Chapter 593
Lin Ruo committed a crime
Especially after witnessing yesterday's rapid chess game, which resembled a divine intervention.
At this moment, Tang Weixing, whose mindset had changed drastically, could only think about not losing too badly.
However, even so, as the game was about to begin, Tang Weixing, holding the black pieces, couldn't help but feel his competitive spirit reignite.
As a chess player, I cannot afford to be defeated before the battle even begins. Even if I am no match for my opponent, I must give it my all and have confidence. Even if I am powerless, I must still try my best to demonstrate my strength.
The essence of playing chess is to leave no regrets; it's about giving nothing back.
Otherwise, wouldn't all those years of learning chess have been for nothing?
In that case, prepare to face the challenge.
In the reception hall of the training institute, as the referee's announcement faded, both sides sat up straight, and the second and possibly final round of the best-of-three final of the Samsung Cup World Go Championship officially began.
"Alright everyone, the highly anticipated second round of the finals has begun. Will Lin Ruo 9-dan win another game and claim his first championship, or will Tang Weixing 9-dan pull one back and keep the suspense of the two-time champion alive? Let's wait and see!"
In the WildFox live stream, Zhang Xuebin came on stage full of passion from the very beginning.
Perhaps because Lin Ruo is very likely to win the championship after this match, the number of viewers in the live broadcast room is twice that of the first round yesterday.
Zhang Xuebin's enthusiasm stemmed from this, which was why he started watching so quickly. After all, there were only a few viewers before, unlike now, which makes him seem like a top-tier live streamer.
Sigh, all I can say is that the operations team has a tough job.
The number of registered users on WildFox has increased exponentially in the past six months. It must be exhausting to keep the software running smoothly without crashing. You should apply for a raise; it's guaranteed.
"Because of the coin toss in the previous match, Tang Weixing 9-dan played black and made the first move, while Lin Ruo played white and made the second move."
The commentator, Xiaxia, introduced the process and then continued to commentate on the progress of the game: "Both sides made mistakes in the first four moves, with Black occupying the left and White the right, each holding one side."
"Black defends the corner in the usual way, while White makes a threatening move in the upper left corner, and Black responds with a small point."
On the eighth move, Lin Ruo took the lead by placing a piece in the center of the right side to coordinate the upper and lower parts.
Now, three stones stand upright in a regular pattern on the right side, from top to bottom, looking very well-formed.
It's easy to tell from this that Lin Ruo will continue to use the same strategy today: play it safe as much as possible and not give his opponent any more chances.
Anyway, once the operations are up and running, that's it.
Seeing his opponent's moves, Tang Weixing also refrained from following suit with any strategic maneuvers today.
We should fight.
On the ninth move, Black makes a very standard incursion in the upper right corner, opening up the game.
Not paying much attention, Lin Ruo turned around and stepped forward to the side, using a graceful shoulder thrust to counter, creating a coercive posture that forced the other party to respond, while simultaneously gaining external advantage.
Next, Black attacks, and White helps.
Black cuts, White extends, and Black calls for a capture.
After seven or eight moves, Lin Ruo suddenly realized a problem. Because of the small point that Black had made on the left side, if he continued to move like this and extended the battle to the left, he would undoubtedly be surrounded by Black's stones.
He had clearly gotten a little carried away, since his opponents had already secured a stronghold, yet he was still managing to fight so fiercely here.
Another point is that, in fact, after these few moves on the right side, the four black stones have somewhat disrupted the shape of his stones on the right side.
The three pieces he just placed were separated in the left area. If he didn't continue to fight at this moment, he would have to discard all three pieces to leave unscathed.
But if you really abandon it, how can you leave so safely?
It's possible that the pieces have moved, but the top area is probably now entirely occupied by black pieces.
That's like cutting off your own hand right at the start.
Forehead…
I shouldn't have been playing on my phone. See, I was a bit careless from the start.
Lin Ruo could only stroke her chin and begin to think about the next step.
Tang Weixing on the other side was also quite surprised by this unexpected surprise.
He simply scored in the upper right corner, which is normal at the start of the game. The subsequent exchanges between the two sides were also normal, with each side vying for territory and influence.
However, the sharp point on the left overturned everything.
Black and white fought their way from right to left, and White suddenly noticed a Black wall on the left.
