Riding the wind of rebirth

"This ko fight is extremely severe. If Black loses, it will only lose a few stones at most, but if it wins, the large white group in the lower right corner will be completely wiped out!"

"This ko is too heavy a burden for White. Because Black has the brilliant move of Black 2, White's squeeze move is no longer valid."

"It's better to block the crossing, or at the very least, we can escape first. In short, there's still a lot of room for maneuver," Nie Qisheng nodded.

“Yes, Xiao Chang should choose not to be tempted and maintain his advantage,” Yu Bin said.

It should be said that Chang Shentong's Black 115 move can either break away or directly choose to block with a small point. There are many options and a lot of room for maneuver.

However, in his next move, Chang Shentong chose a move that no one had expected.

"Here? A nail?" Ma Xiaochun exclaimed in surprise.

"Actually, it can also be considered a blocking move, but the position is different." Nie Qisheng felt intuitively that this move was a bit ominous, and the same feeling arose in the hearts of the other two.

“This move is indeed problematic.” Ma Xiaochun frowned. “This move is clearly not as good as the position we mentioned earlier. It does not provide any support for the next move of cutting off. If Black plays 1 and 3 to cut and connect, White will make a move at 6 and then White will play 8. At this point, we will find that the position of move 115 does not help either side. This is completely different from the effect of placing it at the small point.”

“Xiao Chang made a mistake. Although it was only a small difference, it made a world of difference.” Nie Qisheng pursed his lips: “This is the difference between humans and machines.”

“Xiao Chang must have misjudged the situation with this move. His assessment of the effects of the small point and the nail-piercing move was completely opposite to what we actually played,” Ma Xiaochun said. “If Black 1 and 3’s cut is not valid, then Black 115 becomes a simple separation of White’s stones, which greatly reduces its value. If it weren’t for the misjudgment, Xiao Chang would not have made this move.”

"Just one move, and all the previous advantage vanished." Chess Master Nie asked with some regret, "Xiao Miao, what's White's winning percentage now?"

“Fifty percent,” Mai Xiaomiao said.

“Xiao Zhi’s strategy of testing the waters succeeded,” Yu Bin said. “It seems to have precisely grasped Xiao Chang’s limits. It set up a test here, luring Xiao Chang into making this mistake.”

Upon hearing this, the three Go masters exchanged bewildered glances. Nie Weiping's next remark sent chills down everyone's spines: "To put it another way, wouldn't this be considered a case of Xiao Zhi becoming a spirit?"

"Old Nie, be careful. There's a young girl with you. Don't scare her," Ma Xiaochun said.

Zhang Xuan on stage was already a little pale, but Mai Xiaomiao was not afraid at all: "This is the convolution algorithm's enhancement to the neural network computing system. It is a way of using it in scenarios where the decision-making prospects are unclear. It is to choose to create new feedback to continue the deduction. Xiao Zhi's method just now was to generate new feedback based on Chang Hao's reaction."

"That's still pretty much like it becoming a spirit," Nie Qisheng muttered. "It seems that calling it 'Wild Fox' by Elbow really was just fate..."

The situation became both clear and complicated. Due to Chang Shentong's improper move 115, Xiao Zhi gained the initiative with move 114, which filled a weakness in his large group. Then, he only needed to gain the initiative in move 116 and choose to make his move to seize the key offensive and defensive position that also covered the weakness. He finally made the lower right part of the large white group go smoothly and even began to subtly threaten the large black group in the lower left.

For Black, not only must they continue to attack White's large group to gain an advantage, but they must also ensure the safety of their own large group of Black stones in the lower left corner, which greatly increases the difficulty of their operation.

Kong Jie sighed softly, played Xiao Zhi's white piece, and as expected, chose to release his large group of stones. Then, he looked at Chang Shentong with sympathy as he fell into deep thought once again.

"We need to break out of this situation," Nie Qisheng pondered for a moment.

“It seems like there’s a problem. If Black 1 jumps out, White 2 will follow suit and jump out on the fourth line as well.” Ma Xiaochun shook his head.

"If White plays to this point, it will be very favorable. Not only will it render the two Black stones on the left side essentially incapable of making any moves, but it will also threaten the large Black triangle group. Furthermore, if White plays a small point here next, the four Black stones in the upper left corner will be swallowed up." Yu Bin also shook his head.

"It's really too comfortable for White..." Nie Weiping pondered as he looked at the board. "But if White doesn't jump, where can White play?" Before the three masters could finish their thought, Chang Shentong had already made his move.

"A perfect clash! A perfect nose-to-nose clash!" Ma Xiaochun's eyes lit up: "Hey! A perfect match!"

"Could it be a spoon?" Nie Qisheng was taken aback. "That move was unexpected. Did he make a bad move after thinking for so long?"

"Looking at White's moves, it's not easy for White to respond. Hmm, at least the next move won't be too comfortable." Yu Bin began to set up the pieces.

"That's a very bold move. The large black group in the lower left corner is not stable, and the two black stones here are also in a semi-crippled state. The four black stones in the upper left corner also seem to have little mobility. How dare you push forward like that? Isn't that just making trouble for yourself?" Ma Xiaochun said.

"Moreover, these two white stones are not particularly weak. They have at least four liberties, and their condition is much better than the two black stones on the side, right?"

This move is still in the intuitive stage in everyone's eyes, but their intuition tells them that this move is very imaginative and creative, in other words, it is extraordinary.

But whether it's exceptionally good or exceptionally bad? We'll only know after the game is played.

“White 1, single crutch, hold on, okay?” Yu Bin asked.

"It's a defensive move. Black 2 will jump, allowing Black's triangle to exchange moves with White 1, thus eliminating White's good point on the left side," Ma Xiaochun said.

"But everything has its advantages and disadvantages. Although this move looks unfair, as the good move of jumping to a better position is gone, White 1 has already captured the two black stones, and the two white stones on the left are completely safe. So it's still quite worthwhile," said Nie Weiping.

Yu Bin nodded: "This way, White can free up its hands to focus on dealing with its large group of stones and prepare for the battle in the upper right corner. If this continues, the game will become very long, and the outcome will depend on the battles in the center and upper right corner."

"This will be more advantageous for Xiaozhi."

However, Ash didn't defend; instead, he chose to attack, immediately counterattacking.

No one found it strange; everyone's reaction to this move was "it should be done this way." When faced with the choice between offense and defense, Ash's choice was almost always to attack.

If this is also a style of play, then Ash does indeed have this "reckless" style.

"We can't reach an agreement on this part," Nie Qisheng shook his head. "Let's see who's tougher."

"It feels like Black is at a disadvantage." Ma Xiaochun frowned, seemingly trying to discern a clue to the outcome of the game from the current board position.

Next, Chang Shentong chose to break one hand, while Xiao Zhi chose to turn the other around.

Both players made quick moves, clearly anticipating each other's moves.

These moves are very important for both sides. The position of White's 118th move is crucial and cannot be easily abandoned. If Black does not deal with White's 118th move, Black will also be unable to finish the game locally.

If faced with this move, Black can't just play a line from 1 onwards. White only needs to capture lightly at 8, and the entire left side of Black will be unconditionally swallowed up by White.

If Black 1 extends, and White 2 extends, then the large group of Black stones in the lower left and the few Black stones in the upper left will each have to defend themselves, which looks very difficult. (End of Chapter)