After all of us are reborn, who plays Go?

“It always feels a little unreal…”

Looking at the money handed to him, Fang Yuan couldn't help rubbing his hair, and even couldn't help slapping himself in the face with his hand.

The touch was very real, the pain was very real, it didn't feel like a dream at all.

Theoretically speaking, if you are aware that you are dreaming, then everything should be fine and you should not stay in the dream.

But the money he got made Fang Yuan feel like he was dreaming.

World Series?

Are all the specifications this high?
Could it be that the World Series I participated in some time ago was a fake one? !
Well, Fang Yuan has participated in world competitions before. He just represented China in the Fujitsu Cup in Japan some time ago.

Although Fang Yuan's grades were not particularly ideal, his family did not have a landlady...

No, we've gone off topic...

Therefore, Fang Yuan, who has participated in the World Series and various other competitions, does not feel that the World Series is any different from other competitions. It can be said that they are all similar.

It is no different from the China-Japan competition. The organizer provides food and accommodation, and you can just go home after the competition.

Even the trophy looked ugly. Fang Yuan even comforted himself that it was a good thing that he didn't win the championship, otherwise he would have come back with a jar of pickles.

But the Yingshi Cup gave Fang Yuan a little shock of the world championships.

It made him feel like he suddenly understood what the World Series was.

Specifications, completely different specifications.

Treatment, like that of an emperor.

Theoretically speaking, the Yingshi Cup is held in China. Due to the objective differences in the national conditions of the two sides in this era, the world competitions held in China should theoretically be slightly worse than those held in Japan.

After all, this is not like the Olympics in the new century. China's capabilities in all aspects have improved a lot, and the whole country has to work together to host the event to showcase China.

The Yingshi Cup is just a niche Go competition, so the support is naturally not particularly strong.

But the actual situation is completely different from the theoretical situation.

It can even be said to be the exact opposite!

The Yingshi Cup held in China completely crushed the Fujitsu Cup held in Japan some time ago in all aspects.

It can even be said that it is not a competition of the same standard at all!

The opening ceremony of the Yingshi Cup was held directly in the Great Hall of the People. The organizers arranged for everyone to stay in the most upscale hotel in BJ, which was the same hotel where foreign heads of state stayed in China.

Even if you have a home locally, your room will be arranged properly so you will definitely not be left without a place. Moreover, all of them are single rooms, unlike some competitions which arrange double rooms for you.

If there is any difference from the Fujitsu Cup, it is that the Yingshi Cup does not include meals. Apart from the breakfast provided by the hotel, you need to buy your own food for lunch and dinner.

You can eat at the hotel, or you can find food from other places, but you have to go there by yourself, the organizer will not arrange it.

It sounds a bit unofficial. Such a big competition doesn't even include meals? More formal companies provide food and accommodation for business trips and training.

But in fact, although the Yingshi Cup does not include meals, what is the cost?
The price is that the organizer will give the contestants one hundred yuan a day for living expenses, so that you can buy food and daily expenses.

The most important thing is that this hundred yuan is not RMB, but US dollars!

One hundred dollars in 1988.

……

So it felt a little unreal for Fang Yuan to receive today's living expenses after the opening ceremony.

This is not a prize money for the competition! It is simply a living allowance for you to eat! ?
One hundred dollars for dinner!
I can’t finish it in a day even if I eat it to death!

Even if I eat only beef, it wouldn't be worth the money to eat a whole cow!

What does it mean to live on one hundred dollars a day now?
Currently, the monthly salary of most workers in China is less than 100 RMB. Even the prize money for the national Go champion has just reached this amount.

It's like you're participating in a world championship. You don't have to do anything, and you can earn a national champion's prize money just for your living expenses in a day.

Even in 2024, if you go to Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou, as long as you don't order anything too outrageous, you may not be able to spend a hundred dollars on food even if you eat as much as you can in a day.

This is also the reason why Fang Yuan was sure that he was not dreaming. The reason was that with his imagination, he probably could not have such a dream.

It has gone beyond Fang Yuan’s imagination.

Moreover, this is living expenses. The chess academy cannot take a commission from you on living expenses, so this hundred dollars belongs to you entirely.

Fang Yuan now wishes the competition could start a little later so that he could earn a few more days' living expenses.

You can win a national championship prize without doing anything all day. Where the hell can you find such a good thing?
And the most important thing is that as long as you participate in the competition, the top 16 will receive prize money, and the prize money is 5,000 US dollars. Even if the chess academy takes most of it, the remaining income will exceed your entire net worth.

