"That's how you want to be number one?" Li Xiaoqiang asked his uncle with a smile.

"It's not that I want to be, it's mainly that Lao Chen and they have come to me again, and the conditions offered over there are a bit too harsh. No, they asked me what I meant, didn't I come to the capital this time to ask for your opinion? ”

Hu Yi's short sentence allowed Li Xiaoqiang to roughly figure out the ins and outs of the matter.

To this day, it is understandable that the Chinese Go management, including Chen Chaoyue, is eager to hold a world championship of their own. And what Hu Yi said "their conditions are too harsh", Li Xiaoqiang estimates that it is the so-called "Qiu Ju clause". It is easy to imagine that when Chen Chaoyue and them saw this "Qiu Ju Clause", they must have been dissatisfied in their hearts.

You must know that the present is not as good as the previous life, and the reason why the Chinese Chess Association agreed to the "Qiu Ju Clause" in real history is that Chinese Go was at a low point at that time, and second, the Chess Association had no other choice at that time.

But the current situation is very different from the previous life. Not only did China's Go not fall into a trough, but it also showed a prosperous scene, at least in the competition between China, Japan and South Korea, China has been faintly ahead in terms of results. In addition, the Chinese Chess Association is not without other options, and there is Hu Yi, a big donor, here.

The idea of "Uncle's Cup" has been proposed for several years, although everyone is only talking about this idea in private and has never been put on the table, but Hu Yi is now half of the Go circle.

He is not only Li Xiaoqiang's uncle, one of the main sponsors of the Ganyuan Go team, but even the name of his company is "Tianyuan Group", which is inextricably linked with Go.

Therefore, "Mr. Hu intends to hold a World Go Championship", Chen Chaoyue and they have actually heard about it for a long time, so in this case, it is normal for the management of the Chess Association to spy on Hu Yi's meaning at this time.

"I still have that opinion, either don't do it, or do it if you want to do it, it's best to do it. Uncle, what do you think? ”

"My opinion is still done, as soon as Lao Chen and they have already opened their mouths to me, if I push the three committees and four more, others will mistakenly think that I will only release empty cannons. Second, it's also because of you, the competition held by my uncle, of course, I hope that you will win the championship, if it is postponed for a few years......"

Li Xiaoqiang smiled: "You have no confidence in me so much?" Delay it for a few years and you think I can't win the championship? Then let me ask you again, if you want to do it, what specifications are you going to do? Are you ready for everything? ”

At this time, Hu Yi's local tyrant essence was revealed, and he put on a posture of "not bad money":

"Of course I'm ready, don't worry, uncle, I'm now fully capable of running a top-notch tournament, a top-level tournament that surpasses all current Go events. At present, among all the tournaments, the highest prize money should be Japan's "Big Triple Crown" and "Ying Cup", and other competitions are a little worse, and some world tournaments are not because of the lack of prize money that causes Japanese players to be reluctant to participate? Then I'm going to make the championship prize money more than the sum of Japan's "big three crowns", and winning one tournament is equivalent to winning three tournaments, so they don't have so many excuses. ”

Li Xiaoqiang smiled slightly:

"Sure enough, it's enough to be a local tyrant, I know you have no problem with your economic strength now. So let me ask you again, are you ready for everything but the economic aspect? In addition to the fact that the prize money of this competition is higher than others, what are your characteristics? Aside from money, what is the difference between your tournament and other World Series? ”

This question stopped Hu Yi:

"What else is needed? By the way, Xiaoqiang, do you have any other ideas? ”

Li Xiaoqiang didn't answer immediately: "Let's go." ”

"Where to go?"

Li Xiaoqiang said with a smile: "Of course I went to see Lao Chen and them, since they invited you to come, you must always give someone an official answer, and my thoughts happened to be said in front of everyone." In addition......" Li Xiaoqiang joked with his uncle: "...... It's not easy for Mr. Hu to come to the capital once now, and since he is here this time, let's have a little blood. ”

Next, Li Xiaoqiang accompanied his uncle to meet the management of the Chess Association, and Li Xiaoqiang also expressed his thoughts in front of everyone. Speaking of Li Xiaoqiang's idea, it is not new, and its core content is to establish a world ranking system for professional chess players.

Speaking of which, Go is different from many other competitive sports, there has never been a unified and powerful international organization, and the three Go powerhouses of China, Japan and South Korea, and even the Go associations of other countries and regions have the flavor of "doing their own thing". This is actually detrimental to the development and promotion of Go. People of insight in the chess world also see this issue very clearly.

For example, for this reason, there has been no unified Go rules in the world chess world, and all the current Go competitions known as the "World Series" are actually not world competitions in the true sense. It's like an "invitational tournament" held by a certain country. Whoever holds the competition can give himself a few more places, although this is understandable, but it always gives people a feeling of informality.

In the case of tennis, for example, although there are cases where the host country players are taken care of in the major Grand Slam tournaments, most of them are low-ranked players, and it is hard to imagine that in order for a low-ranked host player to play, he can replace the top 10 players in the world.

This kind of problem does not exist in the tennis world, so why has it become the norm in the Go world? The crux of the matter is that there has never been a formal and authoritative world ranking system for professional players in the professional Go world.

