After all of us are reborn, who plays Go?

"Zhan Lang is going to advance to the finals, so who will be his opponent?"

Upon hearing this question, all the top-notch people present were stunned for a moment, because from the beginning to the end of the day, everyone had been paying attention to the Sino-Japanese battle between Zhan Lang and Lin Xiaofeng, and had completely ignored the other civil war in Japan.

Even up to now, no one seems to be clear about who is playing black and who is playing white, let alone who has the better situation now, or whether the game is over and who has won.

It was Zhao Chikun who reacted first. He looked around and found the chess record of another game that was thrown aside.

This time the competition was held at the Japan Shogi Institute. As their research laboratory is top-notch, naturally they had staff members send the chess records over.

It's just that everyone only took out the chess record of one of the games, and the other one was thrown aside and no one was interested in it.

Because in this semi-final, three Japanese players advanced to the next round, while only one Chinese player was qualified, so the advantage was obviously huge. Naturally, everyone focused on the match between China and Japan.

After all, if they win this round, the final will be a civil war in Japan. No matter who wins or loses, the championship will definitely be won by Japan.

Even if the one who advanced was Lin Xiaofeng, a Chinese chess player living in Japan, he was also representing Japan, and if he won the world championship, it would still belong to Japan.

Just like the last world championship won by Japan was also won by a player living in Japan in 2005. If we are to talk about pure Japanese, the last world Go championship won by Japan must have been in the 20th century.

When it comes to determining who the world champions are, people generally only look at the chess academy you belong to. The championship naturally goes to whoever you represent.

Not to mention that the Chinese player who advanced to the semi-finals was Zhan Lang, who has always been a headache for everyone.

Everyone is really upset about this guy. After all, in the past two or three years, Zhan Lang has really made Japanese Go look bad.

The China-Japan Go Tournament alone has made Japanese Go very embarrassed. Many leaders bowed and apologized, and some were almost committing suicide.

We have finally managed to hold a world championship, and if we really let this guy into the finals, that would be a real problem.

If Japanese Go fails to help Zhan Lang again, it will be a huge loss for Japanese Go.

what happened?
Aren't you Japanese Go players so poor that you had to sell your buildings? How come you are so rich now? You hold competitions every day to give money to foreigners?

Faced with such accusations, not to mention the Japan Shogi Association, even the Shogi players themselves could not hold their heads up.

As for Takemiya and Mitsuha on the other side, in the eyes of most people, it doesn’t really matter who enters the finals.

The two people's levels are similar, and they are old rivals and enemies.

It's unknown how many times these two have been fighting. Both have won and lost, and neither has a definite advantage. It can only be said that either of them could win.

It doesn't make much difference who makes it to the finals.

Zhao Chikun glanced through the chess records. Their competition had actually reached the final stage. For a top-notch player, this situation was very simple to analyze.

Zhao Chikun could tell at a glance that Takemiya Masahira had gained a clear advantage, and he was fully armed and had divided and surrounded Mitsuha Kenichi.

Now it seems that there is a high probability that Sanye Jian is unable to recover.

I can’t even send it out.

"It's Wu Gong."

Zhao Chikun announced the answer without any hesitation. Although the game was not over yet, the winner had been decided.

The fact that people could make such a judgment in the pre-artificial intelligence era actually proves that this game is over.

Hearing this, Fujii Hideaki, who was sitting next to him, nodded and said, "It is the best result for Takemiya Masahiro and Zhan Lang to compete for the world championship.

Wu Gong has a unique style and amazing calculation ability. It is difficult for ordinary people to deal with his style. He should have a 50% chance of winning against Zhan Lang."

Among the current six top-notch players in Japan, Takebayashi and his duo, as pioneers, are still shining in professional competitions, but at the age of over 40, they have obviously reached the late stage of their careers, and their decline is obvious compared to others.

Among the others, Zhao was not of Japanese descent and had had some unpleasant experiences.

Although Toya Masao is very powerful, he is a bit extreme, and everyone agrees that Toya Masao is the top-notch player who is most restrained by players like Zhan Lang.

Finally, Wu and Ye are at the peak of their careers, and their achievements this year have even reached a higher peak.

Especially for Masahei Takemiya, everyone has always believed that his level has reached a certain new height in recent years. In terms of level alone, he has reached the level of the best in Japan.

