The Way of the Blind Girl Chess Saint

Thank you for your guidance, teacher.

Xin Yufei's face immediately lit up with joy. After responding, she began to tidy up the chess pieces.

Lin Hong shook his head. Ever since he returned, he had been paying attention to the game of chess with Xin Yufei, but no matter how hard he stared at the board, he couldn't recall the details. This was very strange for a top professional chess player.

Let's see how she reviews the game later. Once this game is over, I can focus on the next game.

Lin Hong turned his head and said, "Then... let's continue."

"Hmm," Ji Yingting nodded, tossing her long, light green hair. After much deliberation, she decided to stop using the chess position.

Becoming a forgiveness cat isn't as easy as it seems on the surface. She suspects she could fall into a deep sleep the moment she lay down; the mental strain of chess is terrifying.

She realized how difficult it was to force herself to expand her position so aggressively from the very beginning.

"However... even if I don't use my positional advantage, Black still has a six-point lead on the board, and it's my turn to move. How are you going to turn the tide, Professor Lin Hong?"

With a "thud," Ji Yingting used her cherry-like mouth to hold the fluffy white sleeve, her white teeth working hard to pull the cotton sleeve up, revealing five delicate white fingers as she placed a chess piece.

pat...

【Two, Flying Swallows】

Her move wasn't an offensive double swallow, but a defensive double swallow...

However, this somewhat conservative double-sided, swallow-guarding-corner strategy is no longer common in professional matches these days.

"Shuang, Feiyan...?" Lin Hong raised his right hand.

With a loud "boom," following the chess piece that Ji Yingting placed, Lin Hong slammed down a white piece onto the chessboard.

This move was clearly planned in advance; White invaded Black's territory.

Taking advantage of Ji Yingting's weakened position, Lin Hong decided to launch an attack.

The other chess players also gathered around after hearing the loud sound of Lin Hong placing his piece.

"Town? Teacher, this probing move is a bit risky. Black's group of stones isn't weak. If their weakness is exploited, it will be bad. I think White should attack Black's double stones in the upper left corner with a flying swallow formation."

Niu Xiaochai, with her long, flaxen-colored curly hair, sat to the side and spoke softly.

"Black's opening move is perfect. The ten-point advantage may seem small, but it is actually very important. Since you made this move, you must have thought it through beforehand."

However, White's intention to reduce territory is too obvious; Black won't fall for it.

A young man wearing a gray Taoist robe spoke, holding a black and white tai chi ball that was constantly spinning in his palm. The young man had a black bullet-shaped hairstyle and his skin was slightly brown.

The young man's body wasn't exactly muscular, but it had a bronze sheen.

After thinking for about five minutes, Ji Yingting gently rolled up her white cotton-padded jacket on her right arm, fully revealing her slender hand.

With a "thud," her long, light green hair swayed a few times as she placed a chess piece onto the chessboard.

Oh?

……

Lin Hong raised an eyebrow. Ji Yingting completely ignored his probing attack and instead chose to use a different approach to infiltrate his territory.

I used the character 【镇】...

She used route 2 [tout].

Black's probing tactics were clearly more extreme than White's. What was her intention in making this move in this situation? Lin Hong frowned.

【Testing the opponent's move: Simply put, it means making a move when you don't know the best move. This move gives the opponent several options to choose from.

And one can decide one's own response based on the opponent's response, testing the waters and adapting accordingly—a relatively advanced Go tactic.

Pat, pat, pat, pat.

The sound of pieces being placed continued incessantly. After collecting her pieces, Xin Yufei began to observe Ji Yingting's game.

"Hmm? There's fighting going on in some areas?"

She curiously approached, because there hadn't been any close combat between Lin Hong and her when they played chess.

"You guessed wrong. My move just now wasn't a test..."

A faint smile appeared on Ji Yingting's lips, and her pale purple pupils opened slightly.

pat...

"A forced move... Oh no, she's trying to ko-live in White's territory!!!"

"Haha, the teacher's going to be in for a headache now!"

Niu Xiaochai twirled the ends of her flaxen curly hair in her hand and laughed gleefully.

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Here's a little background information for the next chapter's plot:

Ko is a term in Go. It is also called "ko fight" or "ko contention". The entire process of a game, from initiating a ko, capturing a ko, finding a ko, responding to a ko, capturing another ko, to finally resolving the ko, can be summarized as "ko fighting".

Most readers may not understand this explanation, so I will explain it in my own words.

In Go, there is a very common shape where black and white can capture each other's stones. But is it really possible to capture each other's stones?

[A ko fight occurs when both black and white stones are surrounded by the opponent's stones. In this situation, if it's white's turn, they can capture a black stone; if it's black's turn, they can capture a white stone. Because this creates a vicious cycle with no solution, Go prohibits "repeated captures of the same shape." According to the rules, after capturing a stone, the opponent cannot immediately recapture it if they have the option to do so. They must first make a move elsewhere and wait for the opponent to respond before recapturing.]

