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

Chapter 324 Collective Research
The lights on the airport expressway intertwined to form a flowing ribbon of light outside the car window. Jiang Mobai sat in the spacious back seat of the black minivan, his fingertips hovering over the phone screen.

The weariness from just finishing a dozen hours of intercontinental flight was suppressed by a strange sense of excitement. Looking at the words he had just typed on social media, a barely perceptible smile appeared on his lips, like a hunter looking at a carefully laid trap.

Jiang Mobai V (Official Certification: Chinese Go Saint 9-dan): To be honest, @Yi Zheng, you are indeed strong. Your content and ideas are better than mine (doge emoji). But it's a pity that we met in the finals (cool sunglasses emoji), otherwise you would have had a chance to win the title of Go Saint. (shrug emoji)
The message was sent successfully, the notification sound particularly crisp in the quiet carriage. Jiang Mobai placed his phone screen-down on the leather seat, closed his eyes, and seemed to imagine the ripples that might occur on the other end of the network. The fleeting light and shadow outside the window reflected on his sharply defined profile, revealing an air of confident composure—at least on the surface.

He added a thought to himself that he didn't type out: "Unfortunately, 'if' is the most luxurious luxury in the world of Go."

Yi Zheng and Jiang Mobai were not on the same flight. When Yi Zheng played the last game, everyone else had already left because no one needed to play, regardless of the outcome.

Having just finished his match, Yi Zheng, who was also in the hotel, saw the post and couldn't help but mutter, "Is he praising me, or praising himself?"

He said Yi Zheng was better than him, but at the same time he said he would win.

It's like a sugar-coated bullet, but we don't know if it's actually 100% sugary.

Although Jiang Mobai himself is indeed very sweet.

"Tactical flattery to kill! A classic 'praise to the skies' tactic. It's an old trick! Let me tell you, it's the same as shouting 'The BOSS is too strong, I'm so scared' before entering a dungeon in an online game. Pure Versailles."

They'll elevate you to the pinnacle, placing you on the pedestal of "chosen one" and "rising star of Go," only to then personally shove you down—smack! The sheer magnitude of that fall will instantly elevate the prestige of his title as Go Saint to its absolute peak.

Old Ke shook his head, tapping his fingers on the armrest of his chair: "Do you understand what 'to promote someone before promoting them' means? He's promoting you first, and then promoting himself later!"

For example, if you defeat the world's number one player in the final to win the championship, everyone will consider that the achievement to be of high value.

However, if you are lucky enough to not encounter any strong opponents along the way, and the strong opponents either suffer unexpected defeats or are eliminated through internal competition, it is inevitable that the value of your achievements will be questioned.

Simply put, the more popular Yi Zheng is now, the more prestigious the title will be if Jiang Mobai can successfully defend it.

"Senior Brother Jiang is quite kind; he didn't reply immediately after I posted my update, but waited until my competition was over before replying."

Yi Zheng has now completed the first stage of the World Go Tournament and returned to the competition hotel. He achieved three consecutive victories in the first stage and successfully defended his title until the second stage. He will be flying back to China tomorrow.

Yi Zheng remembered seeing Jiang Mobai's flight number in the group chat. If he remembered correctly, Jiang Mobai should have just gotten off the plane. He posted this update as soon as he got off the plane, which clearly shows how anxious Jiang Mobai was.

"But there are so many matches lately. The final of the Chess Saint Tournament is about to go through three games, and if we're unlucky, it could go through five. The A League playoffs are coming up soon, and there's also the Asian Cup."

"Too many... Luckily I didn't accept the invitation to the last tournament, otherwise I feel like I'd be living on an airplane."

Yi Zheng also felt quite troubled. Many fringe players are troubled by the lack of competitions. After all, although there are many competitions, they may have to go home after playing just one game. The number of games they can play is probably just a little more than the number of competitions they can sign up for.

However, as a top player, Yi Zheng's problem is that there are too many matches, and he has to figure out how to skip some of them to adjust his form.

Commercial competitions have been largely abandoned, and if things continue like this, Yi Zheng feels that some formal competitions may have to be avoided as well.

"Headache." "That's normal. You should play more chess when you're young. Back in my day, I would just sleep on the plane. I was flying everywhere! By the time I got to the finals of the world championship, I was so tired that I knew it would be hard to win."

"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown, and besides, with your physical strength, you're perfectly capable of being a time management master."

Mr. Ke had to admit that young people have a lot of energy!
Yi Zheng is nearly eighteen years old, which is the peak of his physical function. Yi Zheng is also an energy monster. In comparison, Jiang Mobai is at a disadvantage in terms of physical strength in a match of five rounds in one go.

Yi Zheng simply complained, saying that playing more games was better than playing none at all.

"Old Ke, let's set up the chessboard."

Yi Zheng had just gotten out of bed to practice chess when he received a call from Yun Yi, asking if he needed other people to practice with him and conduct group research.

As the final match of the Chess Saint Tournament, this was not just a game between Yi Zheng and Jiang Mobai, but also directly represented the two chess academies.

After all, the title of Chess Saint not only represents the highest honor in Chinese Go, but also signifies a spot in the third stage of the competition next year! This directly affects the funding for the year after next!
Therefore, both sides will basically do all the logistical support work, such as mobilizing the whole team to start preparing for the competition.

However, Yi Zheng was clearly not interested in this kind of preparation: "Forget it, I still prefer to train by myself. Anyway, I'll try to get as many of Jiang Mobai's most recent game records as possible."

However, the only information that can be collected is probably the publicly available information about the initial training and some internal training sessions. For the truly private training sessions, Jiang Mobai only hires people he trusts, so he can be sure that the information won't be exposed before the competition.

He knew that an opponent of Jiang Mobai's caliber would have far more than just superficial preparations.

The real "trump card" or "secret weapon" must be honed within his most trusted inner circle.

Of course, it's not entirely impossible.

For example, in the final of another world chess tournament, during the match, the Chinese players' privately prepared ciphers were discovered, which was basically a devastating blow to certain training phases.

Because once this kind of thing takes effect, it means that many of your previous plans and strategies will become unusable.

Therefore, you can't always trust the internet. It leaves too many traces, and many people can really dig up all sorts of strange things.

In this internal preparation, the contestants are extremely vigilant and will absolutely not allow any leaks to occur. In other words, if anyone leaks information, it will not be as simple as breaking off relations.

Yi Zheng didn't expect to be able to get the private training in North China, because if he could, the entire structure there would probably have to be reshuffled.

The same applies to East China.

However, Yi Zheng could not possibly risk any leaks, since only one non-human entity knew what he had prepared.

Meanwhile, Jiang Mobai nodded to the three people in front of him: "I'll leave the next few days in your care. I have absolute trust in you! Not only because of your superb skills, but also... you wouldn't want to see the title of Chess Saint fall to the East China region, would you?"

(End of this chapter)