Tang Weixing couldn't help but want to ask, "Didn't you see the point on my left side?"
That's impossible. Lin Ruoqi, who went out with her hair parted to the right, couldn't cover her left eye.
Okay then, he confirmed it, Lin Ruopiao had fallen.
Could it be that after playing blitz chess last night, Lin Ruo thought he was invincible, and was a little too excited today, making a strategic error that he shouldn't have made?
Tang Weixing couldn't find the reason; he only knew that he was about to make a fortune.
Because this situation is not simple, it will be very difficult for White to escape from the encirclement, and there is a good chance that the entire upper side will be given away.
So Tang Weixing, who was just conceiving ideas, seemed to have found his backbone immediately.
From now on, I'll just focus on attacking from above. Suddenly, the target is so clear. If I do well at the top, then I'll likely win the game.
Playing well is actually not difficult.
In this situation, even though no substantial gains have been made yet, Black has already gained a clear advantage.
This can be clearly seen from the comparison of AI win rates.
After Lin Ruo took those few steps, he realized that a budding point might be attacked from both sides, and the situation immediately changed from 50/50 to 70/30.
Black has seven pieces, White has three.
"The pace of today's game is quite fast. Lin Ruo, a 9-dan player, made a very obvious mistake at the beginning, which directly gave Black a clear initiative in the upper area."
Zhang Xuebin was also somewhat surprised that Lin Ruo, who never made a mistake in this Samsung Cup, actually made one today.
This mistake wasn't set up by the opponent, but rather by his own carelessness; he didn't properly observe the situation at the time.
Then another situation will emerge.
That means Lin Ruo's white pieces will most likely be chased and attacked by Tang Weixing's black pieces. This is unavoidable, since you're already trapped on the top.
If you don't want to be chased and attacked, you can simply remove the three pieces at the top. Is that acceptable?
No doubt about it, unless you really don't want to play anymore.
At this point, Zhang Xuebin had to say something he thought was unlikely before the match: "It seems that Tang Weixing has a chance to win a game today and tie the score at 1-1."
Yes, it's highly likely. Tang Weixing played steadily this game without making any obvious mistakes, and from here on out, his chances of winning the match are very high.
However, considering that his opponent was Lin Ruo, Zhang Xuebin only said that there was a chance.
After all, they were able to turn the tide against Shin Jinseo, so compared to today's situation, it's really child's play.
Lin Ruo still has the ability to turn the tide; the lessons learned from the past have shown her the limits. But all of this will have to wait and see how things develop.
Next, White cuts.
Given the situation, Lin Ruo couldn't simply give up the three stones on the top side, as that would give Black too much territory. So he had no choice but to bite the bullet and disrupt the relationships between the opponent's pieces, creating opportunities for a subsequent attack by breaking the connection between the opponent's pieces.
However, with the initiative in hand, Tang Weixing had no difficulty dealing with this situation.
Black jumps down forcefully, connecting with itself while threatening the white stones above.
That means a fight is definitely out of the question. To avoid further danger, Lin Ruo had no choice but to flee first, rather than opt for a head-on confrontation.
Now, you can't touch it at all. Black is like a local snake on top. Even if it's a powerful dragon, you can't suppress it. What's more, it's just an earthworm now, which can be easily crushed.
Seeing that White was not making any moves, Black decisively returned to the top to cut off White's stones again.
If you cut off mine, I'll cut off yours too.
Not only do I need to cut off contact, but I also need to continue communicating with the left side so I can call a bunch of brothers to beat you up.
Lin Ruo could only watch helplessly, but he couldn't run away at this moment. Running away would be no different from abandoning the Baron Nashor in League of Legends, making the chances of turning the tide extremely slim.
Therefore, he had to go back to continue fighting, even though he knew the battle would not end well. He still had to go back to minimize the losses as much as possible, and try to gain as much as he could from the top.
So after several rounds of fighting, Lin Ruo knew better than anyone else what the outcome would be.
The situation in the upper area is now different. Black is constantly strengthening itself, and the large dragon on the right has already taken shape. While continuously surrounding the white stones in the center, it is also continuously eroding the few remaining white stones on the right.
The left side, thanks to the addition of the fingertips and the reinforcements behind it, now also has the potential to attack both upwards and downwards.
On the other hand, Lin Ruo's white pieces were still deeply surrounded by black pieces in the center of the top, and after such a long struggle, the territory he gained was still pitifully small.
