Go: The live broadcast queen launched a gorgeous rebellion against the dog

"Congratulations, Lei Qi, for winning the Tianyuan Championship twice in a row!

"Keep working hard in the future!"

"Thank you, Mr. Shang... Chairman Shang!"

At 2026:4 pm on April 25, , Tianyi Pavilion, Tongli Town, Suhu Province, China.

This year's Tianyuan Tournament award ceremony was held here as usual.

Lei Qi, who successfully defended the title of [Tianyuan], accepted the flowers and trophy handed over by his teacher and bowed in response.

At this time, he did not seem very happy, and the smile he put on in front of the camera seemed a little fake. Fortunately, he had seen many big scenes with his teacher since he was a child, so people would not be able to see that he had something wrong.

Soon, the award ceremony officially ended. However, the new generation leader of China, who had just defended the title of [Tianyuan], had no intention of savoring his victory. Almost immediately after the award ceremony, he came to Shang Chaotian again, obviously wanting to ask:

"Teacher Shang, that..."

"…I know what you want to ask."

Shang Chaotian was obviously prepared for the student to come to him immediately:

"Come to the tournament office and we'll talk."

"Ah."

Soon, the two of them moved to the Tianyuan Tournament Office, found a secluded corner to sit down, and started to get straight to the point:
"Lei Qi, you came to me right after the Tianyuan Tournament... Is it because of the World's Strongest Chess Player Tournament?"

"……Um."

Tian Yuan nodded:

"Regarding the World Championships...did South Korea notify the association in advance?"

"No. To be honest, it was quite sudden. I only knew about it three hours earlier than you did."

"That's it..."

Lei Qi hesitated for a moment, then glanced at his teacher and politely expressed his thoughts:
"After the competition just ended, I heard the news and simply used my mobile phone to browse the Internet to check the information about the competition released by the South Korean Chess Institute.

“Although the birth of a new world championship with such a high prize money is naturally a good thing, after reading its entire competition system and rules, I feel…”

"Feel……?"

Lei Qi narrowed his eyes and answered truthfully:
“…I feel the flavor of the first Yingyi Cup.”

"Haha, it seems that we, teacher and student, have a good understanding!"

Shang Chaotian couldn't help but pat his thigh and said with a wry smile:

"When Mr. Ying Changqi held the first Yingyi Cup, he wanted to promote the 'Changqi Rules' he created. But the more important reason was that at that time we had just defeated the Japanese, who were regarded as the world's top Go team, in the Huaying Challenge Tournament, and it seemed that the offensive and defensive situation had been reversed.

"Mr. Ying hopes to use a world-class tournament with the highest gold content to announce to the world that Chinese Go has replaced Japan and is at the forefront of the world Go world!

"But the fact that the championship ended up falling to South Korea was like making wedding clothes for others, which was beyond Mr. Ying's expectations...

“Right now, South Korea has suddenly launched a new world championship with such a high prize money, I’m afraid it also has this intention.

"Compared to the Yingyi Cup that year, what is more obvious is that this time the competition system...

"This is tailor-made for Liu Shixian to win the championship!"

After hearing this, Lei Qi nodded in agreement, with a slightly complicated expression.

This afternoon, the South Korean Chess Institute and Inforing Advertising Company not only officially announced the new world championship "World's Strongest Chess Player Tournament" and the highest prize money in the history of world chess, but also announced the specific competition rules.

From the perspective of regulations, the [World's Strongest Chess Player Championship] can be said to be an expansion and development of the South Korean domestic title competition previously sponsored by inforing company - the [Strongest Chess Player Championship].

The reason why it is tentatively scheduled to be held every two years is to alternate with the domestic strongest chess player competition - the original South Korean domestic strongest chess player competition was held every year, and since then it has also become every two years. The incumbent South Korean strongest chess player is directly eligible to be selected for this year's [World Strongest Chess Player Competition]. In terms of time, the [World Strongest Chess Player Competition] adopts the "initial retention time of one hour, each move adds 30 seconds of retention time, and the loss is declared after the retention time is used up" rule of the South Korean domestic strongest chess player competition, which is also very characteristic of the short time of South Korean domestic competitions.

Next is the competition system: unlike other world championships with a single-elimination system of at least 24 people, the competition system of the [World's Strongest Chess Player Tournament] is very special: there are only eight people in this competition, and the two best people in the single round-robin competition will enter the final three-game final to decide the final champion and runner-up.

As for the contestants of this tournament, in addition to the previously mentioned strongest chess player from South Korea, the remaining seven places are distributed as follows: two from South Korea, two from mainland China, one from Japan, one from the Taiwan Strait Province of China, and one wildcard from the organizer.