"Koh-living," also known as "ko-fighting," is a Go term. It's the opposite of "ko-killing." When several surrounded stones must win a ko fight to survive, this is called "ko-living."

Chapter 55: Looting Materials, Fierce Battle

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock.

The hands of the clock were ticking, and the atmosphere inside the room was somewhat quiet.

Lin Hong crossed his arms in front of him, his eyes closed, as if he were considering something.

Ji Yingting also squinted, her crescent-shaped, willow-leaf eyebrows a bluish-green, alluringly obscuring her eyes.

"Teacher has been thinking for thirty minutes already, and it's almost lunchtime." Niu Xiaochai took out her phone and glanced at it. Lin Hong hadn't made a move yet.

Of course, apart from Xin Yufei, everyone present was a professional Go player, and even the lowest-ranked player was a professional fourth dan.

They wouldn't get impatient over a mere thirty minutes. Although modern chess games tend to be fast-paced, every professional chess player has had the experience of spending hours thinking about a single move.

The ancients went even further, sometimes measuring a game of chess by the month.

Xin Yufei rubbed her forehead and stared at the chessboard; she felt a bit of a headache.

"No matter what, I can only calculate changes within a maximum of 30 moves."

Countless chess patterns flashed through Xin Yufei's mind. The number of pieces increased step by step, but as the patterns in her mind became more complex, she could no longer calculate.

“But I feel that no matter what, Senior Sister Ji Yingting can always win by ko-ing…” Xin Yufei shook her head. Everyone else was just watching, and she was too embarrassed to find a chessboard to set up the pieces and calculate.

The silence finally ended with a "thud." Lin Hong pulled his right hand out of his black sleeve and placed a chess piece down with a light touch.

He moved the white stone that was previously positioned above the black stone closer to the ground.

"Huh? We've already moved aside. Are we just going to ignore this group of stones?" Xin Yufei wondered.

"As expected, the teacher went to find ko threats to prepare for a ko fight. Because Black's opening shape is too good, for the time being... White has no ko threats at all."

……

With a "thud," Ji Yingting also placed a chess piece, her light blue eyebrows furrowing as the game progressed.

Although White has no ko throughout the game, Black needs to win two consecutive kos to make a living group. If White is allowed to make three consecutive moves elsewhere, it will be enough to offset Black's advantage.

Pat, pat, pat, pat.

The game continued, and compared to Ji Yingting's relatively steady approach, Lin Hong's moves could only be described as completely unreasonable.

In his hands, all sorts of foolish and awful chess formations came one after another, and Lin Hong completely destroyed the beautiful chessboard that had just ended in the opening phase.

However, Ji Yingting's expression never relaxed. When looking for strong ko threats, many top players would act unreasonably.

The atmosphere in the room grew increasingly tense, and Xin Yufei held her breath and focused intently.

pat.

Ji Yingting slowly extended her slender arm and gently placed a black chess piece, instantly conjuring up countless possible variations in her mind.

Thud... Lin Hong placed a chess piece slightly, and a few seconds later, his expression gradually became somewhat strange under everyone's gaze.

"Huh..." The young man with the black bullet-shaped haircut uttered a soft sound, the first time he had shown surprise during the game.

Niu Xiaochai's yellowish-brown pupils widened slightly. "Teacher, you can actually play a move like the [Group] formation. Can you really still be a professional Go player?"

"Shh, junior sister, don't say that. Didn't you see that the teacher is already blushing a little?" the young man whispered to Niu Xiaochai.

"Oh, really? Then I'll speak more quietly," Niu Xiaochai said, pretending to understand and shaking her long, flaxen curly hair.

"Pfft!" Xin Yufei couldn't help but burst out laughing.

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Black's 11th move is a group move; don't worry about the number of steps, this is just an example.

In the last chapter, there was a ko fight diagram. A reader asked what would happen if it got involved in resolving the ko. But that was just a simple example. Since there isn't any really good software for setting up the board, it was set up like this. You only need to look at the shape; you don't need to look at the number of moves.

……

……

"You two both lost in the second round of the Tianyuan Tournament last week, right? Go over there and play some chess to reflect on your mistakes," Lin Hong said sternly, somewhat angrily.

"Okay, okay," Niu Xiaocha pouted and walked with the young man to a table in the distance, but instead of playing chess, they took the opportunity to set up Ji Yingting and Lin Hong's chess game.

Ji Yingting touched her long, bluish-green hair with her left hand, and her expression became somewhat strange.

Niu Xiaochai is right. Most top professional Go players would rather lose than play this kind of move. However, Lin Hong's willingness to play this way proves how terrifying he is.

Pat, pat, pat, pat, pat

Without the disturbance from the young man and Niu Xiaochai, Lin Hong and Ji Yingting continued their game of chess.

A few minutes later.

"Boom!"