After all of us are reborn, who plays Go?

“There doesn’t seem to be much to see at West Lake. I don’t know why these people are looking at it so enthusiastically and talking and laughing.

It's just a pool of water and a few mountains, what's so beautiful about it? I think Shichahai is no worse than West Lake."

The first half of the Yingshi Cup has ended, and now only the final five-game match remains.

The first game of the final was also played in Ying Changqi's hometown of Zhejiang, and was held in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang.

Now that we are in Hangzhou, we can't just compete. We must take everyone to see the natural scenery. This is basically a necessary process.

Ying Changqi was quite happy. After all, he had always said in other places that he was a Zhejiang native living alone overseas. Now that he had returned to his hometown in glory, he was naturally very happy.

Zhan Lang and Fang Yuan walked behind the crowd and whispered to each other. After all, for them there was really nothing to see in this kind of thing.

In front, several leaders of the Chinese Chess Academy are taking Mr. Ying Changqi, the sponsor of the Ying Cup, and the Korean players and delegation who also advanced to the finals to visit the famous West Lake in Hangzhou where the first match of the finals will be held.

Listening to Fang Yuan's whisper, Zhan Lang couldn't help but shook his head. West Lake has not yet been completely commercialized and still exudes a lot of natural atmosphere.

Even so, there are still quite a lot of people visiting the West Lake area. After all, it has long been a world-famous place. Even Mandela went to the West Lake when he came to China.

But in comparison, the number of tourists in West Lake nowadays is not as large as it was then.

Zhan Lang had been to West Lake in his previous life, during the National Day holiday. The number of tourists there was basically comparable to that of the Forbidden City.

There were absolutely huge crowds of people. Even at night, you couldn't see anything at all but people's heads.

There's no need to talk about the toilets. You have to wait for half an hour to use the men's restroom, let alone the women's restroom.

All you can see of the famous musical fountain is flashes of light, not even the water.

"But West Lake still does a good job of promoting itself. With Xi Shi and the Legend of the White Snake, it's basically a household name. The Taihu Lake next door is not on the same level of fame."

In fact, it is difficult to say that one of China's major lakes, famous mountains and other natural scenery is 100% better than the other. We can only say that each has its own merits.

In fact, as long as there is a mountain, there will be related legends on it. Even on the better mountains, there are basically allusions to Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, and they may even share the same temple.

But in the end, who will be more famous will be determined by who promotes better and has a wider reputation, which will attract more tourists.

Hearing Zhan Lang's words, Fang Yuan couldn't help but shook his head: "The Legend of the White Snake, isn't it just two Sichuan snakes flooding Jiangsu for a Zhejiang man?"

When Zhan Lang heard this, he didn't know what to say. Sometimes, some of the things he complained about would spread widely for some unknown reason.

That is to say, the new Legend of White Snake has not been released yet, otherwise I would probably be beaten for saying this.

“But to be honest, you are really lucky this time. Your opponent in the final is that guy from South Korea. You are sure to win.

I originally thought you could still win against Lin Xiaofeng 3 to 1, but you are against this, this… what’s his name Cao?”

"Cao Mingxun."

"Yes, yes, yes! Cao Mingxun! I seem to have chatted with him a little bit last time in Japan, but I don't have a strong impression of him. After all, he was eliminated in the first round. He seems to be a chess player who only fights hard, right?
You really hit the jackpot when you play against him, you will definitely win 3-0.

You really had a smooth race this time! You got an American player in the first round, old guys in the second and semifinals, and a weak Korean player who got into the finals by sheer luck. It feels like God wants you to win this world championship!"

As he spoke, Fang Yuan couldn't help but shake his head.

Some people can obviously win the championship based on their own strength, but God insists on giving them smooth luck!

Who can I go to for justice on this matter?

The more I think about it, the angrier I get!
The Chinese Go community doesn't really know much about Cho Myung-hoon. They only know that he is the best player in South Korea and that he studied Go in Japan.

After all, China and South Korea have not yet established formal diplomatic relations. Although China also participated in this year's Seoul Olympics in South Korea, there are not many official and non-governmental exchanges between the two sides.

