Chapter 174: Conquering the Enemy Without Fighting

Wu Shuheng looked at the chessboard, took a deep breath, and finally took out the chess piece from the chess box again, putting it down with gritted teeth.

Da! Eleven columns and twelve rows, great!

Yu Shao lowered his eyes, staring at the chessboard quietly, and gently took out another chess piece from the chess box, and slowly put it down! The chess pieces continued to fall alternately.

The black pieces have already adopted a strangling posture towards the white pieces. In this fight, the two sides are incompatible and the victory or defeat will be determined by the strength of the chess skills.

"The white piece is entangled by the black piece and there is no way to escape!"

The taller referee stared at the chessboard, immersed in the game, and made his own judgment.

"Although the black pieces have the first move now, the black pieces have been forcefully dividing the white pieces and fighting against them, so the chess pattern is very weak, and it can even be said to be in danger!"

"Therefore, as long as the white piece can catch its breath, it can immediately inflict fatal damage to the black piece!"

"Now, it depends on whether the black pieces will completely crush the white pieces with their impenetrable offensive, or whether the white pieces will use their tenacious defense to finally strike back at the black pieces!"

The taller referee couldn't help but turn his head and look at Yu Shao, who was looking at the chessboard calmly and had a handsome face.

He really couldn't imagine how Yu Shao had made such an outrageous move before. Under the circumstances just now, 90% of the chess players would choose to stick without hesitation.

However, Yu Shao chose a fierce move that most chess players would never choose. He ignored the weakness of his black pieces and tried to forcibly cut off the white pieces.

"This can even be said to be brave but not wise..."

As soon as this thought appeared in his mind, Yu Shao's index finger and middle finger picked up the chess piece again and gently placed it on the chessboard.

Da! Five columns and eight rows, clip!

"folder!"

Seeing this move, the pupils of the taller referee suddenly shrank, and the other referee also showed a look of surprise, all of them felt the oppression brought by this move.

"The white piece in the upper left corner——"

"I'm suddenly in a dilemma!"

Wu Shuheng was sweating profusely at this moment. After thinking for a long time, he took out the white piece from the chess box with a click, gritted his teeth, and fell down with the chess piece.

Da! Five columns and nine rows, long!

Yu Shao followed closely behind, picking up the chess piece again and dropping it! Da! Five columns and eight rows, pull!

Ta, da, da!

On the chessboard, the fight between the two sides has become more and more intense. The frequent sounds of chess pieces falling are like the clanging of swords. The two referees seem to be able to see sparks constantly flashing on the chessboard!

"Wu Shuheng is a 3rd dan player, and every move he makes is good, but—"

Watching both sides making their moves, the taller referee stared at the chessboard, unable to calm down.

"The situation is gradually shifting in favor of the black pieces, and now the white pieces are completely passive!"

The shorter referee was also staring at the chessboard intently, with beads of sweat appearing on his forehead and temples.

"White had clearly taken care of the strong position in the upper left corner, but under the fierce attack of Black, it was still successfully shaken..."

"Baizi, it's not good!"

Wu Shuheng obviously realized this as well. He looked at the chessboard in front of him and thought for a long time before he finally picked up the chess piece again and slowly put it down.

Not long after Wu Shuheng made his move, Yu Shao took out another black piece from the chess box and dropped it quickly.

Da! The two referees didn't dare to breathe at this time, and watched the chess game closely.

Now the black pieces have already attacked the white pieces in the upper left position with an unstoppable momentum, but the white pieces have also done their best to show their determination to fight the black pieces to the death! Da, Da, Da!

Black and white pieces kept falling on the board alternately, and soon both sides made more than ten moves in succession.

"White has tried his best, but... the situation is still irreversibly shifting towards Black!"

The taller referee looked at the chess board and had already reached a conclusion.

"I'm afraid Baizi can't bear it anymore."

At this moment, Yu Shao picked up the chess piece again and slowly let it fall.

Da! Fourteen columns and seven rows, town! "Hmm?"

Seeing this move, the two referees and Wu Shuheng were all stunned.