"Xiaoqiang, your idea is good, but it seems a bit inappropriate for our Chinese Go Association to dominate the world chess player ranking system, right?" Chen Chaoyue said to Li Xiaoqiang with a smile.

"I know it's not appropriate, so I didn't say that I wanted to use the name of the Chinese Chess Association, I suggested using the name of another organization, or even the name of a private person, which would be better."

Li Xiaoqiang knew that what Chen Chaoyue said was the truth. Speaking of people, people who play Go are really different from people in other competitive sports, most people in the Go world are humble gentlemen, at least there are not so many ideas of "fighting for power and profit" in the Go world. Japanese professional Go has the longest and most standardized history, and they didn't think about what they were fighting for in the past, and there was a time in real history when Korean Go was the strongest, and they didn't think about what they were fighting for in the past.

But human nature is like this, I don't want to fight, it doesn't mean I'm happy to see you fight for this dominance. Li Xiaoqiang understands Chen Chaoyue's concerns, in real history, why is the "World Go Federation" so weak and powerless, and it has just become a place for everyone to quarrel, this is the main reason.

"In the name of a private person? Xiaoqiang, do you think it's appropriate to do this? ”

"I think it should be fine......" Li Xiaoqiang smiled confidently at this: "...... To make a world ranking list, the most important thing is not to see who will do it, but that the ranking must be reasonable, as long as the ranking you make can make people feel that it is in line with the facts, and can convince everyone, so over time, under the subtlety, everyone will get used to quoting your ranking, and when everyone cites more, the authority of your ranking will be reflected. ”

Li Xiaoqiang's statement is not untargeted, the first ranking of world professional chess players in real history is probably when he was reborn, that is, a Korean doctor did it privately. Although in Li Xiaoqiang's view, there are still many irrationalities in that list, because it is the first world chess player ranking system in the professional Go world, it is quoted a lot.

What Li Xiaoqiang wants to do now is to ask his uncle to establish a ranking system for world professional chess players in the name of his company. Of course, this ranking system is not so easy to establish, and like China's rating system, the most important thing is the issue of event classification.

Of course, doing a world ranking is much more complicated than doing a domestic rating system, and the former needs to take into account all the professional competitions in the world. As a simple example, if you want to determine Mr. Cho's current world ranking, you can't just look at his results in international competitions, right? If you want your list to be authoritative, you have to take into account his domestic results. If this is the case, then another question arises, the same is to win a game of chess, so Mr. Zhao Zhixun won a game in Japan's "celebrity battle", and Li Xiaoqiang won a game in China's "celebrity battle", how to consider this weight? This involves event classification, and it is difficult to classify this event.

For example, at this time, if you see the Chinese "celebrity war" as as important as the Japanese "celebrity war", then the Japanese may not be convinced. But what about another 10 years? If you see these two competitions as equally important, those who are not convinced will become Chinese

Therefore, in the meantime, it is necessary to build a large database, and a reasonable mathematical model needs to be established. It takes time and money to do these things, and Li Xiaoqiang said earlier that Hu Yi "bleeds" is what he meant.

Funded by Hu Yi, he first helped the Chinese Chess Academy to establish a database, and then gradually improved the database of all professional chess players in the world, and on this basis, a ranking list of world professional chess players was introduced, and then a high-standard world championship was launched in the name of the "World Go Federation", a world championship that everyone could not refuse, and a world championship that was enough to change the overall pattern of the world chess world. This is all Li Xiaoqiang's idea.

"Good! Xiaoqiang is a good idea, I fully support ......"

From Chen Chaoyue to Nie Whirlwind, from Wang Lunan to Hua Leader, everyone expressed their support after listening to Li Xiaoqiang's idea.

Of course, there is no reason not to support it, because the benefits of this are obvious. Because if this idea becomes a reality, then the status of the "World Go Federation" will definitely be greatly improved, and Chinese is the big funder behind this organization......

This is, of course, something that all Chinese are happy to see.

"Now it's up to Mr. Hu, everyone hopes to see the "Uncle Cup" as soon as possible. Team Leader Hua and Hu Yi made a joke.

"Then what else is there to say, I'll start acting right away. Three years ......" Hu Yi raised three fingers: "...... I'm going to do this competition in three years. It's just a matter of "Qiu Ju Cup......"

"Then the "Qiu Ju Cup" should be done first...... Chen Chaoyue laughed, and at the same time, his face was full of longing: "...... If this envisaged competition can be held, then not to mention the "Qiu Ju Cup", all the world competitions in the world will become satellites of your competition......"

The matter of the "Uncle Cup" was solved in this way, and then Li Xiaoqiang refocused on the current World Championship competition.

In October 1998, Li Xiaoqiang needed to participate in the semifinals of the "Samsung Cup" and the top 8 of the "LG Cup" at the same time. As it happens, Li Xiaoqiang's opponent in both matches is South Korean player Yoo Chang-hyuk.

The former is a three-way move, and the latter is a single-game tiebreaker. The former starts in early October, and the latter starts in late October.

"Hey, Yoo Chang-hyuk......"

Li Xiaoqiang once again embarked on the journey of the World Series. (To be continued.) )