As for the exchanges among Go players, there was only one trip when Zhan Lang led a group to South Korea for exchanges, and the subsequent exchanges were even interrupted.

The situation in Japan is actually similar. Although Cho Myung-hoon studied in Japan for a long time, he did not have much contact with Japan after returning to South Korea.

Even many Japanese chess players still have the impression of Cao Mingxun when he returned to their country, and think that he is just an ordinary first- or second-tier chess player.

After all, Cao Mingxun's record in Japan was not very good. He was even beaten on the head by Zhao Chikun, who was also a Korean living in Japan.

Fang Yuan looked at the people walking in front and kept talking: "Lin Xiaofeng might be able to help you with some Go, so you don't have to worry about Cao Mingxun at all.

You see, Mr. Ying Changqi is smiling really happily now, and it seems like he has seen the championship trophy fall into his hands.

If the finals hadn’t required a formality, he would have already transferred the prize money to your account.”

"Don't underestimate Cao Mingxun. After all, he defeated Lin Xiaofeng in a three-game match."

“Tsk, this guy is just lucky.

In the first round, I met the most capable player from Taiwan, and in the second round, I picked up Kenichi Mitsuba. It is said that Kenichi Mitsuba's face was black when he reviewed the game.

In the semi-final against Lin Xiaofeng, he was defeated in the first set. In the second set, he managed to make some progress. In the third set, he fought until the end and won after Lin Xiaofeng was penalized two points for overtime.

With his performance, I feel... forget it..."

Fang Yuan felt really unhappy. Cao Mingxun was so strong that he could make it to the finals, but I was eliminated in the first round!
Obviously, my strength should be even stronger than his.

And the guy who defeated him, Sanye Kenichi, was defeated by this guy Cao Mingxun, which made Fang Yuan even more unhappy to some extent.

What's your level? You beat Mitsuba Kenichi?!

“It’s useless to say so much. If they make it to the finals, then they make it to the finals. It’s impossible to get this far without the real ability.” Sometimes luck and other things may affect the progress of the game. For example, Lao Ke and the humanoid computer Xuan Gong, who were highly expected by everyone, were basically eliminated from the world competition, and they only had the right to the quarterfinals.

The bully has been criticized for being in very bad shape since last year, and the section chief has even been demoted to the useless prince, but the two of them made it to the finals.

Don’t say that it’s an ugly win. When you encounter a situation where the opponent is sure to win, you can just lose. It’s all picked up.

Winning is winning, reaching the finals is reaching the finals, there is nothing to say.

And if you really don't have the ability, it's impossible to reach the finals, let alone several times, just relying on luck.

With Mr. Zhan's level, he might not be able to make it to the quarterfinals even if he's lucky, let alone the finals.

The South Korean delegation not far ahead was also discussing matters concerning the final.

"I didn't expect Cho Myung-hoon to actually make it to the finals! This is a big deal for Korean Go! He is truly a top-notch Korean player!"

Of course, in the recent Fujitsu Cup World Championship, Cho Myung-hoon was eliminated in the first round, and another Korean player also stopped in the quarterfinals.

In the eyes of China and Japan, South Korea is just a filler, no different from the United States and Southeast Asian countries, except that its level is slightly stronger.

Of course, it was this time that Cho Myung-hoon made it to the final of the World Series, and the Koreans suddenly felt more confident.

Cao Mingxun defeated two top-notch players, Sanye Jianyi and Lin Xiaofeng, in a row, and Lin Xiaofeng won in the game. Is there any difference between this and Zhan Lang's victory in the last world championship? !
Therefore, Cho Myung-hoon has become a world-class player, and we in Korea also have our own top-notch Go players!
When Cao Mingxun heard this, he neither nodded nor shook his head. He knew in his heart that there was still some small gap between him and the top-notch ones.

But if he is given more time to break through, Cao Mingxun is still confident that he can reach a top-notch or even higher level.

Because Cho Myung-hun had obviously felt the flaws of Japanese Go and the rigid atmosphere within it. Compared to the street Go style that he had been fighting with Seo Ji-seok for in Korea, many Japanese players were not used to it and even found it difficult to deal with.

