Li Xiaoqiang won his sixth world championship and completed the first major reversal in the final of the World Series. This earned him great praise after the race. After this battle, the entire Go community, whether it is China, South Korea, or Japan, basically recognizes Li Xiaoqiang as the first person in the world chess world today.

The Japanese media's report on this is the simplest and most straightforward, acknowledging Li Xiaoqiang's status in a big vernacular:

"In the current world chess world, if Li Xiaoqiang only recognizes the second place, then no one dares to call the first ......"

The Chinese media reports were the most triumphant:

"In such a situation, if even Li Shifo can't defeat Li Xiaoqiang, then looking at the entire world chess world, who else is Li Xiaoqiang's opponent? …… By the way, maybe Ma Xiaofei can, after all, Ma Xiaofei is the only chess player in the world who has defeated Li Xiaoqiang in the final of the World Series......"

Although the Korean media did not directly recognize Li Xiaoqiang's status as the world's No. 1 chess player, Cao Yanzi's remarks in an interview with the media after the end of this "Toyo Securities Cup" are the most representative:

"Today's Li Xiaoqiang is really difficult to deal with, now he has almost no weaknesses, and he is at the peak in all aspects. At this stage, the closest to Li Xiaoqiang's level is still Li Shifo, if even Li Shifo is not Li Xiaoqiang's opponent, then others may not be able to do it......"

Next, Cao Yanzi said a classic comment in a joking tone. In his previous life, Cao Yanzi commented on Li Shifo, but now, he applies this sentence to Li Xiaoqiang:

"It is difficult to defeat Li Xiaoqiang now, and everyone may have no choice but to watch him dominate the world chess world. I now think that there are only two possibilities if I want to defeat Li Xiaoqiang, the first is that Li Xiaoqiang fails in self-management. No. 2: There is a Go genius who is more talented than Li Xiaoqiang. ”

As soon as Lao Cao said this, the whole world chess world began to be lively again. Indeed, Li Xiaoqiang is only 23 years old now, and his energy and physical strength are at the peak. Not to mention, it is now recognized that Li Xiaoqiang's Go level has surpassed that of senior chess players such as "Liuchao". Even if it does not exceed, I think that Li Xiaoqiang is at the same level as his predecessors. But now almost all the senior players are past their prime. One has fallen, the other seems to be still on the rise, at least judging from the content of the chess, Li Xiaoqiang seems to be improving, and he still has room to rise. Therefore, it is almost impossible to count on senior chess players to defeat Li Xiaoqiang.

Seniors can't do it, and it doesn't seem to be good for peers. Everyone looked around and saw that there were few competitive players of the same generation. Among them, the strongest is of course Li Shifo, and in the next period, "Erli Zhenghe" is likely to be the theme of the world chess world. But except for Li Shifo, others don't seem to be very competitive.

For example, among the chess players born in the 70s, it is widely recognized that the third strongest chess player is Chang Rensheng. But no matter from which point of view, he and "Er Li" are not of the same level. They may be able to win against Li Xiaoqiang, and they may be able to stop Li Shifo in a certain game, but if they want to fundamentally shake the status of "Er Li", it can be said that there is no sign of this at all now.

The senior chess players can't do it, and the same generation chess players don't seem to be able to do it either, so you can only look at the junior chess players. One of the advantages of the younger players is that since many things are not finalized, this can be seen as their upside, but it also provides room for imagination.

Therefore, after Lao Cao's words were spoken, the whole world chess world began to be lively, and everyone was looking for "the person who can beat Li Xiaoqiang in the future." ”

The first to act were the Koreans. In the latest issue of the Korean "Go" magazine, in addition to focusing on the just-concluded "Toyo Securities Cup", they launched a special feature dedicated to the emerging players in the Korean chess scene today. The name is also very popular:

"These are the people who may defeat Li Xiaoqiang in the future!"

It should be said that Koreans still have an eye, and in this special report, the magazine published large photos of 5 young chess players, and they listed the shortlist of 5 people: Lee Seok, Choi Poison, Park Yongxun, Won Dae-hammer and Song Tae-kun. "Gang of Three" plus "Young Hero" plus Xiao Li, which basically includes all the elites of South Korea's "post-80s" chess players. For a long time after the beginning of the new century, these people were basically active in the front line of the world chess arena and were the main opponents of Chinese Go in the future.

The list of candidates is listed, but there is another question: among these five people, who is the most likely to surpass Li Xiaoqiang? It can't be more than 5 people, right? No matter how arrogant the Koreans are, it is impossible to think so, otherwise Li Xiaoqiang, the "world's No. 1", is too cheap.

On this issue, a reporter from the South Korean magazine "Go" specially interviewed Cao Yanzi. Cao Yanzi was silent for a long time, and gave the list of the first candidates in his mind: Li Shishi!

It must be admitted that when Cao Yanzi first said the name Li Shishi, many people disagreed with Lao Cao's opinion. Of course, everyone doesn't think that Xiao Li's chess is not good, nor does everyone think that Xiao Li's talent is not enough, in fact, Xiao Li's chess has long been recognized by the Korean Go community. There is only one reason why everyone doubts Li Shishi: the current Xiao Li is called "Korean Li Xiaoqiang" by everyone.

Go is an art, and any art has one thing in common. The so-called "those who learn from me live, and those who are like me die" is not just a joke. This is common in any field of art. Li Xiaoqiang has reached a very high level in his field, and everyone generally believes that if there is a master who can defeat Li Xiaoqiang, then this master must be very different from Li Xiaoqiang's style.