This was a completely unexpected move. The black piece already had the opportunity to destroy the white piece, and the chance was very great. At this time, the black piece should continue to launch the most fierce attack on the white piece, but... he lost the initiative?

Why? But soon, when the three people finally realized Heizi's intention and reacted, they all showed shock on their faces!

"Great...Great idea!"

The taller referee's eyes widened and his mouth became dry.

Although the black pieces' attacks before were accurate and deadly, and every move was smooth and satisfying, those moves were far less shocking to him than this single move!

"The white piece in the upper left corner now finally has a chance to survive..."

"But this was not something that White had fought for himself, but was given to White by Black, his opponent!"

"The black pieces did not kill all the white pieces, giving them a chance to breathe and allowing the white piece in the upper left corner to do some work. However, after this move, the power of the black pieces in the center instantly expanded..."

"Heizi used his power to suppress his opponent and won without even fighting!"

He totally couldn't understand why Yu Shao could make this move. It was a completely different idea from Heizi's previous violent attack, but the suppressive power was unparalleled, even stronger, which made people tremble with fear.

"Is it... a sudden inspiration?"

He couldn't help but look up at Yu Shao with a puzzled look.

On the other side, Wu Shuheng stared at the chessboard in a daze. After a long time, he finally picked up the chess piece again and slowly put it down.

Seeing the white piece fall, Yu Shao also followed suit.

The two sides quickly made more than ten moves in succession. The white piece successfully came alive in the upper left corner, and then the white piece moved into the middle. After trying to continue playing a few more moves, Wu Shuheng stopped squeezing out the chess piece.

The situation at this point is clear at a glance. The white pieces have no room to continue fighting, and the black pieces are not killing them all, but that move is even more killing in another sense.

Wu Shuheng closed his eyes, lowered his head, and said, "I lost."

In fact, he already knew the answer after Heizi's move.

After that, he just fought ten or so moves stubbornly and made a last-ditch effort. But when he saw that Yu Shao's moves in the middle of the board were impeccable, he gave up.

"Thanks for your advice."

Seeing Wu Shuheng resign himself to defeat, Yu Shao lowered his head slightly and spoke.

Wu Shuheng also bowed his head and said in return: "Thank you for your guidance."

After the two of them exchanged greetings, they began to pack up their chess pieces. Wu Shuheng was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Would you like to go eat together?"

Hearing this, Yu Shao was slightly startled and subconsciously glanced in the direction of Zheng Qin. He originally wanted to see how Zheng Qin played this game of chess.

But after all, Wu Shuheng was his senior, so Yu Shao did not refuse. He nodded and said, "Okay."

After they packed up their chess pieces, they reported the results of the game to the two referees, then stood up and left the game room together.

"Dian San San won the first game he played in a professional tournament."

The taller referee felt confused as he watched Yu Shao and Wu Shuheng leave.

"He also won his first game as a professional chess player."

"It's not uncommon for a first-dan player to beat a third-dan player, but those first-dan players usually have to go through a period of time in the professional arena to hone their skills and grow before they can beat a third-dan player."

"It's rare for a newly-professional chess player to be able to defeat a 3rd-dan chess player..."

He hesitated for a moment, looked at Table No. 16 where Zheng Qin was, and then walked towards Table No. 16.

…

…

"Your suppression was very good."

After leaving the game room, Wu Shuheng looked at Yu Shao and said, "I thought you would continue to fight me to the death in the upper left corner, but I didn't expect it to be Zhen."

"That move was absolutely brilliant. It seemed to give my white piece a way out, but in fact it blocked it. After seeing that move, I instantly lost all my fighting spirit."

"I am your senior in school and your predecessor in work, but..."

Wu Shuheng looked a little bewildered, and said, "I can't come up with that move at all. I can't even think of it. To be honest, after you made that move, I felt that it would be better if my white pieces were killed..."

Hearing this, Yu Shao was a little surprised.

According to normal play, he would definitely continue to attack until the white piece killed the entire dragon and ended the game.

