In April, in Tokyo, it's the annual Fujitsu Cup season.

On the first weekend of April, the first round of the 6th Fujitsu Cup was held as scheduled at the Japan Chess Academy. In this tournament, there will be 6 Chinese chess players. They are the tournament seed Liu Dazhui (last year's No. 3), national seeds Nie Whirlwind and Li Xiaoqiang, the top two in the national individual competition Shao Weigang and Ma Xiaofei, and last year's national women's champion Yang Hui.

Since in the last tournament, 4 players made it to the top 8. Therefore, in this competition, 4 Chinese chess players have become seeded players. In the first round of the game, only Nie Xuanfeng and Yang Hui played. There are more Chinese chess players watching the game in the laboratory than there are participating chess players.

On the first day of the draw, Nie was lucky enough to draw an amateur player representing Europe. As long as it's not particularly out of the ordinary, it shouldn't be a problem for him to pass the first round. Therefore, in the research room, everyone paid most of their attention to Yang Hui's game, for the simple reason that her opponent was called Masaki Takemiya.

The game went on until about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and all the Chinese chess players in the viewing room were smiling and looking elated. Li Xiaoqiang sat in front of a chessboard, with various reference drawings in his hands:

"Huh? Can this move work? I guess no, if it continues like this, I guess Mr. Takemiya will be going to get a boxed lunch soon......"

That's right, this game of chess has been going on so far, and everyone is not worried about Yang Hui, but instead to help Masaki Takemiya think of a way. In the middle of the game, Yang Hui's tough move obviously made Masaki Takemiya unprepared. He made a mistake in dealing with it, and suffered a lot of losses locally. Realizing that the situation was backward, Masaki Takemiya certainly couldn't be caught with his hands tied, and he kept provoking wars behind him. The game forms a transformation.

It's a pity that Yang Hui's state today is really good, and she copes with everything correctly. In this way, although Wu Gong tried his best to lead the situation to chaos, every time he switched, Yang Hui's advantage expanded a little. By a little over 4 p.m., the last big conversion was about to be completed. The situation is already very clear, and Li Xiaoqiang has already pronounced the death sentence of Masaki Takemiya in advance.

As the head of the Chinese delegation, Team Leader Hua, who was sitting next to Li Xiaoqiang, also breathed a sigh of relief:

"It's good to win. It's good to win, and with this win, then we don't have so much pressure. ”

Allowing the women's national champion to participate in the "Fujitsu Cup" is naturally a new regulation made by the management of Go 4 and other seniors. Let's be honest. This decision has caused a lot of criticism in China. There are many people who believe that the level of female chess players is limited. Letting them compete in the World Series would be a waste of a place.

However, the management also suffered, since the reform of the system, the development of men's Go has been going well, but women's Go has fallen into a dilemma. The reason is that the Chinese female chess players are too powerful, as powerful as the Chinese table tennis team. Let foreign female chess players hang up their free cards, and everyone will not play with them at all.

And at present, there are no decent women's competitions in the country. Most female chess players simply don't have a few good games a year. In order to improve the living environment of female chess players, but also to maintain the competitiveness of domestic female chess players. The management made such a decision.

Indeed, as Team Leader Hua said. If Yang Hui can win Masaki Takemiya, this will at least leave many people speechless.

In the first round of the Fujitsu Cup, there were not many games that were really interesting in order to take care of the "world" of the game. Today, this game is undoubtedly the most interesting match. By this time, not only Chinese players were paying attention to the game, but other Japanese and Korean players were also pointing around the game.

"I can bet you ......" The last champion Otake Hero said to Zhao Zhixun next to him, who is also a seeded player after the game, "When this game is over, we will not see Wu Gong immediately, and even female chess players can lose, he must be embarrassed, and he will stay in the chess academy." ”

Zhao Zhixun laughed: "That's ......"

The big bamboo hero was laughing at Masaki Wugong, and Li Xiaoqiang on the side was also secretly funny in his heart. He said in his heart, Dazhu, don't be complacent, if history has not changed, it will be the same "Fujitsu Cup", and there will be Chinese female chess players in the future who will make you suffer the same hardship.

