"When are you going back to school?"

"It's about a week, and we're going to be back to school by the 10th."

"Well, I'm just going to finish the game at that time, and I'll send you off then."

"After this game, you're going to Shencheng right away, right?"

"Hmm."

Although Lin Mengyu is not a person in the Go circle, she is quite clear about Li Xiaoqiang's schedule. After entering September, Li Xiaoqiang's schedule began to be dense again. In addition to the current Group B team competition, in the middle of the year, Li Xiaoqiang still has 2 sets of "celebrity battle" round-robin matches to play. In the second half of the year, it will be the 6th "Toyo Securities Cup".

At present, this year's "Celebrity Battle" round-robin competition has entered the final stage, and Li Xiaoqiang's record so far is good, and he and Yu Bin are temporarily tied for No. 1 with a record of 4 wins and 1 loss. It was the last 2 sets played in Shencheng. If Li Xiaoqiang can win it smoothly, especially if there is a game against Yu Bin. If this hedge can be won smoothly, then Li Xiaoqiang will challenge Ma Xiaofei for 3 consecutive years.

"Be careful, and I'm beaten all over the ground by Ma Xiaofei." Lin Mengyu looked at Li Xiaoqiang with a smile.

"Nonsense, in fact, Ma Xiao and I didn't lag behind much in the overall record against each other. Just ......"

Facing Lin Mengyu's ridicule, Li Xiaoqiang could only shake his head and smile bitterly. Li Xiaoqiang has a good habit, he will personally record the chess he has played. According to his own statistics, if you look at the total score, he is not much behind Ma Xiaofei at the moment. Just what? It's just that in some relatively important games, especially the duel between the two chess matches, Li Xiaoqiang is a lot behind.

In retrospect, the first professional chess battle Li Xiaoqiang participated in was the first Chinese Go "Tianyuan Tournament". Since that match, the two have a record of playing chess matches. At that time, Li Xiaoqiang lost to Ma Xiaofei with a score of 1-2 in the semifinals and failed to reach the final. Over the years, the two have played chess 7 or 8 times. Except for Li Xiaoqiang, who won 2 times in a "Tianyuan War" and a "National Hand War", he lost all other chess matches.

Major competitions always leave a deeper impression on everyone. Although Li Xiaoqiang actually won a lot against Ma Xiaofei in other competitions. But it still leaves everyone with the impression that although it is not yet a "bitter hand". But now Li Xiaoqiang seems to be unable to get off Ma Xiaofei.

"Is Ma Xiaofei really that powerful?"

"Yes, he's very powerful, at least in my opinion, he's much more difficult to deal with than the Japanese Super Six right now."

"Oh?"

After all, Lin Mengyu is only at a low K level, and if it weren't for Li Xiaoqiang, she might not have learned Go at all. Therefore, Li Xiaoqiang is reluctant to talk to her in depth in his professional field. Seeing that it was getting late, Yan Qing and their guidance chess were also finished. Li Xiaoqiang sent them back and met again in the capital.

After a one-day break, Li Xiaoqiang once again focused on the current game. At the end of the 4 rounds, although the Ganyuan team temporarily ranked 1st in points, the lead was not big. So it's not time to take it lightly.

At present, the specific record of the Ganyuan team is as follows: Li Xiaoqiang has 4 wins and 0 losses, Qian Yuping has 3 wins and 1 loss, and the other 2 chess players are 2 wins and 2 losses. In the first 4 rounds, the Ganyuan team lost a total of 5 games. To be honest, losing this long set can still rank 1, it can only be attributed to luck. Because in the first 4 rounds, 3 times it was 3 to 1 and once it was 2 to 2, for the team competition. 4 to 0 and 3 to 1 are the same. If the defeat of the Ganyuan team is not so evenly distributed, it is likely not to be this ranking.

For example, the current host Jinling team, their whole team has only lost a total of 3 games, including 2 4-0 wins. There are also 3-1 and 2-2, which can be said to be a strong team, but they can only helplessly fall behind the Ganyuan team at present.

Because their 2-2 game happened to be a hedge with the Ganyuan team. The Ganyuan team scored 2 points with Li Xiaoqiang's "home win". The Jinling team only got 1 point. Because of this one-point difference, they can only settle for second place at the moment.

In addition to the Jinling team, there are several strong teams that are holding on to the score. So it's not time to relax at all. And Li Xiaoqiang found out. In a team event like this, in a way, it's more tiring than an individual event.

In the next individual competition, if you lose, it's a personal matter. In the team competition, if you lose, you are likely to hurt your teammates. With such extra pressure, this chess game is not so easy.

Fortunately, everything went smoothly in the next situation, and the game went on for 2 rounds, and the Ganyuan team once again won a "straight win" and a "home win".

"Master, in this last round of the competition, let's switch positions. You will be the leader of our team, do you think this is good? ”

Before the final round of matches, in fact, the Ganyuan team was not guaranteed to be promoted to the first division. However, the situation is clearer by this time. As long as the Ganyuan team can get 1 point, they will at least be able to ensure that they will advance with a second place result.

In this way, for the Ganyuan team, it doesn't matter whether there is a "home win" or not. Li Xiaoqiang served as the "iron master" for 6 rounds, and in fact, several games were played against the opponent's weakest chess player. Therefore, the Ganyuan team also wanted to hit others by surprise in the last round.

