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

Chapter 424 The Dark Age
Although Yun Linglei rushed forward to initiate the calamity, the expected fierce battle did not occur. After Yi Zheng charged forward and was blocked by Yun Linglei, he initiated the calamity again. After Yun Linglei blocked from the right, Yi Zheng completely eliminated the calamity.

It seemed extremely smooth; this part ended so uneventfully, the two clashing briefly and then stopping.

Yi Zheng looked at the changes forming in the lower right corner and touched his chin. Although Yun Linglei's research here had reached a very good level, it was still not deep enough.

The current situation puts Black at risk of being attacked and cut off on the outside, which is worse than what Yi Zheng previously suggested: blocking it on the top.

Even though they made a mistake at the very end, they still lost a lot of money.

Regardless of the local advantages or disadvantages, the complex offensive and defensive battles in this area of ​​the chessboard have finally come to a temporary end.

Just as everyone expected, Yi Zheng still gained the valuable initiative after the local game ended, and immediately turned his attention to other areas of the board, placing the next piece in other key places first.

The exchange that occurred again in the upper right corner is acceptable from Yi Zheng's perspective, since Black can still make some moves based on the implications later.

But at this moment, Yun Linglei, sitting in front of the computer, had his brows furrowed tightly, his deep furrowed brows seemingly filled with worry.

His keen sense of victory and defeat, typical of a top chess player, rang in his mind like an alarm bell, even though on the surface he did not seem to have made any obvious mistakes so far.

However, he could sense that the huge komi advantage he had gained from giving up the first move at the start had been quietly slipping away in this silent struggle, being eroded by his opponent to the point that he could hardly feel it anymore.

This game has now become a situation where giving a handicap is equivalent to having a draw.

Yun Linglei couldn't help but close his eyes and recall where he had gone wrong. After countless thoughts flashed through his mind, he couldn't help but slap his thigh.

"I shouldn't have rushed to demolish it. Now that it's been marked down, the development space on the right side is already very limited."

Yun Linglei couldn't help but frown as he looked at the chessboard. He couldn't help but slap his forehead. It was another move he regretted every day, but there was no use in regretting it after the game was over.

Just then, Yi Zhengxin made a move that left all the spectators completely baffled and perplexed.

Sixtieth move, White jumps!
Many spectators frowned more and more deeply because this move was so elusive and its intention so vague that it was impossible to understand what Yi Zheng was trying to do or to determine his true purpose.

If Yi Zheng simply extends his territory, Black will definitely have to respond on that side, but such a jump doesn't seem to be a good move.

However, upon closer inspection, Black also doesn't have a good response, because although the right side can live, pushing it up would give away its strength.

Yun Linglei also found this move extremely difficult to counter. However, his growing sense of crisis made it impossible for him to stand idly by and wait for his doom. He gritted his teeth and resolved to launch a counterattack on the spot!

But as soon as he launched a counterattack, Yun Linglei instantly realized that he could not retaliate!
Because once a counterattack is launched, the constant attacks actually help Yi Zheng to move the pieces that were originally unable to move out.

It appears that you are attacking, but you are actually helping your opponent...

That jump... was so weird!
"Spicy, damn it."

Yun Linglei was so anxious that he blurted out the curses he had been holding back, because the incredibly clear diagram of the counterattack changes in his mind made him both anxious and angry, to the point that his eyes were practically bloodshot.

In this current situation, I don't even have the right to fight back?! What kind of game is this?!

However, no amount of anxiety or frustration could help. Yun Linglei was, after all, a top-notch chess player. After calmly analyzing the situation, he quickly recognized the severity of the situation.

Realizing that any attempt to counterattack would be counterproductive, he had no choice but to abandon the offensive and retreat to consolidate his position. Yi Zheng couldn't help but shake his head; although Yun Linglei understood that he couldn't counterattack, his local response was flawed.

Therefore, Yun Linglei immediately realized that even defending back wouldn't work. Yi Zheng had very accurately exploited the flaws in the lower right corner of the board, allowing White to directly expose them.

Seeing that there were only about seventy moves in the game, the spectators couldn't help but start calculating the current state of the board.

Jiang Mobai stared intently at the computer screen. In terms of the initial situation, the game was practically over.

Even with the advantage of going first, Jiang Mobai predicted that Yi Zheng had already taken the lead. Although the lead was not large, it had definitely begun to eliminate the disadvantage of not having any objectives at the start.

This is only seventy moves in total; theoretically, the real intense mid-game battle has not yet begun.

"Even if Yun Linglei is being countered by Yi Zheng, he shouldn't be this scared. Could it be that Yi Zheng is really close to reaching AlphaGo's level?"

As Yun Linglei's old rival and nemesis in China, Jiang Mobai guessed that this was Yun Linglei's smurf account after watching only the first game. Seeing Yun Linglei jumping around in the group asking whose smurf account this was, Jiang Mobai couldn't help but laugh.

But he really didn't expect that Yun Linglei would be beaten so badly when he had the first move?

Normally, if he let Yun Linglei go first, he would definitely be beaten badly, but Yi Zheng actually took the lead after about seventy moves, which was simply unbelievable.

Theoretically speaking, even if Yi Zheng were to completely restrain Yun Linglei and win once, he could accept it, but the process should be full of ups and downs and extremely difficult for Yi Zheng.

They shouldn't be so nonchalant. Yun Linglei was knocked out with a single punch as soon as he stepped onto the stage.

Did AlphaGo achieve this?

Jiang Mobai was at a loss for words. Originally, everyone had some confidence that Yi Zheng would defeat AlphaGo. After all, Yi Zheng was not yet twenty years old, and he would still have three to five years to reach his peak as a professional.

At least AlphaGo can't be as young as Yi Zheng; it will definitely decline as it gets older.

Given this shift in power dynamics, it's not impossible for Yi Zheng to reach AlphaGo's current level and defeat him, although it seems quite difficult.

But Jiang Mobai couldn't believe it no matter how hard he tried. Yi Zheng had only been gone for a few months, yet he had managed to easily defeat Yun Linglei.

Is this right?
This is wrong!

Jiang Mobai was unsure whether Yun Linglei was so easily defeated by Yi Zheng because he was overworked and had a bad mentality, or whether Yi Zheng had truly reached the level of AlphaGo.

Jiang Mobai dared not delve deeper into the thought, because he felt that the world of Go... seemed to be growing increasingly hopeless.

The dark age of Go seems to be descending at a breathtaking pace.

A man and a dog, in both reality and virtuality, plunge everyone else into a desperate situation.

PS: Five updates tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)