Chapter 125 Stepping Stone

Even Zhuang Fei, when he saw Fang Haoxin walk into the game room, his originally nonchalant expression began to become serious.

"Fang Haoxin..."

Zhuang Fei looked at Fang Haoxin deeply.

In fact, he had a certain confidence in successfully qualifying for the professional league the year before last, but the reason he waited until this year to qualify was so that he could qualify with a perfect record.

As the son of Zhuang Weisheng, he didn't want to lose any game of chess before becoming a professional chess player.

He originally thought that with his chess skills, he would not be able to meet any opponent this year. However, a stumbling block, Fang Haoxin, suddenly appeared, a strong opponent that even he... found extremely difficult to deal with.

After the game was over, he went out of his way to watch Fang Haoxin's game. He had to admit that Fang Haoxin was quite good at chess. If he played against Fang Haoxin, he was not sure he could win.

"But that's fine."

Zhuang Fei took a deep breath and looked at Fang Haoxin with shining eyes.

"Without this kind of opponent as a stepping stone for me, even if I win all the games and get promoted... it's meaningless!"

Under everyone's gaze, Fang Haoxin glanced at the battle schedule on the wall, then scanned the game room, finally found his seat, and walked straight to table five.

Soon, Fang Haoxin stopped opposite Su Yiming, then pulled out a chair and sat opposite Su Yiming.

Fang Haoxin's opponent in this round is Su Yiming.

Zhuang Fei glanced at Su Yiming, then looked away, feeling that he had seen the ending.

"This year, the only one who can fight Fang Haoxin is me. I will beat him and get promoted to the professional league!"

"Others...are destined to be my foils!"

Seeing Fang Haoxin sitting down opposite Su Yiming, the others looked at Su Yiming with some regret. While they felt unlucky for Su Yiming, they also felt a sense of grief for the victim.

The two names, Fang Haoxin and Zhuang Fei, are like a mountain, weighing heavily on everyone's heart.

"The two who ran into Fang Haoxin and Zhuang Fei still fell at the last level. How unlucky..."

Next to Yu Shao, a boy about fifteen years old looked at Fang Haoxin, then looked at Zhuang Fei, rubbed his nose, and whispered to his opponent: "It's a pity that Fang Haoxin and Zhuang Fei didn't meet in the early competition, otherwise it would be interesting."

"Even if they meet in advance, with their strength, they will definitely be able to climb out of the loser group."

His opponent snorted coldly. It was obvious that the two knew each other before. He said, "Take care of yourself first. If you fall into the loser group, you may not be able to climb out."

"Fuck, who are you looking down on? You're definitely in the loser bracket today. I'm going to advance early, so you can just roll around in the loser bracket."

The boy rolled his eyes, looked at Su Yiming, and whispered, "I've never heard of that guy called Su Yiming before, but he defeated Wang Dong in the second round. I was quite curious about him, what a pity."

"Bai Jingchuan, you really don't treat me as a human being, right?"

Seeing that Bai Jingchuan was only paying attention to Zhuang Fei and Fang Haoxin, and seemed to have no tension at all in the game against him, Bai Jingchuan's opponent suddenly became angry and said, "Don't think that just because you beat me last year, you can still beat me this year!"

"Then I'll wait and see."

Bai Jingchuan shrugged and said, "Except for Zhuang Fei and Fang Haoxin, there are still four spots left. I'll take this quarter this year."

Not long after, other contestants arrived in the game room.

Yu Shao’s opponent in this round is Sha Xinrui, who is sixteen years old and is also a teenager aiming for a professional title.

He came and sat down opposite Yu Shao, his expression somewhat solemn.

By this round, there were only fifty people left, and most of them knew each other, so those unfamiliar names received a lot of attention.

Yu Shao is one of them.

Sha Xinrui had looked at Yu Shao's previous record and knew that Yu Shao had defeated Wan Bohan in the first round, Zhu Yi in the second round, and Feng Nan in the third round. These three were all young players who were trying to become a professional player.

These three, Wan Bohan and Feng Nan, all reached the finals last year.

Therefore, although he had never heard of Yu Shao, the rising dark horse, before, he did not dare to underestimate him.

After everyone arrived, the game fell silent again.

Everyone was quietly waiting for the game to start, and the atmosphere was a little tense.

At table five, Su Yiming looked at Fang Haoxin who was sitting opposite him with a complicated look.

Su Yiming thought for a moment and asked softly, "Fang Xin...is he your great-great-grandfather?"

During these three days, Su Yiming finally heard Fang Haoxin's name and learned that Fang Xin was Fang Haoxin's great-grandfather.

Hearing Su Yiming's words, Fang Haoxin was a little surprised.

Generally speaking, because two people are about to play a game, if they don’t know each other before, they will not be able to communicate much.

Every time he met an opponent, he looked as if he was facing a formidable enemy. He sat opposite him without saying a word, waiting for the game to begin.

And Su Yiming was the first person to take the initiative to talk to him in the past few days.

"right."

Fang Haoxin was actually quite happy to chat with people. He didn't like the atmosphere to be so dull every time. He nodded and said, "My great-grandfather is Fang Xin."

"Fang Xin's descendants..."

