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

Chapter 219 Climbing the Peak

Good morning, Zheng.

"It's not early at all, it's already noon."

Yi Zheng looked at Miao Jun, who was taking milk out of the refrigerator and pouring it directly into his mouth, and said something with a hint of helplessness.

Miao Jun rubbed his sleepy eyes and said, "Noon? That's perfect! What a great time to get up. I can have breakfast and lunch together, consider it a way to lose weight. Auntie has already cooked, right? I'll just grab a bite and go back to sleep."

Professional Go players are, in a sense, freelancers, since they don't have to work regular hours or get up early every morning.

Aside from participating in various competitions, unless you're on a national team or something similar, there's usually no mandatory training time; it's all arranged by yourself.

You can choose to train during the day or at night as you please, and no one will notice if you don't train today.

Normally, if you have the time and are self-disciplined, you can go to the chess academy every day to continue training. After all, there are many professional chess players in chess academies in various places. Although not everyone goes every day, the number of people there every day is quite large.

But in reality, most people can't do this because learning something is simply too against human nature.

For most people, Go is just a hobby; they only need to enjoy the game. You don't have to do life-and-death problems or study them, as long as you don't get frustrated after losing a lot.

But not in a good profession.

If you want to make a living from this, you have to win. If you can't win more than two games a day, you'll be eliminated in the first round of the qualifiers, and in the end, you'll only be able to go back to teaching chess.

If you want to win, you have to constantly improve your skills. If you want to improve your skills, you have to keep learning. And learning requires repetitive, mechanical movements.

Studying game records, practicing life-and-death problems, playing chess—repeatedly doing the same thing every day.

So the biggest question is how to maintain passion and keep an intrinsic motivation.

External constraints only tighten slightly when you relax; if you rely solely on external constraints, you will eventually collapse or completely rebound.

Upon hearing this, Yi Zheng replied, "I didn't call the housekeeper over today; I made my own noodles."

"Then I'll order takeout. Where did you put those takeout cards from before? I'll order Gaozu Shengjian."

As Miao Jun spoke, he began searching through a pile of takeout cards on the table. There weren't any dedicated takeout apps yet, but various restaurants had their own delivery services and hired people to deliver the food.

So all sorts of cards are distributed, and then people call to order food.

Yi Zheng looked at Miao Jun, who had just finished his phone call and was leaning back in his chair, almost falling asleep again, and said helplessly, "Fatty, you really should change your sleep schedule. You go to bed at two or three in the morning every night and only get up now. Don't let it affect your performance in the competition."

Upon hearing this, Miao Jun waved his hand and said, "Don't worry, Zheng. I'll adjust my schedule when there's a competition. Right now, it's most comfortable for me to sleep and wake up whenever I want, which will keep me in top condition."

Not everyone can be as twisted as you, going to bed at midnight every night, waking up at 8 a.m. sharp, and then taking a nap for one or two hours at noon. Your sleep schedule is practically that of a robot! Sometimes I really wonder if you're even human.

"Isn't this a normal work schedule? All office workers and white-collar workers live like this." Yi Zheng felt that this kind of work schedule was very normal. Isn't this the kind of work schedule you get in a regular job?

Hearing this, Miao Jun couldn't help but roll his eyes: "Normal my ass. I won't even mention that a lot of people have to work overtime. Even those who do work 9 to 5 still play on their phones and stay up until who knows how late at night. Who can resist the temptation of their phone at night!"

It's precisely because you're too normal that you're completely abnormal!
Besides, I've been staying up late lately to study AlphaGo's matches. Honestly, I'm more energetic at night and can study better then. I don't have much motivation to study during the day, so I might as well sleep.

AlphaGo cannot be said to have become famous overnight, because it was already well-known before. It's just that this time its status has been elevated to a new level.

He consecutively defeated five of the world's top players, an achievement that is unprecedented and unlikely to be repeated.

All we can say now is that AlphaGo is not human at all!

Regarding the game records of this online match, many experts have provided their own interpretations and analyses, including several of the top players who participated in the match, who have also written their own commentaries.

Unfortunately, several forums and magazines offered high prices to have top players share their feelings about the game and their analysis of the situation.

Since we've already lost all face, we can't just stop making money, right?

Research on AlphaGo has reached a new level. It is said that the American Association has even set up a special research team to study AlphaGo's game records.

Miao Jun seemed to have thought of something, and suddenly couldn't help but shake his head and sigh: "Suddenly I feel like I've lost some meaning. I originally thought that Jiang Mobai and Li Junhe, these old masters, were nothing special. We would kick them down sooner or later, and reaching the top was inevitable."

But now that AlphaGo has come out, it feels so difficult to surpass it. Is it really possible to beat its level? Despair, utter despair.

It really felt like I suddenly lost my motivation, because the world number one position suddenly became like an impenetrable fortress.

"We'll win sooner or later! It's precisely because it's a peak that we're motivated to climb, isn't it? It's what fuels our desire to conquer it!"

Yi Zheng was quite confident. Although he was defeated again last night, it did not deter him from his goal of defeating Master Ke.

Looking at the energetic Yi Zheng, Miao Jun inexplicably felt a kind of motivation and couldn't help but nod: "That's right! It's because it's a high mountain that people have the desire to climb and conquer it, isn't that right!"
Just like Mount Everest, it's precisely because it's the world's highest peak that people keep climbing it! Nobody remembers what the second highest peak is!

"K2"

"Third in the world?"

"Kangchenjunga is worth mentioning. The first and third highest peaks are both in the Himalayas, as is the fourth highest peak in the world."

Miao Jun fell silent upon hearing this. Seriously, we all dropped out of elementary school before starting to learn chess, didn't we? We agreed to study together, so why are you secretly taking extra lessons?!
The phone rang just as Yi Zheng finished speaking. He nodded upon hearing the voice on the other end.

"A research conference? This afternoon? Okay, I'll go check it out."

PS: Please give me your monthly votes, brothers!

(End of this chapter)