The Spring Festival of 1992 has passed, and on a certain day in the first lunar month, in the capital, in the Chinese Chess Academy. ○

It was about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and in a medium-sized competition hall of the China Chess Academy, Cao Dafang Jiuduan was playing, and I saw Cao Jiuduan burying his head in the chessboard at this time. If you observe carefully, you will find that Cao Jiuduan at this time is frowning, and there are words in his mouth, looking like he has encountered a problem. After a long time, Cao Dafang Jiuduan raised his head with a wry smile, he put the two chess pieces on the chessboard, and then said to Li Xiaoqiang, who was sitting opposite him:

"Alas, I didn't notice that assault method at all, I didn't think that you would kill from that place, you will suffer a big loss, you will hand it over, and this chess will not be able to continue......"

Seeing Cao Dafang's nine-section signal to admit defeat, Li Xiaoqiang, who was sitting opposite him, also raised his head with a smile:

"Agreed, Mr. Cao......"

Subsequently, including the two players, as well as Ma Xiaofei and Liu Dazhu, who were watching the game from the side, began to discuss the game after the game.

Before the Spring Festival, after the final of the "Toyo Securities Cup" and Li Shifo, Li Xiaoqiang lived a relatively leisurely time without official professional competitions. After Li Xiaoqiang's "special training" for Yukari Umezawa was over, wait until Yukari Umezawa left China and returned to Japan to prepare for their "Spring Big Match". Li Xiaoqiang also left the capital, and he and Zhao Dabaolin Mengyu returned to their hometown to spend a good year.

But this leisure time did not last long. Li Xiaoqiang only stayed at home for about 10 days, and as soon as the 3rd day of the Lunar New Year passed, he immediately rushed back to the capital. Because from now on, Li Xiaoqiang seems to have to be busy again, and there are many competitions waiting for him to participate.

In addition to the all-important "Tian Yuan" title defense and the "Ying Cup" are about to begin, there are a number of other professional competitions that need to be participated.

For example, the game of chess that I just played with Cao Dafang Jiuduan is another news chess battle in China, the qualifier of the "Chess King Battle". This is an 8-in-4 game, and after Li Xiaoqiang wins this game of chess, he also successfully entered the top 4 of the "Chess King Battle", if he can pass 2 levels, he will get the right to challenge this "Chess King Battle", and get the opportunity to challenge the last "Chess King" Ma Xiaofei Jiuduan.

In real history, China's "chess king battle" belongs to the kind of short-lived professional competition. It has only been held for less than 10 sessions, and this competition has disappeared from the Chinese chess world, so in Li Xiaoqiang's mind, the status of "chess king battle". It's not as important as "Tianyuan Race" and "Celebrity Battle". Although Li Xiaoqiang does not fancy this competition, as a professional chess player, he still has to participate in the tournament that he should participate, and there is no reason for him not to participate, there is nothing to say.

In addition to the qualifiers of the "Chess King Battle", the qualifiers of the "National Hand Battle", another professional event of Chinese Go, were also squeezed into this time period at about the same time. Speaking of the "national hand battle" of Chinese Go, this should be one of the oldest "news chess battles" in the Chinese chess world, and its qualifications are earlier than the "Tianyuan Battle" and "Celebrity Battle". However, in the Chinese chess scene in this era. Many professional events are not standardized at all, and the competition is held and stopped, which does not have much impact in the minds of Go enthusiasts.

In Li Xiaoqiang's memory, this game should be the same as the "New Sports Cup". It's the kind that has long been discontinued. It's just that in this life, Li Xiaoqiang doesn't know what the reason is, the "New Sports Cup" has disappeared as in normal history, and the "National Hand War" game is still preserved. And that's not all. At present, Li Xiaoqiang has also performed well in this competition, and he has now successfully entered the top 8 and advanced to the next stage of the competition.

"It's not the same. The world champion's chess is completely different now! Looking at him like this, he is completely unstoppable now. Not only is the state good, but the content of chess seems to have improved qualitatively. I don't know who else can stop him......"

"Now I can stop Xiaoqiang, I think only Lao Nie is the only one. Have you noticed? The current Lao Nie seems to be completely different, playing chess with a ruthless spirit. In domestic competitions, Lao Nie's attitude is rare. He, like Xiaoqiang, is still alive in both competitions, plus the upcoming Tian Yuan Challenge, as well as the Ying Cup...... Lao Nie and Xiao Qiang should be the two busiest chess players at this stage. ”

In the professional Go world, "busy" is a very interesting word. To describe the current state of a chess player, it is often a "busy?" "It's very telling.

