Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 403 The Role of the Chess Master
The next morning, Lin Chaoyang brought his wife and children to the training bureau of the Sports Commission as agreed.

At this time, the Chinese Chess Academy had not yet been established, and the members of the national Go team as well as the national football, basketball, volleyball, gymnastics and other teams all lived in the training bureau building.

As soon as he arrived, he was met with curious gazes from the Go team members.

"The Chess Master" has become widely popular since its publication, and is also loved by these professional chess players.

The knowledge points about Go in the novel are quite professional, and some of the viewpoints are also very inspiring to these professionals.

In addition, in the past two years, when Nie Weiping occasionally chatted with everyone, he would mention Lin Chaoyang's outstanding talent in layout, so everyone was full of curiosity about Lin Chaoyang, a writer who can write novels and play Go.

Everyone was very excited as they finally got to meet each other today. Some of them couldn't wait to ask for a handshake with Lin Chaoyang.

Lin Chaoyang was not looking for trouble. He refused on the grounds that he was short of time and just chatted with everyone for a while.

Of course, what is talked about the most is the creation process of the novel "The Chess Master" and some details of the movie.

He came today to cheer for the Go team, so of course he had to say some morale-boosting words.

Tao Yushu held Xiao Dongdong in his arms and moved around in the Go team's training room, as if he had brought the child here to bless him.

When it was almost time for lunch, Go team leader Hao Keqiang took Lin Chaoyang and his family of three to the cafeteria.

When practicing sports, nutrition must be kept up, so the meals in the training bureau cafeteria can be considered rich and nutritionally balanced even by the standards of later generations.

While eating, Lin Chaoyang noticed that many eyes in the cafeteria were focused on him.

Hao Keqiang explained: "The news that you came to our training building this morning has spread. There are many fans of your book among these athletes."

Lin Chaoyang smiled as he listened to Hao Keqiang's words, and a hint of pride flashed across Tao Yushu's face.

The athletes in the training bureau building are elites from all over the country. Many of them have won Olympic medals. They feel even more proud to receive the attention here.

After a rest after dinner, Lin Chaoyang's family and the Go team went to the Capital Cinema to rewatch "The Go Master".

After watching the movie, many people in the Go team were deeply moved and their eyes were red.

"I wish you all good luck in Go!" Lin Chaoyang said to the Go team members in a serious tone before parting.

Hearing his wishes, everyone immediately remembered the line in the movie "When the country prospers, the chess fortune will also prosper", and their faces became extremely serious and they thanked Lin Chaoyang solemnly.

For some reason, at this moment, everyone felt a sense of tragedy as if the wind was whistling and the Yi River was cold.

The next day, the second game of the China-Japan Go Tournament was held as scheduled at the Yanjing Hotel.

In addition to the Go players from the two countries, there were also many diplomatic officials, media reporters and invited guests, including Lin Chaoyang.

In the second round, Jiang Zhujiu from China took the stage to challenge the champion Noriyuki Yoda.

In the first game two months ago, Noriyuki Iida defeated China's Wang Jianhong. His momentum was as high as a rainbow, but he still started the game in a rigorous and traditional style.

On the other hand, Jiang Zhujiu played an extremely aggressive style of chess. If people who didn't know the situation of both sides only looked at the opening, they would think that the Chinese team was the one with the upper hand.

At the beginning of the game, Jiang Zhujiu used a three-space high clamp. In the first game, Yoda Noriyuki used this trick to defeat Wang Jianhong. Jiang Zhujiu's trick can be regarded as "returning the favor in his own way".

Go competitions require an extremely quiet environment so that players can think quietly, so the competition must be held in the game room. People like Lin Chaoyang can only watch the time-delayed demonstration of the players' game process in the explanation room outside.

The chess game demonstration in the explanation hall has entered the middle game, with the white pieces blocking the black pieces, and the black pieces have no choice but to push the white pieces into the thicker position, struggling to survive. After the center is finalized, the white pieces show their tricks and deploy the three ambushes in the layout.

Nie Weiping looked at the chess game and whispered to Lin Chaoyang, "Yida doesn't have enough space."

Lin Chaoyang nodded slightly. Since the black pieces in the center were always a burden and lacked the necessary talent for robbing, the robbing that the white pieces could accomplish calmly was almost equivalent to a clean survival.

In this game of chess, Jiang Zhujiu's chances of winning are getting bigger and bigger.

Less than half an hour after the two men talked, the game in the battle room ended. Jiang Zhujiu won by 2.5 points, and the Chinese staff in the commentary room cheered.

The Japanese players looked gloomy, but still maintained their composure. They thought they were stronger than the Chinese team and were not worried at all that the Chinese team would cause any trouble. It was just a loss of a game, and there were still seven players behind them.

Therefore, the Japanese team behaved very gracefully after the game. Even the loser Noriki Yoda appeared calm and composed when being interviewed by media reporters such as "New Sports" and "China Sports Daily", and did not show any frustration at losing the game.

On the contrary, Jiang Zhujiu, the winner, seemed very excited during the interview.

When reporters asked about the opportunity for his victory, he said: "My ability is similar to that of Iida, so it is not easy to beat him. If you ask why I beat him, I think it was my fighting spirit. Captain Hao took us to watch "The Chess Master" yesterday to boost our morale..."

Jiang Zhujiu's answer was very long, but the reporters were no longer paying attention to what he said afterwards. All their attention was attracted by the "chess saint" mentioned by Jiang Zhujiu.