But it was precisely because Wu Shuheng was his senior after all, and losing by slaying the dragon was too ugly, so he resorted to the method that he was best at in his previous life.

How come there are still people who would rather let the dragon be slain?

Isn't it better to die slowly than to die immediately?

"Forget it, let's not talk about this anymore."

Wu Shuheng suddenly shook his head and walked towards the cafeteria with Yu Shao. Just after they took two steps, a clear and pleasant female voice suddenly sounded behind them.

"Brother! Yu Shao!"

Wu Shuheng and Yu Shao both stopped immediately and turned to look behind them.

Not far behind the two of them, Wu Zhixuan was looking at them with surprise, standing on tiptoe and waving at them.

Wu Zhixuan had her hair permed, and the ends of her hair were slightly curled and fluffy. With her fair skin and beautiful facial features, she looked delicate and charming. She was dressed simply, in a white shirt and denim shorts.

Her legs are long and white, not thin. Although she has some flesh, they don't look thick at all. They look very elastic, making people feel healthy and energetic.

Seeing the two stop, Wu Zhixuan quickly stretched out her slender white legs and trotted over to them, asking curiously, "Are you done?"

"It's over."

Seeing his sister, Wu Shuheng nodded and asked in surprise, "You've finished playing too?"

"Yes."

Wu Zhixuan nodded excitedly, wrinkled her nose, and smiled proudly at the two of them: "The opponent is a fourth-dan, but I won. If I can win two more games in a row, I will be promoted to the third dan!"

Hearing this, Yu Shao was also a little surprised.

In this world, it is much easier for female chess players to be promoted, but if they want to be promoted, they must compete with male players. The value of male and female chess ranks is the same, which is very different from the previous life.

In other words, the chess skills of female second dan and male second dan in this world are almost the same, and the same is true for female ninth dan and male ninth dan. This leads to a very rare number of high-level female chess players in this world.

Therefore, most of the female chess players in the world remain at the level of one or two dan, and it is difficult for them to move up further.

Yu Shao had never played chess with Wu Zhixuan, nor had he seen any of Wu Zhixuan's chess records. However, because Wu Zhixuan's appearance and personality did not show any qualities of a master, he always felt that Wu Zhixuan's chess skills should not be strong.

He was promoted to the second level just half a year ago, and in less than a year, he is about to be promoted to the third level. This speed is definitely not slow.

Now it seems that I seem to judge people by their appearance?

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"Who won?"

Wu Zhixuan obviously knew that Wu Shuheng's opponent today was Yu Shao. She looked at Yu Shao and couldn't help but asked curiously, "Yu Shao, did you win?"

"Why do you ask that?"

Hearing this, Wu Shuheng said helplessly, "I am your brother, okay?"

"Then I guessed right."

Hearing that Wu Shuheng did not refute her words, Wu Zhixuan knew the answer to the question and said in a mature manner: "Alas, the young are really to be feared. Wu Shuheng is old and can no longer eat!"

"Wu Zhixuan, you're not much better."

Wu Shuheng rolled his eyes and said, "Let's not talk about the men's first dan. There's Xu Zijin in the women's first dan, right? If you play against her, you might lose. She's undefeated and you're not."

"What are you talking about? My chess skills have improved a lot recently, and even you have lost to me a lot!"

Wu Zhixuan said angrily: "I'm very powerful. If I face her, I will definitely win!"

After saying that, Wu Zhixuan suddenly thought of something, looked at Yu Shao, and asked: "Yu Shao, besides participating in the national championship, what other competition did you participate in? The first-level championship?"

"The Yingjiao Cup." Yu Shao replied.

"You're not going to participate in the first stage championship, but directly participate in the Yingjiao Cup?"

Wu Zhixuan blinked, a little surprised: "Wouldn't it be good to participate in the first-level championship and win the championship?"

Although the age limit of the Yingjiao Cup is under 18 years old, this does not mean that all participants in the Yingjiao Cup are low-level chess players. It can even be said that the opposite is true.

Most low-level chess players participate in the Yingjiao Cup just for the sake of formality.