For example, the current Nie Whirlwind and Li Xiaoqiang, in the recent period, they still have 4 games to participate, which is of course very "busy". And this "busy" just means that they are in good shape at the moment, and they have been winning chess there, so that they can be "busy".

You must know that most professional Go competitions are based on the knockout system, especially the qualifiers or this tournament, and the single-elimination system is absolutely mainstream, and losing a game of chess often means saying goodbye to a game. Therefore, when a player is "busy", it often means that the player is in good shape and that he has been winning there.

Now Nie Whirlwind and Li Xiaoqiang, they seem to be the two "busiest" chess players in the Chinese chess world.

After the end of the game with Cao Dafang Jiuduan, Li Xiaoqiang successfully entered the top 4 of the "Chess King Battle" and the top 8 of the "National Hand Battle". Li Xiaoqiang's event in Beijing will also come to an end temporarily.

It's not that Li Xiaoqiang doesn't want to continue to stay in the capital, but he doesn't have time. According to the next schedule, Li Xiaoqiang and Nie Whirlwind must move to Shencheng immediately. At that place, the two of them will compete in the first two rounds of the "Tian Yuan War" finals, as well as participate in the first two rounds of the 2nd "Ying's Cup".

Of course, before leaving the capital, Li Xiaoqiang still has an activity that he must attend. Or rather, there is a ceremony that must be attended. This ceremony is related to Li Xiaoqiang. It must be pointed out that this is not actually a formal ceremony, but the chess academy takes it very seriously and requires that all players in Beijing should be able to attend. The name of this ritual is called:

"The New World Champion Celebration of the Chinese Chess Academy and the Promotion Ceremony of Li Xiaoqiang's New Nine Duan."

On the first night of leaving the capital for Shencheng, the ceremony was held as scheduled at the China Chess Academy. Many people from all walks of life attended the ceremony. The chess world, the press, the official sports world, and even Dong Lao, who has not appeared for a long time, specially came to praise Li Xiaoqiang's field. However, as the central figure of the entire ceremony, when Li Xiaoqiang received the nine-stage "exemption" from Chen Chaoyue's hands, not only Li Xiaoqiang himself had a strange feeling. A subtle atmosphere permeated the entire venue.

Yes, this is the professional nine dans! This represents the highest level a professional chess player can achieve. And that's not all. In the old days, Kudan even represented the highest honor a professional chess player could achieve. Therefore, even now, "nine paragraphs" is still a sacred word in the minds of many people.

And today, a young man under the age of 17, who is about to get the highest title in the professional game of Go, it is no wonder that many people have a strange feeling.

Of course, everyone does not disagree with Li Xiaoqiang's level. After two consecutive world titles. In the words of many people in the chess world, among them, even people in the Japanese and Korean Go circles:

"Promoted Li Xiaoqiang to the ninth rank of the profession, Li Xiaoqiang does not have the problem of being deserved at all - on the contrary. If Li Xiaoqiang is not promoted to the ninth dan, then many other active nine dans will really feel embarrassed. ”

It can be said that granting Li Xiaoqiang a career of nine dan at this time is simply a matter of expectation, and not many people will have objections. However, when this scene really appeared in front of everyone, especially when everyone reviewed Li Xiaoqiang's career, everyone still felt a little strange. Because everyone found out that Li Xiaoqiang's promotion speed was fast. Not to mention the low age at which he reached the ninth dan, this does not need to be verified at all, and he reached the ninth dan before the age of 17, which must have set a record. Speaking of which, Li Xiaoqiang has never participated in a rank competition. Not once! And he is already a nine-dan chess player now, and this alone is already a record that cannot be broken.

"You stinky boy, I don't know what to say about you now. You guys seem to be here to break the rules of the game. You know, even if it was Mr. Wu Qingyuan back then, when he was promoted to the ninth dan. I also passed a special exam. And you, this guy, just like this, smoothly rose to the ninth rank. What's even worse is that it doesn't seem to work if you don't give you this nine-stage now, and if you don't give it to you, we people will be scolded. Alas, after you are a demon, I am afraid that many rules in the Go world will also change......"

