At the beginning of 1996, the focus of the world chess world was undoubtedly the final of the "Toyo Securities Cup" between Ma Xiaofei and Li Shifo.

Before the game, someone asked Li Xiaoqiang to predict the final. Li Xiaoqiang smiled silently. Indeed, Li Xiaoqiang was too impressed by this final. In real history, although Li Shifo won the world championship as early as 92, more people regard this final as the starting point of the "Li Shifo Dynasty". At the same time, this final also opened the curtain of the "dark decade" of Chinese Go.

But before this game, no one would have thought so. What everyone can see now is Ma Xiaofei's prosperity. He first defeated Li Xiaoqiang, the strongest challenger in China, and then Kobayashi Koji, one of Japan's strongest chess players. Now, he has ushered in the challenge of the first person in Korean Go. If Ma Xiaofei can win this game, then he can undoubtedly create a hegemony of his own.

Before the competition, not many people were optimistic that Li Shifo would be able to win in the end. More people see this final as a challenge launched by the "No. 1 Go player in Korea" to the "No. 1 Go player in the world". Comparing various factors, most people think that the "No. 1 Go player in the world" has a better chance of winning.

Interestingly, compared with the previous life, the reason why everyone is more optimistic about Ma Xiaofei now seems to have a strange reason:

“…… If you compare Li Shifo with Li Xiaoqiang, it is obvious that Li Xiaoqiang is slightly better. Since even Li Xiaoqiang can't help Ma Xiaofei, who is at his peak, now that he is replaced by Li Shifo, it is estimated that he will be more auspicious and less auspicious......"

Therefore, in this case, when others ask Li Xiaoqiang to predict the outcome of this final, then of course he can only "smile and say nothing".

Of course, Li Shifo was not without supporters before the game. For example, his stone Buddha Cao Yanzi firmly stood on Li Shifo's side:

“…… It's a good win, but if I had to choose, I'd be able to win the Stone Buddha......"

Not many people cared about what Cao Yanzi said. Let's not talk about before the tournament. Many Korean media and chess players have a habit of "hard mouth". What's more, in the semi-finals of the "Oriental Securities Cup", Cao Yanzi was eliminated by Ma Xiaofei again. was blocked by Ma Xiaofei at the door of the finals for 2 consecutive years, which made Cao Yanzi leave the famous emotion of "It's really boring to play Go".

The decisive battle between Ma Xiaofei and Li Shifo unfolded in such an atmosphere. After watching the first game, even Li Xiaoqiang became interested. Because it suddenly dawned on him that it could be a completely different race. At least in the previous life, Li Shifo won the first game, but in this life, Ma Xiaofei won the game beautifully in the first game.

Ma Li's hot battle attracted the attention of the entire Go world, and they fought from March to May, and the score was also staggered. In the first 4 games, the two players were evenly divided with a score of 2-2 and ushered in the final tiebreaker.

The game actually ushered in a tiebreaker, which is different from the previous life. At this point, Li Xiaoqiang naturally can't predict the final victory.

On the day of the deciding game, almost all the national team players in the Chinese Chess Academy were paying attention to this game. Led by Nie Whirlwind and Li Xiaoqiang, everyone had a heated discussion on this game of chess.

It's a suffocating, hard-fought tug-of-war.

"Now it seems that Li Shifo's current chess has indeed improved, at least his layout now looks much more reasonable than before. Jack bauer. What do you think? ”

In the first half of the game, Nie Whirlwind commented on the chess game. This is basically the way the national team collectively studies it now. As long as Nie Whirlwind and Li Xiaoqiang are present at the same time, then in the prelude stage of the game, it will naturally be Nie Whirlwind's head. And when it comes to the middle and back plates, the problem will be handed over to Li Xiaoqiang.

After listening to Nie Whirlwind's evaluation, Li Xiaoqiang did not speak. Don't underestimate the evaluation of "much more reasonable". Being able to say this in Nie Whirlwind's mouth is actually a high compliment.

Li Shifo in the past. It feels like the second half of the game is extremely pure, but the level of the first half is still slightly lacking, which is evident in the past few sets between him and Nie Whirlwind. Now Nie Whirlwind commented that he was "much more reasonable". This seemingly inconspicuous small step actually represents the improvement of Li Shifo's overall level.

The final game was extremely fierce, and it can also be said that this game was quite exciting, and the victory and defeat were always swinging between half eyes. However, when the final game was approaching, Li Xiaoqiang had already seen that the script of this final might have changed, but the final outcome was no different from his previous life.

Half-eye! Li Shifo finally won the half-eye! At the same time, with this half-eye, he took away the "Toyo Securities Cup" from Ma Xiaofei.

There are many people in the Go world who say that winning half a eye in Go is luck, and winning one and a half eyes is ability. But Li Shifo's half of winning Ma Xiaofei is the half of his luck? Or is it the half-eye that he will win?

After the game, South Korea's Park reporter interviewed Cao Yanzi Jiudan.

Reporter Park: Please tell us about your views on Ma Xiaofei's nine sections.

