In April 1995, the season when cherry blossoms in Japan was in full bloom, the "Fujitsu Cup" World Professional Go Championship opened in Tokyo.

As the defending champion, Li Xiaoqiang does not have to participate in the first round of the competition. However, in the last competition, only Li Xiaoqiang, one Chinese chess player, entered the strong. According to the rules of the "Fujitsu Cup", the Chinese team only has Li Xiaoqiang, the seed player, and other Chinese chess players have to start from the first round of the competition.

On the first weekend of April, the first round of the "Fujitsu Cup" started. On the day of the game, Li Xiaoqiang came to the first round of the World Championships in the year early. The strength and weakness are often clear. From the perspective of Go technology, there are actually not many real highlights. Some people even say that it is better to watch the research in the laboratory than watching chess players' games. This is a bit reasonable.

"I'm talking about you two, why do you feel a little respectful to each other?"

After hearing what Zhang Da reporter said, Li Xiaoqiang rolled his eyes:

"Quality, pay attention to your quality. I said to reporter Zhang Da, you are a famous reporter now. Is your Chinese taught by a physical education teacher? What kind of messy descriptions are you... "

"Hehe, of course I know that it's a bit inappropriate, but for a moment I... I really can't find a better adjective."

Li Xiaoqiang looked at Mei Ze Yukari beside him and did not continue to speak. Mei Ze Yukari looked calm on the surface and had no reaction. Although Mei Ze had studied in China, he had a profound Chinese language, and Li Xiaoqiang didn't know if she understood it.

Although the Chinese team only has Li Xiaoqiang, a seed player. However, he has never been afraid of loneliness when he appears in the viewing room. As long as Li Xiaoqiang goes abroad to compete, especially in Japan, then Zhang Da reporter on the left and Yukari Meize on the right, these two people will definitely be with Li Xiaoqiang. This situation has been many years. It seems to be like a fixed pattern in Go, and everyone can often see this scene.

Of course, this is also the main reason why the scandal between Li Xiaoqiang and Meize Yukari has spread all over the world.

But how do you get along with Yukari Umezawa now?

To be honest, Li Xiaoqiang really doesn’t know how to get along with him now.

A few years ago, because Meize Yukari was named "the number one beauty in the Go world". Li Xiaoqiang even hugged the mentality of "feeling beauty" and dated Meize Yukari. So Li Xiaoqiang joked in front of Meize Yukari, and he could say all kinds of outrageous words.

But now? Mei Ze’s feelings for him. Li Xiaoqiang is not unaware of it. It is precisely because of this that Li Xiaoqiang doesn’t know how to get along with Mei Ze. Li Xiaoqiang cannot accept such an emotion openly, but he doesn’t know how to refuse it.

Finally, not long ago, Li Xiaoqiang thought of a way, and he sent a photo of himself and Lin Mengyu to Yukari to express his feelings. This time he came to Japan to participate in the competition, Li Xiaoqiang was a little confused. Is it good to treat Mei Ze like this? Or is it bad? Or... Is Mei Ze coming back to visit me this time? Is she meeting me? Or not? Or...

Li Xiaoqiang admitted that when he saw Mei Ze yesterday, he did have a little surprise and a little vanity. But the fundamental problem was not solved. On the surface, it was impossible to see what Mei Ze Yukari was like. She was like a very competent full-time translator. As long as she appeared in public, she would be with her side with all her heart and responsibilities. But the more Mei Ze was like this, the less Li Xiaoqiang dared to act rashly. His usual mouth was gone, and he was quite polite when he talked to Mei Ze.

Others may not be able to see this situation, but they cannot hide it from reporter Zhang Da. As he described it: respect each other as guests.

This time, maybe the wording is inappropriate, but I really can't find a better description for a while.

Perhaps it was because he couldn't find a better way to get along with Yukari Mei Ze. Li Xiaoqiang had to divert his attention. He focused more energy on chess. In today's viewing room, Li Xiaoqiang acted quite active.

In today's first round of the "Fujitsu Cup", the most eye-catching game of Chang Rensheng vs. Ida Kiki. This may be the most even game in the first round. In addition to this game, Choi Mingxun, the leader of the "Four Little Kings", the game against Liu Dahui, China, was also more popular. Today, the chess players and reporters who came to the viewing room focused most of their attention on these two games.