When handing the nine-stage certificate to Li Xiaoqiang, Chen Chaoyue had the same complicated expression, and at the same time muttered something like this. Of course, Chen Chaoyue is not unwilling to award Li Xiaoqiang this nine-stage certificate. It's just that as a manager, Chen Chaoyue has been keenly aware that since this incident, the foundation of the rank system that has been followed for many years in the Go world has been loosened. In the near future, the rank will no longer be representative of a person's true level. From now on, it is likely that a new system will need to be found to replace the existing rank system.

After hearing Chen Chaoyue's words, Li Xiaoqiang smiled secretly in his heart. He knows the course of history. In the real history, the real loosening of the current rank system actually starts from South Korea's Lee Stone. When Li Shishi was promoted to the third stage according to the normal channel, he made a public statement, declaring that he would no longer participate in the promotion competition. He has also been active in major international arenas as a professional third dan. It wasn't until he won multiple world championships that the Korean chess world promoted him straight to the rank of 9 dan. It can be said that it started with Li Shishi that the rank reward systems of various countries were introduced, which fundamentally impacted the original promotion system.

Just today, Li Xiaoqiang, as a chess player who has never participated in a rank competition, has won the supreme title of professional nine-dan. There is no such example of him. Therefore, many people of insight have realized that today's incident is likely to have a great impact on the entire rank system.

Li Shishi should be 9 years old this year, what is this famous "Bird Island Boy" doing now? Has he already embarked on the path of Go? By the way, there is also China's Gu Dali, he should be 9 years old this year, it is said that before he was 10 years old, the "Yang Theory" has been done several times, and I don't know how far he has achieved the "Yang Theory" now......

"Xiaoqiang, what are you doing in a daze?"

"No, I just remembered a chess player."

"Oh? What chess player? ”

"A very talented and talented chess player."

"What other chess player can make our world champions so interested?"

"Of course there is, let me tell you this, this chess player is very distinctive, and his talent in some aspects, I am far from sighing, especially his ability to create clues and grasp the fighter. Or his ability to expand the chessboard. There is no one else in the world. In my opinion, among all the top chess players throughout the ages, in terms of talent in this area alone, Huang Longshi may be able to compete with him, and everyone else may be inferior. ”

"Ahh And such chess players? So who is he? ”

"Huh? Ahem...... Not...... I didn't say anything, I was just talking nonsense......"

When Li Xiaoqiang came back to his senses, he naturally denied his words. However, in Li Xiaoqiang's mind, Li Shishi, who created the "zombie flow", his ability to expand the chessboard is indeed the best in the world, and his ability to "disrupt the game". His talent in this area may only be able to compete with the predecessors of the ancient Chinese chess saint Huang Longshi. Li Xiaoqiang even thinks that in terms of talent in this area alone, even Mr. Wu Qingyuan may be worse.

In order to cover up his wandering, after receiving the nine-paragraph "exemption" from Chen Chaoyue's hands, Li Xiaoqiang and others talked about it again, talking and laughing. Everyone even recalled some interesting stories about Mr. Wu Qingyuan's promotion to the ninth section that year.

You must know that in Mr. Wu's time, Jiudan was not as widespread as it is now. Moreover, Mr. Wu's road to the ninth has gone through a lot of twists and turns. Some of the things that happened during that period caused some complaints and dissatisfaction among Mr. Wu.

In the old days of Japan, there could only be one Kudan, which was the so-called "Celebrity is Kudan". When the last "celebrity" Xiuya retired. Japanese Go is also in an era of institutional change, and there has been no Kudan for a long time. At that time, Mr. Kure's level was already very high, and he was basically the de facto first player in Japanese Go. But he only had eight dans at the time.

If there is no nine dans all along, then there is nothing. Because in the minds of many people at the time. The notion that "celebrities are both nine-dan" is still deeply ingrained. As a Chinese, Mr. Wu naturally not many people want him to become a "Japanese celebrity", which should also be understandable. Therefore, for a considerable period of time after Hideya's retirement until his death. There is no Kudan in the Japanese Go world.

This continued until the end of the 40s, when the first true Kudan under the current promotion system was finally born, and that was Mr. Fujisawa Kunosuke. Therefore, it can be said that Fujisawa Kunosuke is the first "hit" of the nine dans, not the nine dans of the election, as in the past.

