in this world. After the results of the draw came out, the situation of the groups was basically normal. Only Li Xiaoqiang's group is slightly conspicuous.

This time, they are in a group with Li Xiaoqiang, namely Liu Changhyuk, Kato Masao and Li Shishi.

These 4 people are the post-50s, post-60s, post-70s and post-80s. In this group, in addition to Li Xiaoqiang, the world's No. 1 chess player, the oldest and youngest chess players in the top 16 are all in this group, plus an assassin-like Liu Changhe, so this group is not eye-catching.

Of course, this group is only noticeable because of its age, and the average strength is not very strong. It is precisely because this group is old and small that everyone thinks that Li Xiaoqiang should have no problem qualifying in this group.

"You guy, the luck of the lottery is still as good as ever."

After the lottery ceremony, reporter Zhang Da made fun of Li Xiaoqiang like this. Li Xiaoqiang smiled slightly, and ignored reporter Zhang Da's words. Li Xiaoqiang has always believed that the so-called good or bad luck has always belonged to the strong. For example, reporter Zhang Da thinks that he is "lucky", it is because of his previous overwhelming record against the other 3 opponents, so that others feel that he is "lucky". If it is like the Chinese men's football team, then what kind of signing will not be related to "good luck".

After a day of rest, the game continued. As the largest and most important Go tournament in the world today, the schedule of the first "World Chess Saint" is as follows:

In the first year, the qualifiers and matches before the round of 64 will be held, and the round of 32 and round of 16 will be held in January and February every year, which means that the top 8 will be decided before the Spring Festival.

The round of 8 ends in May of the second year, and the semi-finals end in September of the second year.

In the last two months of the second year, it is the time of the final nine games.

Li Xiaoqiang's first opponent in the round of 16 is the Japanese veteran Masao Kato. In the "Toyo Securities Cup" many years ago, that is, when Li Xiaoqiang won his second world championship, he once played a trilogy with Mr. Kato, and that time Li Xiaoqiang won easily with a score of 2-0.

Kato, who is in the prime of life, is not Li Xiaoqiang's opponent. So this time the two met again, and although Mr. Kato is still the reigning "Honinbo" of Japan, no one thinks that this match can be much suspenseful.

But when the game starts, especially when the game goes on until about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. More and more people are gathering in front of this game.

Li Xiaoqiang seems to be in trouble. (To be continued.) )