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

Chapter 443 Rotten Chessboard
"Cough cough cough."

Yi Zheng coughed several times in a row, and couldn't help but pick up the water glass next to him and take a sip of water.

The weather had been gradually warming up recently, but after he wore two fewer layers of clothing, he was suddenly hit by a cold snap.

This sudden change in temperature caused Yi Zheng to catch a cold. His throat was dry and itchy, his nose was stuffy, and even breathing felt difficult.

Sitting to the side, watching Yi Zheng constantly blowing his nose, Old Ke couldn't help but shake his head, his tone tinged with helplessness and teasing: "I reminded you a long time ago that you should pay special attention to your health before the competition, but you still caught a cold. What, do you think you're the 'Winter God of War'?"

"Winter God of War? What the heck?"

Old Ke smiled and explained, "He's a friend of mine. He's incredibly strong and in top form during winter, but his performance drops drastically in other seasons."

Interestingly, most of his world championships seem to have been won in winter, sometimes even while he had a cold or fever. So people jokingly call him the "Winter Warrior."

But at this point, Old Ke couldn't help but shrug, his expression becoming somewhat wistful.

Some contestants have such strange and unusual characteristics that seem to have no scientific basis on the surface, or even seem like coincidences. But once netizens notice and spread them, they can create a strange psychological suggestion.

Even if the person involved or other opponents say "I don't believe in this stuff," they are inevitably influenced in their hearts. Over time, this stereotype becomes deeper and deeper, which may further reinforce that characteristic.

Just like...

As Mr. Ke spoke, his gaze involuntarily turned to the banner on the wall, which bore the two large characters "Lan Ke" (烂柯) above his name, and his expression became complicated.

The story of Rotten Axe Handle is one of the traditional Chinese Go stories, and it is said that the origin of Go is in Rotten Axe Handle Mountain.

According to the "Commentary on the Waterways Classic" written by Li Daoyuan of the Northern Wei Dynasty, during the Jin Dynasty, a woodcutter named Wang Zhi went to Shishi Mountain to chop wood. He saw two children playing Go and sat down to watch. Before the game was over, the children told him that the handle of his axe had rotted. When Wang Zhi returned to his village, he realized that several decades had passed.

Therefore, later generations called Shishi Mountain "Rotten Axe Mountain" and used "Rotten Axe" as an alternative name for Go. To this day, the term "Rotten Axe" is still frequently seen in Go publications both domestically and internationally.

However, for Mr. Ke, the words "rotten axe handle" had a completely different meaning.

Even at the peak of his strength, when he was so arrogant that he thought, "I'm not targeting anyone in particular, but everyone here is trash," his highest achievement was still only the runner-up in the National Rotten Ke Cup Tournament.

Later, when the World Championship was held at the Lanke Cup, Ke Lao was in a strong momentum for more than ten consecutive matches before the competition. In many of these matches, people felt that he could easily win when the wind was favorable and turn the tide when the wind was unfavorable. At one point, everyone thought that Ke Lao had recovered his form and returned to the realm of a terrestrial god.

We were all waiting for him to clash with the then-world number one, but...

In the Lanke Cup, Ke Lao's form plummeted once again. He was in extremely poor condition during the game, as if he were sleepwalking. In the end, he made a low-level mistake and lost to an ordinary mid-level player who was completely unknown at the time, suffering a first-round exit in the main tournament.

For this reason, many people feel that the name "Lan Ke" might be a bit of a hindrance to Master Ke.
Ke himself stated publicly that he did not have such psychological factors, and that not winning the championship was simply due to insufficient strength.

But how could there not be such a reason? So when he saw those two words again, Old Ke's lips twitched again.

What a coincidence, they've come to this place again to hold a human-machine competition.

Are you deliberately targeting me?!

However, Old Ke was merely making a fuss, since no one in this world except Yi Zheng knew of his existence. Yi Zheng glanced at the time on his watch; there was still about half an hour before the competition started, but almost everyone had already arrived at the scene.

Today, Mr. Zhang Xinping will personally act as the "human arm" of artificial intelligence, representing the technological side in its assault on the wisdom of human Go.

Yi Zheng was dressed very formally today, after all, the prize money for this competition alone was enough to earn his respect.

"It's really exciting to play against you as a representative of artificial intelligence."

After all, in the previous games we played, I gave you a three or four-point handicap, and I still narrowly lost in the end.

Seeing Yi Zheng sitting in the corner, Zhang Xinping smiled and came over to greet him.

As a sponsor and a Go enthusiast, Zhang Xinping has naturally played against many top professional Go players—although usually with a handicap.

In many cases, the players in these business games don't go all out. Instead, they play slowly with their bosses, deliberately letting them win by a narrow margin in the end, thus satisfying their sense of accomplishment and pleasure.

Yi Zheng nodded upon hearing this and calmly replied, "I'm also looking forward to it and want to see for myself just how powerful artificial intelligence really is."

"Don't be distracted by outside noise. The power of artificial intelligence is far beyond your imagination. You must give it your all."

Zhang Xinping, seeing Yi Zheng's calm expression, couldn't help but offer a reminder. After all, he had great confidence in artificial intelligence, and it was even continuing to improve, although the rate of progress had clearly slowed down due to the limitations of algorithms, reaching a bottleneck.

However, everyone believes that artificial intelligence is currently powerful enough to defeat all humans, including Yi Zheng and the so-called AlphaGo.

He didn't want Yi Zheng to lose easily because he underestimated his opponent, as such a victory would be meaningless to him and artificial intelligence.

However, there's no need to worry, since even if Yi Zheng underestimates his opponent, there will be several opportunities in this match.

After witnessing the power of artificial intelligence in his first match, Yi Zheng couldn't help but go all out in the subsequent ones.

The clash between two of humanity's most brilliant minds is truly something to look forward to.

I just don't know why Yi Zheng seemed so calm and collected.

Yi Zheng showed no excitement at all because it wasn't his turn to play today.

As agreed, today is the first time that Ke Lao will be using his body to fight against artificial intelligence.

Although he has said countless times that he has high expectations for the game against artificial intelligence, and even knows that he is definitely better than artificial intelligence.

But when the moment actually arrived, Old Ke still felt incredibly nervous; his heart, which he didn't even have, felt like it was about to jump out of his chest.

Is it finally time to make up for the biggest regret of my life?

But then Mr. Ke couldn't help but see the words "Rotten Ke" on the wall. Wasn't this an ominous sign?

(End of this chapter)