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

Chapter 967 Targeting
"…So, it's just like what I just said to you two."

At the same time, in a small meeting room at the South Korean Chess Institute in the South Korean capital of Seoul.

After explaining a "special arrangement" to his two strongest chess players, Zhao Libo, vice president of the South Korean Chess Institute, began to make a final summary:

"In the fifth and sixth rounds of this World's Strongest Chess Player Tournament, you two will play against Lei Qi and Xiao Liu respectively. Please do your best to stop and consume Lei Qi, and at the same time, don't put too much pressure on Xiao Liu, so as to create conditions for Xiao Liu to defeat Lei Qi in the final round!
"Please, both of you!"

After finishing this summary, Zhao Libo, the vice chairman, bowed slightly to Li Junyan and Park Minlie again to express his request, causing Li Dapu to hurriedly step forward to support the other party.

"Uh... Vice Chairman, we actually have no objection to what you just said."

Li Tingyan, the person in charge, took the lead in expressing his opinion:

"After all, it's not realistic for Min Lie and I to expect to compete for the world championship, and we also know the importance of this world's strongest chess player competition, but..."

At this point, Lao Li paused, and his tone became more complicated:

“…Vice Chairman, do we really need to go this far this time?
"The schedule is so targeted, I feel like China might be able to notice it too!
"Even if the media noticed something was wrong during the competition, I'm sure there would be some rumors..."

Just as Li Tingyan said, the schedule of this world's strongest chess player competition was very strange.

In fact, according to the arrangements of previous world competitions, in most cases the schedule is "two days of play and one day of rest" to ensure that all players have sufficient physical strength and can perform to their full potential.

The previously announced schedule of the strongest chess player competition was from January 1 to February 21, a total of two weeks, which just happened to complete seven rounds of round-robin matches and the final three games, with a four-day break in between, so Li and Pu, who finally qualified, had no doubts about him.

But when the final schedule was announced three days ago, everyone was stunned - because the entire competition process showed an obviously unreasonable trend of being tight at the beginning and loose at the end!

There was only one day of rest in the previous seven rounds of the round-robin tournament!
Although the competition system of "one hour, 30 seconds extra for each move" has a strong fast chess flavor and the consumption of physical strength and energy is not as great as that of pure slow chess, but seven games in eight days is still an extremely busy schedule!

However, in the final three games, he actually took a day off after the next game, which showed that he had enough energy! This huge contrast between the two is really puzzling.

As expected, as soon as the schedule was announced, it attracted a lot of doubts.

China, Japan, and Taiwan all sent in letters asking if the schedule could be optimized. Even Lee and Park in South Korea themselves thought it would be best if the schedule could be adjusted.

However, the South Korean Chess Association rejected all proposals to adjust the schedule, citing "hotel and sponsor arrangements."

However, today, when Zhao Libo told the two of them everything, Li and Pu finally understood the intention of the chess academy - this competition system was designed to target Lei Qi!
In the last four rounds of the round-robin tournament, Lei Qi's opponents were Rui Zhao, Park Min-yeol, Lee Jung-yeon, and Liu Shixian. These four games were extremely intense, and it was probably very difficult for Lei Qi, a 21-year-old young leader, to maintain his excellent form until the end.

Liu Shixian's opponents in the last three rounds are Li Junyan, Park Minlie and Lei Qi. Although the schedule is equally tough, if the local players play with an "euthanasia" attitude, the intensity of the competition will be incomparable, and it may be not much different from taking a two-day break!
In this case, the chances of the strongest chess player in South Korea defeating the Chinese chess master will undoubtedly increase significantly.

But such targeting, let's not talk about whether China noticed it before the game. Even if no one noticed it, as long as the media saw Li Pu and the others go all out against Lei Qi in the fifth and sixth rounds, and give in to Liu Shixian in various ways, it would inevitably make people gossip.

However, Zhao Libo had obviously considered this situation long ago, and said slowly:
"At the end of the day, we are all in the next cycle, it's fair and reasonable. And they can't hear what we say here, so what can they guess by themselves?
“Tingyan, I hope you and Minyeol can understand.

"This world's strongest chess player competition is the key to our efforts to maintain the future development of South Korean Go. We cannot tolerate the worst situation to happen...

"So, I beg you to cooperate with Min Lie!"

"Vice Chairman, Brother Li and I don't mean this..."

Park Min-yeol, who had been silent just now, spoke up:

"We think - you don't have that much confidence in Xiao Liu, right?

"The extra-second system is definitely the time-limited system that our South Korean chess players are best at, and this time we are playing at home.

