LOL: Can’t I play other games professionally?

Chapter 440 Opening Flaws, Don't Fly Randomly in Chess
Until the early hours of the morning before the match, Byun Sang-il was still in his room looking through several game records, which were basically some of the most representative games since Lin Ruomeng's Lily Cup.

Byun Sang-il had no choice. If he didn't study these things, he really didn't know what else to study. Whether it would be effective was hard to say, but it was definitely much better than not studying at all.

In order to defeat Lin Ruo, he even had a special discussion with Park Jung-hwan, the current number one player in the country, today, in order to learn some winning strategies.

Although he has not yet faced Lin Ruo, after defeating Ke Jie, he watched helplessly as his biggest rival, Shin Jinseo, was also eliminated.

Park Jung-hwan was overjoyed that two of his competitors had been eliminated in the round of 16, but he was also secretly on high alert and regarded Lin Ruo as his third major rival.

He has always been a diligent person, which is why he is able to compete with the younger generation and maintain his top-level strength.

Therefore, it is essential to address the challenges posed by every suddenly emerging genius.

Moreover, Park Jung-hwan, who knew about Lin Ruo's games, was extremely surprised by Lin Ruo's performance, especially his match against Shin Jin-seo.

There are very few people in the world who could beat Shin Jinseo like that.

If such a person is not worth his vigilance, he may well repeat the mistakes of other chess players.

Considering that he might still face Lin Ruo in the semifinals and finals, Park Jung-hwan spent his free time reviewing games in order to build up his understanding of the game.

Knowing yourself and your enemy is the key to victory in every battle. What he fears most when facing a chess player like Lin Ruo is someone who suddenly appears out of nowhere, and that's where the unfamiliarity comes in.

It is inevitable and sufficient that you will face greater difficulties when you don't know much about your competitors.

Park Jung-hwan naturally couldn't make such a mistake, which is why he tried his best to understand and become familiar with the place.

When Byun Sang-il came to him for advice, Park Jung-hwan didn't hold back much and shared his findings.

In his view, allowing Byun Sang-il to unleash his full potential in a fight against Lin Ruo would be an acceptable outcome, regardless of the result.

With thorough preparations underway, the day quickly passed.

The tournament quickly moved to the quarterfinals, and the venue was once again the familiar hall of the China Chess Academy, where all the media reporters were also present to prepare.

The WildFox livestream was as lively as ever. After defeating Shin Jinseo, the Go enthusiasts were now speaking much louder.

Lin Ruo will definitely win!

[That's right, I'm an official Pizza Hut employee. Lin Ruo is definitely going to win. What's Byun Sang-il? He's just a coward. Let's take him down.]

[Yeah, right, Lin Ruo is invincible, okay? You said we should open champagne, so we have something to say. Madeline dogs open champagne every day, what's wrong with us opening some?]

To be honest, I don't know who Byun Sang-il is; it seems like I could just randomly pick someone.

[Me too. Because I don't play Go, I don't know anyone here, and my skills aren't great either. Lin Gou can easily beat me.]

[You think a 100% win rate in your professional career is a joke? Which Go player can have a 100% win rate since their debut? If I, Lin Shen, am invincible, who dares to claim that?]

[This is insane! Why are all the comments today praising champagne? Are they all shills hired by Lin Gengxin? We can't do that, it'll backfire.]

[It's okay, the backlash is against Lin Gengxin. Lin Gengxin, fly high! If you win, we'll cheer; if you lose, we'll laugh at you.]

[It's all about watching this joke. It's been two years, from League of Legends to Go, and I haven't seen a single joke about Lin Gou. I don't know if I'll ever see one in my lifetime.]

My brother is on his deathbed and just wants to see Lin Gengxin make a fool of himself. Lin Gengxin, please grant his wish.

[Holy crap, hater, get out!]

...

With half an hour left before the start of the match, the Fox commentator, who arrived just in time, wasn't focused on the extremely high level of discussion in the live stream, but rather on the real-time number of viewers, which had already broken through the historical peak of 50,000.

The number of reservations exceeded yesterday's 30,000 by a full 20,000, clearly indicating that the Wildfox Go platform has reached its peak popularity.

Fortunately, the official software operation is quite good, unlike many platforms that, during peak traffic periods, can't handle the constant crashes and end up not even getting a chance to enjoy the benefits.

With a popular player like Lin Ruo, if he continues to participate in Go competitions in the future, Yehu can't even imagine how good his life will be. Advertisers will probably be lining up to come to his door.