New chess players such as Chang Rensheng and Choi Mingxun began to appear in the World Championships, which should be considered a new atmosphere for this year's "Fujitsu Cup".

In the past one or two years, the name of "Four Little Kings" in South Korea has been popular in their country, but these chess players are not well-known in the international chess world. This time, Choi Mingxun, like Chang Rensheng, also made his first appearance in the World Championship through domestic qualifiers. Whether these young chess players in South Korea can grow into real "kings of the world" or become a tragedy like their predecessors "challenging the top five" is still to be reviewed. The stage of the world competition is undoubtedly the best touchstone, so Choi Mingxun's performance this time is quite eye-catching.

Of course, when it comes to attention, Choi Mingxun's set is still not as good as Chang Rensheng's set. The situation in South Korea is not clear. Chang Rensheng is actually very famous in Japan. Putting aside the 6 consecutive wins in the ring competition a while ago, let alone. In fact, Chang Rensheng became famous very early, even earlier than Li Xiaoqiang. As early as when he was 6 years old, his photos were published in the Japanese "chess road" magazine, and there was also a narration by the old charlatan Hideyuki Fujisawa that year:

"Please remember this name..."

Unfortunately, over the years, all the limelight has been stolen by Li Xiaoqiang alone. The statue of Chang Ren is completely living in the shadow of Li Xiaoqiang. It was not until he achieved an excellent record of 6 consecutive victories in this Chinese-Japanese Go competition that everyone seemed to remember that in addition to Li Xiaoqiang, there was such a "child prodigy" in the Chinese chess world in the early years.

Now that the "child prodigy" has finally grown up, he has begun to make his mark in the world chess world. Especially, Chang Rensheng, as the most outstanding disciple under Nie Xuanfeng, this year is Nie Xuanfeng's first time missing the World Competition, while Chang Rensheng is the first time to participate in the competition. The meaning of the alternation of the old and new is strong.

How to say it? Chang Rensheng is like a disciple from the "Zhengmen Authentic Sect" in martial arts novels. He is a famous family. His talent and ability have been praised since childhood. His growth path has been carefully cared for. Now he has to walk around the world with his sword. So what can he perform in the world? It is naturally quite eye-catching.

Of course, the reason why Chang Rensheng received such attention today may also be related to Li Xiaoqiang's flattery of him the day before. At the opening ceremony of the day before, when Chang Rensheng had just spoken, the host asked Li Xiaoqiang to say a few words. Evaluate Chang Rensheng. As a teammate of the national youth team who has been studying together and living together, Li Xiaoqiang of course has to stand up for Chang Rensheng.

Li Xiaoqiang remembers that he said this at that time:

"What? He said that he mainly focuses on learning? No, no, no, don't be deceived by him. In fact, his chess is very powerful. He is now capable of winning any chess player... Please note that I am not polite. I don't know how far Chang Rensheng can go this time, but I will not be surprised that he wins any super chess player in the world. He already has this strength now. I have always believed that Chang Rensheng's chess has its own uniqueness. His chess is magnificent and profoundly grasped the essence of Teacher Nie. His understanding of the overall situation is that I am willing to give up the disadvantages and sigh that I am not as good as that."

“There is such a high evaluation…”

The host was surprised by Li Xiaoqiang's evaluation. Is Li Xiaoqiang really boasting about it without principles? This really cannot be said. In Li Xiaoqiang's opinion, Chang Rensheng's chess really has its own uniqueness. His heavy and grandeur is something that Li Xiaoqiang thinks he does not have.

Since he is almost the same as Chang Rensheng, Li Xiaoqiang is quite familiar with Chang Rensheng's growth trajectory. In real history, Chang Rensheng should have to be truly grown into a world-class chess player two years later. However, in this life, Chang Rensheng should still be influenced by himself. His first half of the game inherited the mantle of his master Nie Xuanfeng. Under his influence in the second half, his skills are also quite solid. According to Chang Rensheng's growth rate, Li Xiaoqiang estimated that it will not take long, and at most no more than 2 years, Chang Rensheng will become one of his main opponents. Therefore, Li Xiaoqiang will say a few good words to Chang Rensheng, which is really not an over-praise.

Of course, Li Xiaoqiang thought so in his heart, but he didn't know why others thought he was not clear. Especially in Japan, the growth cycle of Japanese chess players is famously slow. It is already a monster to have a Li Xiaoqiang in the Chinese chess world. Is it that they specialize in "premature" chess players?

