After all of us are reborn, who plays Go?

"You're so lucky that you got the admission ticket directly. It's obvious that anyone you drew could be admitted, but in the end you took everyone's admission ticket away.

Really, what a waste! If you gave me this money, I would have made an extra 5,000 US dollars! If I could change my opponent, I would pay you 1,000 US dollars, but unfortunately I can't!"

"I didn't expect that either."

In the first round of the Yingshi Cup, Zhan Lang and Fang Yuan were chatting as they walked into the competition venue.

Zhan Lang could actually understand Fang Yuan’s complaints. After all, his luck in the draw was pretty good this time.

How to say it, the main point is that you can’t fail!
The one the two people were talking about as a guaranteed pick was undoubtedly Mike 5th Dan from the United States, the lowest rank player in the field and also the weakest.

Basically, its existence is to show the international nature of this competition, to show that our competition is a world competition! It is a very formal and international competition!

Look, Americans are also participating in this competition, and you still say this is not called the World Series?

This is definitely not just a competition among a few East Asian countries; it is a worldwide competition!

But in fact, not to mention now, even after the past thirty years, chess players from Europe, America and Southeast Asia participating in world competitions basically mean that they are guaranteed admission.

There is no way. Their country may not even be able to find a professional chess player, so there is really no other choice for them to participate in the world competition except to be a loser.

Even if another old warrior got it, it would mean escaping the fate of being eliminated in the first round.

So Fang Yuan is naturally very envious of Zhan Lang's luck in chess. After all, he will directly play against a Japanese chess player in the first round, and the outcome of a tough battle is still unknown.

Zhan Lang was admitted without even having to think about it.

Even if Zhan Lang falls asleep right after the game starts and sleeps until the reserved time is up, and uses the penalty time to play with others, the opponent basically has no chance of winning.

It was obvious that it would not matter who this guy drew, but in the end he took away the first prize.

How hateful!
Why does the person who is bound to win always win?
Thinking of this, Fang Yuan couldn't help but shook his head. Sometimes this is fate!

If I win one more round, not only will my prize money double, but I can also get two more days of living expenses. I must work hard!

After entering the competition venue, the two people parted ways and looked for their own positions.

In fact, you don’t need to look for it. There are only eight tables for a game with sixteen people. You can see your seat at a glance.

When Zhan Lang walked to his position, he found that today's opponent had already arrived. Could it be possible that the Americans arrived early?
Zhan Lang still seldom sees blond-haired and blue-eyed foreigners now, but he had seen quite a few in his previous life, especially in college. The playgrounds and basketball courts were 100% filled with black people, and white people were not uncommon either.

But there are very few of them now. It is not easy to see one, so Zhan Lang has to show off his English level no matter what, although now he can only remember the 26 English letters and the simplest few words.

"Hello nice to meet you!"

After sitting down, Zhan Lang read out the first English sentence he had learned in junior high school in a very standard and clear pronunciation.

Nice to meet you.

Are you OK?
Used to greet someone when meeting them for the first time. You can also use "how do you do?"

It can be said that this English sentence is engraved in the bones of all Chinese students. Even if you forget how many English letters there are, you will always remember what this sentence means.

Hearing this, Mike was stunned for a moment, then quickly nodded.

“Same here!”

Hearing this, Zhan Lang was obviously stunned for a moment?
Same here?

What do you mean?
What does Sam mean?
Here? I can't remember it at all?

These two words put together...

Isn’t that right?

I said nice to meet you?

Shouldn't you say nice to meet you too?
Why is what you said different from what is in the textbook? That's not right! Are you a foreigner? You can't even communicate in such a simple way!

Zhan Lang really didn't know what to say, so he could only blurt out reflexively: "I'm fine, thank you, and you?"

Seeing Zhan Lang's confused face and his irrelevant answer, Mike was also a little confused. Didn't you speak English to me? Why do you seem to not understand my reply?
You don't speak English, do you?

"Um, you should be able to speak Japanese, right?"

Hearing the authentic Tokyo accent of the blond foreigners, Zhan Lang couldn't help but nodded awkwardly: "I know a little."