Looking at Fang Haoxin, the descendant of someone he knew well, Su Yiming suddenly felt a little sad and nostalgic, thinking of the countless chess games he had played with Fang Xin.

Fang Xin’s great-great-grandson…is this big now.

"After all, it's been... more than 150 years..."

Those past memories seem to be still before my eyes, but in the blink of an eye, those images gradually dim and finally scatter like sand.

Su Yiming looked at Fang Haoxin, and a smile suddenly appeared on his face. He had unparalleled expectations for this game of chess, and said, "Let's play the game later."

"ah?"

Hearing this, Fang Haoxin was stunned for a moment. He looked at Su Yiming in confusion, and finally nodded hesitantly.

With only five minutes left before the start of the game, two referees finally arrived at the game room. One of the referees was the chief referee Ma Zhengyu.

Five minutes later, Ma Zhengyu looked at the watch on his wrist and said, "It's time!"

"Each player has three hours to play, with a one-minute countdown. Black has a seven-and-a-half-point handicap. You can start guessing the first move now."

Hearing this, everyone reached into the chess box with serious expressions and started guessing who would go first. The sound of chess pieces colliding could be heard immediately in the chess room.

"I play black."

After Yu Shao and Sha Xinrui guessed the order, Yu Shao played black.

Sha Xinrui nodded, quickly exchanged the chess box with Yu Shao, and then they saluted each other.

Yu Shao looked at the chessboard, reached into the chess box, and quickly made his first move.

clatter.

Sixteen columns and four rows, stars.

Sha Xinrui looked at the chessboard, thought for a moment, then reached into the chess box, picked up a chess piece and put it down.

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…………

Meanwhile, on the other side, there were five tables.

The result of guessing the first move at this table is that Su Yiming plays black and Fang Haoxin plays white.

Su Yiming looked at the chessboard, pondered for a moment, and finally picked up the chess piece and slowly put it down.

clatter.

Seventeen columns and four rows, small mesh.

"One hand and a small eye?"

Seeing that the white piece landed at the small eye position in the first move, Fang Haoxin didn't think much about it, but immediately reached into the chess box and made a quick move.

clatter.

Four columns and four rows, stars!

At this time, the chief referee Ma Zhengyu had already come to Fang Haoxin's table and was watching the game.

Compared to Zhuang Fei, he was actually more concerned about Fang Haoxin. After all, Fang Haoxin had not been in the country before. Just based on the three days of chess games, it could be seen that Fang Haoxin had a solid foundation, but it was hard to judge how strong he was.

Looking at the chessboard, Su Yiming's eyes were calm. He quickly picked up the chess piece and placed it on the board.

Sixteen columns and seventeen rows, small mesh.

"Choose the wrong small eye layout?"

Ma Zhengyu frowned slightly, somewhat confused about Su Yiming's thoughts.

Facing a strong enemy like Fang Haoxin, the method of making mistakes in small eyes, which can easily break up the situation and form a delicate chess pattern, is actually not suitable, because it is too complicated and it is not easy for the weak to defeat the strong.

However, there may be another completely opposite tactical consideration, which is that the black pieces want to disrupt the chess game, fish in troubled waters in complex situations, and look for opportunities in the chaos.

Fang Haoxin didn't have so many thoughts. After the black piece fell, he immediately picked up the chess piece and dropped it.

Four columns and sixteen rows, stars.

"Two Constellations..."

Looking at the two moves of the white player, Su Yiming was not surprised, but he felt a little lonely in his heart.

"After all, it's not Fang Xin."

"If it was Fang Xin, he definitely wouldn't play like this. This is a modern way of playing... After all, it's a different era."

Although he had known this for a long time, Su Yiming still felt inexplicably sad when he saw Fang Xin's descendants playing in this modern way.

Even though he knew that this was not a bad thing, it meant that Go was constantly developing and improving.

However, Su Yiming quickly calmed down and picked up the chess piece again.

Fifteen columns and three rows, Xiaofei!

Fang Haoxin pondered for a moment before picking up the chess piece and dropping it quickly.

Da! Seventeen columns and fifteen rows, Xiaofei is dead!

"In this move, the black piece should use a double attack according to modern methods. This will be more intense and fierce. As for the sharp attack, although it is solid, it has been eliminated."

Su Yiming looked at the chessboard and instantly figured out the black piece's modern response to the white piece's small flying move.

During this year, he has been studying modern Go theory and adapting to modern playing methods. As for the playing methods from more than a hundred years ago, he has not played them for a long, long time.

Because those moves may not be strong enough to afford the 7.5 point handicap.

But now, facing Fang Xin's descendants, Su Yiming lowered his eyes to look at the chessboard, thought for a moment, and finally took out the black piece from the chess box and slowly put it down.

clatter.

The chess piece falls.

Fifteen columns and sixteen rows, sharp!

"tip?!"

Seeing this move, Fang Haoxin and Ma Zhengyu who was watching the game on the side were both stunned. Looking at the tip of fifteen to sixteen on the chessboard, their eyes subconsciously widened in disbelief.

…………

ps: I’m putting out a small broken bowl to ask for votes next month!

(End of this chapter)