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

Chapter 351 Undefeated in a Series of Matches
"Damn it... If you had told me earlier that I didn't need to participate in the preliminary rounds to win the Chess Saint title, I would have sneaked into Yi Zheng's room tonight and secretly given him laxatives!"

Jiang Mobai, who was lying on the sofa in the lounge with a lifeless expression while playing on his phone, immediately sat up when he saw the news on his phone that Yi Zheng was exempt from the Asian Games.

Sitting next to Yi Zheng, he couldn't help but complain, "You've been keeping this a secret! You must have known about this beforehand! You didn't tell me a thing! And no one else told me either! Have I already been excluded from the inner circle?"

And most importantly, why didn't I receive this treatment when I was a Go master back then?!

Gan!
Discrimination!

I'm going to sue you for discriminatory treatment!

They treated me differently!

"Playing in the qualifiers is great, it allows you to play more games. I remember the last qualifiers added up to a whole year's worth of games, and Senior Brother Jiang's rating increased quite a bit."

Yi Zheng didn't feel anything about it, after all, he thought it would be a large-scale round-robin preliminary round like the previous one, which was a good time to rack up points.

A 36-player double round-robin tournament means one person has 70 matches!
If he wins all seventy games, Yi Zheng estimates that his rating will reach an all-time high in Chinese Go rankings.

Jiang Mobai used this qualifier to raise his rating to the highest in Chinese history.

Jiang Mobai had no idea what Yi Zheng was thinking. If he did, he would probably think Yi Zheng was delusional and that he was too much of a gambler.

After all, besides the extremely slim possibility of winning all your games and gaining a large score, you could also lose a large score!

Back then, some people dropped from the teens to the thirties in the Chinese ranking system, which completely devastated them.

Moreover, although Jiang Mobai's score has skyrocketed, if he had to choose again, he would rather not have the score than participate in the competition; he would just want a spot in the competition.

You should know that Jiang Mobai also had a lot of trouble back then. The Chinese Chess Academy happened to find a time off from the World League and gathered everyone together, locking them up for a whole month to conduct the preliminary selection.

In the end, everyone forgot what they were supposed to do and just mechanically placed pieces and played chess; they almost became robots.

Jiang Mobai still occasionally wakes up in the middle of the night, dreaming that the round-robin tournament has started again.

Jiang Mobai still vividly remembers that deep-seated sense of exhaustion and fear!

You have to understand that even the world's top players usually only play around 70 or 80 matches a year. That one time they crammed a year's worth of matches into a single month. It's no wonder they were completely drained.

"Anyway, it was really abnormal back then. I think that the failure in that competition was related to this selection model. They thought that this kind of involution would select the good ones, but in reality, it would exhaust our energy."

Yun Linglei couldn't help but say something from the side, after all, he was also a participant in that preliminary round back then, and after the preliminary round ended, he was often awakened by nightmares in the middle of the night.

Those incredibly competitive preliminary rounds really did cause a lot of people to develop PTSD.

Indeed, many people have pointed out that this was one of the main reasons for the defeat at the Asian Games that year.

"This year's selection process is slightly more scientific. The national team conducts internal selections, with the top five in ranking directly entering the second round. From the remaining participants, three are selected through a ten-round round-robin tournament to join the second round of qualifiers. The remaining eight then compete in a round-robin tournament, with the top five securing a spot in the team competition and the number one player winning the final individual spot." Although this qualifier system is still quite complex, it's practically paradise compared to the hellish qualifiers of the past.

Especially since those ranked at the top haven't played many matches, it's like they're on vacation compared to back then.

"I really envy them; they were all exempt from the selection process."

Jiang Mobai couldn't help but glance at the only two foreign players in the competition venue. It could be said that they received extremely preferential treatment in their own country.

Teruto Kuroki has been exempt from Asian Games selection since the previous edition, after all, he has always been the undisputed number one in the island nation.

Lee Chong Rui goes without saying; he's the only one in Malaysia who's truly outstanding. The second-best in Malaysia is at best a professional 6th or 7th dan, which would probably place him after 30th in China.

The group is currently at the Asian Cup second stage match venue, and the quarter-finals of the second stage have just concluded.

Jiang Mobai defeated Yun Linglei, Hei Muhui defeated Chu Tianjiao, Yi Zheng defeated Zaxi Sangjie, and Li Zongrui defeated Shen Guhong. All four advanced directly to the finals. China had two of the four semifinalists, which is a respectable result.

Lee Chong Rui once again broke the Malaysian record, reaching the semi-finals of the intercontinental competition. It is said that in their country, if Lee Chong Rui wins a gold mine, he will be given a gold brick.

Lee Zongrui also expressed his strong desire to win the BRICS summit or a gold medal before the competition.

Unfortunately, Li Zongrui will face Yi Zheng in the semifinals.

"Congratulations to Yi Zheng, 9-dan, on winning the title of Go Saint."

Li Zongrui also took the initiative to walk over and greet Yi Zheng. He did feel a lot of pressure when he met Yi Zheng, after all, he had lost to Yi Zheng once in the Asian Youth Group preliminary round of the Go Tournament, and then lost to him again in the Go League.

He is also a player with two consecutive losses. According to previous statistics, it seems that no one in the younger generation has ever won against Yi Zheng, not even Ethan, who was previously known as the Great Demon King.

Upon hearing this, Yi Zheng laughed and said, "Haven't you won several championships recently? You've been the number one in Malaysia for a long time now, while I haven't even firmly secured my position as the number one in China yet."

Although many people already consider Yi Zheng to be the number one player in China after winning the Chess Saint title, Yi Zheng believes he is still a little short. After all, his rating is not the highest and his number of honors is not the highest among active players, so he must work harder.

Lee Zongrui couldn't help but smile wryly upon hearing this. Can the number one Go player in China and the number one Go player in Malaysia be compared? They're not even in the same league.

After all, if the former number one Malaysian player were placed in China, he would probably only rank in the 20s or 30s, and would only be considered an average player.

"However, I will definitely find a way to defeat you and advance to the finals!"

Li Zongrui glanced at Yi Zheng sitting next to him; he had also read various analyses of Yi Zheng online.

In particular, the undefeated record in best-of-three series and the undefeated record among peers are like two mountains weighing down on everyone! This forces everyone to make overthrowing these two mountains their goal!
Seeing Li Zongrui's serious expression, Yi Zheng patted him on the shoulder: "Good! Very energetic! I have high hopes for you, young man!"

(End of this chapter)