"Ah! Are there any chess players who often play the role of chessboard wizards ashamed of themselves..."

Note! Yesterday, when the host asked Li Xiaoqiang to "say a few words", he did not compare Chang Rensheng with Li Xiaoqiang, but just asked Li Xiaoqiang to "evaluate" Chang Rensheng. In fact, to this day, few people will compare other young chess players with Li Xiaoqiang. Except for Li Shifo. Moreover, even Li Shifo, everyone generally believes that he has a certain gap with Li Xiaoqiang. Now when everyone talks about Li Xiaoqiang, more and more media link his name with "chess saint" levels such as Huang Longshi, Xiuce, and Wu Qingyuan.

This is Li Xiaoqiang's current "status in the world". He is now qualified to evaluate others. However, few people compare other active chess players with him. Moreover, when Li Xiaoqiang spoke, his words were quite substantial.

Now seeing Li Xiaoqiang's evaluation of Chang Rensheng is so high, the host can't help but say a few more words, and the host obviously did some homework:

"I heard that players often aim at you, and he himself admitted that the player he wants to win the most is actually you. But he has not won you yet, even if he has never won a single game..."

Li Xiaoqiang naturally had a way to deal with such a problem. He first glanced at Ma Xiaofei standing beside him, then looked at Japanese chess player Kobayashi Mitsuji, and then said with a smile:

"I want to borrow a sentence from Mr. Kobayashi. An opponent like Chang Rensheng must not let him win the first set, otherwise it will be amazing in the future. Everyone is dissatisfied with it. This is my true view of Chang Rensheng and the reason why I have always suppressed him before. In the past matches with him, I have always done my best..."

When he heard Li Xiaoqiang say this, the entire venue immediately burst into laughter. This sentence is also an allusion in the Go world. This is a sentence that Kobayashi Mitsuji said when he was fighting hard in the "China-Japanese Celebrity Confrontation Competition" a few years ago. This sentence is not popular on the surface, but in fact it is Kobayashi Mitsuji's praise of Ma Xiaofei, and it can even be said that this is a very high evaluation.

Shortly after Kobayashi Mitsuji finished saying this, Ma Xiaofei quickly broke the "window paper". He quickly grew into one of the top chess players in the world chess world. So now, Li Xiaoqiang applied this sentence to Chang Rensheng, and Chang Rensheng has reached that critical point?

"Oh? Do you really think so?"

"Yes, this is my truth. If you don't believe it, please wait and see."

Li Xiaoqiang talked endlessly, and Chang Rensheng just happened to draw Ida Kiki in the subsequent lottery ceremony. From the perspective of viewing, this is of course a good draw. Moreover, because of Li Xiaoqiang's praise for Chang Rensheng, in today's viewing room, not only Chinese and Japanese chess players are paying attention to this game, but even several Korean seed players focus on this game.

Accompanied by reporter Zhang Da and Yukari Mei Ze, Li Xiaoqiang stayed in the viewing room on the first round of the game. The game was around 3 pm, and the number of chess players appeared in the viewing room began to increase. The seed players in this game actually appeared in the viewing room, which was rare in the past. According to the strong distribution of the last game, there were 4 Japanese chess players and 3 Korean chess players. The only Chinese chess player is Li Xiaoqiang. Among these chess players, Chinese and Korean chess players have no place to go, so they have appeared in the viewing room since the morning. Most Japanese chess players come here in the afternoon.

In the research room, the most eye-catching thing is the center of the research room, where the championship and runner-up of the last competition, Li Xiaoqiang of China and Cao Yanzi of South Korea were playing chess. They were talking a lot there, pointing at the chessboard, and talking about it. The focus of the research is naturally the game between Chang Rensheng and Ida Kiki, and also taking into account the game between Liu Daehui and Choi Mingxun. Japan's Kobayashi Koji, Zhao Jixun, Otake Hero, and South Korea's Liu Changhe, Xu Bongzhu and others stopped to watch the game.

The chess show in the research room is nothing more than the chess players who have played their ideas and ideas. Unfortunately, the two players who are playing chess today have very different chess styles from the two opponents. Therefore, the reference pictures they put out are far from the actual combat process.