And now everyone thinks that Li Shishi and Li Xiaoqiang's styles are similar, so this has become a reason why everyone is not optimistic about Xiao Li. Cao Yanzi also has her own explanation for this:

"To really beat Li Xiaoqiang needs to be different from his style, which should be in the usual sense. For example, Li Shifo, he is completely different from Li Xiaoqiang's style, and now Shifo can pose a threat to Li Xiaoqiang. But you must know that Li Xiaoqiang's situation is special, his skills are very comprehensive, and it is precisely because of his characteristics that I am still the most optimistic about Li Shishi. ”

"Cao Guoshou means to say ......"

"Yes, if you want to really defeat Li Xiaoqiang, you must defeat him in his strongest field!"

Lao Cao's explanation was understood. It should be said that what Cao Yanzi said is also very reasonable. Li Xiaoqiang is very comprehensive, yes, but where is his strongest? It is generally recognized that he is still capable of fighting in the middle game, which can also be regarded as Li Xiaoqiang's "core competitiveness". Using other methods to deal with Li Xiaoqiang, such as Li Shifo's approach, has now proved to be unworkable. Then a better way to play may also be the best idea: only defeat Li Xiaoqiang where he is strongest.

In Lao Cao's opinion, Li Shishi obviously has this potential!

"Xiaoqiang, do you agree with Lao Cao's opinion?"

At the China Chess Academy, reporter Zhang Da took a copy of the latest South Korean "Go" magazine and asked Li Xiaoqiang's opinion.

Li Xiaoqiang grinned, in fact, in his heart, he still agreed with Cao Yanzi's point of view, so he replied to reporter Zhang Da like this:

"I'd love to disagree, but I have to admit that I can't really find a reason to refute it."

It's not just Koreans who are on the move, looking for "someone who can beat Lee Xiaoqiang in the future." The Japanese Go community has also made some moves, and they are also taking stock of their domestic rookies at this time. Coincidentally, the Japanese Go community has also launched a list of 5 people, they are Keigo Yamashita, Zhang Xu, Takao Shinji, Naoki Hane and Kono Lin. That is, the "Heisei Four Heavenly Kings" of later generations in Japan plus Kobayashi Koji, a tall foot.

It should be said that this list is a bit funny, because in this list, many people are about the same age as Li Xiaoqiang, such as Takao, such as Kono, but considering that the growth cycle of Japanese chess players has always been slow, Li Xiaoqiang can only reluctantly regard them as "juniors".

"Huh? The Japanese are most optimistic about Yamashita, why is it not Zhang Xu? ”，

"Yamashita is currently in the limelight in the Japanese chess world, he has just won the rookie king in Japan, and his chess is unanimously favored by many people. How? Xiaoqiang, do you think he is not as good as Zhang Xu? ”

Li Xiaoqiang smiled, and he was non-committal to Zhang Da's words. In Li Xiaoqiang's mind, the chess talent under the mountain is certainly not as good as Zhang Xu. However, due to his age, he is not worthy of the name of the "elder", and some things are inconvenient for him to say.

"Xiaoqiang, what do you think of these two lists?"

This is the purpose of reporter Zhang Da's dialogue with Li Xiaoqiang this time, others are looking for someone to "defeat Li Xiaoqiang", so reporter Zhang Da wants to hear what Li Xiaoqiang, the "party", has to say.

Li Xiaoqiang said with a smile: "It should be said that this list is very good, basically including the strongest players of the young generation in Japan and South Korea." But I don't think the list is comprehensive. My personal opinion: the most threatening to me in the future is not on either list. ”

"Xiaoqiang, what do you mean?"

"The most threatening thing for me in the future is, of course, in our China, in our country's Go Junior Team."

Li Xiaoqiang laughed, others are looking for "the person who defeats Li Xiaoqiang", but there will definitely be no discussion in this regard in China. So it's best for Li Xiaoqiang to say this by himself. Of course, Li Xiaoqiang didn't think that Gu Dali, Kong Erjie and others must be stronger than Li Shishi.

But at this time, Li Xiaoqiang thinks that he must stand up for young chess players in China, and that's all he means.

"You mean Gu Da Long Kong Erjie ...... them?"

"yes, so you go to South Korea this time and take a good look at the performance of these young chess players."

Reporter Zhang Da is about to go to South Korea again.

The "Toyo Securities Cup" is the last one, and there is no "Ying's Cup" this year. Therefore, this year's World Series has only three left: "Fujitsu Cup", "Samsung Cup" and "LG Cup".

There's not much to say about the Fujitsu Cup, it's been held for so many years, and there's not much new about it. However, the two tournaments held by Koreans are different, and since the two tournaments are in an "open" format, a large comprehensive "qualifier" will be held before the "main tournament".

After the end of the "Battle of the Century" between Li Xiaoqiang and Li Shifo, the qualifiers for the 2nd "Samsung Cup" started soon. It was at this time that everyone was discussing "the person who can beat Li Xiaoqiang in the future", and all the qualifiers of this "Samsung Cup" attracted much attention.

Because in this competition, the young generation of masters from various countries can be regarded as officially on the stage of the world competition.

"Hehe, that's a must-see." Reporter Zhang Da responded to Li Xiaoqiang very casually.

However, what reporter Zhang Da did not expect was that in the subsequent "Samsung Cup" preliminaries, a strong "initial storm" was staged in the world chess arena. (To be continued.) )