You know, in almost every professional ranking tournament, there are one or two geniuses who successfully qualify at the age of twelve or thirteen. After five or six years, they will not even be eighteen years old.

There was supposed to be a Zhuang Fei in the southern division this year, who was promoted to the professional chess level at the age of thirteen. However, Zhuang Fei was eliminated. This resulted in no chess player who successfully promoted to the professional chess level in the southern division this year being younger than fourteen years old.

But it is different in other regions. There is a chess player in the Central Region who was promoted to the professional level at the age of twelve, and there is also a chess player in the Western Region who was promoted to the professional level at the age of thirteen.

As for the Northern and Eastern divisions, just like the Southern division, no players under the age of fourteen were promoted to professional chess this year.

Go players like these who successfully qualified for the professional level at the age of twelve or thirteen may not have been the strongest among their peers at the time of qualification, and may even have been at the bottom, but after all, they obtained a professional qualification and have unlimited potential.

Even though their chess skills were only at the ordinary beginner level when they were promoted, after five or six years of hard work in the professional arena, their chess skills were quite good. They were also under 18 years old at that time and were still young.

The Yingjiao Cup can be said to be a competition specially set up for these people. Other chess players are either over 18 years old or not strong enough to compete with them.

Yu Shao became a professional professional at the age of sixteen. Although he was qualified based on his undefeated record, at the age of sixteen, he can only be considered average. After all, most people are qualified around sixteen.

Before Yu Shao could speak, Wu Zhixuan seemed to have suddenly thought of something and couldn't help asking, "Have you also heard about the Sino-US Youth Tournament?"

"China-US Youth Competition?"

Yu Shao was confused and asked, "What does this have to do with the Yingjiao Cup?"

"You don't know?"

Wu Zhixuan was a little surprised and explained, "Some time ago, the Chinese Chess Institute and the American Chess Institute jointly organized a youth competition. Only chess players under the age of eighteen could participate."

"Each side of China and the United States will select ten chess players to compete in a ring battle. The winner will become the champion and defend the ring. The loser will be challenged by the next chess player until the final winner is decided."

"The Yingjiao Cup also happens to be limited to those under 18 years old, so the top ten chess players in the Yingjiao Cup will participate in the Sino-US Youth Challenge. This is a mandatory requirement of the chess academy and cannot be refused unless you are physically unwell."

After hearing what Wu Zhixuan said, Yu Shao couldn't help but frown and asked, "Can American chess players compete with Chinese chess players?"

"Why not?"

Wu Zhixuan looked at Yu Shao in surprise and said, "Ten years ago, they were indeed slightly inferior to us, but now their overall strength has become much stronger and they are also among the best in the world."

Hearing this, Yu Shao couldn't help but be a little surprised. Although he knew that World Go was an international competition with great influence, even Western players had chess names and there were many professional players.

But he was used to the competition between China, Japan and South Korea in his previous life. When he heard that Western chess players were also rising, he was still somewhat uncomfortable with the grand occasion of a hundred schools of thought contending.

"Not only that, this challenge was initiated by the American Chess Institute, and we were forced to accept the challenge. In other words, this time we are competing for chess, and its significance is different from the past."

At this time, Wu Shuheng's face also became a little solemn, and he said: "According to past experience, after the youth challenge match is over, the next step will be the challenge match between the ninth-dan players."

"Fighting chess?"

Yu Shao turned his head to look at Wu Shuheng, somewhat puzzled, and asked, "Previous experience?"

"To compete for rank, to determine who is better, to decide life and death, chess has existed since ancient times."

Wu Shuheng took a deep breath and said, "First, there will be a competition between young players, and then there will be a competition between advanced players. One competition represents the future, and one competition represents the present."

"If we lose both, we will be inferior in skills and our international ranking will be lower than the winner."

"If one team loses and the other wins, the ranking will remain unchanged, and the party that initiated the game will bear all the prize money."

"If both games are won, not only will the entire prize money for both games be borne by the losing party, but the original prize money will be paid three times."

At this point, Wu Shuheng looked a little sad, and said, "Anyway, that's how we fell from first to third."