"What is a world championship? This is a world championship! In comparison, what is the one held in Japan called? That is not worthy of being called a world championship!
The standards are totally unequal. If everyone hadn't acknowledged that this was a world championship before, I would have called on everyone to disown it and directly expel it from the world championship."

Fang Yuan, who enjoyed the rich rewards of the Yingshi Cup, immediately criticized the Fujitsu Cup, another world competition. Compared with the Yingshi Cup, what kind of treatment is there for the Fujitsu Cup?

After all, the gap between the two sides does seem to be a bit too big, just from the competition standards, although both sides have sixteen people participating in the competition.

However, the Yingshi Cup will have three games in the semi-finals and five games in the finals, which can be said to be of extremely high standards.

The Fujitsu Cup, which is a one-stop competition, does feel a bit dwarfed by this.

Of course the most important thing is the money you get.

Fang Yuan couldn't help but shook his head: "Old Wu and Xiao Ritian really lost a lot. They didn't get any benefits from qualifying for the Fujitsu Cup, and they didn't even qualify for the Yingshi Cup qualifiers we held ourselves.

If the two competitions could swap places, they would make a lot of money."

"Now I'm the one making money."

Li Yiran, who successfully participated in this world competition through the qualifiers, couldn't help but smile and said something when he heard this.

Mr. Ying originally wanted to invite people directly for the Ying Cup, but finally, based on Zhan Lang's suggestion, he allocated the places to various chess academies.

China was allocated four places.

However, there are more than four Chinese participating in the competition. Three chess players from Taipei living in Japan also successfully qualified to participate in the competition.

In order to take the internationalization of the competition into consideration, Mr. Ying also gave one spot each to the United States and Australia, but in fact this is no different from direct designation, it is simply about leading others to play.

The player who qualified from Australia was Mr. Ying, who directly wanted to invite Mr. Wu who lives in Sydney. The player who qualified from the United States was an extremely rare non-Asian professional chess player, 5th dan McHale.

This person was also a foreigner studying at the Japan Shogi Institute. At that time, the Japan Shogi Institute was indeed a gathering place of talented people, and players from all over the world came to study there.

There were a total of five pure Japanese chess players from Japan participating in the competition. What was more surprising was that Fujii Hideaki, with the oldest age in this competition, actually successfully passed the Japanese internal world championship preliminaries and successfully participated in the world championship.

The remaining four are Kenichi Mitsuba, 9th dan, Shohei Takemiya, 9th dan, Masao Toya, 9th dan, and Katsuya Takenouchi, 9th dan.

If the original invitation plan had been followed, Kansai should have been able to get a spot.

However, after the change to the qualifying round, Kansai found it difficult to compete with the Japan Shogi Association.

After all, the gap in strength between the two sides is indeed huge, as I have mentioned before.

If they knew that it was Zhan Lang who tripped them up, they would probably want to skin him alive.

Although Zhao Chikun also qualified from Japan, the competition was divided according to place of birth, so he was moved to Seoul, South Korea.

The other Korean chess player is naturally Cho Myung-hoon, the undisputed number one in Korea.

So theoretically speaking, there are four chess players from mainland China, three from Chinese Taipei, two from South Korea, five from Japan, one from Australia, and one from the United States, a total of sixteen people.

Due to some special reasons, although the selection is organized, the contestants all participate in the competition in their personal capacity, not representing the country but representing their own city.

For example, Zhan Lang represents Tianjin.

The first two rounds of the competition will adopt a single elimination system, the semi-finals will adopt a best-of-three system, and the finals will adopt a best-of-five system.

The game adopted Ying's rules, with black being given an 8-point handicap and a delay penalty point system - if the game is not over after both sides have used up their respective time limits (3 hours and 30 minutes), a delay penalty point system can be used. Each stage is 35 minutes, with 2 points penalized. The game can only be extended 3 times, after which the player will be declared the loser due to timeout.

The prize distribution is as follows:

Champion: $40

Runner-up: $10

3rd and 4th place: $2.5

5th to 8th place: $1.5

9th-16th place: $0.5

There is no doubt that this is the most important world competition. Everyone holds their breath and adjusts themselves to the best condition in the hope of winning the championship.

Especially the Japanese contestants, all of them were eager to win the championship.

Since Zhan Lang could snatch the championship trophy from his own home, he should also be able to snatch the championship trophy from the other party's home.

After this back and forth, both sides are even.

In a room of the hotel, South Korea's Cho Myung-hoon was also looking at the sky.

If I can win this world championship, it will be just like Zhan Lang winning the China-Japan Go Challenge Championship, and I can create a Go craze in South Korea, right?

South Korea also needs people who play Go!
In that case, I must win this championship no matter what!
Use all means!

(End of this chapter)