The world of film and television begins with Hikaru no Go

During the debriefing, Yu Liang pointed to a specific area in the center of the face: "Zhang Rui, 9-dan, here. When you used the shoulder strike at the Wuyou angle, I calculated three possible variations. First, if I were to strike here—"

As he spoke, he placed the pieces on the chessboard, presenting the variations he had calculated in his mind one by one.

Zhang Rui looked at the chessboard without saying a word.

This is the most troublesome part for him when playing chess with AI. The AI ​​can only indicate the place of the piece, but it will not tell him "why this move is good" like Chu Ying did, nor will it explain "which move of the opponent is bad".

"—Then I chose to jump here, trying to block your escape route." Yu Liang finished setting up the third variation diagram, looked up at Zhang Rui, "But I later discovered that no matter how I blocked it, you could always slip out from the other side. Did I overlook something?"

"Here," Zhang Rui said, pointing to a spot on the chessboard. "It should be placed here, not there."

Yu Liang paused for a moment, then looked in that direction.

That position... wasn't where any of his moves would have landed.

"Black's seventy-second move," Zhang Rui continued, speaking to himself, "you played it here."

He pointed to the spot where Yu Liang actually placed his piece, and then pointed to the spot he had just pointed to.

"But if you play here, it will be difficult for White."

Yu Liang stared at that spot, his brows gradually furrowing.

He quickly calculated in his mind, and a few seconds later, his pupils contracted slightly: "If White cuts here—"

"You can't cut it off. If you play here, White has to reinforce. If you don't, all five of your stones will die." Zhang Rui pointed to several other points on the board, repeating the results predicted by the AI. "After you reinforce, you gain two points on the left side, and then you can deal with the center. This way, your strength will be at least five points greater."

Yu Liang opened his mouth, wanting to say "but," but swallowed the words back—Zhang Rui was right.

If he had played in that position, White would indeed have been in a dilemma.

While it might not be a complete reversal of fortune, at least it won't be as easy as being crushed in a real match.

"You..." Yu Liang raised his head, his gaze towards Zhang Rui complex, "You foresaw this step in actual combat?"

Zhang Rui didn't answer the question, but continued, "And here, on move ninety-three, you played a small point. If you had played it here, with a large knight's move, your influence in the center could have covered two more lines. On move one hundred and seven, you chose to reinforce. But if you had played a 'thrust' here, White would have had to respond, and you would have gained an extra ko threat. Here—"

Yu Liang took a deep breath, lowered his head, looked at the chess pieces on the board, and remained silent for a long time: "You mean... I had a better move for every single step from beginning to end?"

"Not every step, but in the key steps, you did choose suboptimal solutions."

Yu Liang's fingers twitched slightly; it was a suboptimal solution.

Hearing this word come out of Zhang Rui, a 9-dan professional Go player, Yu Liang felt it even more deeply while playing Go.

The Go moves played by Zhang Rui are different from his own understanding of Go, and even from the understanding of Go by other people in the world. He does not deliberately pursue the shape of the stones, but something else—efficiency.

Is this the future direction of Go in the eyes of the current top Go players?

Could it be that I've been playing Go wrong all along?

Yu Liang slowly put the chess pieces back into the chess basket, falling into deep self-doubt.

"Zhang Rui, 9th Dan".

"Um."

"How big do you think the gap is between you and me?" Yu Liang carefully chose his words.

Zhang Rui glanced at him but did not answer immediately.

The room was quiet for a few seconds, with only the ticking of the wall clock.

"You don't need to compete with me. The ranking tournament is about to start, so prepare well."

After saying that, Zhang Rui turned and left the room, leaving Yu Liang alone sitting in front of the chessboard.

Meanwhile, in the classroom of Group Two, Shi Guang sat in his seat, staring blankly at the chessboard hanging in front of the podium.

Chu Yingpiao stood beside him, without saying a word.

On the chessboard, black and white pieces crisscrossed. Time's gaze moved from the upper left corner to the lower right corner, and then back to the center, his brows furrowing more and more tightly.

"Chu Ying".

"Um?"

"My brother...how exactly did he make those moves?"

Chu Ying paused for a moment, unsure how to respond.

As the top chess player in Southern Liang, he could see the brilliance of Zhang Rui's every move, but behind those "brilliance" lay no chess theory to support them.

Or rather, what supports them is a logic that Chu Ying has never seen before.

"I don't know either, Zhang Rui's style of play... is very special."

"Special?" Shi Guang turned to look at Chu Ying. "You've been playing chess for over a thousand years, and you still don't understand?"

"I don't understand it." Chu Ying frankly admitted, "His chess has no 'way' (principle), only 'technique' (method)."

Shi Guang scratched her hair in frustration: "Then how am I supposed to catch up with him?!"

"You don't need to catch up with him."

Why?

"You and Zhang Rui are on different paths. When you play chess, I can see what you are thinking—you hesitate here, struggle there, sometimes make mistakes, and sometimes have a flash of inspiration."

"Doesn't this mean I played terribly?"

"It's not rotten," Chu Ying said seriously. "It has life."

Time opened its mouth, wanting to refute, but swallowed the words back.

He looked down at his hands.

These hands have played hundreds of games of chess. There have been wins and losses, brilliant moves and utterly awful ones.

"Chu Ying".

"Um?"

"Can you teach me how to play chess?"

Chu Ying was taken aback: "Haven't I been teaching you all along?"

"I think I can work even harder."

Chu Ying looked at Shi Guang, her gaze softening slowly: "Have you thought it through?"

"I've made up my mind." Shi Guang looked up. "I don't want to be a mediocre player forever. I want to catch up with my brother. I don't want people to talk about me as just the younger brother of the number one Go player of our time. I want to stand in front of him and play a game with him on a big stage, fair and square."

"That's ambitious, but I also really want to play a game face-to-face with Zhang Rui..."

"Didn't you agree to teach me chess first?"

"Alright, alright... Shall we begin?" Chu Ying floated to one side of the chessboard, raised her hand, and pointed to the upper left corner. "First, let's review the most basic opening moves. Do you know the difference between the star point, the small eye, and the 3-3 point?"

Shi Guang thought for a moment: "Using the star position to determine the situation, the small eye to determine the location, three three... three three is the gate of hell?"

"That's your current perspective," Chu Ying shook her head. "The 3-3 formation is actually the most solid corner defense, it's just a bit inefficient. But inefficient doesn't mean it's unusable—"

As he spoke, he used a folding fan to mark various variations on the chessboard.

Shiguang listened attentively, took out his own chessboard and tried setting it up, occasionally asking a few questions.