In December 1998, as the dust settled on the "LG Cup", Mr. Wang Licheng won his first world championship, and the final of the last world championship of the year was coming.

This is not the first time that Li Xiaoqiang and Zhao Zhixun have met in a World Series final. As early as 7 years ago, Li Xiaoqiang won the world championship for the first time, which was won from Zhao Zhixun. Time has passed, things are people, and different people will have different feelings about the two meeting after 7 years.

After many people saw the results of this final match, the first thing they thought of was Li Xiaoqiang's growth. Seven years ago, although Li Xiaoqiang finally won the world championship, everyone thought it was a super upset at the time. 7 years have passed, and the current Li Xiaoqiang winning against anyone will not be considered an underdog. On the contrary, if Zhao Zhixun can win against Li Xiaoqiang this time, it may be considered that this will be the biggest upset of the year. With such a strong contrast, this is like witnessing Li Xiaoqiang's growth, and many people's feelings have also risen because of this.

But Li Xiaoqiang's feelings are different.

This final with Zhao Zhixun has the meaning of the finale of the year. Originally, before major competitions, Li Xiaoqiang usually rarely spoke before the game, but this time he rarely opened his mouth to talk about the finals.

"Mr. Cho Ji-hoon is respected, and I think it is an honor for me to play him again in the final. I really hope that when I reach Mr. Zhao's age, I can meet an opponent who is more than 10 years younger than me in the final of the World Series......"

Zhao Zhixun, who was born in 62, is now not confused, as a person who has traveled back from the afterlife, it should be said that it is normal for Li Xiaoqiang to have this feeling.

There are many topics in the finals of the World Series, and what is interesting is that after Li Xiaoqiang spoke, Zhao Zhixun also spoke. However, unlike the previous "war of words", this time the speeches of the two deliberately avoided talking about victory or defeat, which made the remarks of the two full of an "interactive" flavor.

Zhao Zhixun's speech actually started with Li Shifo.

Since Mr. Kobayashi Koji won the "Fujitsu Cup" last year, only Zhao Jixun and Mr. Kato are not world champions in Japan's "six supers". Mr. Kato said that after all, he is much older than Zhao Zhixun. But for Zhao Zhixun, everyone can only lament his bad luck. Zhao Zhixun, who has been very stable in the international arena, has reached the top 8 in the world series and the top 4 Zhao Jixun has the most times. Due to the existence of Li Xiaoqiang and Li Shifo, two "bitter hands", this has caused him to miss the World Championship.

In addition, this is the third time that Zhao Zhixun has entered the World Series finals, and the first two times, he was defeated by Li Xiaoqiang and Li Shifo respectively. As for the number of times they were eliminated by the two in the top 8 and top 4, it adds up to countless times.

But I don't know why, although Li Shifo can also be called Lao Zhao's "bitter hand", he seems to be blind to Li Shifo's chess.

This time, Zhao Zhixun eliminated Li Shifo to advance to the finals, and I don't know what Lao Zhao thought, he said something surprising before the game:

"Some people, no matter how many times they beat him, never feel that they have won him, such as Kobayashi Koji; On the contrary, there are people who don't care how many times you lose, but you never feel like you've lost to him, such as Li Shifo. ”

Everyone's reaction to Lao Zhao's words can be imagined, it must have been an uproar. Even Li Xiaoqiang felt that Zhao Zhixun's words were a bit inexplicable. speculated on Zhao Zhixun's words with the greatest kindness, except that he really didn't look down on Li Shifo's chess style, he could only think that Lao Zhao did not disapprove of Li Shifo's strength, but that he did not regard Li Shifo as a real opponent.

If you think about it this way, you may be able to understand a little better, in Lao Zhao's mind, the status of Kobayashi Koji and Li Shifo is definitely different. Kobayashi Koji, who is Lao Zhao? It is a good opponent who has fought with Lao Zhao more than 100 times.

If there is anyone in the Go world who knows Kobayashi's strength best, it must be Zhao Zhixun; If anyone knows Zhao Zhixun's hidden energy best, it must be Kobayashi Koji. Each of their killers can only have a knowing smile with each other. The only one who can oust Zhao Zhixun from the throne of the chess alliance is Xiao Lin, and the person who Xiao Lin has been quietly waiting for eight years after ascending the throne is still Zhao Zhixun. This is the "lifelong rival".

As for Li Shifo, after all, he is a chess player who is a generation later than Zhao Zhixun. According to Li Xiaoqiang's understanding of Lao Zhao, he has never been a chess player who makes excuses for his failures, and he certainly does not realize the horror of Li Shifo. But Zhao Zhixun's concept of Go is very unique, he has always believed that there is more than one correct path to Go, and for him, it is normal to look down on Li Shifo's "art of forbearance", so he can only understand this way.

Of course, when it comes to Li Shifo, Li Xiaoqiang will definitely be mentioned. Especially at the moment of the finals, Li Xiaoqiang's topic is so unavoidable.

"What about Li Xiaoqiang? What do you think of Li Xiaoqiang? ”

"Li Xiaoqiang, hehe."

Lao Zhao confused the reporter who asked him with a "hehe", and under the repeated questioning of the reporter, Lao Zhao finally spoke again: "The reason why I refuse to comment on Li Xiaoqiang is because I don't think I have this qualification." What kind of success he can achieve, and his future status in the world chess arena, I think can only be left to future generations to comment. The only thing I can say now is that being in the same era as Li Xiaoqiang is both a misfortune for us professional chess players and a blessing for us. Many people should know, I am a chess fan of Mr. Wu Qingyuan, since I was a child, I don't know how many copies of "Wu Qingyuan's Complete Works" have been turned over. But in the last two years, I have added another hobby, that is, I like to flip through Li Xiaoqiang's chess games when I have nothing to do, and his chess also fascinates me deeply......"