Moreover, his cosmic flow is indeed contrary to common sense and very difficult to deal with, so it is not so easy for Zhan Lang to win.

Taking all factors into consideration, if he were to fight Zhan Lang, he might actually have some chances.

Upon hearing this, Toya Masao 9th Dan did not raise any objections, but just drank a glass of water: "But in fact, they are all about the same, everyone is on par, and it is possible to win or lose."

Even in the battle of waves, many top-notch players have lost several games in a row, but up to now, no one thinks that their strength is much worse than that of the opponent.

There are even many people who stubbornly believe that their strength is superior to that of the other party.

Even though you won, I don't approve of you!
Even if you think Zhan Lang is stronger than you, you will only think that he is stronger to a limited extent. With such a limited gap in level, it is impossible for you to have no chance of winning.

Many people even felt that they were just unlucky. Zhan Lang’s buff in the ring match was too strong. Maybe he was born to be in this kind of competition!

If it was a different competition, I might have defeated him. There is absolutely no way I would lose several games in a row like I am doing now.

But this time, in a different competition, the opponent still made it to the finals.

This is going to be difficult!

"Is there only one game in the final?"

At this time, Fujii Hideaki couldn't help but ask.

No matter how you put it, having the winner decided by one game in the final is a bit too much of a joke, isn't it?
The Fujitsu Cup is a world championship held in Japan and also the first world-class competition. This kind of competition should be of higher standards than other competitions.

Theoretically speaking, Japan has rich experience in hosting Go competitions. With such extensive experience in hosting competitions, Japan should be the most suitable country to host world competitions and it should be absolutely familiar with the process.

After all, Japan has seven domestic title fights alone.

There are seven major Japanese Go tournaments, ranked according to prize money: Gosei, Meijin, Honinbo, Oza, Tengen, Gosei and Judan.

Among these, the three tournaments with higher prize money, namely Go Saint, Meijin, and Honinbo, are collectively known as the "three major title competitions."

Among them, Chess Saint is the highest title. If one wins all three titles at the same time, it is called the "Big Triple Crown".

As the title match of Japan's highest tournament, there is no doubt that the finals and even the semi-finals are all chess matches.

The three major chess tournaments, the Kisei Tournament, the Meijin Tournament, and the Honinbo Tournament, use a "two-day seven-game system." That is, one day's game is played over two days, and whoever wins four out of seven games first will win the title.

The four chess tournaments, namely, the King's Throne Tournament, the Tengen Tournament, the Gosei Tournament and the Judan Tournament, are "five-game one-day tournaments". A game is completed within one day, and whoever wins three out of five games first will get the title.

Compared to a normal one-game decision, there will be a lot of randomness and volatility.

It can be said that the weak defeating the strong frequently occurs in this kind of game, and it is not impossible for a beginner to defeat a world champion.

However, Fanqi is an all-round test of a chess player's overall level, especially the requirement for strength is more important.

It is very difficult for the underdog to defeat the overdog in a game of chess, because you can be lucky to win a game, but you cannot be lucky to win all the time.

In particular, the more rounds a game has, the less uncertain factors there are. Moreover, a game not only tests a person's pure chess skills, but also his mentality, ability to withstand pressure, and the state of mind when facing the uncertainties of a long game.

So it can be said that this is the most comprehensive test for all chess players. If you can't win, no matter how strong you are, it only proves that your overall quality is not good enough.

But comprehensive quality is part of strength.

The highest standard of chess is ten-game chess.

It is the highest form of game in the Go world. Ten-game match originated from the Japanese shogunate period, when the four major Go families fought brutally for the honor of the Go world.

At that time, the ten-game match adopted a promotion and relegation system. If one side won more than four games, the side behind would be "demoted", that is, it would be demoted one level in the match.

In an era when chess players consider rank and honor above all else, the price of failure is not only failure itself, but also damage to reputation. The cruelty of this is self-evident.

If one party is defeated, the winner, who is supposed to be treated equally, will clearly be about a level higher than the other party.

After that, the loser can no longer play against the winner on equal terms.

The more famous ten-game chess matches include the Blood and Tears Ten Games, the Danghu Ten Games and the Wu Ten Games. The most recent ten-game chess match was the Gu-Li Ten Games held in 2014.

According to a certain sponsor, the next tenth episode is really ready to vomit blood.

