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

Chapter 227 Iron Unrequited Love

"How could we lose? How could we possibly lose?"

Ethan couldn't help but rub his face, staring incredulously at the situation on the chessboard.

Although it was unbelievable, and it felt like it could never happen, the chessboard was right in front of Ethan, telling him that it was a fact, a bloody fact.

Now there are only single points left on the board, and there is nothing complicated about it. Anyone with a little Go skill can easily tell who has won and who has lost in a short time.

Ethan could obviously see through it, but he still continued to collect the orders while disbelieving them, until he got to the last one.

With Ethan's 330th move, the last single move of the game was also taken, and Yi Zheng immediately called the referee to calculate the outcome.

All the endgame moves on the board have been completed, and to play any more moves would probably require adding more pieces, which Yi Zheng naturally had no interest in.

After the two players finished their game, the referee quickly came onto the field. After all, referees don't usually participate in determining the winner. In professional Go, it's rare for a game to go from start to finish completely; most games are decided by half a point.

In most cases, professional players don't even need to finish the game; they already know who will win and who will lose. They simply resign in the middle game without any further discussion, so there's no need for a referee to make a decision.

So the referee was clearly a little excited, finally having something to do, and then began to divide the territory on the chessboard and calculate the winner according to the rules.

Ethan was still immersed in his grief, because he had already calculated that he would lose by half a point. The problem was that calculating it didn't mean he could accept it.

Especially in the middle of the game, Ethan felt he had the victory in his grasp and was already thinking about who he would face and how to beat them in tomorrow's match, as well as how glorious it would be to bring back five players from China.

At the time, I felt there was absolutely no possibility of losing, but we ended up losing anyway.

How could that be? How could you lose a game that was impossible to lose?
Looking back now, Ethan realizes that although there were problems at the time, if he had calmed down, he would have had a chance to win, and he was just one step away!
But I made a slight mistake and then the scale tipped completely off.

A few minor mistakes in the final steps completely turned a seemingly unbeatable situation into a loss.

"WTF! Shift!"

Ethan was reciting English words that even people who don't study English would know. After all, if you don't learn another country's language through proper channels, the only things you'll likely encounter are swear words from that country.

And everyone quickly picked up swear words from other countries, and pronounced them perfectly, even though they couldn't say a single other word besides those swear words.

For example, Chinese people use Japanese, Korean, and English—the three languages ​​most commonly used in communication with China. People may not use these languages ​​to communicate with foreigners, but they will definitely use them to swear.

After the referee had properly placed all the pieces on the board, he announced the result of the game: "Black wins by a quarter point."

A quarter of a piece is also called half a point.

Yi Zheng simply nodded slightly. Everyone already knew this result, but since the opponent wouldn't admit defeat even after all the endgame moves had been made, Yi Zheng could only let the referee decide the outcome of the match.

Ethan was clearly not still feeling regretful. He stared at the chessboard, shaking his head and rubbing his hair. It wasn't until the referee asked the other player to sign to confirm the result that Ethan seemed to be pulled back to reality from his own world.

Looking at the results of the match where he lost by a quarter, Ethan was extremely reluctant to admit it, but he had to sign his name.

After all, if you don't dress elegantly, someone will make sure you dress elegantly for you, so it's better to dress elegantly.

With this, the World Ring Tournament Junior Division competition has come to a complete end. Yi Zheng won the competition with a record of ten wins, achieving the feat of building an army on his own.

"Holy crap! We really won! It's unbelievable, it's really unbelievable! I didn't dare watch it in the middle!"

Miao Jun jumped up from the sofa when he saw the match results being announced. Although everyone had calculated that Yi Zheng would definitely win when the game was in the endgame, they were still extremely excited when the results were actually announced!
They actually won! They really won!

Unbelievable! I never imagined this would actually happen!
Qi Ling breathed a sigh of relief: "I'm all ready to play tomorrow. Looks like I can sleep in again! Now I can finally be a 'lie-and-win dog' (meaning someone who wins without lifting a finger), at least no one will criticize me." Last year, when Qi Ling and his team were swept 3-1, the entire forum was cursing the Three Musketeers as trash. Qi Ling didn't dare to look at the forum, afraid of his mentality exploding.

Now that's great, we've won without even playing a single game, so surely no one will complain now?
If Yi Zheng had lost today, Qi Ling would have wanted to go on stage himself to keep grinding down Ethan and chase him down to kill the dragon.

But now he doesn't need to play anymore, the game is over!
It must be so comfortable to be a "lying down and winning" dog!

Duoduo's already smiling face now stretched from ear to ear: "Ten in a row! No one has ever done that in all these years! I've already received the prize money before I even played. I have to use this prize money to treat Yi Zheng to dinner."

"What are you treating me to! Ah Zheng's ten-game winning streak started with his three-game winning streak and he's been accumulating winnings ever since! How much did he accumulate in ten games? He's made a fortune, that bastard! I have to make him treat me to dinner tonight! Everyone, quickly use your phones to search for good restaurants around here, we have to rip him off! One meal won't be enough!"

The prize money for the World Go Tournament is divided into overall team prize money and additional prize money for individual winners.

Whether it's the champion, runner-up, or third place, there's an overall prize money. However, if a player achieves a three-game winning streak, they can receive an additional personal prize. Each additional winning streak adds to the prize money, accumulating over time.

For the Chinese team, who have participated in the tournament for many years, the prize money has always been distributed according to the proportion of wins. That is, everyone starts with a share of the money, and then whoever wins a match gets an extra share. The prize money is divided by this number and then distributed among everyone.

If Yi Zheng wins ten games, it's equivalent to eleven shares. Everyone else can have one share as an extra, since they're already here.

Although the prize money for the junior group is a little less than that for the unlimited group, Yi Zheng still earned close to two million yuan when the prize money was added together.

It's fair to say that the prize money for this competition alone is more than all the prize money Yi Zheng has won in all the competitions he participated in throughout the entire year. It truly lives up to its reputation as a world-class competition; it's incredibly generous.

"Ah Zheng suddenly became a millionaire overnight, that's outrageous!"

Shen Guhong shook his head: "It was already like that before. With the prize money from various competitions this year, plus the Newcomer King championship and the Agon Kiriyama championship, his real income this year would have already exceeded one million if taxes were not deducted."

Not to mention the Agon Kiriyama Cup, which includes a China-Japan match; if you win, you get 400,000, and if you lose, you get 100,000.

There's also an Agon Kiriyama Cup China-Japan showdown before the Lunar New Year this year. Regardless of whether you win or lose, you'll receive a prize, which is quite good.

Upon hearing this, Miao Jun immediately put his arm around Shen Guhong's neck and said with a mischievous grin, "Old Shen, you seem to be quite concerned about A-Zheng. He probably doesn't even know how much bonus he's earned."

"I'm not, I didn't, don't talk nonsense!"

Upon hearing this, Shen Guhong immediately denied it three times, stating that he was only concerned about the performance of his competitors, nothing more.

Miao Jun: "So how did I do this year? How much prize money did I get?"

Shen Guhong: "..."

"I never thought you wouldn't treat me like your sweetheart anymore. It's really heartbreaking!"

"QNMD!"

"Yi Zheng seems to still be in the second division league, but with his current strength, he should be playing in the first division by now."

The top-tier league is about to start this year; I wonder if any teams have contacted him.

As soon as Qi Ling finished speaking, the people in the research room looked at each other, and then tacitly went to make phone calls in different corners.

"Boss, there's a really strong player. Does our team have any plans to sign him?"

(End of this chapter)