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

Chapter 175 First Salvage, Then Die
“Normally, his flying move wouldn’t work, but because of the strong support below, my interception wasn’t particularly severe for him.”

Shen Guhong pondered silently in his heart. Although that was the theory, he still chose to break through, because it was an inevitable move.

We should still charge in!
Yi Zheng, however, took the initiative to launch an attack in this game. He strictly followed his "coach's" tactical arrangements, neither backing down nor playing conservatively, but instead taking the initiative to attack.

Old Ke: "Just remember this: a white knife goes in, a green knife comes out—you stab his gallbladder! A white knife goes in, a white knife comes out—you scramble his brains!! A white knife goes in, a yellow knife comes out—you stab his shit!!!"

Forget everything else, just do it! Go for it!

Yi Zheng was speechless: "What?! You're just being sarcastic! Why stab me so many times? One stab would have been enough."

Shen Guhong was somewhat surprised to see Yi Zheng take the lead in attacking, since most people would be looking to play it safe in such a crucial situation.

Often, people will adopt a strategy similar to that of a kung fu game, dragging the game out to the end, and very few people will immediately draw their swords at the beginning.

After all, Yi Zheng, as the winner, had already won one game, so he would definitely want to play it safe in the second game.

Shen Guhong did the same thing two years ago. He entered the finals with Qi Ling and won the first game. In the second game, he thought he could easily defeat Qi Ling, but instead, he was defeated by Qi Ling. In the end, he was also defeated in the third game.

Shen Guhong originally thought that Yi Zheng would most likely make the same mistake, but he did not expect that the other party would not only be careless, but also attack first.

This put Shen Guhong in a dilemma, weighing the gains and losses.

Because the two pieces he broke through are now surrounded, making a simple move would easily put him in a difficult position, but if he avoids battle...

Shen Guhong believes that this is not only a contest of offense and defense between the two sides, but also a contest of their initial momentum.

The concept of "harmony of spirits" is aptly described in a line from a certain TV series: "It's better to suffer a defeat than to lose power."

Yi Zheng launched the first attack; if he were to retreat, he would inexplicably be at a disadvantage in terms of momentum.

Humans are influenced by their mindset when playing chess. If they lose momentum at the beginning, they may retreat step by step.

With this in mind, Shen Guhong made his choice.

If you want war, then let's fight!
Shen Guhong immediately chose to engage in battle, and the two sides immediately formed a mutually attacking formation at the start.

The two sides clashed directly on the right flank, which surprised many spectators.

It's one thing for one person to ask for a fight, but it seems like two people are actively seeking one, and neither of them are representatives of the "forceful fighting" faction. Or are these two people also going to convert to the "forceful fighting" faction?
“Here, Yi Zheng has no way to use force directly, there’s no good solution, it depends on what he chooses.”

Shen Guhong looked at the current situation on the field and waited for Yi Zheng's answer.

If Yi Zheng dares to take forceful action now, Shen Guhong will be devastated after calculating several charts.

However, we can't stay put; we still have to follow along.

In a sense, Shen Guhong is now testing Yi Zheng.

In Go, this often happens: one side launches an attack on a local area, while the other side has to solve it, much like solving a problem.

Sometimes, even if you solve the problem, you don't gain anything, but if you don't solve it, the problem becomes much bigger.

Some of the top control-style chess players can continuously pose challenges to their opponents throughout the game, and then slowly force them into a corner.

Yi Zheng was indeed a bit stumped by this question. It was difficult; there wasn't much of a reward for a correct answer, and getting it wrong could easily lead to problems. In that case, he decided to try a different approach.

Yi Zheng chose to make a move on the right side, and this move put the problem back on Shen Guhong's shoulders.

Excuse me, but I'm the one who set the questions!

Please answer, Shen Guhong!
Yi Zheng also learned this trick from someone else: cleverly turning around and passing the problem back to that person.

Because he had once tried to torture Mr. Ke in the same way, only to be outsmarted and suffer the consequences, he would naturally try to do the same thing now.

Shen Guhong felt uncomfortable looking at the ball that had been kicked back; he hadn't expected to feel like he had trapped himself in a cocoon.

After much deliberation, Shen Guhong chose to reinforce his own position, while Yi Zheng took the initiative to capture the enemy's territory and protected the right side as much as possible.

In this round of question-setting, Shen Guhong not only failed to gain an advantage, but instead stumped himself.

Shen Guhong also felt that his current situation was not good. Although Yi Zheng had a seven and a half point burden when playing black under the rule of counting points, the current situation on the board was that Yi Zheng was almost at a disadvantage of five or six points.

Shen Guhong had far fewer real space than Yi Zheng, so he decided to seize the space first. As for the big dragon in the middle, Shen Guhong thought he could leave it for now.

He could naturally sense the hidden risks lurking in the dragon, but he chose to ignore them.

This also reflects Shen Guhong's style and confidence, because his usual style is to first gain territory and then exploit it to create opportunities for his team.

That way, as long as the opponent can't kill your Baron, you can win.

Moreover, because Shen Guhong was extremely capable of managing orphans, this strategy had a high success rate for him, which naturally formed his unique style and path dependence.

It can be said that, whether due to considerations of the situation or Shen Guhong's own style, he chose to turn a blind eye to the threat posed by Yi Zhengchang to the formation below and the central dragon.

Shen Guhong ignored everything and went up to the top to grab the empty space, making sure he wouldn't fall behind Yi Zheng in terms of the number of points.

This step also greatly increased the solid ground above Shen Guhong, not only breaking the void above Yi Zheng, but also subtly threatening the breakpoints left by Yi Zheng before.

Yi Zheng also protected the breakpoint and made it empty by attacking and eating.

Looking at the current situation on the chessboard, Shen Guhong also fell into thought.

Shen Guhong's dragon is still under threat, but if he chooses to support his dragon now, Yi Zheng will definitely not hesitate to destroy the formation below him.

With this in mind, Shen Guhong decided to put his dragon aside and instead suppress Yi Zheng's expansion in the middle of the dragon's territory.

Seeing Shen Guhong completely ignoring his dragon, Yi Zheng also became furious.

Since you're so confident, then let me show you my Dragon-Slaying Saber!
If you want to fish out the fish first and then wash it, then I'll make sure you fish out the fish first and then die.

Move 111, Black plays, Ban!

PS: Update time has resumed to 10 AM.

(End of this chapter)