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

Chapter 403 Sneak Attack
"Yi Zheng got a little carried away with his success."

Old Ke looked at the chess table not far away. Yi Zheng's posture was one of almost casual confidence. He leaned back slightly in his high-backed chair, his slender fingers tapping the table to the rhythm. His eyes were unpredictable, as if he was not waiting for a life-or-death battle that would determine the outcome of the match, but rather listening to music in a teahouse.

In comparison, Ethan seemed completely out of place, his shoulders slightly hunched, his gaze fixed on the blank chessboard with a mixture of focus and bewilderment.

Seeing that Yi Zheng completely disregarded Ethan, Old Ke was slightly worried. Theoretically speaking, it was virtually impossible for Ethan to defeat Yi Zheng.

The gap in strength, the clash of styles, and the psychological trauma.

Even now, no one—not the other team members, ordinary enthusiasts, or even chess fans in Aminica—believes Ethan can win.

But sometimes, the more things are like this, the more risks arise.

Before many matches, given the significant disparity in strength, everyone thought that there was no possibility of any surprises.

Before the Samsung Cup final, no one thought that the "God Pig" could defeat the "Stone Buddha"; before the LG Cup final, no one thought that the "Big Shen" could defeat the "Eight-Time Champion"; before the Lanke Cup final, no one thought that the "Evil Bully" could defeat the "Shen Emperor".

Before these matches, these individuals were all invincible. Not to mention that the challengers who entered the finals were not the strongest challengers at the time, even those considered the most competitive players at the time dared not be sure that they could defeat these three.

But in the end, they won.

After the final, Stone Buddha became the nine-time runner-up, the eight-time champion became the cupping king, and Shen Huang was demoted to Shen Zi.

Once the myth of invincibility is broken, many people will instantly feel that they can do it too, and even the players themselves will start to doubt themselves.

At the time, it seemed ordinary, but looking back, it turned out to be a turning point in my life.

"However, Yi Zheng is at a young age and shouldn't have any major problems for the time being."

The advantage of being at your peak is that, as long as you don't experience consecutive failures, you can recover even if you do fail.

Old Ke glanced at Ethan, who had come looking dejected, and felt that he was overthinking things. He felt that Ethan's mentality was not as good as his own later.

Yi Zheng sat in his seat waiting for the match to begin. If he knew what Master Ke was thinking, he would definitely laugh. How could he be so arrogant?

Yi Zheng's own idea was to despise the opponent strategically, but take the opponent seriously tactically. In other words, he would openly despise and provoke the opponent, but make thorough preparations in private.

Yi Zheng did the same with Ethan. Before the match, he had already studied all of Ethan's recent game records and even prepared new openings.

However, Yi Zheng truly did not believe that Ethan posed a threat to him. In his mind, the most threatening people were still Li Zongrui and Shen Guhong.

Ethan is basically in the same tier as Fatty and Qi Ling. In fact, if Qi Ling were to be a bit more normal, his rating could be raised.

For someone who wants to become a world-class chess player, in addition to normal chess skills, the most important thing is the spirit and resilience in the face of adversity. Ethan lacks this resilience, and Miao Jun has the same problem.

The reason why top players can come back from a 3-0 deficit to win 4-3 against other top players is that they can maintain a calm mindset while possessing the strongest fighting spirit and resilience.

Almost all world number one players possess this ability: the ability to survive in dire straits, turn the tide against all odds, and break the opponent's mentality. This applies to all sports.

Just like the "Dragon, Tiger, and Fatty" of table tennis, or "Super Dan" of badminton, and so on. Some players may have good skills, but they lack this ability. Once they lack this ability, they will never have the dominance of the world's number one, let alone achieve something like coming back from a 3-0 deficit to win 4-3.

Ethan is a case in point. Yi Zheng believes that even without him, Ethan would probably have little dominance and would find it difficult to maintain his position as the world's number one.

Looking at Ethan, who seemed completely listless, Yi Zheng sighed slightly. A genius who can't handle setbacks isn't a true genius.

Yi Zheng silently made the coin toss, and after receiving the black pieces, he went first. Both sides quietly broke up the game.

Although Ethan seemed to lack enthusiasm, he had clearly made some preparations, setting up an ancient chess opening in the upper right corner, seemingly trying to see if he could achieve a surprise victory.

After all, their first opponent is Yi Zheng, so it's impossible for them to go on the field unprepared.

In that case, it's no longer just tanking; it's a clear indication that they're preparing to retire.

Move 21, Black makes a komi.

"They've changed their strategy. I think according to the traditional opening moves, the move should be to extend inwards, but if they play from the outside, it's a way to block out White?"

Inside the research room, the other members of the Asian team also began to study the standard pattern in the upper right corner.

Although most of the traditional chess opening patterns are now obsolete and not played by many people, many people still have some impression of them when they first learned the game.

This was clearly beyond Ethan's expectations. He hadn't thought that Yi Zheng would actually change his approach to the ancient chess opening moves, since these moves had already been phased out and no one was studying them anymore.

Ethan could only think about it on the spot, but because the World Go Tournament was fast-paced, he couldn't think too much and after three minutes he chose to make a move.

However, upon seeing the changes occurring in the upper left corner, the researchers in the lab couldn't help but exchange bewildered glances.

"The number of transactions is the same, and the actual number of transactions is about the same."

"But White's stones are basically all pressed down, with only one head exposed, while Black has already formed an outside influence."

No matter how you look at it, White suffered a huge loss in the upper right corner. Ethan's attempt to launch a surprise attack using an old joseki seems to have backfired.

Thinking of this, the people in the research lab couldn't help but turn their attention to one of them.

Everyone seemed to remember that Li Junhe had done something similar when he played against AlphaGo, and was ultimately defeated by AlphaGo.

The only lesson humanity seems to learn from history is that humanity never learns from its mistakes.

However, Li Junhe didn't pay much attention to the stares of the crowd, after all, everyone had done it when they faced AlphaGo.

To put it bluntly, Li Junhe has already lost relatively gracefully. Kuroki Teruto was completely demoralized, Jiang Mobai was defeated by a lone player who then slaughtered his dragon, and Yun Linglei didn't even qualify to participate.

Who would dare to bring this up?
When everyone loses face, no one loses face.

(End of this chapter)