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

Chapter 286 Protagonist and Supporting Characters

"Indeed, the best move is to push. This way, I can be restricted without harming myself."

Li Junhe understood perfectly; the effect of this step was crystal clear, like a pre-written script.

Li Junhe was not surprised by this move. After all, Alexander and everyone else had already learned from the mistakes. There was no way to back down, otherwise they would only face certain death.

The sea of ​​subsequent changes was too vast and profound for Li Junhe to exhaust all branches in an instant like a computer engine, but through decades of immersion and honing his sensitivity to board positions, he could clearly sense some things.

The murderous intent, the opportunity for retaliation, and the invisible traps and pitfalls lurking beneath the calm surface.

This is a unique "chess sense" possessed by top-level chess players; it is the intuition of experience, and even more so, the muscle memory formed from countless critical moments.

Unfortunately, Yi Zheng said, "Since this throwing knife has already been thrown, I will definitely give you some face."

If you're willing to maintain a dignified appearance, everyone will be fine.

But if you don't want to be dignified, I'll help you be dignified!
I have nine ways, I have nine ways to kill you!

Nine kinds!

Li Junhe silently began to think as he looked at the situation on the chessboard.

Faced with this unfamiliar opening pattern, one that had never appeared in matches between active professional players, he felt as if he were exploring an unknown jungle in the dark, needing to repeatedly deduce and search for the theoretically existing "most correct move." Every second of thought was accompanied by the ticking of the clock, a death knell.

At this point, you can't block it anymore, otherwise it would be like Lee Jun-hyuk breaking the original pattern and then breaking it again, which would be tantamount to suicide.

If Yi Zheng plays again, he can directly capture the white pieces that have been linked together, which is a huge loss.

After careful consideration, Li Junhe chose to take a step back.

Sixteenth move, White retreats!

Yi Zheng was not surprised to see that Li Junhe had made the right move here. This place was almost a one-way street, with no other choice but to take this step.

If Li Junhe can't even come up with this, then his title of world number one is really worthless.

Yi Zheng's movements were extremely fast; he didn't even give his opponent a chance to catch his breath or adjust his posture.

With a whooshing sound, the black piece landed precisely on the crucial point of the chessboard with a "snap!" The force was so great that the surrounding pieces trembled slightly. At the moment of the move, even Lee Jun-hyuk-chong hadn't had time to strike the bell.

Seventeenth move, Black, push!
Enough talk, let's go!
Upon seeing this, Lee Jun-hyuk responded quickly after striking the bell, blocking it without hesitation.

Without even thinking, Li Junhe knew from his long-held intuition that he absolutely could not let Yi Zheng rush out, or he would be finished.

Seeing the throwing knife that had completely taken shape, Yi Zheng simply swept his hair back and leaned back on the sofa in a tactical pose.

This classic pose perfectly embodies Yi Zheng's current "everything is under control" demeanor as a powerful figure and his absolute confidence in the upcoming chaotic battle.

Because of this, a chaotic battle involving the Mi family's flying knives was inevitable.

Yi Zheng now needs to consider these two breakpoints: which one should be broken, the internal or the external?

The most common changes usually occur outside, but Yi Zheng felt it was uninteresting because the process was too long and too demanding on the veterans.

Upholding the principle of respecting the elderly and caring for the young, how could someone as kind as myself continue to torture an elder like this!

It broke inside.

Sigh, but this is still torturing the veterans.

I couldn't do anything about it; it was torture no matter what. I can only blame Li Junhe for making it himself.

Li Junhe frowned as he looked at Yi Zheng, who had made the decisive move. This step was expected, but the situation here was not.

A chaotic battle was inevitable, Li Junhe's intuition told him!

The chessboard is no longer a linear calculation and deduction, but is about to become a chaotic meat grinder battlefield!
"Here, it seems the two sides have made a new, unprecedented move?"

The quiet teacher, who had initially felt completely unmotivated in the lecture room, suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.

He originally thought the situation would fall into the kind of tedious, agonizing game that Li Junhe excelled at, and he was so bored that he wanted to drink three cups of coffee to perk himself up.

