The work of the Go master

With eyes closed, the scene flashes, pupils open, and chess pieces and flames fall together.

It directly invaded the territory that was vaguely forming on the upper side of the white stones.

This move, complete with fire effects, is a favorite among boys.

Harushima Shika's fingers paused for a moment in the chessboard, making a crisp sound.

She understood that the other party intended to take a forceful approach, but this might not be a good thing. The price of using force might be that they would lose even faster.

Transparent, top, long, double.

Then switch to another battlefield and break it!

The sound of gears turning, a fierce bite!

Harushima Deer's pupils dilated slightly at this moment; it felt like this was the perfect time!

The bottom right corner, which I've left untouched, is now being modified!

Charge, block, turn, and turn in sequence.

Then they fiercely fought their way through, creating a powerful calamity!

[You wouldn't believe it, would you? A robbery could happen in a place like this.]

Ke Zhiguang rubbed his bangs, and thorns spread along the chessboard.

I felt a sharp prick in my palm.

I'll memorize this chess shape first.

After the initial simple formation here, he judged that his group was alive, but now it seems that this judgment was wrong.

The biggest difference between real-world practice and practice questions is that practice questions explicitly tell you that there are methods available, while real-world practice requires you to judge whether there are methods available and takes more time to consider.

Faced with this situation, most people can only judge based on their familiarity with the board positions, that is, experience.

Clearly, Shireshima Kashiwa had long suspected the calamity was there, but had been waiting for the right moment to strike.

A thorny smile flickered across Ke Zhiguang's lips.

Of course, he no longer regarded Harujima Shika as an ordinary club player. Based on his experience playing against him in recent times, the strongest opponent he could face was Mr. Aobahashi, the club's Go instructor, whose skill level was amateur 5-dan. The symbolic spirit behind him was the "Bronze Bull," which specifically describes his steady playing style and his expertise in playing with strong positions.

Although the art style of the [Bronze Bull] is also gorgeous, compared to the [Dragon Locking Pillar], it can still only be considered to be in the mortal realm.

Harushima Kashima is undoubtedly a professional Go player.

Take him!

The store manager then came to the door and found that the sign on the door said it was closed, which meant it was already closed, and it was only a little before 7 o'clock.

The store manager pushed open the door and walked in: "Harushima, why is there a 'closed' sign hanging outside?"

He then saw that in the center of the Go room, Harushima Shika and Koji Hikaru were playing a game, and there was no one around, so it was quite quiet.

Neither of them noticed that someone had come in.

This is normal. When a person is truly engrossed in a game of chess, they may not even hear firecrackers going off outside.

The store manager smiled knowingly, wisely withdrew his step forward, left the store, put the "Closed" sign back up, hummed a little tune, and walked away with his toes pointing outwards.

"Ke, be careful. Qingdao's mid-game fighting style has the flair of an ancient Go master," the shopkeeper muttered to himself slowly.

Tijjani.

Looking for robbery.

Eliminate the calamity!

Black slammed its stones heavily onto the board, eliminating the ko fight in the lower right corner, while White also created a beautiful tortoise shell shape at the star point below.

After a long and fierce battle, the entire chessboard looked as if it had been plowed, with pieces scattered everywhere, the ground scorched red by the high temperature, and black smoke billowing from all directions.

A rhombus shape is broken.

Two rhombuses broke.

Fragments of light fell from the sky, and the smell of gunpowder and fire filled the nostrils. The towering figure of the [Dragon-Locking Pillar] still stood behind the Sunny Island Deer, casting a huge shadow on the ground.

The advantage lies in having two pieces remaining.

Ke Zhiguang dusted himself off from the scorched earth and stood up, panting heavily as he looked at the Qingdao Deer in front of the [Dragon Locking Pillar]. Its two ponytails moved without wind, and its childlike face revealed clarity and determination.

Whew—take a breath to calm down.

It felt like a dragon charging into the human's defensive formation. After a grand medieval hymn BGM, seven of the human's nine towers had been destroyed, and the story seemed to be nearing its end.

If an ordinary player were to realize that their opponent is a professional player, they would definitely be very careful with their next move, right? They would probably just be thinking about avoiding a dead end and not losing too badly, right?

That's where the so-called deterrent effect of the superior over the inferior comes from.

Ke Zhiguang removed his piece, forcing the white stones into a thick position in the lower right corner.

After the defeat, the rear wall has become much thinner, making now the best time to attack.

Ignoring deterrence, we continue to adopt a hardline stance.