Fifteen minutes before the start of the competition, all media were cleared from the venue, and the four tables of matches would determine the final four.

Besides the highly anticipated match between Lin Ruo and Byun Sang-il, the Japan-Korea match between Park Jung-hwan and Japanese player Ichiriki Ryo also generated a lot of discussion.

As one of the few Japanese players who remains strong on the international stage and still possesses top-level skills without falling behind, Ichiriki Ryo, fighting alone, has made a strong impression on Japan.

Today, Ichiriki Ryo is also eager to make a run for the top four. He wants to defeat Park Jung-hwan more than anyone else to break his best record in the Mlily Cup.

However, he himself was well aware of how difficult it would be. In this battle between the top players from Japan and South Korea, the mature and steady Park Jung-hwan clearly had more advantages.

When the media's cameras focused on table number three, Lin Ruo and Bian Xiangyi were already seated and ready.

"Lin Ruo, a first-dan professional, has reached the quarterfinals of the Mengbaihe Cup in less than half a year. I heard that you are an amateur who joined the competition halfway through your career."

"You are very strong, more unique than any of the players I have ever faced, but I will not lose to you today."

"Uh, is it?"

Hearing Byun Sang-il's childish remarks, Lin Ruo, who would have thought he was Japanese, couldn't help but scratch her face.

Just because he speaks Korean, is it necessary to torture him like this?
However, it's clear that Byun Sang-il did a lot of preparation before the match, otherwise he wouldn't be so energetic today; you'd think he was on drugs.

Fortunately, as long as he doesn't find any loopholes in the rules, it's fine.

"It's good for young people to be confident, but no matter what you think, I can only tell you one thing: I can't lose."

Under Lin Ruo's calm voice and the referee's usual announcement, the process of tidying up the table, guessing who would go first, and exchanging pieces was completed within a few minutes.

Byun Sang-il was still a little confused. What young people? Weren't the people on the other side the young people?

Are all Gen Z kids this arrogant now?

Whether he's arrogant or not is unimportant. After the coin toss ended, Lin Ruo opened the box of white pieces in front of him.

It's hard to say whether Byun Sang-il's decision to start with black is a good thing or a bad thing.

Trying to maintain his composure, he made conventional moves, choosing to occupy the star point on the right side of the board in the first two moves.

It plays a significant role in balancing the terrain, being flexible and adaptable, and improving layout efficiency. At the same time, by combining star points with small objectives, it can also focus on quickly establishing external influence while consolidating the corner territory, providing diverse development paths for subsequent mid-game battles.

The thoughtful Byun Sang-il then added a large knight's move to the corner, securing his own corner and strengthening his control of the game, especially in the corner position.

Seeing that Black was approaching in the lower right corner, Lin Ruoli, who was also in a standoff at the beginning of the Star Point and Small Eye, decisively chose to respond with a small knight's move to approach the corner.

The direction of this response is the upper right. Just like when he played Black, Lin Ruo, who started with White, took the initiative to launch an attack.

Byun Sang-il followed his usual routine, placing a small knight's move at the top to counter the attack. Lin Ruo, without hesitation, played a move to extend the white stones along the side, pushing them into the center of the right side of the board, openly expanding her territory and establishing new influence.

However, playing like this in the opening area of ​​Black has an undeniable impact; it's like sounding the alarm for battle in advance.

In the referee's eyes, Lin Ruo was like someone who had swallowed a bomb; his two moves were too ruthless, attacking the opponent's base right from the start.

This makes it a bit awkward for Byun Sang-il, a ninth-dan martial artist.

Not wanting to lose face, Byun Sang-il pondered for a moment and then moved to the left side to respond to the white piece's small flying move above.

Lin Ruo chose a relatively old-fashioned low-angle move, placing a stone two squares below the straight line of the black stones in the corner to strengthen control of territory.

Furthermore, by forming a tight shape, it restricts the development space of the opponent's pieces, forcing the opponent to respond passively.

Black responded very quickly, immediately switching to a large approach move on the bottom.

Perhaps because he had studied it in detail, Byun Sang-il did not want to have too much direct conflict with Lin Ruo in a fixed area so soon. Instead, he wanted to try to disrupt the board by changing the pieces.

This is also what Lin Ruo likes to do: when it's difficult to break through a certain point, he changes direction to make the game more chaotic, thus leveraging his advantage in finding singularities.

When a breakthrough is achieved, it's time to see it through to the end.

Lin Ruo didn't consider any strategy or planning; he only focused on strategizing during his continuous attacks.

