In late September 1994, the Chinese delegation to the 6th Toyo Securities Cup landed at Gimpo International Airport in South Korea.

"Go is getting hotter and hotter in South Korea right now, and it is said that more than half of the men in Korea know Go. Half of the men, isn't that a quarter of the total population? I think there's a good chance it's true. ”

"Well, I have this feeling, we have come out all the way, and I don't think there are so many people who can recognize us even at the domestic airport."

As soon as the Chinese delegation got off the plane, they talked about the upcoming tournament and lamented the popularity of Korean Go. Indeed, since Cao Yanzi won the first "Ying's Cup", after several years of fermentation, Go has indeed become more and more popular in South Korea. You can feel this from the moment you step off the plane. Although they were not watched and did not "ask for autographs", judging from the "attention salute" received by everyone, it should be that quite a few Koreans recognized these players from foreign countries at a glance.

When you arrive in Korea, one of the first events you take part in is the opening ceremony of the new Korea Chess Academy. It is said that the "Toyo Securities Cup" will be the first tournament to be held after the opening of the new Korea Chess Academy, so the Korean side has taken it very seriously and has done enough publicity and preparation work before the game.

On the second day after Li Xiaoqiang and others arrived in South Korea, the Japanese delegation and other participating chess players had all arrived. During the grand opening ceremony of the new Korean Chess Academy, the chairman of the Korean Chess Academy presented a symbolic pure gold key to Cho Yanzi and encouraged him to lead Korean chess players to conquer the world.

"It's arrogant enough, these ...... who still live in the cave," reporter Zhang Da muttered quietly in the back.

Hearing reporter Zhang Da's "poisonous tongue", Li Xiaoqiang almost couldn't help laughing. Some place names in Korea are strange, and if translated into Chinese, they are called "so-and-so dong". For example, the original location of the Korean Chess Academy is called "Guanteoldong", what about the new site of the Korean Chess Academy? It is also called "Hongik-dong".

"Hole"? "Cave Man"? "The man who lives in a cave"?

Since a "war of words" with the South Korean media in the "Fujitsu Cup", reporter Zhang Da seems to be happy with it. In recent months, he and several like-minded media outlets in China have been at loggerheads with South Korean media. makes Li Xiaoqiang feel very good at watching all kinds of tearing battles in later generations.

Of course, everyone is a cultural person, and there is no foul language in the Go media. The two sides come and go, and they are nothing more than "reasoning and laying out the facts" there. But in the field of Go, there really isn't much reason to talk about. Can you argue that one of a player's moves is necessarily better than another? I'm afraid not. Therefore, the "war of words" between the two sides has developed to the end, and it seems that only the road of "laying out the facts" is left.

At this time, the role of the "data emperor" is reflected. Both sides have a lot of data. Which is the strength of the argument? only to find that they are still roughly equal, and no one can overwhelm anyone. Comparing the overall records of Chinese and South Korean players, it turns out that Korean players have won a few more games. But what about at the top of the competition? It seems that the Chinese chess players have a slight upper hand.

To be honest, when Li Xiaoqiang first knew that this was the case, he was surprised at first. This doesn't match your impression? In the comparison of Chinese and Korean Go, in the previous life, it was not China's "backbone chess players" who were superior, but the top level was inferior? How is it the other way around now?

Li Xiaoqiang later woke up to the fact that it may be because of his appearance that this situation has changed greatly. After listing these data. It was only then that I discovered an interesting situation that three of the four world championships that China has won so far have been won by defeating Korean chess players. They are Li Xiaoqiang winning Li Shifo, Nie Whirlwind winning Cao Yanzi and Li Xiaoqiang winning Cao Yanzi.

Even Li Xiaoqiang won the first world championship. His opponent Cho Ji-hoon turned out to be a South Korean as well.

After this discovery, reporter Zhang Da and others were naturally proud. They use this as an argument that the current "height" of Korean Go is not as good as that of Chinese Go.

Naturally, the South Korean media does not admit this view. After another spat on both sides. The "Toyo Securities Cup" has become even more eye-catching.

Because you suddenly found another interesting statistic: so far, there have been 12 world champions in professional chess. And China, Japan and South Korea just grabbed 4 each. No more, no less, impartiality!

The next "Toyo Securities Cup". He will be the 13th world chess champion in the world chess arena. So who will win this competition? Which Go powerhouse can get one step ahead in this competition? Since the end of the "Fujitsu Cup", the Chinese and South Korean media have been hyping up the matter. Therefore, this competition has received a lot of attention from the very beginning.

There is also an interesting phenomenon, that is, for this "Toyo Securities Cup", it seems that only the Chinese and Korean media are noisy, and Japan, as another old Go powerhouse, seems to be much more low-key, and occasionally makes some comments, but also mostly pessimistic.

Indeed, the last world championship won by Japanese Go was two years ago. In the last two years of the World Series, the championship has been divided between China and South Korea. Now anyone with a discerning eye can see that the decline of Japanese Go is very obvious. The biggest problem they face is that they are a bit young, young chess players are growing slowly, and when they reach the international arena, they can only rely on those veterans to play the world.