"More than a decade ago, we challenged Japan and South Korea to fight for our place in the chessboard several times, but unfortunately we lost every time and never challenged them again."

"In the past ten years, the overall strength of the United States has gradually increased. Some people have always said that the United States will start to compete with us, but in the past few years, there has been no real movement."

"And now, maybe because we lost the Fangyuan Cup, the chess game has really come up again..."

"Because the importance of this event is different from previous ones, the news has not been officially announced yet. Otherwise, it would probably cause an uproar immediately. Even people who don't know anything about Go would pay attention to it."

Wu Shuheng sighed and said self-deprecatingly, "Fortunately, my chess skills are not that good and I am almost twenty years old. Anyway, these two chess games have nothing to do with me."

After hearing this, Yu Shao was silent for a moment and asked, "Is there any value in this international ranking? For example, what are the benefits of moving up one place?"

"No, it has no value."

Wu Shuheng glanced at Yu Shao, shook his head, and then continued word by word: "Because of this, it is of infinite value."

Yu Shao immediately understood.

When the topic of chess competition came up, the atmosphere suddenly became dull. Even Wu Zhixuan seemed a little absent-minded. She was not yet eighteen years old, so naturally she signed up for the Yingjiao Cup.

However, she has no illusions about making it into the top ten. She is purely honing her chess skills and earning some game fees. If she can make it into the top ten, then Chinese Go will really be finished.

Normally, she would hope that her grades would be as high as possible, but now, she hoped that her grades would be as low as possible, and her mood suddenly became complicated.

The three of them walked towards the cafeteria together. Just as they reached the door and were about to leave the cafeteria, a young man in a plaid shirt just walked out of the cafeteria.

The young man was about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, with a thin face and exceptionally sharp eyes. At this moment, his brows were slightly furrowed, and his expression was a little absent-minded, as if he was thinking about something.

But the strange thing is that although the young man was clearly frowning at this moment, the corners of his mouth were slightly upturned, giving people the feeling that he was smiling all the time.

Seeing the young man, Wu Shuheng and Wu Zhixuan were both stunned. After they came to their senses, they immediately stopped and greeted the young man: "Teacher Zhang Dongchen."

Although the young man was only ten years older than Wu Zhixuan and seven or eight years older than Wu Shuheng, the two still addressed each other as teacher, because in Go, the one who is more accomplished is the teacher.

Even if the chess player is younger, but has a higher rank, he or she should still call the master "teacher". Even if he or she does not call him or her "teacher", he or she should still add the rank or title to show respect.

Zhang Dongchen? Hearing the names from the two people, Yu Shao was a little surprised and looked up at the young man.

Although he still didn't know much about the Go world in this world, he had some impression of the name Zhang Dongchen.

Zhang Dongchen, the current holder of the Go Saint title.

Zhang Dongchen is a chess player from the Western Region, and most of his competitions should be held at the Western Chess Academy.

Yu Shao originally thought it would be difficult to meet Zhang Dongchen, but he unexpectedly met him in the cafeteria of the chess academy today. It should be because Zhang Dongchen happened to have a competition in the southern division recently.

Hearing the voices of Wu Shuheng and Wu Zhixuan, Zhang Dongchen came back to his senses, nodded to them, and was about to leave when he suddenly noticed Yu Shao standing beside him and stopped.

"Yu Shao?"

Zhang Dongchen looked at Yu Shao, frowned even more tightly, and asked.

"right."

Yu Shao was slightly stunned. He didn't expect that Zhang Dongchen knew him, and nodded.

Zhang Dongchen stared at Yu Shao for a while, and suddenly asked: "Did you participate in the Yingjiao Cup?"

“I did.”

Yu Shao didn't understand what he meant, so he nodded and answered truthfully.

Zhang Dongchen nodded upon hearing this, and did not say anything else. After looking at Yu Shao deeply, he withdrew his gaze from Yu Shao, took another step, and left on his own.

Yu Shao looked at Zhang Dongchen's departing back and was suddenly a little confused.

…………

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(End of this chapter)