However, the few exchanges shown on the screen just now were like a thunderclap out of nowhere! A single point 33 directly changed the entire situation.

The chessboard currently only has a few pieces, and it's hard to tell what's going on. But anyone with a professional's eye can sense that things are about to get chaotic!

"It needs to be sharp!"

After careful consideration, Li Junhe pointed to his hand, which was also the only option here.

But at that moment, he realized that the knife wound was a problem!

Because Yi Zheng clearly understood the changes here, he didn't even need to think about it. After Li Junhe placed his bet, he immediately placed his bet.

The instant Li Junhe placed the chess piece on the board, his opponent's hand almost simultaneously reached into the chess box.

Otherwise, Yi Zheng might have gone mad and bet blindly based on gut feeling, but that's highly unlikely.

Or it could be this place, which he has already studied extensively, to the point of being unfathomable.

"In comparison, I have to make calculations on the spot. If I make a mistake, I could die without a burial place. Even if I manage to get the calculations right and finish with him, my time bar will probably burn out."

Thinking of this, Li Junhe's face darkened. No matter what the outcome, it was unacceptable to him.

If you make the wrong bet, you lose; once the time runs out, it's basically the same as losing.

Li Junhe couldn't help but glance at the timer next to him. He had been walking for almost twenty minutes, while Yi Zheng had only been walking for a little over a minute.

A time-based offensive! An overwhelming force of time-based attacks!
As I further deduce and calculate this pattern, this time difference will only get larger and larger!

Even as he continued to calculate during the game, Li Junhe became increasingly alarmed.

He discovered that there were simply too many changes and too much complexity involved, with too many options to choose from, and he couldn't tell which was right and which was wrong.

As the game progressed, the computational complexity at the center of the storm soared exponentially. Li Junhe seemed to have entered a cosmic maze, where every step could lead to an unknown and dangerous end.

Even the original three complex patterns seem like greenhorns in the face of this change.

An extremely complex throwing knife, which could easily injure both the user and the attacker, appeared without any warning.

A bitter taste spread across Li Junhe's tongue, and for the first time, he regretted his impulsive actions.

This is no longer a private research project where you can leisurely enjoy tea, repeatedly verify information, and start over if you're wrong.

This is a formal game; once a move is made, there's no going back.

Every move a piece makes represents an irreversible and costly decision.

It's like walking on a tightrope hundreds of meters in the air, with absolutely no room for error.

He forcibly suppressed the turmoil in his heart and tried his best to make his thoughts cold and objective again.

Li Junhe can only console himself now, trying to convince himself that it's impossible to study such a large and complex set of patterns in great depth.

Everyone here can only be explorers on this path right now. Yi Zheng has at most taken a few steps ahead of us, but those few steps may not even be the right ones.

The new changes that I've calculated now may not be something that Yi Zheng has studied.

After all, even Li Junhe, with only a superficial understanding, knew how complex the changes here were. Even if Yi Zheng were a god descended to earth, he couldn't possibly figure them all out.

The long deliberation continued, and the sounds of other players placing their pieces rose and fell in the game room. Li Junhe was certain of one thing:
"After this round, it will probably take humanity hundreds of years to study this change."

Li Junhe knew that as the birthplace of this flying knife, its brilliance needed to be proven by the tempering of blood and fire. Whoever won would become its protagonist, its eternal synonym, and etch their name in the long river of human wisdom.

Whoever loses will become a supporting character for hundreds of years, and in the mouths of future chess prodigies, "Oh, that's the background figure who made the flying knife famous throughout the world."

That would be the cruelest and most direct confrontation between supreme glory and utter sorrow.

This change has the potential to completely replace the three major complex opening patterns and become the only jewel in the crown of Go.

Lee Jun-hyuk gently closed his eyes and took a deep breath of the warm, humid air.

The core of the storm has already formed, and the symphony of chaotic battle has already begun. All that remains is to use one's lifelong chess skills and the limits of human intellect to carve a bloody path through this chaotic and unpredictable cosmic labyrinth!
The long deliberation continues...

(End of this chapter)