Riding the wind of rebirth

"He should have... performed quite well, right?" Zhou Zhi said. "Didn't the Chess Saint agree with the key moves that Xiao Zhi pointed out just now? As for Da Zhu's big blunder at the end, Xiao Zhi could have judged that without him even having to do it."

On the television screen, Otake Hideo had already stood up, and Chang Hao stood up with him. After exchanging a few polite words, Otake left. Then Hua Yigang, Takemiya Masaki, and Lin Haifeng came over. They first congratulated Chang Shintong, and then everyone sat down together to review the game. The atmosphere seemed relaxed and pleasant.

“Yes, especially Xiaozhi’s judgments on several key positional transitions were spot on…” An Chunjia had just finished speaking when the phone rang again: “Oh, the Chess Saint is calling again…”

This time, An Chunjia was sensible and immediately put the phone on speakerphone.

The chess master's first words were: "Little Quail, is Elbow over there?"

Ignoring the laughter of the crowd, Zhou Zhi quickly said, "Elder Nie, I'm here."

"Everyone has given Xiaozhi's performance full recognition." Old Nie, probably used to the bureaucratic jargon from all the meetings, continued, "Judging from its skill level, it's fully qualified to compete with top-tier players. In a fast-paced best-of-three format, it even has a clear advantage. So, regarding the acceptance and follow-up matters of this project, perhaps we could…"

“If the Chess Academy has no objections, we have no problem,” Zhou Zhi quickly said. “However, we have only completed the most core part so far. The specific work of commercializing the results will require the strong cooperation of the Chess Academy…”

"No problem! We'll cooperate fully with anything that helps set up the online chess school as soon as possible. When are you and Xiao Miao coming to the capital? I'll treat you to Moutai to celebrate!"

"Uh... let's do this as soon as possible, we just got back from Liangshan Prefecture last night..."

"Alright, everyone hurry up, wait... Da Zhu is retiring? Is this old guy really going to do this? Is he putting our Haozi in such a predicament?" Zhou Zhi then heard a commotion on the other side, followed by the Chess Saint's voice: "Elbow, we have some things to take care of here, I'll deal with this first, keep in touch..."

The call was disconnected. Everyone stared at the phone on the table, then looked up at each other in bewilderment: "Hideo Otake, he's retired already?"

"This time we lost pretty badly..." Hu Lidong said.

"That's not just his problem; he lost five more games before that." An Chunjia had a gloating expression, not worried about Chang Shentong and Otake Hideo at all: "Six consecutive wins to sweep the tournament, it seems the level of Go in Japan is indeed starting to decline..."

Mai Mingdong waved his hand: "Let's not worry about these things for now. Everyone has already understood the requirements from the Chess Academy, right?"

"I understand." Zhou Zhi was actually a little gloating, but he quickly put away his gloating and said seriously, "Our virtual chess player project in cooperation with the chess academy should be entering the acceptance phase. Chunjia, you will continue to follow up on the various materials and case studies that need to be prepared for the acceptance phase."

"Wait a minute," An Chunjia said, "Elder Nie means that the online chess school should be put on the agenda as soon as possible..."

“We’re only responsible for the core,” Mai Mingdong said. “As for the development of peripheral systems like the chess school, why don’t we leave that to NetEase? Xiao Ding’s side would definitely be happy to do it.” “Yes, we’re developing the core, which is to develop Xiao Zhi, who has the level of a top-tier chess player,” Zhou Zhi said. “The specific program for letting Xiao Zhi play chess with whom and teaching those prodigies is very simple; there’s no need to leave it to us.”

“Actually, we can divide the project conversion into three categories.” Hu Lidong pondered for a moment: “The first category is our Clover business, which is to continue to optimize and deepen Xiaozhi’s capabilities and provide access interfaces.”

"The second type is aimed at professionals, which is the concept of the online Go school proposed by Master Nie. It is delivered to the Chinese Go Academy to build Go classrooms, game tracking and statistical analysis tools, and to provide teachers and students with a superior Go teaching software tool."

"The third category is entertainment, which is used to generate virtual chess players for online games. Their skill levels can be classified and graded for online chess players to challenge."

“This idea is actually very good. The overall level of online Go is still very low. Even the Go master shook his head after watching a few games, saying that it would corrupt everyone’s Go skills,” An Chunjia said.

"As people's cultural level improves, the proportion of highly educated people in the population is increasing, and even in their hobbies, people's professionalism is becoming stronger," Zhou Zhi said. "At least the readers of my novels seem to have a great interest in the research and verification of classical documents, and they can now find some very professional bugs."

"Your book, 'Su Chu'? Didn't you say that so far, no reader has been able to find any fault with it?" An Chunjia was also a novel enthusiast. He had read "Su Chu" at least three or four times, and he had also enjoyed reading the comments from netizens. "Tell me about it, I might remember."

“A fellow book lover said that two of the poems by Su Shi that I quoted did not match Su Shi’s age at the time.” Zhou Zhi laughed and said, “For example, I wrote ‘Spring Night’ as Su Shi’s work at the Mohe Pond literary gathering when he visited Zhang Fangping in Chengdu before he took office. In fact, the real time of its creation was when Su Shi was reinstated after experiencing the Wutai Poetry Case.”

"Ah, I remember now. You even used Zhang Fangping's words to say that this was Su Dongpo writing about his feelings during his wedding..."

“Yes, this poem was chosen from Su Shi’s poems because it was necessary for the plot, without considering the year of its creation.” Zhou Zhi laughed and said, “In fact, Su Shi did not have many famous works before he entered officialdom, so even if I wanted to include them, I could not find suitable ones.”

"Let's get back to the topic of virtual chess players," Mai Mingdong said with a smile. "We're getting off-topic."

"What I mean is, don't worry about the current online Go players being low-level; they'll improve sooner or later," Zhou Zhi said. "Hey? Actually, we could totally organize an online tournament, and we could even have Xiao Zhi participate as a mystery player. Wouldn't that be an interesting gimmick?"

"It seems like a really interesting activity," Mai Xiaomiao said, finding it very fun.

“Even if we’re going to do it, we have to finish the first two things first,” Mai Mingdong said. “That is, the virtual Go player project acceptance and the online Go school that Tianyu mentioned. Only then can we hold online Go competitions with the help of the Go Association. Don’t put the cart before the horse.”

“That’s true. First, we need to pass the project acceptance test, then perfect the online chess school software, and hold some small-scale tournaments within the chess academy before daring to promote it online.” Zhou Zhi agreed: “The internet is an amplifier of public opinion; it’s not necessarily a good thing, but it can amplify bad things just as well. We need to be cautious when holding online tournaments.” (End of Chapter)