However, the selection process for these seven places is not through a qualifying tournament, but is determined by the ranking of the total prize money of unlimited individual tournaments won by chess players from various countries throughout 2026. It is somewhat similar to the King of Kings Tournament in China. However, the King of Kings Tournament in China only looks at the championship prize money, while the [World's Strongest Chess Player Tournament] directly looks at the total prize money.

It has to be said that this method can be said to be the best way to screen out the chess players with the best overall condition in various countries and regions in the past year. In fact, many times when the media in the circle are selecting who is the "number one" in a certain year, they often compare the total prize money of the competitions in that year. After all, the standards are highly unified.

After understanding the rules of the [World's Strongest Chess Player Tournament], anyone who has a little knowledge of the circle will understand why Shang Chaotian lamented that this new world championship "is tailor-made for Liu Shixian to win the championship."

First of all, the current South Korean who is also the only holder of the title of "Strongest Chess Player" since the establishment of the competition for seven years is the world's number one player Liu Shixian!

Secondly, in previous world championships, Liu Shixian maintained an extremely high winning rate in game matches, and has been undefeated in game matches since 2024!

If they want to stop him from winning the world championship, they have to rely on China's amazing strength to constantly consume the world's number one player, and finally eliminate Young Master Liu by relying on a single game win before the tournament enters the round-robin stage - this was exactly what happened in last year's Chunzhilan Cup and Tongge Cup.

But now the method of using a single round to decide the top two to enter the three-game finals almost completely eliminates the possibility of a single-defeat upset. It can be said that this is a guarantee for Young Master Liu to enter the three-game finals!

In this case, the tournament time is still based on the "extra second system" rule that South Korean players are most familiar with but relatively unfamiliar to players from other regions, which undoubtedly further increases the possibility of the world's number one player winning the championship.

It is even obvious that the intention of "using the highest prize money event in history to finally crown the best in history for the world's number one player! "

However, China has no room to criticize South Korea's conspiracy.

Although the competition system is said to be extremely favorable to Liu Shixian, except for the quota allocation and time rules that favor the host players, the rest of the rules are essentially designed to minimize accidents and determine the "world's strongest chess player" who deserves the title without giving anyone any reason to criticize him.

But if we really want to talk about the "strongest chess player in the world" right now, it must be Liu Shixian who is at his peak!
The only thing that can make people nitpick is that there are only eight people in the tournament, and the time rules have a lot of fast chess implications, which are basically not much slower than the Nongshim Cup. It seems that it is always a little short of being called a "World Championship".

But...it is naturally impossible for the Chinese Chess Association to not recognize this as a world championship.

The highest prize money in history is over 400 million yuan. The qualifiers are selected based on the total prize money of unlimited individual competitions throughout the year, and an eight-player round-robin tournament is held to determine the top two players who will play a three-game showdown...Except for the number of participants, all aspects are of high quality and it can be said to be the highest standard of global competition.

If this is not called the "World Series", how will other world championships feel?
Moreover, South Korea is spending so much money to host the World Championships with the highest prize money in the world. If China, as a great country, does not actively respond and still complains and nitpicks behind the scenes, wouldn't it be like "South Korea is me"? !

After a brief silence, Lei Qi nodded:
“…Indeed, no matter how you look at it, this competition is intended to take advantage of Liu Shixian’s peak form and give him a heavyweight championship that will eventually crown him the best in history.

“It’s just… aren’t the top three in history all South Koreans?

"Are they so eager to come up with another GOAT?"

"I can understand that, right?"

Shang Chaotian sighed lightly and said:
"Lei Qi, you should also know that the development of South Korean Go has not been smooth in recent years. Since Young Master Liu, there has been no decent successor. It is almost entirely supported by excellent international competition results.

“But dynasties cannot last forever.

"Liu Shixian, who is currently at his peak, can still suppress you who are still young, but I am afraid that within two years the offensive and defensive positions will be reversed.

“After that…without outstanding successors, the future of South Korean Go was bleak.

"The management of inforing has always been very dedicated to the development of Go in South Korea, which is equivalent to our Chunzhilan and Menglili.

"The reason why they spent so much money to host the New World Championship with such a high prize money is probably to take advantage of Liu Shixian's peak period to create one last wave of popularity and boost the influence of the project, hoping to support Liu Shixian's Yu Ze until the arrival of the next talented young man.

“To be honest, although the overall impression I have of South Koreans is not very good, and even the South Korean Go Association has made many small moves, I do admire South Korean Go players overall.

"Despite not receiving much attention from the government, they have been able to compete with China in international competitions for nearly 40 years with a population and talent pool equivalent to that of one province in my country, and even had the upper hand most of the time! This is truly awe-inspiring!"

Having said this, Shang Chaotian looked into the eyes of his most proud student and said seriously:

"...So, Lei Qi. If it is possible...

"I hope you can win the most important championship in the [World's Strongest Chess Player Tournament]! Don't let them succeed!" (End of this chapter)