But the interesting thing is in this place, when Mr. Fujisawa Kunosuke became the first Kudan, he was a chess player affiliated with the Japan Chess Academy, and the Japanese Chess Academy, according to the established conventions in the past, wanted to promote Fujisawa Kunosuke as a "celebrity", which was opposed by many people. Because in terms of absolute strength, it is generally recognized that Mr. Wu Qingyuan is stronger than Mr. Fujisawa Kunosuke. If Mr. Fujisawa Kunosuke is made a "celebrity", there is always a feeling that the name is not right. A person who is not the most outstanding in strength becomes a "celebrity", and that is always unconvincing. So how do you solve this problem? There is only one way, and that is to play chess. Therefore, in this case, the juban of Wu Qingyuan vs Fujisawa Kunosuke is also on the agenda.

However, while preparing for this chess battle, new problems arose. That is the problem of the "chess share" of the two. Because Mr. Wu was only eight ranks at that time, according to the rules at that time, the game between different ranks could not be held according to the method of "dividing first". Under normal circumstances, the 9th dan and 8th dan must be played according to the "first, first" game, that is to say, in the three games, 2 of the 8 dan are played with black and one game with white. But specifically between the two chess players, everyone thinks that this is impossible, everyone agrees that Mr. Wu Qingyuan's strength is stronger, if he wants to accept the identity of "starter", this is obviously unreasonable, and such a game has no practical significance. So in order to solve this chess problem. The Japan Chess Academy specially hosted a "Wu Qingyuan vs. Senior Players Total Confrontation Juban Chess Special Decisive Battle" as Mr. Wu Qingyuan's promotion assessment.

In this competition, the Japanese side specially organized the best 10 young chess players from 6 to 7 dan at that time to play 10 games with Wu Qingyuan, and if Wu Qingyuan can win, Wu Qingyuan will be promoted to 9 dan, so as to solve the chess problem of Wu Qingyuan vs Fujisawa Kunosuke Juban.

It must be admitted that Mr. Wu Qingyuan actually complains about such a solution, and he once said self-deprecatingly: In the Go world, generally only high-level people are assessed by low-level people, and only he is like him, who has the highest level, but still has to accept the assessment of low-level people.

It may also be for this reason that Mr. Wu Qingyuan shot angrily in this game and showed no mercy at all. You know, this 10-man lineup was also carefully selected, including the best young players in the Japanese chess world at that time, such as Sakata Eio. However, such a lineup, still playing chess with "first first", still could not stop Mr. Wu Qingyuan's wild victory. The final result ended the game with Wu Qingyuan's record of 8 wins, 1 loss and 1 draw. In this way, the Japanese side had nothing to say, so they had to let Mr. Wu Qingyuan also be promoted to the ninth dan.

What made the Japanese Chess Academy even more embarrassing was that the relationship between the Japanese Chess Academy and the Kansai Chess Academy at that time was very stiff. In this 10-man lineup, there are 2 players belonging to the Kansai Chess Academy. And the 2 games that Wu Qingyuan did not win were precisely against these two Kansai chess players. For the other 8 players affiliated with the Japan Chess Academy, Mr. Wu won all of them without exception.

"Are Kansai chess players really that strong?"

This was the indignant question of many Kanto chess players at that time. Whether this was intentional by Mr. Wu Qingyuan or an accidental coincidence, no one knows now. However, it is certain that Mr. Utaro Hashimoto, the commander of the Kansai Chess Academy in Japan at that time, must have been very happy. As the senior brother of Mr. Wu Qingyuan, he must have felt that Mr. Wu Qingyuan was very face-saving, and thought that when Mr. Wu Qingyuan was playing chess with the chess players affiliated to the Kansai Chess Academy, he must have shown mercy to his subordinates, and he did this, maybe it was to deliberately disgust the Japanese Chess Academy.

The above is the story that happened before Mr. Wu Qingyuan ascended to the ninth level. After this battle, Wu Qingyuan also successfully became Japan's second Kudan. As for the later story, then everyone will know better. Through the contest of 2 juban chess. Wu Qingyuan's "2nd Ninth Paragraph" directly demoted Fujisawa Kunosuke's "1st Ninth Paragraph" to "Dingxian". Later, Mr. Fujisawa Kunosuke also changed his name to Fujisawa Tomosai.

After the end of the "Chinese Chess Academy New World Championship Celebration and Li Xiaoqiang's New Nine-Section Promotion Ceremony". "Li Xiaoqiang Jiuduan" left the capital. He came to Shencheng with Nie Whirlwind and others. From here, Li Xiaoqiang will start a new round of journey. (To be continued, please search, the novel is better and updated faster!)