Of course, later on, the Go world had a higher standard of twenty-game matches.

car……

Therefore, even in Japan's title match, the highest standard is only seven games, and it will never be raised to ten games.

Otherwise, if we lose, Japan is not big to begin with, and we see each other everywhere, so it will be difficult to see each other again in the future.

What should I say when we meet?
senior?

But even so, as a world championship, theoretically it should be of a higher standard than all the title matches in Japan.

After all, one is a world competition and the other is a national competition.

Even if the Japanese officials don't attach much importance to it, the prize money for this world championship has reached the lowest level for this title match. No matter what, the final should be arranged around five points, right?
At worst, playing three games of chess is acceptable.

If the outcome is decided in one game...

To be honest, Fujii Hideaki felt that it seemed a bit too informal.

This competition was really sloppy.

It feels like this competition was completely put together at the last minute in order for Japan to attend its first world championships, and it's full of chaos.

But even if you are in a hurry, you shouldn't decide the outcome in one game.

Fujii Hideaki has always believed that this kind of match where the outcome is decided in one round is really suitable for Zhan Lang.

He seems to be particularly suitable for one-time deals like tournament matches, but if it were changed to a chess match, maybe everyone would have a better chance.

For example, Zhao Chikun was hailed by many as the devil of Fanqi. His winning rate in Fanqi was frighteningly high. He was even beaten to a match point of 3-0, but he was able to pull himself back and win in the end.

Because Japan's top-notch players, even the top-notch Japanese players in later generations, definitely have the most experience in chess among China, Japan and South Korea.

After all, after the world championships experienced the Chinese era, many semi-final games were cancelled, leaving only the finals.

Because defeating someone in a game of Go was once considered almost impossible.

But later on, he lost all the chess games he had ever lost in one year.

“I don’t know what he was thinking.”

Fujii Hideaki couldn't help but shake his head. This competition was actually not in the favor of the Japanese. It could only be said that the higher-ups were too careless in handling things.

Zhao Chikun also shook his head when he heard this: "Who said it wasn't true?"

If he could make it to the finals and play chess with Zhan Lang, Zhao Chikun felt that he had at least a 40% to 50% chance of winning the championship.

There is no way, this is the self-confidence accumulated over a long period of time!
I can achieve 4-3 from 7-0-3, is there anything I can't do?

But unfortunately there are not so many ifs, this is how the game is.

Fujii Hideaki could only sigh helplessly: "There is no way to change the competition system now. We can only wait and see if the competition is still held next time and make some minor changes at that time.

After all, there is not even a single round of chess, so it is a bit of a stretch to call it a world championship.”

In fact, it was not just to deal with Zhan Lang, but more because of the standards of the competition that Fujii Hideaki made such a sigh.

Since it is called the World Series, it would be better if it lives up to the name.

"When does the final start? Where?"

"what?"

Hearing this, Toya Masao was stunned for a moment, as if everyone had discovered a blind spot at this time.

The time of the final seems to be determined, because according to the competition rules, the Fujitsu Cup will be completed in one go, and it will not take nearly a year like the title match.

But the venue...

The venue of the competition doesn't seem to be clearly stated?

"If you put it that way, it doesn't seem to say where the final will be held."

Zhao Chikun seemed to be aware of this as well. According to the competition rules, it was clearly stated that everything from the first round to the semi-finals would be held at the Japan Chess Institute.

However, although the time of the final was marked, the venue was not marked.

However, contestants don’t pay attention to this detail under normal circumstances. After all, everyone just needs to compete normally. It is impossible that there will be no place for you in the finals.

No matter where it rains, it doesn't matter to most people.

This is normal. Most players only study the most basic rules and don't know much about other messy regulations.

Just like later on, there were many top national Go players who didn’t even know how the rating points were calculated, and some hadn’t even studied it as thoroughly as amateurs, so they had to steal other people’s calculation diagrams.

After all, their idea is very simple. I just care about winning. Can't the association take care of things like scoring?
Could it be that they can't even calculate this kind of thing?

Hey!
And it’s often really bad!
On the other side, Koichi Sakamoto ran to the office of the chairman of the Japan Chess Association, panting, and placed a document on the table.

"Chairman! We have already discussed it with them! They have agreed to let us hold the finals at their place."

"As you ordered, the venue for the finals will be at Honnoji Temple!"

(End of this chapter)