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

Chapter 161 Psychological Pressure [Fifth update, please vote for monthly tickets!!! Bonus chapter for 6000 monthly tickets last month]

Li Zongrui thought he had gained an early advantage in this area, but this early advantage did not change the overall situation.

After this part ends, both sides continue with the endgame.

But by the time the game was over, everyone already knew the outcome.

This game lasted the longest out of the five; everyone else had finished and was now watching from the sidelines.

After three hundred moves, both sides had finally finished all the endgame moves. Just as Yi Zheng was about to call the referee to determine the winner, Li Zongrui chose to concede defeat directly.

Because by the end of the game, Li Zongrui had already finished calculating everything, and he had lost by four and a half points.

Actually, he could have surrendered much earlier, but Li Zongrui was somewhat unwilling and, in order to calm himself down, he ended up taking all the cards.

"Concession."

Yi Zheng breathed a sigh of relief as the game finally ended. He had to admit that this was the most difficult game he had played in a formal competition in a long time.

Yi Zheng's shirt was completely soaked with sweat, and his heart rate had even soared to the level of extreme sports.

Li Zongrui is indeed very strong. Yi Zheng felt that he was almost driven to the brink of despair many times, but he always managed to climb out of it.

Miao Jun looked at Li Zongrui, who seemed a little disappointed, and comforted him, "It's okay. That guy A-Zheng is just incredibly cunning. I even lost to him in the semifinals of the Rookie King competition."

Because everyone was already familiar with each other, even though Li Zongrui lost, many members of the national youth team went up to comfort him.

Although they are opponents on the field, they are also friends in private.

Yi Zheng and Li Zongrui patiently reviewed the situation, and the two also exchanged views on some of their respective issues.

Of course, the old man Ke's comment was that they were two terrible chess players who made a series of wrong moves.

And there's also the calculation for Yi Zheng (≧≦)ゞ→
"So you should have been able to make a move here, but you chose to give up in the end. I feel you were under a lot of pressure, and you always held back in crucial games."

It's hard to calculate during the countdown, but both sides have time to calculate during the debriefing. Yi Zheng still saw the problem he made, but the opponent didn't seize it.

Although Yi Zheng knew that it might not make any difference to say it, he still pointed it out.

To put it more vividly, Li Zongrui lacked the qualities of a master strategist who could turn the tide in crucial moments.

Or rather, the psychological pressure was too great, so great that he sometimes found it difficult to bear.

Li Zongrui simply smiled upon hearing this and didn't say anything more.

There's nothing that can be done about the immense psychological pressure, because he's the only chess player in his country with the ability to reach this level.

Even if Yi Zheng loses, China still has the Three Musketeers, many more, the martial arts world, and even other young chess players.

But Li Zongrui is different; if he loses, he loses.

Li Zongrui could be said to have the support of a country behind him, or he could be said to have no one behind him at all.

From the outcome, this is a good thing for the Chinese team, as they swept all five spots in the junior division. Meanwhile, the results for the open age group and the senior group competitions have also been determined.

The participants in the veteran group over 50 years old are quite evenly distributed, with China only having two spots. This is because many of China's veteran chess players are mostly retired and rarely participate in competitions except for a few invitational tournaments.

The group without age restrictions consists of the world's top chess players, with three from China, one from Japan, and one from Silla.

The three Chinese players are Go master Jiang Mobai, strategist Yun Linglei, and Southwest China title holder Juxian Zaxi Sangjie.

On the Japanese side, it is naturally the number one person in Japan, Kuroki Teruto, who finally recovered his condition some time ago.

On the Silla side, there's Lee Joon-hyuk, who's been jokingly referred to as a legend doing sit-ups.

After all three teams were finalized and the teams were assembled, Li Junhe's expression didn't seem particularly good, because China had selected all the members for the youth team, which represents the future.

From this perspective, it means that in the foreseeable future of more than a decade, Asian Go will once again be completely overwhelmed by China, and no one will be able to break through the dominance of Chinese Go.

Thinking of this, Lee Jun-hyuk couldn't help but sigh, feeling worried about the future of Silla Go.

With the teams from Asia gathering, it was natural to conduct related interviews, and each team selected one person to go up for a press conference.

The youth team didn't have the "Three Musketeers" or Yi Zheng; instead, they had the oldest member, Duo Duo, take the stage.

However, none of the teenagers had any objections, because in their view, going on stage to be interviewed was meaningless, especially answering reporters' questions.

However, just as the four were packing up to leave, some media outlets, clearly having prepared more than one reporter, stopped them, wanting to conduct some short interviews.

"First of all, congratulations to the Chinese team for sweeping all the teams in the junior group this time. However, the Chinese team has represented Asia in the previous competitions, but has suffered consecutive defeats in the junior group for two years. What results can we expect this year?"

Upon hearing the reporter's words, the Three Musketeers' expressions were not particularly good, because they had participated in the competition in the previous two years, but in the end, they were defeated by Ethan alone.

This is a particularly painful thing. The opponent defeated three people in one go. Does this mean that even the Three Musketeers are no match for one of them?

Yi Zheng smiled after hearing both sentences and said, "Of course there is only one goal, which is to win the championship. I think it's the same for every team."

"But the junior group should be the most difficult, after all, Ethan 9-dan also participated in this year's junior group competition, but this should be his last year participating. Perhaps if he can get through this year, it will be much easier to win the championship in the future."

The age requirement for the junior group in the ring competition is under 20 years old. Ethan is 19 years old this year and will be 20 next year, so he can only participate in the group without age restrictions.

However, the reporter's statement that age was used to force others to retire seems to directly deny the value of future Chinese championships.

Yi Zheng then turned the question back to the reporter: "Why do you think Team America will definitely win the championship this year?"

Reporter: "Because Ethan 9-dan is terrifying, we can only describe him as terrifying, it's not an exaggeration at all. So why do you think you can win? You are very likely to lose."

Upon hearing this, Yi Zheng laughed and said, "Rather than saying Ethan is very scary, I think I'm quite scary too."

So what if he's a world runner-up? Let's beat him!

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(End of this chapter)