However, Cao Mingxun still felt very embarrassed when dealing with Zhan Lang.

How should I put it? Cao Mingxun felt that he might have taken half a step further than the Japanese Go players in breaking free from the constraints, but he couldn't help feeling that Zhan Lang seemed to have taken seven, eight, or nine more steps.

Cao Mingxun felt a chill in his heart every time he studied Zhan Lang's chess records. If some of Zhan Lang's moves were summarized, it would not be an exaggeration to say that it was an industrial revolution in the Go world.

The Japanese actually regarded this revolutionary way of playing as a heresy. Cao Mingxun can only say that Japanese Go deserves to fall to the last place in the future.

Therefore, Cao Mingxun even overturned a lot of things and asked his apprentice to learn Zhan Lang in all aspects. If there was any conflict in concepts, Zhan Lang would be the standard.

And now that he was forced to face Zhan Lang, Cao Mingxun was indeed unsure. He had just outlasted an old man some time ago, and he couldn't outlast a young man now, right?
"It would be great if Cho Myung-hoon could win this championship. It would surely greatly boost the confidence of the Korean Go community!
So we must win! Just like the Seoul Olympics! We must achieve a glorious victory to live up to the people!"

Cao Mingxun couldn't help but sigh when he heard this. I understand the logic of what you said. How could I not know that winning the championship now will definitely make the status of Go in South Korea advance by leaps and bounds.

Cao Mingxun even understood the hidden meaning in the opponent's words, implying that as long as he could win the championship this time, anything would be fine.

After all, in the just-concluded Olympics, South Korea had already done everything it could to win the gold medal.

Theoretically, in every Olympic Games, the venue is the host and has certain advantages in refereeing and other aspects, and will definitely favor its own athletes.

These are basically the unspoken rules agreed upon by everyone, and even later on, office meetings were no longer a profitable business.

Most of the hosting countries do it at a loss, so as long as they can find a buyer and it's not too excessive, and if the organizer is a little biased and lets their family members win a few more medals, everyone will turn a blind eye.

But there is a huge difference between being slightly biased and directly blowing a black whistle!

South Korea has directly put what has been going on behind the scenes out in the open and even gone a step further, directly showing that it is shameless!
This led to the 1988 Seoul Olympics being hailed by many as the darkest Olympics in history, with results being tampered with, cheating openly, and even distorting the concept of victory and taking pride in it.

These include, but are not limited to, directly harassing opponents in order to win medals, and beating drums and gongs under the hotels of participating teams from various countries in the dead of night.

Even when it came to the contestants from various countries who were going to compete the next day, the Korean people, whether spontaneously or in an organized manner, ran downstairs to the hotel to cheer and sing the national anthem all night long, preventing the other side from getting into the game state.

After players from various countries complained, the South Korean authorities showed no signs of imposing any punishment and simply chose to ignore the matter.

Even when contestants take taxis to the Olympic Games, Korean drivers will take a detour and drive at a snail's pace if you are a foreign athlete, so that you will be late for the competition.

These are just tricks, and one can even blame them on some improper emotions among the people.

However, South Korea, as the official organizer of the Olympics, even openly cheated during the competition, and even went so far as to offend his grandfather Amei, and forcibly won the championship.

The audience even went on the field and beat the referee because the referee deducted points for violating the rules.

From this, we can see how strong South Korea’s desire for victory is now, and it is a desire that everyone is united in.

In order to help their country's athletes win medals, the whole country is united and does not care about their image in the eyes of other countries. As long as they can win, everyone will do anything.

But no one cares how we win, as long as we win!

“But that was in Korea, this is in China!”

Cao Mingxun said this a little helplessly at this time.

We bully foreigners on Korean territory, and you have to worry about being beaten on Chinese territory!

Hearing this, the Korean team leader's expression changed: "Let's play first. If the result is not good, we can also file a complaint!
We, South Korea, are also a country that has entered the world championship finals. Why should all the finals be held in China? They should be held in South Korea!"

As long as we can set the home court in South Korea, all problems can be solved!

Nine kinds!

I have nine ways to ensure Cho Myung-hoon's victory!

(End of this chapter)