Li Xiaoqiang is a little better in this regard. His teammates have been training and growing together for many years. Li Xiaoqiang is quite familiar with Chang Rensheng's chess. Therefore, when he was helping Chang Rensheng to give tricks, he could still predict some of Chang Rensheng's tricks. On the other side, when Cao Yanzi was helping Ida Kiki to find a way, the reference pictures he put often attracted Zhao Zhixun, Kobayashi Kwanger and others to shake their heads and laugh.

Of course, this does not mean that the reference picture presented by Cao Yanzi is not good, but that they unanimously agreed that in actual combat, Ida Kiki would never follow Cao Yanzi's ideas.

Speaking of Chang Rensheng and Ida Kiki, they are both of the kind with a particularly "right" style of chess. To put it in a word of Go, they are considered authentic "original style". Playing chess is about being upright and being beautiful. As for Li Xiaoqiang and Cao Yanzi, they may have a high level, but they do not pay much attention to chess shape when playing chess. Especially when playing chess in the research room, this kind of chess is not responsible. Therefore, some of their ideas seem more imaginative and unrestrained. Whatever fun is to come and what to stimulate. In this way, the chess they play will naturally be completely different from the actual combat process.

Despite this, when Li Xiaoqiang and Cao Yanzi were playing chess, everyone still watched with relish. Many chess players and reporters even felt that they were eye-opening.

"Eye-opening, it turns out that chess can be played like this..."

In the research room, the kind-hearted man, Mr. Lin Haifeng, sighed like this. One of the most important characteristics of Japanese flow is that he pays great attention to chess shape. Ida Kiki is a standard Japanese flow, and Chang Rensheng inherited the style of his master Nie Zhefeng, which is actually a typical Japanese flow. But is their understanding of chess shape stronger than Cao Yanzi or Li Xiaoqiang who "often plays vulgar"? Of course not. Whether it is Cao Yanzi, who is "Korean" or Li Xiaoqiang, who is now called "Middle Ancient Story", their understanding of chess shape and understanding of chess shape are of course deeper than Ida Kiki or Chang Rensheng.

Simply put, it is true that Chang Rensheng and others pay attention to chess shape, but when they play chess, they are easily bound by the so-called "chess shape". However, Li Xiaoqiang and Cao Yanzi are different. They are rarely bound by chess shape. It can be said that Li Xiaoqiang's current level has long surpassed the stage of "focusing on chess shape". This is of course a higher level and a higher level.

This is the current gap between Chang Rensheng, Ida Kiki and others and Li Xiaoqiang. Li Xiaoqiang believes that Ida Kiki doesn’t have much hope. If Chang Rensheng makes a breakthrough in this regard, then he can quickly narrow the gap with himself.

The difference between the so-called "first-class chess player" and "super first-class chess player" is probably reflected in this aspect most of the time.

Li Xiaoqiang made a big splash in the research room, and the first round of the game continued in an orderly manner. At around 4 pm, some games with clearer strength and weakness had already decided the outcome.

The first game to end the battle was Ma Xiaofei. He defeated Japan's Honda Kansuke Nine Dan with only about 11 moves. This game cannot be said to be that Honda Nine Dan played too badly, but he took the path that Ma Xiaofei was good at at the beginning. The situation formed early on in which Ma Xiaofei took the field and he took the external trend. When the game entered the middle game, the big look of Honda Nine Dan was quickly trampled on by Ma Xiaofei, and his disadvantages were obvious. When he admitted defeat in the middle game, he could actually be played. If he changed to a Korean player, it would definitely not be possible to admit defeat so easily. But most Japanese players are like this. You can say that they do not have the spirit of fighting, or they can say that they are very graceful. In short, this is a very obvious feature of Japanese players.

Shortly after Ma Xiaofei won the game, the second chess player who entered the top 16 was Li Shifo from South Korea. He defeated Taipei's "Red Face Chess King". Objectively speaking, there is still a relatively obvious gap in the level between the two players at present, and Li Shifo won more easily today.

With Ma Xiaofei and Li Shifo winning the game, plus several seed players, it can be considered that all the players with the strength to compete for the championship have entered the top 16.

Therefore, in the next day's round of 16, the real competition of this "Fujitsu Cup" really began. (To be continued.)

ps: Let me explain first, I actually haven’t stopped updating this chapter. I started to code on the first day of the Lunar New Year, but the number of more than 5,000 words has been coded for 15 days. Haha.
Chapter completed!