"You mean, you organized a group to watch "The Chess Master" before the game?" the reporter asked.

"Yes, everyone was very inspired after watching the movie. Old Nie even invited the author of The Chess Master to come and talk to everyone."...

The next morning, news about the China-Japan Go Challenge appeared on the front page of China Sports Daily.

Jiang Zhujiu defeated Noriki Iida and tied the score of the challenge match to 1:1. Upon seeing this news, people in the Go community and Go enthusiasts were immediately delighted.

While everyone was happy, they looked carefully at the report and noticed an interesting point.

Before the game started, the Chinese Go team went to watch "The Go Master" as a group.

A group of national players, top Go players, went to watch a movie before the big game. You can say they were doing their job, but they went to watch a Go movie written by an amateur player. You can say they were not doing their job, but they watched a movie about Go.

The unfolding of this magical plot made Go enthusiasts across the country laugh and cry.

But these people also had to admit that what the Chinese team did seemed to have some effect.

Before the game, Go enthusiasts generally believed that only Ma Xiaochun and Nie Weiping from the Chinese team were absolutely sure to defeat one or two Japanese players.

This is also why the Chinese team set the requirement of "Meeting Kobayashi Koichi is passing."

Therefore, Jiang Zhujiu's victory over Noriyuki Iida made everyone feel somewhat pleasantly surprised, and they couldn't help but look forward to the schedule for the next few months.

At the same time, this report in the "China Sports Daily" has added more popularity to the already popular "The Chess Master" movie.

Many Go enthusiasts and ordinary people who were paying attention to the China-Japan Go Tournament went to the cinema. The movie-watching trend, which had been declining in major cities, suddenly took a big positive turn.

The movie "The Chess Master" was released for one and a half months and became the biggest dark horse in the Chinese film industry in 1984.

Influenced by the popularity of the movie, the original novel of "The Chess Master" also saw a sales surge.

For literary works, the first two years after publication are undoubtedly the golden time for readers' attention and work sales.

"The Chess Master" has been published for nearly three years and its cumulative sales have reached 260 million copies, of which nearly 240 million copies were achieved in the first two years.

By this year, only 20 copies had been sold in more than half a year.

As time goes by, the novel's sales may decline further, and then stabilize at a relatively small number of sales, with one or two reprints each year, which is also the fate of most bestsellers.

But since the release of the movie "The Chess Master", the sales of the original novel have skyrocketed.

Only 20 copies were sold in the previous half year, but after more than a month of the release of the movie "The Chess Master", the original novel sold nearly 40 copies, bringing the total sales of the novel close to the 300 million copy mark.

Now "The Go Master" has been linked to the China-Japan Go Tournament, which is currently the hottest social topic. Whether it is a movie or a novel, it is likely to usher in a hot market in the coming period of time.

This made Yenching Publishing House very happy. The publishing contract for "The Chess Master" would not expire for another six months. During this period, they would be able to earn at least hundreds of thousands of yuan from this novel.

It's like pie in the sky, you can make money without doing anything!
When the topic of the China-Japan Go Challenge was in full swing among the public, Lin Chaoyang received a call from Dong Qiao in Hong Kong.

Four or five months have passed since Ming Pao Publishing House made a publishing request in July and Lin Chaoyang went to Hong Kong to sign a contract with them in August. Lin Chaoyang just received a sample copy of "Crossing the Guandong" a few days ago.

At the beginning, Dong Qiao first asked Lin Chaoyang for his opinion on the sample book. After Lin Chaoyang said he was satisfied, he talked about the advance payment of royalties.

This time, Ming Pao Publishing House is very confident about "Crossing the Guandong". The binding format is the same as in the mainland, divided into two volumes, with a single volume priced at HK$60 and two volumes at HK$120.

The first print run of the novel was 1 copies, and Lin Chaoyang deserved royalties of 24 Hong Kong dollars. Dong Qiao said on the phone that the money would be transferred to Lin Chaoyang in the next two days.

Hearing this, Lin Chaoyang was a little surprised. This was not like the style of Ming Pao Publishing House.

Then, Dong Qiao mentioned "The Chess Master" which had just been released in Hong Kong.

"The Chess Master" was released in Hong Kong in early November and lasted for 11 days, earning a box office of HK$31 million, successfully making it into the top 1045 Hong Kong film box office rankings this year, ranking 20th.

For a movie produced by a mainland team, without big investment or big stars, it is quite difficult to achieve such results.

The movie "The Chess Master" achieved impressive box office results in Hong Kong. With an audience base, it was naturally likely to become a best-seller, so Ming Pao Publishing House became interested in the original novel of "The Chess Master".

Dong Qiao made the international long-distance call this time mainly for this matter.

Ming Pao Publishing House wanted to publish "The Chess Master", and as long as the royalties were sufficient, there was no reason for Lin Chaoyang to refuse.

After some communication, the two sides successfully reached an agreement, and the royalties were still 20%. Lin Chaoyang handed over the publishing rights of "The Chess Master" to Ming Pao Publishing House.

Two days later, Lin Chaoyang received HK$24 in royalties from Ming Pao Publishing House in Hong Kong.

When he got home, Tao Yushu had just gotten off work. Du Feng suddenly ran over and asked the couple, "Sister, brother-in-law, are you going to buy a car?"

(End of this chapter)