Go: I’m 50-50 against the AI

"Why are you so upset? Didn't you say before in the dojo that you always meet everyone you meet, and the strong will always be strong?"

Before the game started, looking at Cugu Yun with a Sima-like face opposite him, Ying Jie smiled and made a joke.

Cugu Yun put his whole fat face together, held it in for a long time, and said: "Brother Jie, why don't we go to Lingyin Temple next door to draw lots after the competition?

We can't stay like this. If I'm lucky enough to become a professional player, and if I participate in professional competitions in the future and I always meet you in the first round, then what kind of chess will I play?

Is it possible to do a tour every day? Will I become a joke? "

Ying Jie shook his head: "This kind of coincidence only happens a few times. How can it happen every time?"

It can only be said that it was a coincidence. Cuckoo Yun met him in the first round of two major competitions.

Fortunately, the fixed stage competition is not a single-elimination elimination, but a round-robin competition. You only need to win three of the first five games to advance to this competition.

But even so, there were only two chances of failure, and in Cugu Yun's opinion, it was simply wasted once.

The two chatted for a few words before the staff and referees finished patrolling the field. After confirming the contestants and time, a familiar voice sounded from the loudspeaker on the playing field.

"National Go fixed-stage competition, qualifiers, first round, officially begins!"

"This competition adopts Chinese Go rules. Black has 3 and 3/4 stones. The retention time for both sides is one hour, and there are three 30-second countdowns."

"Contestants please guess first!"

"The game has officially begun."

Listening to the familiar voice, Ying Jie's thoughts seemed to fly back to 2022. If he hadn't been reborn through time and space again, he might not have the chance to appear in this arena again.

I may take the public examination, or find a job in a company. Go will become my hobby. Occasionally, I may participate in some amateur competitions at other times.

Perhaps it is possible to instill your dreams into the next generation after having children, hoping that they can fulfill their dreams.

But, it's different now...

Ying Jie picked up a chess piece and placed it on the chessboard, while Cugu Yun released his fingers and the two chess pieces fell down.

Ying Jie guessed wrong, so he took the guess and moved on.

After seeing this result, Cuckoo Yun felt even worse.

Although Ying Jie has never lost in their impression so far, they can also feel it in the game that Ying Jie is better at using white pieces.

This is also a characteristic of many Go players. The Chinese Go rules jump directly from five and a half meshes to seven and a half meshes. However, after this rule was implemented for a few years, many professional players found that the advantage of white pieces seemed to be a bit too great.

Players who obviously hold the white chess piece feel that they are better at playing. It is even more exaggerated to say that players of the same chess ability all play exactly the same, and whoever gets the white chess piece wins.

So seeing Ying Jie guessing the white piece, Cugu Yun's already slim hope became even slimmer.

After thinking for a moment, Cugu Yun chose the star Worry-free Cape to start, while Ying Jie chose the same layout below, except that the direction of the Worry-free Cape was slightly different.

As a classic chess shape, "Worry-Free Corner" has a long history. However, in the AI ​​era, it has to be said that it has been overshadowed by the big jump corner defense. In many cases, most people will not choose this defensive style.

However, the game of Go requires a detailed analysis of a specific problem. Talking about the worry-free corner and some chess players whose layouts have been eliminated are just a one-sided view infinitely magnified.

In many cases, you think that some eliminated layouts will still become the best choice, or even the first choice of AI. In the layout stage, in certain configurations and situations, Worry-Free Corner may also become the first choice.

Although it is a bit contradictory, no matter what time, it will never go wrong to analyze specific problems in detail.

Cuckoo Cloud is flying at the top, while Ying Jie is flying at the bottom right.

Cugu Yun felt a little strange. In addition to the different directions of the Worry-Free Corner, Jie Ge's layout today actually mirrored his own.

However, Cugu Yun didn't think much about it. If Ying Jie needed to copy his layout, Cugu Yun immediately felt that he would have the confidence to compete in the World Series.

I briefly thought about Cugu Yun’s choice of connecting at the top to make a big impression. This is also the experience of Cugu Yun and Ying Jie’s many games.

Whenever he makes weak moves or breaks, he will be caught by Ying Jie keenly and severely punished.

But Ying Jie did not choose to do the same as Cugu Yun, but directly attacked Cuckoo Yun's Worry-Free Corner in the upper left corner.

In the tenth move, white chess, shoulder charge!

When it came, Cugu Yun looked at Ying Jie's signature move and knew it was a familiar smell again.

At this time, a referee passed by the game between the two and stopped immediately when he saw the shoulder-to-shoulder approach to the worry-free corner.

It’s not that this move has never been seen before. On the contrary, many Go enthusiasts have seen this move.

Wu Qingyuan mentioned it in "21st Century Go" in his later years, and he himself always believed that this was the best way to deal with Wuyoujiao.

However, the change diagram mentioned by Wu Qingyuan in the book is not recognized by the chess community because it is indeed a loss.

He gave a correct answer for the first step, but no way to give the correct process.

Therefore, for the shoulder thrust move, after everyone saw the wrong process, they naturally rejected the correct answer.

It was not until the AI ​​​​era that artificial intelligence found out the real way to use the shoulder thrust, proving that this move, like the collision, is indeed one of the effective ways to deal with the worry-free corner.

Cugu Yun thought about it for a moment. Although he had seen Ying Jie play this method before, it had not been discussed in detail. In actual combat, he still needs to consider his own response method.

After a little thought, Cugu Yun chose to stick to it.

Although Cugu Yun felt that he could also climb one, the response to climbing was equivalent to his own flying to defend the corner. Ying Jie's white piece came closer. Although it was okay to take a step back, he did not respond more actively.

And if he chooses to climb one, Cugu Yun always feels that Ying Jie will be very smart when he encounters him again. He can't find a good point to counterattack, so he might as well stick to it.

You can't take any loss against Ying Jie. Once you take the first bite, you have to pinch your nose and continue eating.

Seeing Cugu Yun's move, Ying Jie nodded. Apart from taking off first, sticking was indeed one of the best moves.

But Ying Jie chose to jump directly to the midsection. This seemed to have never been seen by others, but it had long been a common move for Ying Jie.

Seeing Ying Jie's response, Cugu Yun thought for a while and decided to score from below, separating the white chess on both sides and weakening the power of the white chess below.

After the two sides simply forced a split, Ying Jie came to the upper right corner again and launched a shoulder attack against Cugu Yun's Xiao Fei guarding the corner.

Seeing this move, the referee next to him suddenly frowned.

I could barely understand the shoulder thrust just now.

But doesn't shoulder-to-shoulder rushing and Xiaofei's corner defense obviously help the opponent to better strengthen themselves?

Can this kid really play chess?