The battle on Yicheng.com completely put the mysterious chess player Chu Ying out of the circle. After all, what he won this time was the outstanding talent of a young genius who was in the limelight.
In the recently concluded Samsung Cup, 'Zeiyi' first defeated the No. 1 Go player from Country R, Yukihiro Taya, in the first round, and then defeated Ogata 9th Dan and Bangzi Country's Li 9th Dan in the second and third rounds.
And 'Chu Ying' defeated 'Jue Yi' on Yicheng Online. In a sense, doesn't it mean that Chu Ying is stronger than Taya Xingyang and the others?
Although the outcome of a Go game cannot be determined solely by the relationship between victory and defeat, 'Chu Ying''s performance undoubtedly proved something to the outside world.
In the field of Go, 'Chu Ying' is definitely in the first echelon of strength!
And since his debut, Chu Ying's true face has been shrouded in mystery. So far, no one knows his true identity.
Defeating a talented boy with unique skills and a mysterious identity, he is an excellent boo in every aspect. Faced with such a hot topic, the media will naturally not let it go.
Therefore, even though more than a month has passed, the discussion about "Chu Ying" has not subsided. Instead, it has gradually intensified due to the restart of the Samsung Cup.
On November 1st, the Samsung Cup semi-finals were held at the Samsung Training Institute in Seoul, Korea. Different from the previous single-elimination competition system, the semi-finals adopted a three-way elimination system.
The contestants who advanced to the semi-finals this time are Yu Xiaoyang, Zhao Bingfeng, Li Jie from China, and Zama 9th Dan from R Country.
As we all know, Bangzi Country is a country with a very strong self-esteem. Of course, this 'self-esteem' must be enclosed in double quotation marks.
In addition, they not only hate the Japanese who have lived a good life, but also look down on the Chinese, as if the country is the center of the universe.
The Samsung Cup is a world-wide event sponsored by their national enterprise, and everything from the qualifiers to the finals is held in their home country.
However, the game reached the semi-finals after a series of competitions. The most important thing is that the semi-finals of the Samsung Cup are all foreigners and there is not a single local player.
It's like the World Cup is being held at home, but as a result, your own team is eliminated early, and you can only watch others 'fighting' at home.
The top four lost nothing. How can the arrogant Chinese people accept this?
I can't bear it!
Absolutely intolerable!
If given the choice, Bangzi Country will definitely do whatever it takes, even if it uses some off-the-beaten-track moves, to let its players advance.
However, the game of Go is no different from football, and the off-field influencing factors are not that big. You can't 'poison' the food of those foreign players, right?
No matter how stupid the Bangzi people are, they will not make such a mistake, because once the 'poisoning' behavior is exposed, it is not a matter of moral level, but a crime.
However, although it cannot be 'poisoned', Bangzi Country still has some small tricks in private.
Li Jie once experienced the "shameless" behavior of Bangzi Country. In the third round of the Samsung Cup, his opponent was Li Jiuduan of Bangzi Country.
The night before the game, the air conditioner in the room suddenly turned on for no apparent reason, and it was still blowing cold wind.
Thanks to Li Jie's relatively good physique, he was not diagnosed with illness. Otherwise, it would definitely affect his performance in the next day's game.
To be fair, Li Jie's eyes were opened to Bangzi Country's dirty tricks. When he was in the main world, he had heard about all kinds of dirty behaviors of Bangzi Country, such as the 2002 World Cup, the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, etc.
But what he didn't expect was that one day he would be treated like this.
Although Li Jie was not affected, he was disgusted. He had made up his mind that he would never participate in any competition sponsored by Bangzi Country again in the future.
Anyway, he doesn't rely on competition bonuses to live. If he is really short of money, he can make a lot of money by just taking out something.
Furthermore, Go is just his hobby, and he has nothing but nostalgia for this world.
Once he gets the title of 'Chess Saint', he will immediately return to the main world.
Closer to home, outside comments did not affect the four players who advanced to the semi-finals. The two semi-finals were held at the same time.
One of them was the Sino-Japanese War, and the other was the Chinese Civil War.
Although there were a lot of boos about the Sino-Japanese war, the media did not pay much attention. After all, Zama's ninth-dan strength was slightly worse than Yu Xiaoyang's.
Judging from past results, the winner of this game should be Yu Xiaoyang.
The game that really caught the media's attention was another Chinese civil war. The two sides in this game were China's veteran master Zhao Bingfeng and the newly rising genius 'Jue Yi'.
In addition, before the start of this game, Jueyi also lost to online chess player Chu Ying.
Originally, the outcome of a Go match was not worthy of everyone's attention, but the powerful media had long since found out Li Jie's past record.
Ever since 'Jue Yi' went to country R, his life has been like a mess. Whether in official competitions or private discussions, Jue Yi has always maintained an astonishing 100% winning rate.
Therefore, the Yicheng.com battle was also given special meaning by the media.
Will 'Jue Yi' be in poor condition due to this failure?
In addition, 'Fine Art''s performance in the second and third rounds of the Samsung Cup was also unsatisfactory, and it never showed convincing dominance.
With such a performance, the media couldn't help but come to the conclusion that Jueyi's competitive status has been declining.
Before the semifinals started, many media made similar predictions.
'Exquisite Art' will probably stop in the semi-finals.
Even if Jueyi can get past Zhao Bingfeng, it probably won't be able to win the championship from Yu Xiaoyang.
However, reality is often unpredictable.
In the first round of the Samsung Cup semi-finals, Li Jie killed Zhao Bingfeng neatly.
The next day, Li Jie pursued the victory and once again showed amazing dominance. As soon as the game reached 100 moves, Zhao Bingfeng surrendered.
The 2:0 result shocked most of the naysayers.
After the game, the media who were looking down on the game were not at all annoyed at being slapped in the face. Overnight, they changed their banners one after another and began to advocate such things as 'The dark horse is back' and 'Genius XXX'.
As for the other semi-final, the result was similar to Li Jie's. Yu Xiaoyang easily defeated R country player Zama Kudan 2-0.
According to the Samsung Cup schedule, Li Jie and Yu Xiaoyang will compete in three finals from November 5th to 7th to compete for the championship prize of 300 million won and the title of world champion.
The final is also a civil war for China. Whether Li Jie wins or Yu Xiaoyang wins, China Go will win two consecutive Samsung Cups.
