Cherish the time

On the afternoon of the end of the game, Ogata, as the leader of the Japanese team, took over the trophy symbolizing victory and a large check of 2000 million yen from the CEO of Samsung Group—the kind specially used for taking pictures with people.

At the same time, the organizers expressed their concern and apology for the unexpected encounter of Hikaru Shinto in the hotel.

That night, the Japanese team flew home from Seoul Airport. In addition to Han Qianhui, Hong Xiuying and Gao Yongxia also came to the airport to see them off.

After finishing the trip of three days and two nights, they left Korea.

Go Weekly spoke highly of their competition, saying that their victory this time marked the strong rise of the Japanese chess world, and even described the three players as a new century wind that will sweep the world chess world.

He Gu was drinking milk when he saw this comment, but he burst out laughing with a "puchi", and the milk was sprayed everywhere.

"The wind of the new century—can you believe it?" Then he called Shinto immediately, "——I have never seen Go Weekly show such a good sense of humor."

Shindo said a few perfunctory words casually, then hung up the phone.

"Fortunately, he doesn't remember what Weiqi Weekly said about me before. 』

"Mr. Amano thinks highly of you. 』Zuo Wei walked out of the elevator with him, 『...his vision is really good. 』

Shinto shook his head involuntarily and smiled, "That's a little too good. 』

"can you? ’ Zuo Wei said in a low voice.

"Hey, little guy." Kuwahara Jin walked over from the other end of the corridor with his hands behind his back, "Are you nervous?"

"Good morning, Kuwahara-sensei." Shinto saluted him, stood still and looked up into his eyes and said, "I'm not nervous."

"..." Kuwahara narrowed his eyes slightly.

— This little guy is telling the truth.

"Then I'll...wait and see." He said this and walked past Shinto.

With an indomitable momentum.

——This conversation happened the day before the Honinbo finals.

In late July, after a long knockout round and round robin, Hikari Shinto finally defeated his opponent in the round robin of the Honinbo Tournament and entered the final round as the final challenger. The schedule of the Masters Tournament has also come to an end.

Although most people had already been mentally prepared for this outcome, when the day actually came, they said they were still taken aback.

The Weiqi Weekly also deliberately published a copy of all the game records since Shindo participated in the two major round-robin tournaments, so that players who have not been able to watch the live broadcast of the game can refer to it.

The next day, the final round of the Honinbo Tournament kicked off.

All those who care about Japanese Go are looking forward to this game—according to the data collected by the Mainichi Shimbun after the game, the broadcast rate of this game is 11.4%, reaching the highest peak of the game in the past ten years.

Corresponding to such expectations, Shindo Hikaru and Kuwahara Hitoshi did play a wonderful and unusual game.

The match, which lasted seven hours and six minutes, started with Kuwahara holding black and ended with a draw.

The two played three kalpas at 340 five-hand chess. At this time, the gap between the two players was only half an eye.

After thinking for ten seconds, Kuwahara looked up at Shinto, and saw Shinto was also looking at him.

The two looked at each other and smiled, both gave up and confirmed the draw.

In today's game, the chess moves of both sides are quite utilitarian and steady, even to the point of being a bit haggard, but this does not mean that this is a dull game.

On the contrary, since the dragons of the two sides met at No.40 at Tianyuan, the direction of the whole chess game has become unpredictable.

First, Kuwabara thought improperly when invading Baizi in the hinterland, and was taken advantage of by Jinto, the vitality of the whole dragon was greatly damaged, Heixian's advantage was gone, and he began to be controlled by others.

Then there was No. 90 second-hand questionable move by Shinto in the bottom left before closing the game at noon. This move allowed Kuwahara to regain the two-point advantage, and achieved the first disaster of the game with the third move of No. 90 in the afternoon.

Then the flames of war ignited to the lower part of the chessboard, and the two sides came and went, refusing to give an inch. The fierce battle made the audience completely unable to look away.

Up to the 144th move, Shinto wanted to use one move to invite the king into the urn, and Kuwahara confidently chose to chase and kill in a straight line. This straight kill was very clever, not only shattered Shinto's original intention, but also earned back the lost ground of the two goals.

His way of killing chess went straight to the dragon, very sharp.

But Shindo was not disturbed by this failure.

He still performed very calmly, and he carried a piece at 192, which created the second robbery of the game, and closed the game for the second time.

Up to this point, the chess game has been full of twists and turns, unpredictable ups and downs.

"How does it feel? 』In the middle of dinner, Shinto asked Sakui while biting a sausage.

"not bad. 』Zuo Wei tapped the palm of his left hand with a fan in his right hand, and his slender eyelashes drooped down, making his delicate face look peaceful, "...he is a good opponent. 』

"Looks like you've got an idea. 』Jin Teng slightly raised his eyebrows, and stopped talking.

After the meal time was over, Shinto, who returned to the arena, chose a different defense from before.

He adopted a relatively passive defensive strategy, and it seemed that he wanted to stick to the results and win the first victory.

——Almost everyone thinks so when they see his defensive tactics.

But Kuwahara was not.

He knew that the little guy in front of him had an astonishing power, and with the support of this power, he would not choose conservative tactics in order to win.

Kuwahara grinned, "Come on... little guy." He placed the 240 five hands in the waiting place. This hand is located in the center of the current situation and can connect the spirit of the four directions. It is a very favorable position no matter whether it is advancing, retreating, attacking or defending.

Then Shinito attacked.

It was an extremely tough move that perfectly played out the potential of those moves that were considered defensive before, and everyone in front of the TV was amazed by it.

Just when the audience thought that Kuwahara was going to stop here, Kuwahara, who had already expected it, sneered a little contemptuously, and lightly placed a hand on the weak spot of Heizi. Afterwards, the foreshadowing was done, which attracted another round of surprises from the audience.

These two people come and go, with frequent tricks, which really contributed to a good match.

But no matter how good a game is, there will be an end. When Kuwahara took a half-eye lead and chose to raise the ball at 340 five hands and created three robberies, the game came to an end.

Shinto Hikari breathed a sigh of relief.

Due to Kuwahara's all-out effort, the first game of the final made him feel very strenuous.

But because of this, he looked forward to the next game with Kuwahara even more.

—Actually, it wasn't just him.

After watching this game.

Most of the Japanese Go world is eagerly awaiting their second confrontation.

They are waiting...

Witness the birth of a boy, Honinbo.