After the top 4 players of the 3rd "Tianyuan Competition" were newly released, the competition for the "right to challenge" has also entered a white-hot stage. Although the most competitive Nie Whirlwind in China has been eliminated, such a list of the top 4 is still more eye-catching. Especially according to the semi-final matchups, there is a lot of room for hype in the news media.

For example, the game of Ma Xiaofei VS Qian Yuping was called the "double wall" dispute of Chinese Go by the news media.

For a long time in the 80s, Ma Xiaofei was considered the most talented young chess player in China. His chess is light and elegant, and he is extremely full of aura. To put it simply, it is a "spirit" word, which exhausts Ma Xiaofei's characteristics.

To be honest, for Ma Xiaofei's natural resources, for his talent. Even his teammates are "envious, jealous and hateful".

Nicknames such as "Monster" and "Horse Demon" are generally only circulated in the circle. Because after losing to Ma Xiaofei, most chess players could only shake their heads helplessly and smile bitterly, and then silently said a sentence in their mouths:

"You youkai ......"

Of course, after Li Xiaoqiang was "born". The nickname "monster" has a tendency to gradually shift to Li Xiaoqiang's head. There are also chess players such as Liu Dazhui who have "long-standing grievances" with Ma Xiaofei. When they were arguing with Ma Xiaofei, they often talked about Li Xiaoqiang and used it to "hit" Ma Xiaofei.

"Alas, I didn't hold you this monster this time, it's really unreasonable...... I said Ma Xiao, I just can't get used to your appearance, I'm surprised, just your little witchcraft, I don't know what to be proud of. With your little skills, can you compare with other Xiaoqiang? No matter how much you toss, it can only be a little monster, look at other people's Xiaoqiang, people's that. is the real demon king......"

In the national Go team, there are a total of two "yokai". Interestingly, Ma Xiaofei, who is stronger and older, is called "Little Demon". And Li Xiaoqiang, who is younger and has a lower level, is called the "Little Demon King". Assuming that Liu Dazhui is the only one who calls it that, forget it. However, his method of differentiation has really been recognized by other chess players. It is said that even Ma Xiaofei himself once admitted in private:

"Xiaoqiang's chess, that's the real "demon" ......"

When Zhang Zhidong first heard about this. It is said that he gossiped to find Nie Whirlwind, who was the head coach of the Go team at the time. Let him evaluate the two "monsters" under his command:

"As long as you fight with Ma Xiao, you can feel his talent coming to your face, his aura...... Hehe, that is, what you call "demonic energy" is everywhere, filling the entire chessboard. In particular, his small kung fu of tossing and turning fully demonstrates his Go talent. ”

"What about Xiaoqiang?"

"Xiaoqiang's demonic spirit is different from Ma Xiao. As I said just now, Ma Xiao's talent is embodied in his small kung fu. Occupy a "small" word. This is why everyone calls him "Little Demon". And Xiaoqiang's characteristics are completely different...... Well, I understand it this way, the reason why everyone calls him "Demon King" is probably because of his demonic spirit. Occupy a "big" word. ”

"Oh? Can you elaborate on that? ”

"As you know, Xiaoqiang's chess style is very unique, and he often has a lot of wonderful ideas. The Japanese call him "Wizard", and domestic chess players call him "Yokai". This characteristic of him is roughly explained. But if you look closely, you can see that Xiaoqiang's chess. Most of them are still decent. At least judging from the superficial moves, he is not as talented as Ma Xiaofei. But if you savor his whimsy. You can find that many of his plays, both in terms of thinking methods and from the concept of Go that he adheres to. It's different from us normal people......"

"Haha, can you think of it like this: whenever Xiaoqiang makes an unexpected good move, he often releases a "big move" ......"

