After all of us are reborn, who plays Go?

Chapter 108 107. Four Tribulations Cycle
Although Lin Hongshu had already seen the clues, he was still a little uncertain and held his breath below. Zhan Lang completely ignored Lin Hongshu who was gathering his energy outside, and instead stuck to the top to finish.

Afterwards, Lin Hongshu rushed directly into the lower left corner to create a chain of robberies, and when Lin Hongshu finished, Zhan Lang followed suit.

"Four calamity cycles?"

"No, it should be a fake birth, right?"

"It's impossible to bring it up this way."

As both sides took two more steps, many professionals watching the battle seemed to finally understand the significance of Zhan Lang's move, and couldn't help but start discussing it.

This move turned a situation that was originally doomed to fail and a dragon that was doomed to die into a situation that was actually propped up in actual combat, creating a cycle that could never end.

Four kalpas cycle.

Lin Hongshu couldn't help but feel a bit of a headache. This dispute made the whole situation become weird.

It seemed that Zhan Lang's big dragon was dead, but when he wanted to capture the opponent, no matter which piece he picked up, Zhan Lang could activate the endless chain of captures in the lower left corner as a material warehouse for capture, and forcibly prop up the black dragon.

In a sense, this directly forms a four-disaster cycle, an endless chess game that will never end.

Go players often pride themselves on the simplicity of the Go rules.

The rules for ko fight, as the only "extra" clause, are often explained in textbooks as follows: in order to prevent the black and white sides from refusing to give in to each other over the ko fight, causing the game to repeat in an infinite loop, the rule that the ko fight cannot be raised immediately is put into place.

The rules of ko fighting not only prevent the game from falling into a meaningless repeating state, but also add to the excitement of Go.

The victory or defeat of countless chess games revolves around the fight for the ko.

Starting a disaster, looking for a disaster, creating materials for a disaster, forcing a disaster to be supported, and using a camera to eliminate a disaster; a disaster of holding on to breath, a disaster of relaxing, a disaster of being lazy, a disaster of being free from worries, a disaster of rowing, and a disaster of longevity.

Whether it is a world capture involving the ownership of more than a hundred points of territory, or a single-piece capture that determines the outcome of a game by half a point, chess players put all their energy into it, and the hearts of the spectators are on a roller coaster ride along with the game.

Because any move in the fight for a piece of ko may determine the final outcome of the entire game.

However, if there are more than three ko on the board, theoretically, the two players will fall into an endless cycle as long as they are unwilling to give up the fight for ko.

This is the three-ko cycle in Go.

Not to mention the four robberies on the scene now.

There is no point in going any further.

Because if it continues like this, the two sides will keep bringing it up endlessly, and it will never end.

Thinking of this, Lin Hongshu fell silent.

How could a game that was 100% winnable end in a draw? It's outrageous.

Zhan Lang was unable to win in a desperate situation, yet he still came up with such a shameless way to draw the game.

Should I say that the other party has a clever idea, or should I say that the other party is good at cheating?
Lin Hongshu really didn't know what to say. As Zhan Lang's fame grew in the future, this game would probably become a famous game.

After all, the probability of a draw in Go is not necessarily once or twice in a player's lifetime, and this kind of draw created by imagination may not occur once in a hundred years. Seeing Lin Hongshu stop making moves, the people around him looked at each other, not knowing what to say.

How should we judge this game?
Theoretically, if it is a formal competition, if the players have problems that they cannot handle, they will apply to find a referee, and the referee will make the decision. However, this kind of exchange competition does not even have a formal referee. Is there any negotiation between the two parties?

"This big dragon is essentially dead! It's being held up by Jie. It should be declared dead right away."

Fang Yuan, the leader of the Chinese exchange team, didn't say much when he heard this.

Because this type of cyclic ko is indeed difficult to judge, in the history of Go development, it was not until around 1950 that researchers consciously proposed the principle of prohibiting all identical moves. The purpose was to solve cyclic moves, such as Changsheng, False Life, cyclic ko, etc.

However, the Japanese Go tradition has always disregarded rules. Japan's written rules were even forced out by one person and are still incomplete. Many issues still have to rely on conventions not stated in the rules and the ethics of players to resolve.

Moreover, according to the research and improvements made by Japanese researchers, the result of Japan's efforts to improve the rules was to unconsciously bring the Japanese rules closer to the Chinese rules. Such research results are obviously not satisfactory to the Japanese, including himself.

Therefore, these results have basically been forgotten by the Japanese Go community.

Compared with Japan, China was the first country to accept the principle of "prohibiting global isomorphic reproduction".

In a game of the 1966 National Go Championship, a circular ko appeared, and it was resolved by a ko according to the principle of "prohibiting the recurrence of the same shape in the whole game". This was the first and only time in the history of Go that a circular game was actually resolved using the principle of "prohibiting the recurrence of the same shape in the whole game".

But this practice was not successful, because once the cycle was generated, it seemed to be the same all the time, which was dazzling. It was very difficult to find and judge which side and which move of the same shape should be banned.

Therefore, the Chinese rules have always maintained the principle of "prohibiting the recurrence of the same shape in the whole game", while actually allowing "draw or replay". As a result, people, even the chess world including professional chess players and referees, have ignored the fact that the Chinese Go rules have always had the rule of "prohibiting the recurrence of the same shape in the whole game".

Simply put, although the rules are formulated in this way, there is no way to strictly follow the rules in actual combat.

When encountering such a situation, even if the game is played using Chinese rules, in most cases the game will be ruled as a draw and the game will be replayed.

Looking at the embarrassing scene, Zhan Lang said indifferently: "Count it as my loss. After all, I created this four-disaster cycle, so it can be considered as taking advantage of the rules."

After all, I was exploiting a loophole in the rules. If I lose, I lose. It doesn’t matter anyway. It’s not an important competition.

"No, you just took advantage of the rules and didn't break them. In a way, this is a smart move. You try to maximize your chances of winning within the rules."

When Lin Hongshu heard this, he couldn't help but shook his head.

If it were anyone else, there would be no way they would have thought of this approach.

Just talking about this kind of idea, Zhan Lang has surpassed countless professional chess players recently.

"Tie."

Lin Hongshu listened to the discussions of the people around him, just shook his head and finally made his own judgment.

If we follow the historical precedents of official Japanese competitions, this game would most likely be judged as a draw in an official competition.

Moreover, when he was in a sure-win situation, Zhan Lang turned it into this situation, which in a sense meant that he had already lost.

If I continue to argue and insist that I won, it would be me, a professional ninth-dan, who would lose both the game and the battle.

(End of this chapter)