Nowadays, Japanese is really the business language of Go. Anyone who has reached a certain level of Go proficiency can speak Japanese.

If China wants to replace Japan, everyone who has reached a certain level of Go must be able to speak Chinese! Come to China to learn!

"That's good, that's good. You probably don't know English, right? There's no need to make me speak English.

I also learned chess in Japan when I was young, so I can speak basic Japanese, so we can communicate in Japanese. ”

Mike thought Zhan Lang learned a few words of English to communicate with him because he was a foreigner.

Thinking of this, Mike couldn't help but feel warm in his heart. Zhan Lang, the Chinese chess player, is a pretty nice person.

It's not as scary as those people from the Japan Shogi Association say. They seem quite friendly.

Hearing this, Zhan Lang could only nod awkwardly. How could I tell you that I wanted to show you my spoken English, but... I forgot to report most of it to the teacher.

"I'm very happy that I can compete with you in the first round of this competition. I heard that you are one of the strongest chess players in the world. I will cherish my chance to compete this time."

Zhan Lang laughed and retorted, "I want to correct you on one mistake. It's not one of them, it's the only one!"

Hearing this, Mike did not refute, because it made no difference to him and did not even affect him at all.

Because he is just a weak, pitiful and helpless professional fifth stage.

When Mike drew Zhan Lang in the lottery yesterday, he felt like the world was falling.

I fight the waves? Really?
As an American chess player who studied at the Japanese Chess Institute, it was natural for Mike to not know the name Zhan Lang.

As a topic that cannot be avoided in Japanese Go in recent years, Mike can always hear the words "Zhanlang" during his two years of study.

I even watched Zhan Lang compete with other Japanese chess players from a distance. I originally wanted to go over and ask for an autograph, but there was no way to squeeze in.

But I didn’t expect that the first close contact would be a game. Is this how it would be?
I wanted to stick my head up and hit him, but that was totally useless. But after a while of being depressed, Mike came back to his senses. To some extent, this was a good thing!

Because theoretically speaking, no matter who Mike plays against, he has basically no chance of advancing to the next round.

To put it bluntly, the chess players who can participate in this competition are basically the best of the best. Even Mr. Wu from Sydney was once a top chess player in China.

Decades ago, he and Chen Long, the current president of the Chinese Chess Academy, firmly held the main positions in the national team and won the first and second place in Chinese competitions, making them rivals of the time.

Let’s put it this way, even a tough guy can’t stand diarrhea. But even if all the chess players here have diarrhea and run to the toilet while playing with their opponents, Mike probably has no chance of winning.

The gap in strength is so outrageous.

Mike naturally knew that he was participating in this world competition purely to make up the numbers and take advantage of his nationality. Otherwise, even if the field was expanded to 128 people, he probably wouldn't be selected.

Since you can't win anyway, you might as well pick a stronger one to play a game with.

When I meet other people, I can brag that I also fought against the Sixth Heaven Demon King! He defeated me with great difficulty.

The atmosphere is suddenly different!

"Guess first."

It is quite rare for Zhanlang to use white pieces in guessing the first move and let others guess how many he has caught.

There is no way, because the order of guessing the first move in Go is that the high-level player holds a number of white pieces without showing them to others, and then lets the other player guess.

However, the opponents that Zhan Lang encountered in the competitions he participated in were basically all ninth-dan. When everyone's rank was the same, the older person would simply hold the pieces and let the other party guess.

Zhan Lang is just over 20 years old, and is definitely the youngest among all the competitions he has participated in over the past two years.

Even the one who is the smallest in age compared to him is probably a generation older than him. The older ones like Fujii Hideaki are almost Zhan Lang's grandfather.

So for the past two years, Zhan Lang could only guess what other people’s chess pieces were. Now, after all the hard work, he has finally gotten his reward and is now holding the chess pieces in his hand, letting others guess.

I have practiced the guessing skill so many times, and finally I can use it.

The guessing skill that Zhan Lang practiced was actually very simple. It was just to take out two pieces from the chess box vigorously, giving the opponent the illusion that he had grabbed a lot of chess pieces, but in fact he only took one chess piece.

