Go: Is the portable old man the nine-time champion?

Chapter 1 The fallen genius

The electronic display screen was scrolling with blue light, and Yi Zheng's eyes were fixed on the line "Class D3 Round Robin Results".

The data of 2 wins and 16 losses was particularly glaring on the LCD screen, and under his name was the scarlet words "relegation pending".

Yunyi Chess Academy, located in Zhejiang Province, is one of the seven major Go academies in China, and is the undisputed number one Go center in East China!
One of the seven major titles in Chinese Go, the East China Go title "God of Calculation" has always been firmly in the hands of the players of Yunyi Chess Academy and has never been won by anyone else.

This is also the Go academy that countless young people in East China and even across China dream of becoming professional Go players.

It was even once hailed as one of the largest cradles of Chinese Go professional players.

Some people say that as long as you enter the Yunyi Chess Academy, it is equivalent to having one foot in the professional world.

At its worst, Yunyi Chess Academy accounted for a quarter of the new professional players entering the professional rank in China every year, and at its peak, it even accounted for half of the new beginner-level players each year.

The young men who are studying at the Go academy and dream of entering the professional world of Go are divided into four levels of classes: A, B, C, and D according to their different levels of proficiency.

Class D was the lowest level class at Yunyi Chess Academy. This meant Yi Zheng had nowhere else to go but down. It seemed he was facing only one last option...

drop out.

Everyone around was discussing their own results, and no one even noticed Yi Zheng's second-to-last place.

In the past, the decline of the talented young man Yi Zheng was news, but now it has become something that everyone has become accustomed to.

There is nothing worth paying attention to, just like you wouldn't pay attention to the person in the next class who ranked second to last in the exam.

Because the time is so long, even those classmates who had walked side by side with Yi Zheng a little earlier have either already entered the professional world or have already retired and changed tracks.

Only Yi Zheng seemed to still not believe in evil and continued to go down the same path.

Even though he had already hit the wall, he kept banging his head against the wall that seemed impossible to break through.

"Yi Zheng, come to the office."

Yi Zheng's heart sank when he saw the notification on his phone.

Although he had anticipated this outcome, when the time came, this was not something a fifteen-year-old boy could bear.

Yi Zheng stood in front of the gray-yellow wooden door with the office sign on it. The sweat on his hands had soaked the door handle, but he was hesitant to open the door.

From inside the door came the crisp sound of chess pieces falling on the board, each sound seemed to strike at his tense nerves.

"Come in."

When he pushed open the door, the scent of ink mixed with the scent of agarwood hit him in the face, but all Yi Zheng could feel was depression.

It seems like they are waiting for the final judgment.

Cao Ming, Yi Zheng's teacher, had his back to him. Although he could not see the entire chessboard in front of him, Yi Zheng could clearly remember which game it was just by looking at the black and white pieces in a corner of the elm wood chessboard.

Seven years ago, the nightmare began.

"Sit down, sit down. The final results are out, and as usual, I want to have a heart-to-heart talk with you.

There's nothing else going on, don't make it seem like something big has happened."

When Cao Ming heard the sound of the door opening, he knew who had walked into the office. His fingertips were stroking a jade chess piece, and the jade chess piece was emitting a moonlight-like halo between his fingers.

As he spoke, he looked up at Yi Zheng who was walking opposite him.

Yi Zheng slowly sat down opposite his teacher, looking at the lifeless white chess piece in the lower right corner of the chessboard. Cao Ming's words brought him back to the memories of eight years ago.

Eight years ago, Yi Zheng was seven years old. After only learning Go for half a year, he defeated his Go teacher who was teaching him in the county town at that time. He was quickly recruited to Yunyi Chess Academy.

Everyone thought Yi Zheng was a genius, but the truth proved he wasn't. He was like a god born for Go. Within a short time of entering the dojo, he had already shot straight into the top eight of the A-class class, earning him a spot in the professional dan tournament that year.

Although he missed out on becoming a professional player by one place in the professional ranking tournament, no one considered it a failure.

A boy who is only eight years old has achieved such results. Will it be a problem for him to enter the Dan ranking tournament next year?
It is even certain to break the youngest record of nine years, seven months and four days old, set by Silla genius Lee Jun Hyuk.

Everyone thinks so, including Yi Zheng.

However, Yi Zheng was not dazzled by the flowers and applause around him. He still studied chess books diligently every day and continued to train himself.

Because Yi Zheng knows that the so-called entry into the professional world is just the beginning. The real professional world, the world championships, and the Olympics are his own journey!

Until that day, the nightmare began.

Yi Zheng was in extremely poor condition and lost to a mid-level chess player in Class A. At first, he didn't take it seriously.

Everyone has times when they are not in good form, and winning and losing is commonplace in the world of Go. No one has ever said that they can guarantee that they will not lose a game.

If you can maintain a year-round winning rate of over 70%, you can definitely be considered a world T1-level chess player. Even a T0-level player cannot guarantee that his year-round winning rate will be over 80%.

So even if he lost to an opponent who was slightly worse than him, Yi Zheng didn't take it to heart. He just had to adjust himself.

But what happened next was far beyond Yi Zheng's expectations.

Failure! Failure! Failure after failure!
Yi Zheng found that he didn't know when, but his chess skills and his thinking suddenly became dull.

If Yi Zheng was originally an indestructible blade, now it has become rusty and is even worse than an axe.

As the talent scout who discovered Yi Zheng, Cao Ming originally thought that Yi Zheng was too young to bear too much expectations, and he panicked for a while when he encountered setbacks.

If he recovers, Yi Zheng might still have hope, and he is encouraged to continue participating in the qualifying tournament.

After all, if the youngest player to qualify is among the students he teaches, it will be a huge achievement for him.

But unfortunately, amid the expectant gazes of countless people, Yi Zheng failed in this competition and was even completely deprived of a chance to become a professional athlete.

The reason why he did not fail in the preliminaries was that Yi Zheng, as an outstanding performer in the previous session, could directly enter this competition.

In the following years, Yi Zheng even failed in the preliminaries, and his class in the dojo was relegated from Class A to Class D, and he finally lost the qualification to participate in the professional Go ranking tournament.

As for how much bitterness Yi Zheng experienced during these eight years.

It can only be said that like a person drinking water, he knows whether it is cold or warm.

Looking at Yi Zheng, who was sitting in front of him with a deathly pale face, Cao Ming couldn't help but sigh.

Back then, Yi Zheng was held in the hands of the entire chess academy for fear of him falling, and held in mouths for fear of him melting. But now, not many people care about him anymore.

He was just a student who paid tuition and the school didn't expel him.

even……

"Don't be too discouraged. It's just a pending entry for the first time. As long as the next performance is slightly better, it won't be a big problem."

Cao Ming looked at the silent Yi Zheng and said something to comfort him. Compared to Yi Zheng's Go, he was sometimes more concerned about his psychological problems as a student.

After all, there are many more choices in life besides Go.

But Yi Zheng is just too stubborn and insists on sticking to his own path.

(End of this chapter)