"Yes, yes, yes, it's the word "big move", and I think it's very vivid. As you know, when we carefully dissect Xiaoqiang's "big moves", we can clearly feel that his Go concept is so different, and the thinking method he uses is not the same as ours. Let's put it this way, looking at his chess, it seems that we faintly see another kind of Go. Some of his ideas seem to have opened another door for us. You can imagine that for those of us in the know, the shock is conceivable. Haha, it is because of Xiaoqiang's "demon", which is a real ideological and subversive "big demon", that everyone calls him the "demon king". You also know that in our Go team, Ma Xiao can be regarded as an arrogant person, right? But for this, his heart is still convinced. So he will also admit that Xiaoqiang is more "demonic" than him. ”

Compared with Ma Xiaofei, who is overflowing with talent, Qian Yuping seems to be a little overshadowed. Of course, this is just the perception of the outside world. In the Go world, no one dares to underestimate Qian Yuping. There are many insiders who even think. In the hands of Ma Xiaofei and his generation of Go countries, only Qian Yuping's Go talent can compete with Ma Xiaofei. Therefore, the two chess players are also pinned on high hopes by the Chinese Go community. They are known as the youth "double walls" of Chinese Go. After Nie Whirlwind, he is the most powerful contender for the "new generation of leaders" of Chinese Go.

Throughout the 80s, because Ma Xiaofei was a few years older than Qian Yuping. Therefore, Qian Yuping has always played the role of a "catch-up". And Ma Xiaofei has always been firmly in the second place in China. In Ma Xiaofei's eyes, it is estimated that he has only been staring at Nie Whirlwind, right? But in the last 1 or 2 years, especially since last year, the situation seems to be a little different: the person who is often compared to himself seems to have really caught up!

Regarding Qian Yuping's growth rate, even Li Xiaoqiang, who is "familiar with history", feels a little strange. In real history, Qian Yuping did not win his "explosive period" until 91. He should have entered the fast lane of his own growth after 90. Throughout the 80s, Qian Yuping's chess strength was still one line worse than Ma Xiaofei and Liu Dazhui.

may be due to his own reasons, Li Xiaoqiang suddenly found that due to the incurrence of his "little butterfly", the person who was most affected by himself seemed to be Qian Yuping. His current strength and level. really threatened Ma Xiaofei's position.

Especially since the second half of last year, according to the statistics of interested people, Qian Yuping and Ma Xiaofei have played 5 times in domestic competitions such as the "Top Ten Battle" and the "New Sports Cup", and Qian Yuping has an absolute advantage with a score of 4 to 1. When Li Xiaoqiang plays these chess games, he often has an illusion, as if he sees the shadow of Ma Xiaofei at his peak 7 or 8 years later, fighting Li Shifo in the international arena. Of course, they are far from mature now. None of them have yet reached the realm of "super first-class". What Li Xiaoqiang sees now is also a weakened version of "Ma Li Fighting".

Qian Yuping is nicknamed "Blunt Knife", and the path he takes is actually the same as Kobayashi Koji and Li Shifo. It is an extremely advanced "control flow". The move is heavy and slow, but it doesn't make it easy to catch a flaw. Once they are left ahead, all that is left for others is despair......

Go is such a strange, talented-looking Ma Xiaofei. Ma Xiaofei, who looks extremely chic. His real rival is really such a "wooden type" chess player. Whether it is the domestic "blunt knife", or the Japanese "subway stream", until the later Li Shifo. All of them have brought a lot of trouble to Ma Xiaofei.

It seems to be the same in today's semi-final. Ma Xiaofei flew up and down with a "demon knife", but he still couldn't help his opponent for half a point. When the chess reached the middle game, Qian Yuping grabbed a small flaw in the opponent and hit it successfully. Then he relied on his own kung fu of "controlling the flow" and never gave his opponent any chance again. So. Qian Yuping defeated Ma Xiaofei and successfully won a place in the finals.

The battle for the "double wall" ended with the victory of Qian Yuping. The match between Li Xiaoqiang and Jiang Zhujiu was crowned by the media as the title of "The Battle of Old and New Heroes in the Ring Competition".

Truly. Both of these players have performed well in the Sino-Japanese Go tournament. They can be known and loved by the majority of chess fans, and they have a lot to do with the ring match. Both of them became famous. Especially Li Xiaoqiang, his current popularity in China will definitely not be inferior to Nie Whirlwind.

For example, in the new year's "Top 10 Battle", the voting session of chess fans has ended. Li Xiaoqiang was once again elected as the "top ten" of Chinese Go with a high vote, and his ranking was even in the top 5. This ranking doesn't really tell the story yet. According to a "reliable source": If you talk about the votes alone, the votes obtained by Li Xiaoqiang are almost the same as those of Nie Whirlwind, and even exceed the votes obtained by Ma Xiaofei. Leave others even more far behind.

