Riding the wind of rebirth

"Excellent! This move firstly stabilized the lower left corner of the white group; secondly, it left the large white group in the lower right with a way to cross over; and thirdly, it also searched the root of the five black stones, putting the large black group in an unstable state." Ma Xiaochun suddenly realized: "Xiao Zhi's move is truly brilliant!"

“Indeed! In this way, although it looks like White is suffering in a local area, it liberates the whole game.” Yu Bin also nodded: “First of all, the large White group in the lower right corner has a thorny spot that can be used to make it extend smoothly. There is also a crossing point inward as a means to make it move forward. There is always a way out. So White’s large group has been indirectly strengthened and is temporarily safe.”

"Secondly, since White's large group is temporarily safe, Black's large group in the lower left corner suddenly appears somewhat weak. Therefore, Black's next move will likely need to be a reinforcement move in this area. Otherwise, if White takes advantage of this point, Black's large group in the lower left and upper left corners will inevitably die on one side."

"Furthermore, if Black needs to focus on the lower left, White can then deal with the five stones on the right side in that area. Once these five stones are properly dealt with, Black's empty formation in the upper right will be unable to create a large territory, and Black will be in a tight spot in terms of territory throughout the game."

"So, while White's two moves seem to be withdrawing their force, they actually conceal even greater force," Nie Weiping frowned. "Now it's Xiao Chang's turn to have a headache. Finding a way to move will be a troublesome problem."

"I'm more curious about Kong Jie. What is he doing?" Zhou Zhi had been puzzled for a long time: "Wild Fox Xiao Zhi has given us a response for so long, why hasn't Kong Jie moved it to the board?"

“He’s putting on a show of rhythm,” Ma Xiaochun laughed. “A real chess player’s reaction time is nowhere near as fast as Xiao Zhi’s. He definitely needs to think before he can make that move. This gives Xiao Chang enough time to think, making it seem fairer.”

"The main problem is that Kong Jie himself needs time to digest Xiao Zhi's moves," Gu Li said with a smile on stage. "We've found that this is also a good opportunity to improve one's skills, provided that the player passing on the moves understands them in a timely manner."

"So there are other strategies involved," Zhou Zhi nodded. "This makes it more like two real chess players playing against each other."

The two opponents made two brilliant moves in a row, exciting everyone watching the game. This battle can be described as "a worthy opponent meeting a worthy general," or in other words, both opponents forced them to bring out their potential.

Overall, Black still has the advantage. Although the large group of stones is emerging, Black 113 makes it difficult for the large group of stones in the triangle to emerge. Black 111, on the other hand, makes it possible for Black to cut off White's stones in the next move.

White's large group of stones had to defend against Black's attempts to cut it off while also trying to escape. Despite being in a difficult situation, White remained calm and made a brilliant move. However, the significant advantage that Black had created for itself in the opening was still very obvious.

After 114 moves, Xiao Zhi played a move on the second line, and the game entered the "endgame" stage.

"What are the chances of Xiao Chang taking the lead?" Nie Qisheng asked.

“Sixty-eight percent,” Mai Xiaomiao said.

"The situation is still less than 70% complete, isn't it?" Chess Master Nie picked up his teacup again, but his eyes remained fixed on the game: "It's a bit short."

"A 70% chance of winning is still a bit low?" Zhou Zhi couldn't help but click his tongue in surprise: "Doesn't this mean that unless you have more than a 70% chance of winning within a hundred moves, it means..."

“That means we’re doomed to lose,” Yu Bin said. “In fact, if the system determines that our lead is less than 70% within a hundred moves, our probability of losing is as high as 94%.”

"So outrageous?!"

"What's so outrageous about this?" Ma Xiaochun rolled his eyes. "You still have at least a 6% chance of winning. Why don't you try running a marathon with a car?"

"That's true." Zhou Zhi nodded. It seemed his obsession was even deeper than that of these masters at the chess academy; he simply couldn't reach their level of understanding...

Just as they were sighing, Ma Xiaochun and Yu Bin set up two variations on the chessboard, their brows furrowing deeper and deeper: "Wait a minute, Xiaozhi's move doesn't seem like an endgame move..."

"Hmm?" Nie Weiping finally took it seriously, put down his cup and joined in, fiddling around for a few steps: "This..." "What's wrong?" Zhou Zhi couldn't understand at all, his mind was racing like a cat scratching at its heart, waiting for the experts to give an explanation.

"This move looks like an endgame play, but it actually contains a hidden strategy," Ma Xiaochun said. "Technically speaking, White 114 can defend against Black's digging move here: what if Black digs here?"

"The steps will be like this: look, when Bai mentions this place, 114's move just came into play, and at the same time, it also created a way for Bai's triangle dragon to cross here."

"Not only that, but we can also search for the roots of the large black group here!" Yu Bin pointed to a spot: "So this is..."

The three of them looked at each other, and simultaneously uttered the same sentence: "A test of strength?!"

"What is 'testing the opponent'?" Zhou Zhi asked.

“Hmm…” Yu Bin thought for a moment about how to explain to Zhou Zhi: “When we are faced with a situation where we don’t know how to play, we often try to find out what the other party is thinking. By observing the other party’s response, we can guess the opponent’s intention and then decide on our own strategy based on the opponent’s intention. This is called testing the opponent’s response.”

"Another function of testing the opponent's moves is to make a seemingly ambiguous move when the situation is unfavorable, in order to disrupt the opponent's thinking and further influence the opponent to make a mistake."

"Wow..." Zhou Zhi now understood why everyone was so surprised. If Xiao Zhi had evolved to this level, his chess skills would have increased significantly. This kind of "psychological warfare" tactic should not be something that an artificial intelligence trained by a machine could do.

But the move was already made.

As expected, Chang Shentong fell into deep thought.

"Xiao Zhi judges that if Brother Chang goes here next, it's the best way to go." Seeing that everyone was silent, Mai Xiaomiao gave Xiao Zhi's answer.

This is the power of programming. Humans absolutely cannot be both white and black at the same time, fighting against themselves in their minds. The resulting game would be utterly absurd.

But Xiao Zhi is fine.

"Xiao Jian, blocking the crossing?" They are all experts. As long as one step is taken, everyone can deduce the next few steps.

“That’s a good move.” Ma Xiaochun placed the stones down: “If White plays 2 and 4 and ignores the move, Black’s 5 and 7 moves to cut and connect become more serious. If White plays 8 and connects, Black can cut at 9. Since Black can capture at this position, this is an absolute initiative move.”

“If that’s the case, the large white group in the lower right corner will be cut off by black. So white 8 definitely can’t connect.” Yu Bin said, “Because white 8 has the means to play a tiger’s mouth here. If black 9 pounces and then plays here, the large white group can go home, but several white stones in the center will be cut off by black first.”

“Black’s moves 5 and 7 here can also serve as a deterrent, and we can decide when to use them based on how the situation changes,” Ma Xiaochun said. “This move is indeed quite clever.”

"Wait, if you play Black 1 and make a small point, I can play White 2 and squeeze you here first, so I can defend against your Black 5 digging move first?" Nie Qisheng asked.

"Give it a try." Ma Xiaochun readily agreed, restoring the board to its original state, and then laid out the board for a while following the chess master's approach: "Things aren't that simple. Looking at the small black triangle, White's move 1 on the third line is indeed a preemptive defense against Black's digging. However, Black's move 2 on the first line fills this weakness, making it an even more brilliant move. This leaves Black with the option to pounce and start a ko fight here." (End of Chapter)