In this case, others will think that you have caught a lot of chess pieces and will most likely guess an even number, so they will guess wrong.

Of course, this still depends on the specific rules.

For example, according to some rules, if you guess wrong, you will play with white. In the era of big handicap, the cost-effectiveness of guessing wrong is higher than guessing right.

But in competitions like the Yingshi Cup, if you guess correctly, you can directly choose black or white. The choice is yours.

Therefore, only by being familiar with the rules of the game can you make specific arrangements. For example, someone once guessed correctly in the world championship that he could choose black or white, but he thought he could only choose black, so he took the black chess piece.

Everyone should know who can do such a stupid thing.

Guessing first is a small matter under the differences in different rules, but judging about dual active and so on is a big matter.

For example, according to Korean rules, some double lives are black 0 white 0, while according to Chinese rules, it is black 2.5 white 1.5. In this case, the difference is directly between winning half a point and losing a quarter of a point.

Even if you are not convinced and appeal to the referee, it is useless. You don’t understand the rules and you lose. Who can you blame?

Just as Zhan Lang expected, Mike took out two black pieces and placed them on the chessboard. After Zhan Lang put down a white piece, his opponent showed no expression.

We're going to lose anyway, so is there much difference between black and white?
So Mike seemed very calm, which made Zhan Lang a little surprised.

However, Zhan Lang did not hesitate at all. After taking the initiative, he decisively chose the white chess piece.

The 8-point handicap in the Yingshi Cup is equivalent to points in Chinese rules. It is a typical large handicap, so it is naturally more advantageous to choose white chess.

When a lion fights a rabbit, it uses all its strength and never takes it lightly just because the opponent is weaker.

Mike plays black first and starts with a star small eye on the right. Zhan Lang also plays a star small eye, but the directions of the small eyes of both sides are different.

In the fifth step, Mike hung on the small eye in the upper left corner of Zhan Lang without any hesitation. Zhan Lang did not respond in a hurry and also hung on the opponent's small eye. Everyone went their separate ways.

Mike looked at the battle wave hanging above his small eye, thought for a moment, and chose the three-space high clamp method.

Although choosing some complex patterns may result in being killed by the opponent, there is also a slight possibility that the opponent may be killed.

What if I'm lucky and come across something that Zhan Lang doesn't know? What if I win? I will become famous in the Go circles in Japan and around the world!

A soldier who doesn't want to be a general is not a good soldier.

Similarly, a chess player who does not want to defeat Zhan Lang is definitely not a good chess player.

Although Mike knew that the possibility of him defeating Zhan Lang was basically zero, he still wanted to give it a try.

After all, you’re going to lose anyway, so what if you win?
No profit at all!

However, Zhan Lang ignored Mike and chose the simplest flying pressure. After Mike jumped out on the right, Zhan Lang used the thick flavor formed on the right to directly attack the opponent from the left.

Mike didn't hesitate at all and made a sharp move from the right. Up to now, he had made more than ten moves, all of which were very ordinary. He didn't feel that Zhan Lang was any different from others.

When the white chess piece was pulled to the second row and Mike blocked it, Zhan Lang immediately took the lead.

Looking at Zhan Lang who had escaped directly, Mike was a little dazed.

This place? Don't you want to eat something?

PS: Lao Keda achieved the "eight-loss friendship", but because his teammates were too strong, Brother Long and President Tao turned the tables together, resulting in the Shenzhen team defeating the Hangzhou team 3 to 1.

Although Lao Ke's play in this game was indeed ugly, I still want to complain about those who say he did not work hard. They are purely hindsight.

If he really had been losing recently, he would have said that, but he had just defeated three top chess players from China and South Korea in three games some time ago, and after losing a game, he immediately said that he didn't work hard.

If you really didn't work hard, you would have been trampled to death by others, unless you are willing to admit that Lao Ke is the most talented person in history and can maintain a world-class level by just playing around every day without studying.

I can only say that they are the same as those parents who say that their children don’t work hard when they see that their children didn’t do well in the exam.

(End of this chapter)