The reason why the number of votes is large and the ranking is lower is because the method of calculating the ranking is different. For example, when a chess fan gets a vote, he needs to pick out what he thinks is the "top ten". In this process, in addition to choosing chess players, he cannot fill in the ballots. For example, if he ranks Nie Whirlwind in No. 1 place, then Nie Whirlwind will get 10 points in this ballot and 9 points in No. 2 ranking...... By analogy, if the player is ranked 10th, he will get 1 point. When the ranking is calculated at the end, the ranking is based on the last score.

It is for this reason that when a chess fan gets 1 vote. Since everyone likes Li Xiaoqiang, who has a particularly good score against Japan, his name will definitely not be omitted from this ballot. But what about specific rankings? Most chess fans are still very rational, they don't think that Li Xiaoqiang's level has surpassed Ma Liu Cao Qian and them, they will put Li Xiaoqiang in a position they think is appropriate. In this way, in terms of the total number of votes, Li Xiaoqiang can compete with Nie Whirlwind. With the final score to determine the ranking, Li Xiaoqiang will fall back to a fairly reasonable position.

The match between Li Xiaoqiang and Jiang Zhujiu did attract many people to stop and watch the game. If you compare the "popularity" alone, you can indeed break out of the other semi-finals on a few streets. Of course, this also has to do with the content of the game. Ma Xiaofei's competition, the two of them are completely competing for skills there. On the surface, it looks plain and bland, but if you don't taste it, you will indeed be drowsy to watch.

And Li Xiaoqiang, their game of chess is different. "Play quality" or whatever, leave it alone. At least the content is very popular and very enjoyable to watch.

Jiang Zhujiu's chess style is characterized by being very good at hand-to-hand combat. In addition, he also has a characteristic, that is, he likes to "rush to attack" very much, and likes "you hit yours, I hit mine". Now it's okay, Li Xiaoqiang also happens to like this tone very much. Because in the past three years, most of the chess players he has met are more skilled than himself. In this way, in many cases, "taking the initiative" has become Li Xiaoqiang's more choice. To put it bluntly, isn't the so-called "taking the initiative" in Go just insisting on the idea of "you hit yours, I hit mine"?

Both players like to play this kind of chess, so the scene can't be hot. Such a game also made the surrounding chess players very enjoyable.

In this game, in the end, Li Xiaoqiang won the victory.

The game was played shortly after the start, probably because Jiang Zhujiu was on the rise, and he had two moves that were a little too much. was attacked by Li Xiaoqiang after seizing the opportunity. In the middle of the game, Li Xiaoqiang established a certain advantage. Waiting for Jiang Zhujiu to display his unique mastery and prepare to entangle with Li Xiaoqiang. Li Xiaoqiang was also ruthless and did not let his opponent succeed in "disrupting the situation".

"Our generation of chess players has been growing up in "spoiling the game" since childhood. From the beginning of our journey to Go, we need to constantly "disrupt the game" when we play against those famous masters. That's why when these younger players come to mess with our game, we're not afraid to ......."

When Li Xiaoqiang won this game of chess, he suddenly remembered another "Xiaoqiang" sentence. This sentence was said by the junior chess player Chen Yaoye. This is what he said after achieving the "Tian Yuan" six consecutive hegemony. By that time, Chen Xiaoqiang, who was in his 20s, had already begun to accept the challenge of younger players.

It was at this moment that Li Xiaoqiang suddenly felt that although he was facing a different opponent. But at least at this moment, his state of mind is the same as that of another "Xiaoqiang".

When Li Xiaoqiang won this game of chess, everything looked so good. He just won the title of "celebrity", and once again entered the final of the "Tianyuan War". As long as he wins one more game, he will be able to enter the stage of the "Challenge" again.

In the face of such a result, reporter Zhang Da also seemed extremely excited. He has even begun to look forward to Li Xiaoqiang and Liu Dazhui once again having a five-game chess match.

No, these two players have just played a five-way game. If Li Xiaoqiang wins the right to challenge, won't there be another five-game chess? So add up the two pentagrams......

Reporter Zhang Da even thought of the title: XX VS XX Ten Chess Battle......

Li Xiaoqiang looked at Qian Yuping not far away:

"Can I pass him this level......" (To be continued......