After returning to China from Japan, Li Xiaoqiang began to prepare for the upcoming "Toyo Securities Cup" finals.

This decisive battle with Ma Xiaofei is the most important event in the Go world at the moment, and it is an eye-catching victory. As the date of the tournament approached, more and more people were talking about the final. Reviews, analyses, and predictions about this final are also appearing in the press.

No way, this big win and defeat does have its peculiarities. This is the final between two Chinese players, so in terms of eye-catching, it may not be as good as the other finals that Li Xiaoqiang has participated in. For example, last year's "Fujitsu Cup" final with Cao Yanzi even caused a war of words between the media and chess fans of the two countries before the game. In the match with Ma Xiaofei, of course, this situation is not possible. But even so, when this final is coming, it still can't stop everyone's enthusiasm and does not prevent everyone from judging this final.

Most of the reasons for this heated discussion are because of Li Xiaoqiang.

If Li Xiaoqiang wins, then Li Xiaoqiang, who has 4 crowns in hand, will undoubtedly become the new king of the entire world chess world, which can announce that the entire Go world has officially entered the "Li Xiaoqiang era".

What if Li Xiaoqiang loses? Of course, you can also say that it is still the era of Li Xiaoqiang, after all, he is still the chess player who has won the most world championships. But in any case, this statement is certainly still a bit far-fetched. More people will definitely think that the whole world chess world is still in the era of competition for hegemony.

In the end, Li Xiaoqiang dominates the rivers and lakes? Or continue to fight among the heroes, this is the most important gimmick of this final.

Other, why Ma Xiaofei? Why can only Ma Xiaofei and Li Xiaoqiang compete for hegemony to attract so much attention? This is certainly not without his reason.

The reason for this, of course, is because of Li Xiaoqiang.

That's right, although so far. Ma Xiaofei's record in the World Series is lackluster, and he has even reached the final of the World Series for the first time and the top four of the World Series for the second time. But as long as you think about it with Li Xiaoqiang, you will find that you will no longer find a more suitable candidate than Ma Xiaofei.

Kobayashi Koji and Zhao Zhixun, who represent the highest level of Japanese Go, are hard to win in front of Li Xiaoqiang. So far, the two of them have never even won against Li Xiaoqiang.

South Korea's strongest chess player, Cho Lee's apprentice. They have been deflated by Li Xiaoqiang's hands in the past year or two. That's right, maybe they don't seem to be lagging behind in terms of overall results. But the more important the game between them, the more crucial the contest is, without exception, Li Xiaoqiang wins.

If you calculate it in this way, looking at the entire world chess world, there is only Ma Xiaofei, and it can only be Ma Xiaofei.

So far, Ma Xiaofei is the player who has played the most games against Li Xiaoqiang.

So far, Ma Xiaofei is the only player who has played against Li Xiaoqiang a lot, and the overall record is ahead of Li Xiaoqiang.

Actually, when I hold a deep study. Attentive people will also notice that so far, Ma Xiaofei is the only top player to have beaten Li Xiaoqiang in the final.

The above reasons seem to indicate that the most suitable person to prevent the opening of Li Xiaoqiang's dynasty and delay the advent of Li Xiaoqiang's era seems to be Ma Xiaofei.

These are the biggest highlights of this big win. It is precisely because this final is so unusual that it attracts so much attention.

This is still true for outsiders. The two finalists, as the natural protagonists of this big victory, naturally dare not slack off.

After returning from Japan, Li Xiaoqiang seems to have never met Ma Xiaofei. This is not to say that they have not met in the game, but it means that in ordinary daily life, the two seem to have never met.

Sometime at the end of April. This is very close to the final of the "Toyo Securities Cup". China Chess Academy, Chen Chaoyue's office. Chen Chaoyue and Team Leader Luo were chatting.

"Ma Xiao didn't come to the chess academy today? This kid is now more and more like a dragon. ”

The Chinese Chess Academy was spun off from other sports teams, and it has not been independent for a long time. If it is on another sports team, the athlete does not show up at the training base. It's simply unthinkable. Although the chess academy has its particularities, it is only natural that chess players often come to the chess academy to show their faces. However, this time, Ma Xiaofei has been "absent" a little too much, and since he came back from Japan in early April, he has often not seen Ma Xiaofei in the chess academy.

Despite this, several chess academy administrators in the office did not see any anger. Chen Chaoyue, who said this just now, even had a smile on the corner of his mouth. Indeed, this is like an employee, although he is absent from work on the surface, but everyone knows that he must have avoided a corner to "specialize in business", then as a boss or manager, he will definitely not be angry about this situation.

"Ma Xiao didn't show up, which means that he is really interested this time. The last time Ma Xiao was like this time, it was when he faced Cao Yanzi in the semifinals. It is said that before the match with Lao Cao, Ma Xiao spent 2 hours longer than usual. Hehe, this time for Xiaoqiang, I don't know if he will spend a few more hours, I really want to see what he can do with Xiaoqiang this time. ”

Hearing Team Leader Hua say this, everyone in the room laughed. The two Chinese players reached the final, and the people in this room certainly had no position. If Li Xiaoqiang wins, then the new king of the world chess world is Chinese, which is a good thing for Chinese Go. If Ma Xiaofei wins, it will be able to further consolidate the thickness of China's top chess players, and in future international competitions, then there will be no need to pin all the glory and safety on one chess player as in the past. This is also a good thing for Chinese Go. Therefore, they are now in the same state of mind as ordinary chess fans, just ready to watch a good show.