How do you say that? When these words reached Li Xiaoqiang's ears, he was as calm as Li Xiaoqiang.

After saying this, the atmosphere before the "Samsung Cup" final seems to be a little wrong. Not only can there be no "war of words", but the two sides in the final are also rushing to bring high hats to their opponents.

Here, Lao Zhao Gang praised Li Xiaoqiang, he praised Li Xiaoqiang to a very high position, and Li Xiaoqiang's good words over there also came.

"What? You say that Mr. Zhao's chess has no thoughts? No, no, no, you're completely mistaken. Haven't you noticed? There's obviously a lot of exploratory stuff in his game. There are some tricks that are not conclusive, and ordinary chess players dare not try them, but Mr. Zhao does. He did not hesitate to risk losing, but he often tried some new moves in major competitions, which is what I admire about Mr. Zhao very much. Of course, his path of exploration is different from that of Mr. Takemiya and others, not so natural and bright, but obscure. But for Go, who's to say it's not a valuable place? You must know that the so-called realm in Go is not only the high and profound things on the clouds, but also the treasures buried deep in the soil. And Mr. Zhao's Go is like a treasure buried deep in the soil......"

"Of course Li Xiaoqiang is a genius, and he is the kind of peerless genius who can only meet one in decades, there is no doubt about this, compared to him, we are all mortals......"

Such a tall hat flew around in the air, which also made the people watching the excitement stunned, in short, there was a strange atmosphere before this final. However, as the date of the final approaches, especially the two parties showed different forms before the game, this makes everyone start to pay attention to the final victory or defeat of this year's finale.

For the finals between Li Xiaoqiang and Zhao Zhixun, of course, everyone was optimistic about Li Xiaoqiang before the game, and there was no doubt about this. But just before the "Samsung Cup" final, Li Xiaoqiang lost again! He just lost to Ma Xiaofei with a score of 2-3 in the final of China's "Celebrity Battle", allowing the latter to achieve 8 consecutive hegemony of China's "celebrity".

Regarding Li Xiaoqiang's loss this time, everyone really doesn't know what to say. If the "LG Cup" loses to Liu Changhyuk, everyone can still find a reason for Li Xiaoqiang, it is that Liu Changhyuk carefully prepared for the victory that caught Li Xiaoqiang off guard. But what about the loss to Ma Xiaofei in this five-game chess? Even Li Xiaoqiang himself couldn't tell what was going on.

At present, there are 4 challenge system title battles in China, and Li Xiaoqiang holds 3 of them, so it is impossible for Li Xiaoqiang not to pay attention to this last "celebrity" title. In the middle of the game, Li Xiaoqiang did force Ma Xiaofei into a desperate situation with a score of 2-1. But what about the last two rounds? You can understand it as a ghost making a god worse, or you can understand that Ma Xiaofei has divine help, in short, in the end, he successfully defended his title.

In the final of the "Celebrity War", Li Xiaoqiang was not the first time that he was reversed by Ma Xiaofei with a 2-1 lead, and Li Xiaoqiang's reversal seemed to only occur in the "Celebrity War" decisive battle.

Li Xiaoqiang missed out in the "Celebrity Fight", while Zhao Zhixun has been heroic in the Japanese domestic arena since defeating Li Shifo.

In the current domestic arena in Japan, Kobayashi Koji and Zhao Zhixun, the two last bastions of the "Six Supers", are engaged in a difficult tug-of-war with the Mesozoic Era such as Noriki Ida, Satoru Kobayashi, and Wang Licheng.

Kobayashi Koji fought back in small title battles such as "Tengen", "Ten Dan", "Throne", and "Small Chess Holy War", while Cho Jihoon continued to be active on the stage of "Big Triple Crown". Just before the "Samsung Cup" final, Zhao Zhixun had just won the right to challenge Japan's "celebrity battle" and would compete with Yida Kiki for Japan's "celebrity".

"Ma Xiaofei can beat Li Xiaoqiang in the chess match, why can't Zhao Zhixun?"

This is a change of direction that quietly appeared before the final of the "Samsung Cup".

In mid-December 1998, the final day finally approached.

Two days before the game, Li Xiaoqiang was taking lessons with Gu Dali and other national junior team players. Li Xiaoqiang is now the vice captain of the Chinese national Go team, and he is often called by Lao Nie to give lectures to the young chess players of the national junior team.

"Dali, how many of you are going to Shencheng with me tomorrow, right?"

The "Samsung Cup" Chiguoguo focuses on the Chinese market, so the final is still held in Shencheng. Stimulated by the new Korean chess players, the Chinese Chess Academy also decided to speed up the training of young chess players, the first of which is the domestic "rookie king war" restructuring, starting from this year, Chang Ren Shengluo Shenzhu and others are not eligible to participate in the "rookie king war". The main forces participating in the "Rookie King War" became Gu Dali and Kong Erjie.

And the schedule of the "Rookie King Battle" happens to coincide with the "Samsung Cup", and Gu Dali and they are also going to participate in the competition this time.

"Boss, it should be no problem to take down Zhao Zhixun this time, right?"

Li Xiaoqiang glared: "Boss, boss, is your name boss?" How many times have I told you that I want to call Mr. Li, understand? Teacher Li ......"

"Hahahaha......"

Li Xiaoqiang's blowing beard and glaring only got such a big laugh, and he embarked on the journey like this.

(To be continued.) )