Cao: Many Chinese chess players are influenced by Nie Whirlwind, and they have a strong ability to take advantage of the thick mid-game. This includes "Versatile Li Xiaoqiang", although he is not that single-minded style, but his ability to use thick power is also very strong. And Ma Xiaofei Jiudan is an alternative master. He likes to be on the ground and is good at breaking through the opponent's voids. In other words, it's to get the ground first. He is not in a hurry to deal with his weak moves, but to deal with them lightly at a later time. : This is the so-called "first the field, then the void" style of chess.

Reporter Park: So Ma Xiaofei is the same type of chess player as Seo Bong-so 9 dan and Sakata Ei Nan 9 dan.

Cao: No. He is not the same type as Seo Bong-so 9th dan and Sakata Eio 9th dan. Whether it is Xu Jiudan or Sakata Jiudan, their chess has a fierce and spicy taste. But Ma Xiaofei's nine-dan chess is very different. is also the chess style of "first on the ground, then breaking the air", Ma Xiaochun Jiuduan is to encircle the air first, and then attack, while Xu Jiuduan and Sakata Jiuduan's chess style is not to encircle their own space, but to rob the opponent's field. That's the difference between them

Reporter Park: Ma Xiaofei's 9th dan is a bit weaker than Seo Bong-so's 9th dan and Sakata Einan's 9th dan, so I don't know if this statement is true.

Cao: Of course you can't say that. If the encirclement of the sky is called "guarding the air", and the snatching of the real space is called "fighting for the sky", Ma Xiaochun's nine dan belongs to the former, while Xu Bongsu and Sakata Einan's nine dan belong to the latter. Don't think that "fighting for the air" must be better than "keeping the air". There is no superiority between these two technologies. In fact, if a chess player is good at "keeping the air", this is also an extraordinary talent.

Reporter Park: Let's talk about this final, I heard that before the competition, you were firmly optimistic that Li Shifo could win......

Cao: That's right, we can continue the conversation we just talked about. Ma Xiaofei Jiudan is indeed a master of "guarding the air", but I think that in the current world chess world, the skills and abilities of guarding the sky are not able to be the right of the stone Buddha. That's why I was optimistic about the Stone Buddha winning before the race.

Park: What do you mean......

Cao: Yes, this is where Ma Xiaofei's nine sections are not as good as the stone Buddha. Although Ma Xiaofei also defeated the Stone Buddha in the ninth section, he couldn't defeat Li Shifo with Li Shifo's moves!

Reporter Park: Hearing your explanation, I finally understand how powerful Li Shifo is. Now Shifo dominates the domestic chess world, and this time he defeated Ma Xiaofei, who is the most popular in the international chess world. Does this mean that the era of Li Shifo is coming?

Cao: I can't say that yet, if Shi Buddha wants to dominate the world, he still has a long way to go. At least there is a strong opponent waiting for him along the way. If the stone Buddha can't pass that level, then everything is just illusory.

Park: What do you mean...... Is China's Li Xiaoqiang nine-dan?

Cao: That's right, it's Li Xiaoqiang, the chessboard wizard Li Xiaoqiang!

Park: But Li Xiaoqiang has been in the doldrums for a long time. And, moreover......

Cao: And what?

Park: And looking at his current chess score, it seems that as Mr. Fujisawa Hideyuki of Japan predicted, his chess is becoming more and more mediocre. Looking at his chess now, it seems that I can no longer feel that kind of talented, unpredictable feeling.

Cao: What! Hahaha, do you think so too? Let me tell you, although Mr. Xiuyuki's predictions have always been accurate, but this time, he is probably wrong. Not only has Li Xiaoqiang's chess not become mediocre, but in my opinion, he is now becoming more and more powerful. Don't look at his current slump. In fact, he, like the Stone Buddha, has also made great progress in the past year. If the skill of the stone Buddha is now becoming more and more refined, then Li Xiaoqiang's tricks ...... Now it's getting back to basics.

Reporter Park: Ah! Do you really think so?

Cao: Of course it's true, if you don't believe it, just wait and see. As I said earlier, you can't defeat Li Shifo with the stone Buddha's moves. If you want to defeat Li Shifo, it must be a chess player with a different style from Li Shifo. And China's Li Xiaoqiang is just such a chess player. Only he does not fail in self-management, as long as he recovers. Then he must be Shi Fo's strongest opponent!

At the end of May 1996, Shencheng, reporter Zhang Da's office. Reporter Zhang Da took Cao Yanzi's interview article and asked Li Xiaoqiang:

"Xiaoqiang, do you think what Cao Yanzi said makes sense?"

Li Xiaoqiang stretched, since that turmoil, Li Xiaoqiang has been staying in Shencheng for longer and longer. The reason why he did this was very simple, to avoid Lin Mengyu, he didn't know how to get along with Lin Mengyu now. And the management of the Chinese Chess Academy seems to have acquiesced to Li Xiaoqiang's approach.

"Which part are you referring to? Is it the part of the horse that is small, or the part of me? ”

"Let's talk about it."

"The part about Ma Xiao, I think it's basically to the point. As for my part......"

"How?"

"There's nothing to say about that, let's prove it with a competition in the end." (To be continued.) )