After Team Leader Hua said this, he turned his head and asked Coach Luo:

"What about Xiaoqiang? What is Xiaoqiang doing now? ”

"Xiaoqiang's preparation method this time. It seems a little weird. After he came back from Japan, I paid special attention to it and found that Xiaoqiang's preparation for this battle was quite special. ”

"Oh? What kind of special law? ”

Hearing Coach Luo say this, everyone in the room became interested. Li Xiaoqiang is very good at adjusting his form before major competitions, which is famous in the chess world. Therefore, everyone wants to hear how Li Xiaoqiang is preparing for the war this time.

"It is said that Ma Xiao is a maverick, if you want me to say, the previous Xiaoqiang was even more maverick. He is younger than Ma Du and even surpasses him. Everyone still remembers, when Xiaoqiang was preparing for the ring match, he also liked to prepare quietly alone, and he even liked to run to his hometown when he had nothing to do."

Hearing Coach Luo say this, this office remembered laughter again. When Li Xiaoqiang participated in the ring competition that year, "Li Xiaoqiang plays chess once every 4 months" and "Li Xiaoqiang plays chess when he goes home" has even become an allusion to the Go world, which is still talked about by Go lovers.

"And what about this time? How did Xiaoqiang prepare for the war this time. ”

"This time, he soaked in the national youth training team every day, and pulled Gu Dali Kong Erjie and other children to practice every day."

"Huh?!"

Hearing Coach Luo say this, everyone in the room expressed surprise. The so-called preparation for the arena is nothing more than two situations, one is to avoid the crowd and ponder alone like Ma Xiaofei. The other is naturally collective research. If you want to study it collectively, Li Xiaoqiang looked for Chang Ren Shengluo Shenzhu and they still talked about the past. But look for Gu Dali Kong Erjie them. Li Xiaoqiang: Is this preparing for the war?

"What did Xiaoqiang say himself?"

"I also asked Xiaoqiang that day. Hehe, everyone knows that Xiaoqiang has been a lot of crooked reasons since he was a child. He said that when he was a child, he had to avoid the crowd to prepare for the battle, because his strength was not good at that time, and he was easily influenced by others. Now there is no need to worry about this situation. However, the collective research of chess players of the same level, such as Chang Rensheng, because their moves are too professional, it is estimated that it will not have any effect on the preparation for the battle. On the contrary, it is more likely to get in touch with some low-level chess players and watch more amateur moves, so that it is more likely to bypass. ”

The people in the room are all experts, and they can quickly understand what Li Xiaoqiang means. Moreover, they naturally will not interfere with how chess players, especially top chess players like Li Xiaoqiang and Ma Xiaofei, prepare for the battle. After listening to Coach Luo's story, everyone just laughed and scolded: "There is no shape". Then we move on to the next topic.

"In this way, I am looking forward to their battle even more now, and I really don't know what they can do this time. How about the Korean side? What is the schedule for this final? ”

"The Korean Go world is really different from the Japanese Go world. If the Japanese are too rigid, then the Koreans are too flexible, flexible enough to like to change the day. This time, since two Chinese players entered the finals, the organizers considered holding a few games in China. The five-game game is also divided into two stages, the first three games are played in South Korea and the last two games are played in China. ”

"Oh? And what about the game time? Has there been any change in the race time? And in which city are they going to do it? ”

"The first three sets remained unchanged as originally planned, in Seoul in early May, and the two of them will leave in a few days. As for the last two games, they still considered putting them in Shencheng, and they didn't just send a letter to coordinate with us. ”

"Try to help them coordinate."

After a few people finished talking about business, everyone chatted for a while. In the end, Team Leader Hua suggested that everyone should predict the outcome of this competition.

Chen: "Compared with Ma Xiao, Xiaoqiang is a little more leaning on before the big victory and negative victory. Cautiously optimistic about Xiaoqiang. ”

Wang: "Hehe, I'm just going to watch a good show, as long as I play chess well." But in the end, considering that Xiao Qiang had just taken Ma Xiao in the Tianyuan War, and the chess game was quite beautiful. Therefore, this time it should be Xiaoqiang's chance of winning. ”

Hua: "I hope that Ma Xiaocan teach coach Xiaoqiang a lesson, so that this kid is too arrogant. But if I want to bet, then I can only choose to press Xiaoqiang."

Luo: "It's still the same sentence, Xiaoqiang plays chess to make people feel at ease."

The opinions of these four are, of course, not just those of the four of them. In fact, for this final, the vast majority of people are optimistic about Li Xiaoqiang.

In the midst of optimism, in early May 1995, Li Xiaoqiang and Ma Xiaofei went to Seoul to start a duel that was crucial to both of them. (To be continued.) )