At 5 o'clock in the afternoon, the first round of matches was over. As expected by Otake, after the game was over, Masaki Takemiya disappeared for the first time. Indeed, the concept of "patriarchy" in the Go world is also deep-rooted, and losing to a female chess player in a game, even if he is as open-minded as Mr. Takemiya, his face cannot be hung for a while.

The first round is over. In addition to Yang Hui's victory over Wu Gong, Nie Whirlwind also took his opponent lightly. In this way, all six Chinese players who participated in the tournament were able to appear in the second round, and the situation looked very good.

But in the second round, it can be said that the real competition has only begun now, and the situation of the Chinese team has changed dramatically.

In the second round of the game, since the 6 chess players were all playing on the field, there were only two people in the viewing room, Team Leader Hua and Reporter Zhang Da. Since 4 p.m., the two have not had a smile on their faces.

The first to end the game was Liu Da Hammer, his opponent in this round was Kato Masao, the Chinese Hercules met the Japanese executioner, in a hard-fought battle, in the end it was Kato Masao who was superior, he ate Liu Da Hammer a big dragon by robbing, after a disproportionate conversion, Liu Da Hammer was no longer sustainable, and he was defeated early.

Next, Nie Whirlwind lost to Zhao Zhixun, Ma Xiaofei lost to Awaji Shuzo, and Yang Hui lost to Cao Yanzi......

If the other results are normal, then Ma Xiaofei's loss to Shuzo Awaji is a little surprising.

"What's going on?"

Facing other people's inquiries, Ma Xiaofei shook his head and smiled bitterly:

"I don't know why, today against Mr. Awaji, this chess game is particularly awkward......"

Regarding Ma Xiaofei's situation, many people expressed their understanding. In another match between the two some time ago, after the final game, Mr. Awaji would have won the situation. However, when he was filling in the form, there was a shocking giant spoon, and he almost committed suicide to let Ma Xiaofei pick up a plate.

In this case, it may not have any effect on some players. Do whatever you want. But when it comes to sensitive chess players like Ma Xiaofei, it's different. In their hearts, they will feel guilty, and they will feel as if they owe each other a plate. Then when the two sides met for the second time. How to play this chess and how to feel awkward.

Of course, as long as this game of chess can pay off the "debt", if the two have a chance to meet next time, I believe that Ma Xiaofei will return to normal.

"What about Xiaoqiang? Let's take a look at Xiaoqiang's game of chess? ”

Of the 6 participants, 4 have been out, and only the two games of Li Xiaoqiang and Shao Weigang have not yet ended. Objectively speaking, in the current situation, everyone will only pin their hopes on Li Xiaoqiang. Because compared with the current Shao Weigang, it seems that only Li Xiaoqiang can carry the banner of the Chinese team.

Lee's opponent today is South Korea's Yoo Chang-hyuk. Prior to this, the two had played each other once in last year's "Ying's Cup". In that game of chess. At that time, Li Xiaoqiang won relatively easily. Several chess players who had already lost silently judged the situation on the chessboard, and Nie Whirlwind and Ma Xiaofei glanced at each other:

"Xiaoqiang's game of chess should be no longer good......"

Hearing this judgment, Team Leader Hua and Reporter Zhang Da's faces became even more ugly. Actually, according to their chess strength. Of course, they also judged that Li Xiaoqiang's situation was unfavorable. Just out of unwillingness. Or it was out of superstition about Li Xiaoqiang that they asked Nie Ma and the others to confirm it again.

"Now it seems that Xiaoqiang has really encountered any problems, at least a bottleneck. His form during this period of time has been quite unstable, and judging from his recent performance, I feel that Li Xiaoqiang, who was not weak when he was strong and stronger when he was weak, seems to be gone, such as an opponent of Liu Changhyuk's level. If this is the previous Xiaoqiang, then I can rest assured of him. He was originally nine out of ten against opponents who were a little less skilled. But now I don't know what's going on, he often loses like this now......"

The others listened silently to reporter Zhang's words, but no one spoke. Yes, reporter Zhang Da is right. Now anyone with a discerning eye can see that the current Li Xiaoqiang must have encountered a problem, otherwise it would be impossible to behave like this. But how can it help? Who is qualified to help him? You must know that the current level of Li Xiaoqiang is already very high, and he is already one of the top chess players in this era, so if he wants to go further, then he can only rely on himself.