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Devouring, Awooo—

—Does it mean you feel you're in a disadvantageous position, so you still want to maintain a tight pace?

This question flashed through Harushima Kashima's mind.

Picking up a piece, he boldly moved aside and placed it on the star point on the left.

Almost at the same moment, Ke Zhiguang gave himself almost no time to think, raising the piece high—a huge leap, clearly a killing move.

The remaining pieces on the left, the two pieces pressed against the right, and the piece hanging at the center point, along with the thinning thick area in the lower right corner, have been subtly covered.

—It's not very active anymore, it already is.

In a normal game, if faced with a similar situation, Harushima Shika would choose to leave the remaining pieces alone, but this game is a handicap game, and her skill level is far superior to her opponent's. From a psychological perspective, she is not very willing to avoid fighting here.

A minute passed.

Two minutes passed.

Three minutes have passed.

The rain outside the window had long since subsided and become light and gentle.

In the fifth minute, Harushima finally made a choice—to go off the field.

For some reason, she really wanted to win this game.

It's really amazing. This was originally a casual game where Jiu Zi was supposed to win, but now it suddenly felt like a formal match for Harushima Shika. Her strong desire to win kept her completely calm.

But at the very moment she placed her piece, Ke Zhiguang also made his move, sending his piece flying high into the air!

Jump down two rooms from the center.

This move, placed in the middle, is often considered a false move because it doesn't have any ground to its side and seems to float in the air. However, at this moment, the intention behind this move is quite clear.

—Is this going to devour me?

Although "whale swallowing" is not a professional term in Go, it is frequently used in the game.

When you find that you don't have enough points to kill a group of stones, you might as well raise your knife a little higher, open your mouth a little wider, and swallow the empty points around it as well, treating a small group of stones with only 5 or 6 stones with the same level of severity as slaying a dragon.

An unnamed flame burned within Shinobu Harujima's heart, as if it had been provoked.

From a win-lose perspective, she certainly wouldn't let this piece be swallowed up by a whale.

From a personal emotional perspective, she also found it unacceptable.

I felt that I was being looked down upon.

Place the piece forcefully—adjust it outwards!

Single back, press, pull, reverse pull, and it snaps off with a snap!

The sound of rain outside the window became deafening again; the second wave of showers was approaching.

The game of Go begins with a break in the board. Usually, the moment a break is made often means the start of a battle, the situation becomes more complex, and the amount of calculation increases exponentially.

On the left are two remaining stones attached to the tortoise shell, two stones at the center, and two stones forced to move from the right.

A seemingly invisible net hovered above the [Dragon-Locking Pillar], ready to capture it at any moment.

Ke Zhiguang is now in a desperate situation, with a cliff and lava behind him.

With each move Qingdao Lu makes, a black rhombus in the air is shattered. After making both moves, his nine-piece advantage is over, and he will have to fight it out himself.

Hey, wake up! It's time to slay the dragon!

A strange dialog box popped up, which was exactly what he was thinking.

This game is that simple: if you don't like endings, just slay dragons.

The atmosphere in the Go room froze at a freezing point. Beneath that freezing point, a fierce battle of wits raged. Variations flashed through their minds like a kaleidoscope, with new variations constantly emerging and erroneous variations being sent to the graveyard, waiting for the dead to be resurrected.

Jump, dig, flip and strike—the pieces spread across the board at an average rate of one piece every two minutes, each piece arriving on the board stepping over the corpses of countless failed variations.

By crossing, leaning out, and retreating alone, Black gradually closes off its escape route, like a skylight slowly closing in, and the aura shrinking little by little.

but.

—I saw it!

A point of light finally appeared in Shireshima Deer's eyes, and the chess piece was put back in its place.

A chilling glint of light flashed across the chessboard, causing the entire board to cool rapidly.

The Dragon-Locking Pillar tore through the encirclement, revealing a path to escape.

That was a single, impromptu move that squeezed into the small corner of the black stone, as if it were a question she casually posed when she first met her opponent.

A "cold hand" refers to a move that goes unnoticed or undetected.

Ke Zhiguang's hand, which was resting on his chin, twitched, and his eyes widened slightly, as if he had been stung by the cold.

Upon seeing this move, he could naturally calculate the subsequent possible paths: either White would make a living group in place, or White would expand outwards.

Although playing it out doesn't guarantee a living group, it's at least not a dead group. The question of whether this group of stones is alive or dead remains unknown.

The local phase has come to an end.