Riding the wind of rebirth

"Then I'll make another call." Hu Tianyu stood up again.

“Just call here, on speakerphone.” Mai Mingdong finally spoke for the first time: “What are you running around for?”

"Okay." An Chunjia obediently turned on the phone and dialed the chess academy's number.

After receiving the question, the Go master remained silent for a long time before simply saying, "This move only shows one thing... Otake's mindset has changed."

By making such a hesitant and timid move, Da Zhu relinquished the advantage he had been holding onto. Chang Shentong then chose to interrupt on the upper side, breaking White's strong position on the top lane.

With this move, Black gained more territory than White on the board for the first time, and the winning percentage finally became even.

"It wasn't easy..." Hu Tianyu finally let out a long sigh.

"It seems that Go is not only a test of thinking, but more importantly, how to make fewer mistakes in the long process of playing the game." Zhou Zhi was also still a little scared. In this game, Otake had gained a huge advantage, but his three moves at the crucial moment were not very good choices, which caused him to lose his advantage little by little.

In the end, in order to turn the tide, White chose a feint attack strategy and began to place its pieces on the left flank.

This is a normal choice; now it's a battle between the advantage of having the first move and the advantage of having a strong position.

The choices made by both sides were clear and simple: White strengthened its advantage in the center, while Black reinforced the right side and seized the corner, resulting in an exchange. Both sides then resumed their efforts and prepared for the decisive battle.

Black then launched an attack, moving to the left corner, the last empty area that neither side had had time to attend to.

Another battle has begun, with Black choosing to secure the corner, while White chooses to strengthen the outer perimeter.

At this point, a disagreement arose again. Chang Hao continued to play on the lower left side after choosing to live in the corner, while Xiao Zhi chose to reinforce the upper middle side, connecting the previously disconnected black stones in the upper middle and right middle sides.

This move seemed a bit too far-fetched, especially since everyone's attention was focused on the bottom right side.

Even Zhou Zhi, who didn't know much about chess, shook his head. This was truly not how humans played chess; humans wouldn't think and solve problems like this.

To paraphrase Grandma's playful way of saying Xiaozhi's moves, it's like "hitting the east with a hammer and the west with a stick," which is even more unconventional than the "cosmic flow" style.

However, Chang Hao has once again conceded the initiative with this move. Now, the board position is that Black occupies the right side, the upper left corner, and the lower left corner, while White occupies the upper center and the right center, and has gained considerable strength in the left center and the center.

Even at this moment, in Ash's judgment, Takeo Hero still held a slight advantage.

Now comes the crucial final stage of the game. Chang Shentong must break into the center and launch a decisive battle. The struggle for this final area will directly determine the final outcome of the game.

As expected, Chang Shentong made a move on the white stone closest to the center point, signaling the start of the Central Plains War.

This move is quite good. Even if you can't win the battle, you can still isolate the two white stones left in the upper half of the board by playing a fighting move, thus preventing white from forming a large group.

White's response was also very solid, moving one stone downwards next to Black's, suggesting that Black would take the top and White would take the bottom, with both sides sharing the territory equally.

Even with the previous advantage, White still wins.

As expected, the prodigy chose to jump upwards next, pressing down on the two white pieces above him.

White's move to the upper side exposes many weaknesses on Black's right flank, creating gaps and openings that make it difficult to capture the seemingly isolated and weak White stones at the top. White then moves to the left, cutting off the connection between the left-side White stones and the two stones at the top. It seems both sides have abandoned the central struggle and begun exchanging and contesting positions in the center of the board. However, everyone knows that this movement is merely a ploy to force the Black stones into the center.

The final shape became a local entanglement, to the point where White needed to make a living group in the upper and middle parts.

After Otake Hideo probably felt that there was no major problem in the upper area, White returned to the left center to place stones, which was somewhat like "besieging Wei to rescue Zhao".

Black's upper left corner is still somewhat weak and has to be rescued. So, Black calls for the capture of the highest white stone. White chooses to cut in the middle, separating the two black stones in the left middle from the black stones above.

Xiao Zhi once again judged that Otake Hideo's move was not safe enough. His choice should have been to first place a single stone on the left side, then form a capture, causing Black to have limited liberties and have no choice but to counterattack, and then play the cut in the middle. This would have been more relaxed and clear, without any hidden dangers.

This is a minor mistake caused by the player not considering the order of events when making his moves. However, it is not a big problem here. At most, the player is a little impatient because the white stones in the upper part are not fully alive, and suffers a slight loss in the placement of stones.

"Xiao Zhi's move is reminiscent of Chang Shentong's style again, very solid." Zhou Zhi laughed, "It seems like Xiao Zhi has switched roles several times in this game."

Before the words were even finished, Otake Hideo made a move to cut off the two isolated black stones at the bottom, his intention was clear: to encircle the two black stones.

Then everyone saw on Xiaozhi's analysis screen that Dazhu Yingxiong's winning rate suddenly dropped to more than 30%, while Chang Hao's winning rate for black suddenly rose to more than 60%!

"Did something go wrong?!" Hu Tianyu exclaimed, standing up in surprise. "Where did this game go wrong?"

Soon everyone realized where the problem was, because Chang Shentong, at an extremely fast speed, almost as if afraid that Otake Hideo would take back his move, did not make a move next to Otake Hideo's move, but instead cut off and captured it!

Otake Hideo chose to extend his move, and Black chose to cut, capturing again.

Ash judged that Prodigy's winning percentage was 74.39%.

Then Otake Hideo immediately resigned.

"This...this is it?" Zhou Zhi found it unbelievable. Just now, White had a slight advantage, but one move completely ended the game?
"This move is quite obvious," Gu Li said on TV. "White's two stones have been captured and they dare not run away. If they had run away, this would have happened."

He then began placing his pieces on the upper side with Zhang Xuan, and after a few simple exchanges, he said, "That's it, the entire upper area of ​​White's pieces will be dead."

This is what happens when half of a dragon is slaughtered.

“If you don’t move, you can only move on the bottom. Black will respond, and White’s large territory in the center will be broken by Black. So, Mr. Otake had no choice but to resign in the middle game.” Zhang Xuan smiled and said, “We congratulate Chang Hao on defeating the Japanese team and helping China win the China-Japan Go Tournament with a six-game winning streak.”

"That's right!" Because of Xiao Zhi's presence, everyone was very focused on watching the game, even concentrating only on the changes in the game and forgetting that Chang Shentong would become famous in the chess world after this battle and achieve a record that surpassed his master Nie Qisheng!
He also led the Chinese team to victory again, without even the vice-captains and captains having a chance to play!

"We won! We won!" Hu Tianyu exclaimed excitedly, belatedly realizing what had happened. "Chang the Prodigy has ascended to immortality!"

"If you can't embellish, don't make wild comparisons!" Zhou Zhi said irritably, "What kind of inappropriate language is this?!"

"It's still a crushing victory no matter what!" Hu Tianyu said excitedly. "By the way, Chunjia, does my chessboard have Chang Shentong's signature? If not, hurry up and get it! Don't wait until it's too late!"

"Brother Chang is amazing!" Mai Xiaomiao exclaimed excitedly, "In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhouzi told me about Guan Yu escorting his sister-in-law home."

"We're here today to observe Xiao Zhi's performance." Mai Mingdong coughed lightly. "Has everyone forgotten our purpose?" (End of Chapter)