At more than 5 o'clock in the afternoon, when Li Xiaoqiang conceded defeat, he was also at a loss in his heart.

At 6 p.m., the second round of the 6th Fujitsu Cup ended. Only Shao Weigang of the Chinese team entered the top 8 and suffered the most significant blow in recent years.

The night of the end of the game. Residency of the Chinese Delegation.

"Mr. Lin, you are really polite, you still came to visit us so late."

Lin Haifeng smiled and said to Team Leader Hua:

"No, I didn't come here alone today, and Mr. Wu, is Xiaoqiang here? Mr. Wu said he wanted to have a few words with Xiaoqiang. ”

"Huh?!"

In the room, Li Xiaoqiang and Mr. Wu Qingyuan sat opposite each other.

"Xiaoqiang, I heard that among your three seniors, Huang, Fan, and Shi, the one you admire the most is Shi Xiangxia Qisheng, and you hope to take him as an example. Is there such a thing? ”

"Huh?"

Li Xiaoqiang was a little stunned for a while. Li Xiaoqiang never thought that Mr. Wu's opening remarks would actually start with the three sages of medieval chess. In Li Xiaoqiang's impression, this is the first time Mr. Wu has talked about ancient Chinese chess with him.

"Yes, I said something like this, among these three seniors, I do like Mr. Shi Xiangxia a little more."

"Oh, why do you think so?" Mr. Wu continued to ask with interest.

Li Xiaoqiang just smiled and didn't speak.

"Longshi is like "a heavenly immortal, no dust thinks", and Xiping is wonderfully lofty, such as "the dragon changes, unpredictable head and tail". Both of them are extremely talented. On the other hand, Shi Xiangxia, the world evaluates his chess as: Ding'an is dense and strict, his chess is like "Lao Ji gallops, without losing steps", and Ding'an is like "the sea is hugely immersed, subtle and far-reaching". Judging from your style, it seems to be a bit close to Shi Xiangxia. And compared with the first two peerless geniuses, Mr. Shi is closer to a mortal no matter how he looks at it. I'm afraid that in your mind, you are also this kind of person, so you are closer to Shi Xiangxia emotionally, is that so? ”

Li Xiaoqiang continued to smile and gave Mr. Wu a default.

"Since you like Shi Qisheng so much, then you shouldn't know Shi Qisheng's allusion of "three years without taking off one first", right? ”

Of course, Li Xiaoqiang knows this allusion, and this should be one of the most famous "epiphany" stories in the Go world.

The general meaning of this story is that Shi Xiangxia was in his 20s, when he was not at that level, at least far worse than Fan Xiping, once met Cheng Lanru and Liang Weijin in the "Four Masters of Go" in Huzhou, and the two elders had to play chess with him in the first chess, Shi. Two years later, Shi Xiangxia met Liang Weijin again, and the two of them traveled to Yanshan together and saw the murmuring water under the mountain. Liang Weijin used water as a metaphor for chess, and he said to Shi Xiangxia:

"You've played well, but do you really understand the trick? When playing chess, you have to go what you should go, you have to stop when you should stop, and you have to listen to nature and not force it, this is the principle of chess. Although you deliberately pursue, you have the problem of "too much", so you have not taken off the level of the first in the past three years. ”

Shi Xiangxia carefully experienced this profound discussion, and realized that he had been so ambitious and took a detour before. Since then, Shi Xiangxia has changed his chess style in the past, and his level has risen sharply, and he soon surpassed Cheng and Liang. to the point of keeping pace with Fan Xiping.

"Xiaoqiang, do you believe in this kind of epiphany story?"

"No, I don't believe it, I never thought Go could have an epiphany!" Li Xiaoqiang said categorically:

"Shi's predecessor's chess skills can still improve, it is definitely the product of his accumulation, and it is impossible to rely on any epiphany."

Mr. Wu Qingyuan smiled at Li Xiaoqiang with satisfaction:

"Yes, I don't believe it either, but you have a very clear mind. But you know what......"

When he said this, Mr. Wu stared at Li Xiaoqiang with bright eyes:

"But you know what? The problem you encounter now is actually the same as the problem of Shi Qisheng back then......" (to be continued......