However, at least there is some possibility of surviving by taking a chance. If you had given up from the beginning, it would have meant losing everything.
Lin Ruo's tenacious resistance of more than ten rounds was at least equivalent to the opposing team getting two consolation kills while fighting for the dragon, even though they didn't manage to steal it.
There were some gains, but not many.
The bigger problem now is that the enemy team will push after getting Baron Nashor, and not just one lane. First of all, the right side has been pushed ever since they got Baron Nashor.
Now the enemy has pressed on with their momentum, and the flames of war have quickly spread to the central region.
At this point, the most pressing problem facing Lin Ruo arose.
The upper right is being attacked again, and the middle is also being attacked. But you are now alone. With limited resources, should you defend the middle or save the upper part?
Lin Ruo naturally chose to save Zhongfu, as he now had at least the strength to fight Zhongfu, and going up there might not necessarily yield good results.
Tang Weixing's main focus was on the middle part of the body, since he had already taken control of the upper part. He didn't want to eat what was in the bowl for the time being; he was more interested in what was in the pot.
Therefore, Black then launched a fierce attack on the large group of White stones in the center.
At the same time, Tang Weixing did not completely abandon the above. He was also trying to get the two main forces on the left and right to converge and take over the surrounding territory, thereby completing a full encirclement and annihilation of the white pieces.
With that, victory in the second round would naturally be within his grasp.
No matter what Lin Ruo does next, the situation seems to be getting very difficult.
Because as long as Tang Weixing doesn't make any mistakes, relying solely on the immense strength above him, he can slowly erode the opponent's strength, leaving no room for anyone to turn the tables.
"It feels like we can't go back tomorrow; it seems like we won't be able to leave until the day after tomorrow."
From the spectator seats, Yang Dingxin found the whole process somewhat unbelievable.
He had imagined that Lin Ruo might lose the game due to some subtle mistake, but he never really thought it would be caused by a basic error.
This is a bit unreasonable.
If that's the case, then Yang Dingxin wasn't particularly happy that Lin Ruo lost this round.
After all, such a basic mistake won't be repeated next time if you just take a few more seconds to look at the chessboard.
"Could it be that I played too aggressively against him in the blitz game yesterday..."
Liao Yuanhe suddenly felt that there were external factors interfering with this duel, and the so-called external factors were them.
There's nothing we can do. Yesterday, Lin Ruo completely dominated the three of them in the rapid chess game.
Is this something to be proud of? Obviously, it is.
After all, all three of them are 9-dan.
If Lin Ruo became arrogant because of this, it would be understandable. And if she became arrogant, she would naturally underestimate her opponent. So it seems that the culprit behind her making such a low-level mistake today has been found.
Oh no, the problem seems to lie with me.
Liao Yuanhe and Yang Dingxin immediately exchanged glances and decided not to play chess with Lin Ruo when they got home that night.
...
The game continues.
At this point, Black is relentlessly bombarding White's large central group of stones, a situation that would make anyone feel ashamed.
Having finally found an opportunity to thrash Lin Ruo, Tang Weixing showed no mercy and was determined to kill the white pieces before the middle game.
Seeing his opponent launching a three-pronged attack, Lin Ruo stubbornly held on, ensuring the central dragon survived. If it died, he would be finished.
During this period, the two sides went through many rounds of attack and defense. Anyone who can understand this game will be amazed by Black's swift and deadly offensive, and will also be impressed by White's unusual stubbornness.
Despite facing a tremendous challenge, Lin Ruo held on with almost no mistakes, preventing the Black pieces from gaining any advantage in the preliminary battles before they could fully advance south.
This made Tang Weixing feel somewhat regretful, but it also served as a great warning in his heart.
He thought Lin Ruo had been on the defensive the whole time, but now it seems that wasn't entirely true.
While White compromised in the center, it also achieved the most important thing: in its defense, it went to the extreme of dividing Black's large groups coming down from both sides into segments on the outside, so that they could not reach the strength of a whole.
Tang Weixing could also sense the reason why his army had suffered setbacks. Compared to those above, he was indeed able to advance smoothly.
However, as the battlefield expanded to the central region and the advantage diminished, Lin Ruo's momentum began to build, as evidenced by her recent defensive counter-attacks. (End of Chapter)