A smooth transition? Let whoever wants to do it do it.

So Lin Ruo placed a piece and immediately launched a very aggressive double attack.

This time, he looked down directly at the small black piece that wanted to step on the white piece below him.

Not to be outdone, Byun Sang-il started with the black stones at the 3-3 point, directly attaching them to the white stones at the bottom three columns and three rows. Then, he played eight moves on each side, forming a very common joseki.

In the lower left corner, White has basically controlled the area on the left, while Black has also created a lot of potential in the lower bottom.

It's hard to say who wins and who loses; it depends more on which side can leverage its regional advantages later on.

It's a matter of each side occupying a hilltop, and then it comes down to whichever side can shout the loudest.

Lin Ruo, who had the right to call out first, took the initiative to launch an attack, placing a stone at the top left corner to launch a sharp attack on the black stone in the corner.

Black quickly tried to make connections by placing pieces outside the board in order to escape.

The thirtieth move, a double jump.

On the board, a two-space jump can effectively prevent the opponent's pieces from crossing, while simultaneously strengthening the connection of one's own pieces.

Lin Ruo chose to occupy key positions to restrict the opponent's actions and prevent them from moving around the chessboard.

The board was quite wide at the beginning, but he still had to work hard to limit the area he could move in.

Don't think that just because the place is big, it's hard to fight you. A real fight doesn't need a reason.

If there is one, it's because my fists are hard enough and I'm confident enough.

Next move.

Knowing the importance of seizing opportunities, Byun Sang-il, in turn, took the initiative to suppress the white piece that initially pressured him from a low position, thus preventing that piece from developing towards the center later.

"After drawing White's attention, he immediately returned to the upper right corner to make a small hook threat. Byun Sang-il 9-dan was very aggressive in this game."

The tension between the two sides was palpable, as could be clearly seen in the commentary on the Wild Fox livestream.

As expected, this is the benefit of watching Lin Ruo's matches: he can force the opponent to neither play defensively nor be willing to play defensively, thus leading to fierce clashes in the early stages.

As for why the opponent was unwilling to play defensively, it was naturally because Lin Ruo's offensive was too strong.

Anyone who watched the match between Lin Ruo and Park Young-hoon knows that Park Young-hoon also tried to play defensively, but the result was well-known.

Nobody wants their turtle shell to be smashed.

"Moreover, Byun Sang-il, a 9-dan player, knows how to jump out at the right time and doesn't get bogged down in a single point, which makes the game very flexible for both sides."

This shows that Byun Sang-il has done some research, but whether it will be effective or not remains to be seen in the subsequent games.

White counters and suppresses, Black presses.

After making two quick moves, Byun Sang-il swiftly returned to the lower right area to dismantle his pieces.

She can jump really well.

Lin Ruo had to admit it, but to think that this would prevent him from attacking would be a bit ungrateful.

After a brief entanglement, Byun Sang-il resorted to his old trick, shifting his position back to the left and placing a piece between two white stones positioned vertically, a move known as "digging," in an attempt to increase his own strength.

This was truly a timely help, and Lin Ruo almost suspected that Bian Xiangyi was putting on a show for him.

He was still pondering how to deal with the commotion that seemed to be running around on four legs when, a moment later, Byun Sang-il obediently took off his shoes and handed them to him.

To a careful observer, this so-called "digging" technique is not entirely ineffective, but rather completely useless.

Byun Sang-il clearly misjudged the current situation while making aimless back-and-forth moves, and made a meaningless move. Lin Ruo's next two moves then turned Black's assist into White's consolidation of its left side.

In the thirty-eighth move, White blocks, and after Black connects, White solidifies and reinforces.

While the actual control became more solid, Byun Sang-il was also somewhat bewildered.

He then jumped to the top and made a flying move, only to find that the white's counterattack between his two horizontal black stones was a very big blow.

This directly resulted in him losing ground and influence on the left side.

Byun Sang-il realized that he hadn't made a mistake in placing a piece, but rather in the wrong order.

In fact, he should have first launched a solo attack from above, and then moved to the left to make digging or similar moves; that would have made the overall strategy more coordinated.

The move of digging first and then flying too early allowed White to make a move and consolidate its position on the left. By the time White flew again, Lin Ruo had already confidently made his move.

What's the point of you flying now? You only learned to fly after I built a wall on the left, so shouldn't you just obediently crash into it next?

Then let's run it over; if he dies, he'll be responsible for burying him.

(End of this chapter)