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

Chapter 426 Silla Old Cup

"Your feat of defeating that mysterious chess player on New Year's Eve has already become big news."

Look, these Go magazines just resumed publication after the New Year, and they immediately featured your glorious achievements on the front page. This is even a Go magazine from Silla, but their coverage of you was still derogatory.

To say that player is just an ordinary professional is an understatement; anyone with a discerning eye can see he's at least a top-tier professional player.

Jiang Mobai looked at the newspapers and magazines provided on the plane and immediately saw the report on Yi Zheng's game on New Year's Eve in the Silla Go Magazine. It also gave a detailed introduction, but the content was somewhat inaccurate. It affirmed Yi Zheng's strength but said that he had not surpassed Li Junhe at his peak.

Yi Zheng's performance in this game has sparked a heated discussion worldwide.

Although many enthusiasts watching the game at the time did not realize the level of the black pieces, they felt that it was only natural for an ordinary person to lose to Yi Zheng no matter how much he gave them a handicap.

However, immediately afterward, numerous professional experts analyzed and asserted that this person's strength was at least at the level of a top-tier player who had been competing in the top league for many years, and possibly even stronger, with a level that was enough to rank among the top 20 or 30 in the world!

This conclusion surprised many people. Yi Zheng had already defeated players of this caliber? Wasn't that mean he was about to reach AlphaGo's level? Or even that he was within reach?

Some are even anticipating a rematch between Yi Zheng and AlphaGo at the Forbidden City.

After all, when AlphaGo challenged the best in the past, it represented everyone, but now it has become so powerful that it is a legend that needs to be challenged by others.

Yi Zheng glanced at the magazine in Jiang Mobai's hand, shook his head slightly and said, "To be honest, compared with AlphaGo, I feel there is still a certain gap."

That very night, after easily defeating Yun Linglei, Yi Zheng immediately engaged in a thrilling and earth-shattering match with the chess grandmaster, Master Ke.

The two sides played with a two-hour time limit and three one-minute countdowns, a more formal match time, and fought until dawn.

Mr. Ke won by a narrow margin of half a point, but this half-point victory was fundamentally different from his previous half-point victories.

In the past, when Master Ke won by half a point, he always calculated exactly how much he would win, leaving his opponent in a painful state of near defeat. But this time, his half-point victory had a lot of luck involved.

Ke Lao couldn't help but sigh, in official matches now Yi Zheng has a pretty good chance of defeating him. At least with the first generation of AlphaGo, Yi Zheng doesn't need to worry too much, and the probability of winning is at least 90%.

But Yi Zheng felt it wasn't enough. He clearly felt that he had reached a bottleneck, and if he couldn't break through it, he might even regress in the long run.

This regression might not have much impact on normal world matches, but what you'll be facing next are invincible monsters.

Time waits for no one; what's coming will soon arrive, and our current strength is still far from sufficient.

Do you know who's playing black on the other side?

Seeing Yi Zheng deep in thought, Jiang Mobai felt that Yi Zheng didn't quite understand the magnitude of what he had done, and shouldn't really think that he had only defeated a player at the level of a top-tier league.

That's Yun Linglei! Even now, he's a player who's guaranteed a top-ten ranking and could even contend for a top-five spot in the world.

Even though Yi Zheng still has a slight gap compared to AlphaGo, Jiang Mobai really doesn't think it's that big of a difference. But even so, Jiang Mobai can't bring himself to let Yi Zheng go first, unless they can embarrass themselves together like last time.

However, after the last embarrassing incident involving the group, it would be very difficult to repeat the same thing.

After all, no one wants to fall into the same trap twice.

Hearing Jiang Mobai's words, Yi Zheng shook his head, feigning ignorance: "I don't know. It's a completely blank alt account, and it's logged in as a guest. Who knows who it could be?"

There are many speculations about this mysterious player, with guesses ranging from who he might be. Although he played a more traditional style in the first game with even odds, he displayed a strong fighting style in the second game when facing a desperate situation, leading many to suspect that he deliberately changed his style to conceal his identity.

Yi Zheng knew who Ding Zhen was at a glance, but felt it was better not to reveal his identity until Yun Linglei himself was willing to admit it.

After all, this matter would indeed affect the commercial value if it were exposed. Senior Brother Yun has already swallowed his pride and yielded to him first, so there's no need to continue to trick him.

Seeing that Jiang Mobai wanted to continue his analysis, Yi Zheng quickly changed the subject: "Why did you specifically drag me here? To be honest, there's not much to see in Silla."

This trip to Silla is for a New Year's celebration competition hosted by Silla. One contestant from each of China, Japan, and South Korea is invited to participate in a round-robin tournament, and then two contestants will advance to the finals to determine the champion.

It was an invitation-only celebratory competition. Yi Zheng had participated in similar ones before. For example, a place invited Yi Zheng and the Three Musketeers to play a genius elite battle. They only needed to play two games to win, but the prize money was not much less than some commercial competitions.

This is why many people are willing to participate in invitational tournaments; the money is plentiful and the work is minimal, although it's not considered a particularly prestigious honor.

The same applies to this New Year's celebration competition. Theoretically, it's supposed to be an invitation to the top player from each country to compete, but in the end, Jiang Mobai was invited instead of Yi Zheng.

However, Jiang Mobai still suggested that Yi Zheng accompany him in battle as an assistant strategist.

"You wouldn't even take a publicly funded trip. After the competition, you can go sightseeing. Don't young people like watching Korean dramas?"

Jiang Mobai glanced at the scenery outside the plane. After all, Korean dramas are still quite popular these days, and many people fly over specifically to see them.

"I'm not interested. I'd rather go to the west and see the natural scenery there."

Upon hearing this, Yi Zheng couldn't help but shake his head. He didn't find idol dramas particularly appealing, not to mention that most of the so-called scenic spots marketed around the world are actually quite ordinary, and perhaps only one angle in the photos you see online is truly beautiful.

Take, for example, the colorful houses town of Shilla that was hyped up online before. When you actually go there, you find that it's just a slum with filters. You could probably get a better view by painting a little paint on an urban village in China.

"Well, you still followed me here."

"Since we're just killing time anyway, and you already said it's a publicly funded trip."

Yi Zheng couldn't help but glance at Old Ke, who was mainly there because he wanted him to come to Silla and cause a ruckus...

(End of this chapter)