On the other hand, the top chess players in China and South Korea, whether it is Nie, Ma, or Li in China. is still the "Four Heavenly Kings" of South Korea, with three generations of old, middle-aged and young chess players, and the age structure seems to be very reasonable. And this is the biggest shortcoming of Japanese Go at present. Because judging from the multilateral confrontation in the past two years, in the face of the impact of young chess players in China and South Korea, the "six supers" who are gradually aging have become more and more inadequate.

After Cho Yanzi personally opened the door of the new Korean Chess Academy, the next step was to hold the opening ceremony of the 6th "Toyo Securities Cup". I saw that the Korean chess players were showing their ambitions one by one, and they were pointing the finger at themselves one by one. The pride in Li Xiaoqiang's heart arose.

In this newly completed Korean chess academy, Li Xiaoqiang recalls his past life. At this time in the previous life, Chinese chess players had not won any world championships. As a result, every time Chinese chess players go to the World Championship, they seem to be filled with an inexplicable sense of tragedy. What's even worse is that except for a few occasional times, this "tragic" has been "tragic" for more than 10 years.

Now due to its own appearance, Chinese Go should no longer need to be so "tragic"!

Due to the poor results of the last competition, there are still only 4 Chinese chess players participating in this year's "Toyo Securities Cup". Li Xiaoqiang. Nie Whirlwind, Ma Xiaofei and Liu Sledgehammer. Although the number of people is small, it basically represents the highest level of Chinese Go at present. Standing with the other members of the Chinese delegation, Li Xiaoqiang observed the players from other countries and regions.

This is a tournament held by Koreans, and South Korea naturally has the most participating chess players, but in this kind of world-class competition, they can only rely on the "Four Heavenly Kings" to play the world, and other chess players have nothing to worry about.

Li Xiaoqiang paid attention to the lineup of the Japanese team, and the Japanese team sent Otake hero this time, Zhao Zhixun. Noriki Ida, Licheng Wang, Hiroshi Yamashiro and Satoru Kobayashi. The number of super-first-class players has decreased, and the number of Mesozoic players has increased significantly. It can be seen that the Japanese side should have intended to do so. However, it must be admitted that if the Japanese team wants to attack the championship, Li Xiaoqiang believes that this lineup is still slightly weak.

Perhaps influenced by reporter Zhang Da's "war of words", many chess players try to downplay their personal colors when they give pre-match speeches. I like to say that this competition is a showdown at the national level.

The final event of the opening ceremony was the draw for the first round of the competition. Of the four Chinese players participating in this tournament, Li Xiaoqiang and Ma Xiaofei are seeded players, while Nie Whirlwind and Liu Dazhui need to participate in the first round.

Before going on stage to draw lots, Nie Xuanfeng said to Li Xiaoqiang and Ma Xiaofei in a joking tone:

"This time we are the Chinese team. It's mostly up to the two of you. I'm playing Happy Go right now, and if I want to say that my role now is to clear mines for you, and I can win one by one. ”

"Yes, yes. Demining, the role of Lao Nie and I is to clear mines for you. ”

Liu Dazhui on the side also laughed and agreed.

As a result, the results of the first round of lottery came out, and Nie Whirlwind failed to get the "demining" task. His opponent was a European chess player. Liu Dazhui did hit a landmine, and it was a big landmine. His opponent in the first round was Yoo Chang-hyuk.

The first round of matches began on the second day after the draw ceremony. Most of the first rounds of the World Series this year were strong and weak, so there wasn't much to see. In the research room, Li Xiaoqiang, Ma Xiaofei and others are mainly studying the game of Liu Dazhui VS Liu Changhe.

At around 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Nie Whirlwind walked into the research room with a relaxed face, and he also joined the lineup of spectators.

At around 5 o'clock in the afternoon, the three Chinese masters in the research room looked at each other without a smile on their faces.

Liu Dazhui failed in "demining".

On the evening after the first round, the draw for the second round will take place.

Li Xiaoqiang was the first to take the stage to draw his opponent. Seo Bong-so! Li Xiaoqiang's opponent in this round is the long-lost South Korean "Field Officer Commander" Seo Bong-so.

"Hehe, for Xiaoqiang, this can only be regarded as Xiaolei, right? I don't even think it's a mine. ”

In the audience, reporter Zhang Da commented in a low voice.

Ma Xiaofei walked to the stage for the second time, and the opponent he drew was Japan's Kobayashi Satoru.

"This is also a small thunder, the level of this mine is about the same as Xiaoqiang's."

Reporter Zhang Da continued to comment.

Nie Whirlwind was the last to walk onto the stage, and when he showed his opponent, the audience was watching.

Li Shifo! Nie Whirlwind ran into Li Shifo, who had never fought before!

"Tsk, it's still Lao Nie's luck that he ran into a big landmine......"

"Not necessarily!"

Reporter Zhang Da looked back, and he saw a smile hanging on the corner of Li Xiaoqiang's mouth.

"Xiaoqiang, what do you mean?"

"For any other chess player, Li Shifo may be a landmine. Only for Lao Nie...... Anyway, you should take a closer look then......"

In the eyes of reporter Zhang Da, the current Li Xiaoqiang is smiling like a little fox. (To be continued......)