Push Qian Yuping to the position of the main general, if the opponent still dares to put the weakest one in this position, then with Qian Yuping's profound skills, his certainty of victory is still quite large. plus Li Xiaoqiang's fixed scoring point. This is the safest way for the Ganyuan team to advance.

"Okay, no problem."

Qian Yuping had no objection to Li Xiaoqiang's arrangement. In fact, he is a very simple person, as long as he has a chess game, he is happy. After coming to the Ganyuan team, Qian Yuping was indeed a lot more cheerful. Think about it, even Li Xiaoqiang has to call him "master", so Qian Yuping will naturally be able to gain more respect here.

Li Xiaoqiang brought Qian Yuping to the Ganyuan team, in fact, there is also this kind of thought. In any case, Qian Yuping's talent for Go is undoubted, and his genius will not be inferior to Ma Xiaofei. What's more, his basic skills are solid, even if he can't play in the future, it will be helpful for the training of young chess players.

In the final round of the Group B team competition, Li Xiaoqiang participated in a rapid chess match, and when he won his opponent early, he began to wander around the arena, especially after seeing the situation of several teammates, Li Xiaoqiang smiled. Although the situation of the other two games is still unclear. But at least Qian Yuping's advantage in this game is very obvious, and he has already won the game.

This actually means that Li Xiaoqiang can appear in next year's "Weijia" arena.

In these years, many chess players, especially the top ones, do not pay much attention to the Go League. For example, Nie Whirlwind once said that the role of the league is mainly to provide more opportunities for some "backbone chess players" to play games, and for top chess players, the role of the league is actually not much. Nie Whirlwind is right, for example, like Li Xiaoqiang at present, he participates in a league. It's certainly not as useful as playing a one-set title fight. And from an eye-catching point of view, the league games don't appeal to chess fans very much, let alone compared to the World Series, even compared to the title match.

But Li Xiaoqiang still attaches great importance to the league for no other reason, because the league is the cornerstone of the development of professional Go. Especially in later generations, it is not an exaggeration to say that China's Weijia League is the most important event in the world.

In the round-robin competition between Japan's "Celebrity Battle" and "Honinbo Battle" for the right to challenge, there is a saying of "golden spot". Whoever can break into these two loops is like sitting on a "golden chair". Later generations have a point of view: that China's Weijia League. It is the real "golden chair".

Li Xiaoqiang believes that this statement is still very reasonable.

There are about 10 to 12 teams in China's Weijia League, and each team has about 4 to 5 players. In this way, the number of chess players who can participate in the tournament every year. At most, there are about 60 people. To put it bluntly, the biggest role of the Weijia League is actually to provide these 60 chess players with a relatively stable job.

Don't underestimate this number. You know, Japan's professional Go system is perfect enough. There seem to be a lot of Go tournaments in their country, but even in the heyday of Go in Japan. There are only about 20 chess players who can live well on the prize money of the tournament. And what about the other players. Either teach chess or take a temporary position in some large enterprises, this is their way of survival.

As for South Korea, the survival situation of Korean professional chess players seems to be even worse. There was a report in later generations that it was said that the annual income of the 10th chess player in the prize list of Korean professional chess players in a certain year was comparable to the average annual salary of some large Korean companies.

Of course, Li Xiaoqiang doesn't know much about the real situation. I don't know if the statistics of Koreans are "averaged" like some practices in China. But if this situation in South Korea is true, it means that the living conditions of their Go world are actually very bad.

If you think about it, if you can rank 10th in the Korean chess world, then the most conservative estimate is that this player can be ranked in the top 100 in the world, which should not be a problem, right?

If he can rank in the top 100 in the world, his income can only reach the average income of others. So if this continues, how many people are still willing to take the path of professional Go?

Therefore, the fact that China's Weijia League can provide a stable job for 60 players is actually a remarkable achievement. In terms of income, the situation in China seems to be much better than that in South Korea. In later generations, the chess players who can play in the Chinese Weijia will have at least much better income than ordinary white-collar workers.

Li Xiaoqiang knows the situation of the future generations, so he attaches more importance to this Go league than ordinary people. Playing in the league may not help you much to improve your level, but it is essential to maintain your form. For example, in later generations, whether or not you can participate in the Weijia League has even become a symbol to measure whether a chess player is considered a "first-line chess player". For example, like Xiao Gu and Xiao Dang in Sichuan Province, because they can't participate in the armor stably, their usual competitive state is not guaranteed at all, let alone how much they can grow.

It is with these thoughts that Li Xiaoqiang attaches so much importance to this Group B team competition. So far, the results are not bad. By next year, Li Xiaoqiang will be able to sit on a "golden chair" in China.

Of course, for a chess player of Li Xiaoqiang's level, the Go League is definitely not his main battlefield. After the game here, Li Xiaoqiang rushed to Shencheng non-stop to participate in the last two rounds of China's "celebrity battle". In the final round of the round-robin, Li Xiaoqiang defeated Yu Bin, and he was once again qualified to challenge Ma Xiaofei.

Interestingly, almost at the same time, in the domestic "National Hand War", Ma Xiaofei defeated Liu Dazhui and won the right to challenge the "National Hand War".

A new round of the "Lima Juban War" is brewing.

Who is the real king of Chinese chess? Many people were excited and ready to watch.

Of course, the big battle won't start until next month.

In late September, Li Xiaoqiang and Ma Xiaofei teamed up to travel to Seoul, South Korea, along with several other Chinese players. They will represent China and fight to defend the honor of Chinese Go. (To be continued......)