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

Chapter 330 Record
In the dead of night in the dormitory of the Chinese Chess Academy, the cold light from a cell phone, like an invisible spider web, firmly stuck Yi Zheng to his single bed.

The light from the screen reflected on his young but slightly furrowed brow, which seemed to be filled with worry, making the quiet shadow in the corner of the room appear even more intense.

"Hiss... 'Are you starving?' or 'Ugly Group'? This place is only two yuan short of the discounted room rate! This doesn't seem like a bad choice for dinner? Should I splurge and order another milk tea?"

Yi Zheng's fingertips swished across the screen, making a soft "swish" sound, as if he were scratching a lottery ticket that would never win a big prize.

"Deciding what to order for takeout is truly the biggest problem in the world! It's even harder than slaying a dragon in the mid-game!"

Yi Zheng lay on the bed, tossing and turning, looking at his phone. Since the advent of food delivery apps, many contestants no longer wanted to eat in the cafeteria.

Even when we went out to compete before, there were always a lot of players who would pay for takeout even though there was a free buffet at the hotel at noon.

However, because many chess fans gathered below the hotel where the competition was held, people would often block the way before and after meals, wanting to take photos and sign autographs.

Yi Zheng saw Chu Tianjiao, a 9-dan professional Go player, and his wife, who was also a professional player, being blocked at that time. Because female Go players are more popular, Chu Tianjiao's wife obviously had more fans around her.

After dealing with a few people briefly, Chu Tianjiao seized the opportunity to abandon his wife and make love to her beforehand. Yi Zheng wondered if this tyrant would have to kneel on a washboard when he got home.

Wen Xiao ordered takeout for lunch during the competition. Fully armed as a takeout hunter, she secretly ran downstairs while the fans were hunting down other players. She quietly slipped to the side of the main entrance, grabbed her takeout, and quickly ran to the elevator, managing not to be caught by the fans.

What should I eat for a late-night snack?

Yi Zheng helplessly turned over. At 11 pm in the capital, there were still tons of takeout options available. His indecisiveness struck again!

While Yi Zheng was agonizing over what to eat in his dorm room, at the same time, Jiang Mobai and several others watched the game of chess that had just taken place in their own dorm rooms, shaking their heads and sighing.

The lights in Jiang Mobai's room were slightly brighter than those in Yi Zheng's room, and the air was filled with a faint aroma of tea and a subtle tension.

Because the debriefing by several people had just ended, the final conclusions were not ideal.

Jiang Mobai played exceptionally well in this game, but suffered a complete defeat.

Chen Yanran, who won the national team title in North China this year, along with the other two members of the "Three Musketeers," Qi Ling and Shen Guhong, were in his room at the time.

Everyone looked at each other, unsure of what to say.

"Old Jiang, don't take it to heart. Today's loss was more of an accident, mainly due to the chain reaction caused by the partial collapse in the upper right corner."

You played very well overall, including your later attacks; your overall performance was as expected. It's just that you encountered an unfamiliar area where you suffered a significant loss.

Chen Yanran, being the oldest of the three, was the first to break the silence and offer a word of comfort to Jiang Mobai.

This match was indeed not a result of poor performance, but theoretically speaking, losing a game after suffering such a heavy loss is even more damaging.

There's no way to change it if the result is bad; no matter how well you performed in the middle, it's all in vain.

Fortunately, it was Jiang Mobai.

In terms of both experience and mentality, Jiang Mobai can be said to be one of the best in Chinese Go.

Jiang Mobai crossed his arms and nodded: "Yes, so in the next game, we should try to simplify the situation at the beginning and play it safe to prevent unexpected situations from happening."

The next game is taking everyone very seriously. In a best-of-five match, it's extremely rare for someone to come back from a 2-0 deficit to win 3-2, let alone a best-of-seven game where they've won 4-3 from a 3-0 deficit. That's why Ethan has been talked about for years; it's just too embarrassing.

This requires not only extremely strong mental fortitude and extraordinary performance under dire circumstances, but also unparalleled luck.

If you take all of these factors together, you could probably create a legend by trading futures, let alone winning a championship.

Instead of having such expectations, you might as well try to become a stock market guru; all you need to do is successfully run for president.

"There are so many people online criticizing me now. It's true, I only lost one game and so many supporters are jumping up and down."

Jiang Mobai's mood wasn't greatly affected; he even had the mood to browse his phone and read comments, and he didn't feel anything even when he saw negative comments.

After all, we've seen this a lot before. Modern netizens can be quite mischievous, like deliberately tagging you in negative comments, saying someone is praising you, or that someone posted a handsome photo of you.

"So essentially the day after tomorrow is the decisive day, so I need to prepare well tomorrow and get up at noon."

Hearing Jiang Mobai's words, Chen Yanran didn't know where to begin complaining. Was all that preparation meant to be a nap until noon?
But perhaps it is this positive mindset that allows Jiang Mobai to achieve victory in any environment.

Jiang Mobai looked at the group of people shaking their heads and sighing and felt a little helpless: "What are you all sighing about? It's just one game, isn't that normal? Nobody never loses a game. I've won many games in a row, it's just a small setback, not even a big storm."

However, how many consecutive wins has Yi Zheng been on lately? It seems like he hasn't lost a single game recently..."

Jiang Mobai realized something strange at this moment. He had paid special attention to it when Yi Zheng broke his 29-game winning streak some time ago.

However, he didn't pay much attention to it after that, but thinking about it, it seems that Yi Zheng never lost after that.

"Thirty-five wins, including today's game."

"Holy crap... I almost forgot that this guy just got another three-game winning streak in the World Tournament, and he's getting closer and closer to Li Junhe's record!"

If Yi Zheng wins six more games, he will directly tie Li Junhe's record.

"Are win rates and form really that terrifying?"

Jiang Mobai felt as if he hadn't even realized when Yi Zheng had become so terrifying. Li Junhe's 41-game winning streak was achieved in his super year, and Yi Zheng is only eighteen years old this year. It shouldn't be that bad.

A normal peak should be around two or three years in one's early twenties, when experience, technique and energy have reached their peak. At this time, the world's number one often gives people an extremely desperate feeling.

The so-called "cannot be defeated even with all one's might".

"It's a pity that Yi Zheng hasn't reached that level of form and skill yet, so I had to break his winning streak. He'll have to start all over again if he wants to achieve that kind of winning streak in the future!"

Jiang Mobai didn't think he would lose this five-game match without winning a single game. But if he lost even one game, Yi Zheng's record would be broken, and he would have to start all over again.

Therefore, Jiang Mobai felt it was a great pity about this.

However, what Jiang Mobai didn't realize was that his original "must-win" mentality had now turned into "it's impossible to lose a game if I don't win one."

(End of this chapter)