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

Chapter 376 Winning Learning
"It's a pity. Takenouchi 9-dan was actually quite respected. He never did anything too bad in his life. But in his old age, he did this kind of thing to stick to his theory, which added another stain to his record."

Sitting on the plane, Yun Linglei couldn't help but shake his head and sigh. His regret was truly from the bottom of his heart.

Takenouchi 9-dan used to have a pretty good reputation. Although fewer and fewer people believe in his theories now, at least when it comes to him, there are still quite a few people who praise him.

After all, he had previously claimed not to interfere and left behind clean game records, and he was also happy to mentor younger players, so he was considered by many to be a highly respected senior.

Now, only the older generation remains.

"I really don't understand. Is it really true that heretics are more hateful than heretics? There are quite a few people who don't agree with his theory, so why keep targeting Yi Zheng? Although A-Zheng does seem to be deliberately trying to provoke him, wasn't he the one who attacked others first?"

People really don't understand why someone would do something like this in their old age. It's truly harmful to others and not beneficial to themselves. Even if they succeed, how many people will believe their theories?

In this competitive era where only the winner takes all, theories that professional players believe cannot help them get closer to victory are no different from those on the street.

Not to mention, so what if Kuroki Teruto's timeout was evenly matched? These days, it's not uncommon for people to have a clear advantage and still overtime; in fact, it's quite common.

No matter what, there are one or two such events a year, and they are usually well-known top players with a huge advantage. Ordinary players have even more time-outs, but they may not even be broadcast live, so no one pays any attention to them.

Jiang Mobai put down his phone, speaking with an air of knowing everything: "None of you have grasped the core issue. You think this is just a battle of egos or a theoretical debate."

The most fundamental problem is actually that Japanese Go is in decline, and the lack of successors is imminent.

"Just play single-player games as the sun sets."

When Mr. Ke heard this, he said something quite natural. After all, in his world, Japanese Go had long been played offline, and the prize money for domestic competitions was even higher than that for international competitions.

They have their reasons for saying that when it comes to bonuses, you can't beat me!

Not to mention, according to the rules of Japanese Go, whoever wins the tournament with the highest prize money is the number one player.

Therefore, theoretically speaking, the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Go players in the world of Kobe could all claim to be the world's number one.

Silla is said to possess a spear that can pierce through anything, China is said to possess a shield that can block everything, and Japan... We have won the world's highest prize money competition, which is only held once every four years!
Yi Zheng shook his head. He had heard Elder Ke talk about the situation in their world before, but the situation in his own world was completely different. In this world, China had never declined, and Japan had only been stunned for a moment before being slapped twice.

Even in Go, the most glorious moment for Japanese Go was only a few years in the last century when it was said to be able to compete with China on equal footing.

In reality, China utterly crushed them in the first three tournaments. They finally managed to achieve a close match in the later tournaments, but as the tournament progressed, they basically lost every time.

Not to mention the global reach of Go in this world, playing it as a single-player game is practically suicidal.

"Whether it's Japan or Silla, their Go strength has visibly declined in the past two years."

Aside from Lee Jun-hyuk, Silla couldn't find any successors. However, there were actually quite a few promising talents among those who had just achieved professional status. Lee Jun-hyuk's brilliant achievements in the past attracted many locals to enter the Go industry, but it would take them a long time to develop.

The situation in Japan is actually the worst. Kuroki Teruto can only extend his professional career for a few more years, but who will come after him? They are the generation that gave birth to the Japanese Go craze, and Japanese Go has not been able to generate any more enthusiasm since.

His younger brother achieved professional status in the same year as Yi Zheng, but he still can't beat anyone in the title tournament's round-robin stage and is only a third-dan. Don't even bother comparing him to a monster like Yi Zheng. I can name at least two or three players of the same age in China who can compare to his brother, not to mention other older and younger players.

There's simply no one to lead the way in Japanese and Korean Go right now. If there's no hope for a sport, fewer and fewer children will learn it, and the chances of success will only dwindle.

Jiang Mobai couldn't help but shake his head. Take Chinese football for example. It's played terribly, but it seems to be very popular. There are many people involved in football, and every match is trending on social media.

However, because of their poor academic performance, very few people are actually willing to let their children take this path.

Sports competitions are inherently about winning and losing. If a sport can't be won, how can it attract people to participate?

Kuroki Teruto and his generation were a young generation that grew up among the people attracted by the Go craze that swept Japan after its victory over China in the Sino-Japanese Go Tournament.

Silla should theoretically have a similar younger generation.

A few years ago, Lee Jun-hyuk, as the world's number one Go player, sparked a Go craze that likely led many children to enter the Go world. However, his era is too recent, less than ten years ago, and the generation influenced by him has not yet risen to prominence.

This is why a certain South Korean country in another timeline keeps changing the rules of the World Championship, because they know they are really going to die.

So by this point, it had become so blatant that they manipulated match results at will, arbitrarily arranged their own players' match times, and even abolished the rule of avoiding players from the same country in world championships. Essentially, it was all for the sake of winning!

In the new century, the world has become a huge arena of winning, where you have to win no matter where you are or what you are doing.

You'll see that both sides in the incident claim to be the winners, and no one is a loser.

Especially for a country, an industry, or a company, if you don't win, no one will support you; if you don't win, you will die.

Chinese football has fallen to such a point that anyone who sponsors it will be attacked. How dare you sponsor Chinese football!

So winning or losing isn't important; what's important is making people believe you've won.

"Kuroki Teruto lost, but as long as people in the country think there's something wrong with his loss, he's still a winner. And that continues to provide future Go learners with a 'mirror image' to support them. That's the most important thing. Winning in post-game analysis is still winning."

"Otherwise, do you really think Takenouchi 9th Dan risked a stain on his record just to prove a point? You're underestimating these veterans!"

Jiang Mobai couldn't help but shake his head. This was the tragedy of an industry's decline; even if you wanted to save it, it would be very difficult.

Yun Linglei was a little puzzled when he heard Jiang Mobai's words: "When did you become so knowledgeable?"

"Don't you understand the concept of perspective? No matter what, I am a chess master, and my perspective is different."

"Former Go Master".

"Damn it! I'm going back right now to transfer my household registration to Lin'an!"

(End of this chapter)