"At the moment, Xiao Liu has only lost an Asian Games men's individual gold medal and a LIG Cup. Last year, he still won two championships steadily. Now there is no obvious decline in his form. We...

"Are you that afraid of Lei Qi?"

"No matter if it's necessary or not, we must make sure everything goes well!"

Zhao Libo said in a deep voice:

"Facing Lei Qi, Xiao Liu might still have some advantages in the extra-second match, but looking at Lei Qi's recent performance, I wouldn't be surprised if you said he beat Xiao Liu."

"If Xiao Liu really loses to Lei Qi and Rui Zhao consecutively, and the last two Chinese chess players meet in the final, it will be totally unacceptable!
"So, the Chess Academy would like to ask you two to cooperate with us this time..."

Hearing this, Lao Li and Da Pu couldn't help but look at each other, and they both knew that what Zhao Libo said was true.

Inforing, the sponsor of the World's Strongest Chess Tournament, is far from being a big chaebol like Samsung and LIG. This time, they are willing to spend a huge amount of money to host the first chess tournament in history with a championship prize of up to 800 million South Korean won. Naturally, there are strong emotional factors involved.

If such a big tournament was held with such a huge amount of money and two foreign players took the first and second place, it would be unacceptable. It would even destroy the willingness of all potential Go sponsors in South Korea!
Under such circumstances, Lei Qi's recent outstanding performance in the LIG Cup, Yixian Tournament and Weiqi League can easily make people nervous, so it is not difficult to understand why the top management of the chess academy would try to target him specifically.

However, since things have come to this point, Li Tingyan simply asked:
"I understand. Since the Go Institute requires this, we should naturally do our best to contribute to the future development of Go in our country." "But... are we only targeting Lei Qi?"
"In my opinion, in the extra-second format...

"Rui Zhao is the one who poses a greater threat to us, right?"

“…Hmm…

"Actually, I feel the same way."

After a brief pause, the vice president of the South Korean Chess Institute laughed helplessly:

“But the problem is…

"How are you going to target Rui Zhao?"

"Uh...well..."

After being asked this question by the vice-chairman, the South Korean leader immediately understood.

As a well-known energetic maniac in the chess world and a top-notch player on the chess board, Rui Zhao's continuous combat capability is simply outrageous to a certain extent!
Last year, with such a dense schedule of events, China's contemporary Zhaojun played as if nothing had happened, and even won on multiple fronts. The more she played, the more she won. Any capitalist would think that their ability to exploit others was not strong enough and that they could not squeeze all of the opponent's energy.

For this kind of little chess maniac, playing this kind of tactic of tiring the enemy by relying on the schedule can be said to be of no use at all, and will only shoot oneself in the foot.

"I understand……"

Li Tingyan nodded, then sighed and said:
"However, after Rui Zhao won the LIG Cup this time, it caused a great response in Europe and the United States, and also triggered a Go craze.

"If Go can really become popular all over the world, even if the result of this World Championship is not so ideal, I feel that the future of Go in our country may not be bleak.

"As I heard, there are many Go training institutions in China that have a large number of young girls signing up..."

"Tingyan, you are too optimistic. Our situation is different from that of Europe and America."

Zhao Libo shook his head and said:

“You need to understand why Rui Zhao has such a big influence just by winning one world championship.

“You also need to know how serious the conflict between men and women in the country is.

"The particularly provocative sentence 'THE INTELLIGENCE BEYOND MEN' in Time magazine has already caused great dissatisfaction among men in China, and many people have used it to attack Go.

"It would be unimaginable if we were to be outshined by China in this world's strongest chess player competition!
"You can't expect that a bunch of young girls who are just following the trend can save the Go industry in our country!
"Go, after all, is a sport dominated by men - we can't let ourselves get confused by it."

“…Yeah, I understand.

"Min Lie and I will fully cooperate."

After a long silence, Li Tingyan nodded again and said:

"Should I tell Xiao Liu about this?
"No need, he's very smart."

Zhao Libo's answer was very decisive, as if he had discussed this issue with others a long time ago:
"When he saw the schedule, I think he could guess what was going on.

"But he didn't specifically mention this matter, which should be the biggest concession! Let's not make him hate it too much...

"I have to say...

"He may just need someone he respects enough to have a good talk with him."

...

...

"I never thought you would take the initiative to ask me out for dinner today!"

At the same time, in a Korean restaurant in the capital city.

After sitting down at the wooden table, Liu Shixian looked up at the short, ordinary-looking, and serious middle-aged man sitting opposite the wooden table, and smiled very appropriately.
"then……

"Did Chairman Liang ask you to come to me?
"Choi Myeong-ho, senior."

(End of this chapter)