Go: Is the portable old man the nine-time champion?

Chapter 69: I have a great scholar to argue for me
"Thank you very much to contestant Yi Zheng for accepting our exclusive interview with Wen Ping Wen Dao magazine after the game. I am the interviewing reporter Zhuye Gao."

Yi Zheng nodded slightly when he heard this. Wenping Wendao is one of the largest Go magazines in China. Its sales volume is also far ahead in the world. Its multi-language versions are sold well in many countries.

Many chess players are proud to be on the cover of the magazine above, but it is difficult to become the cover character of the magazine unless they have made major contributions or won important championships.

Because it is not only aimed at China, it can be called a global magazine, and chess players all over the world are proud to be the cover player.

Generally speaking, sometimes the matches of the World Series may not necessarily be included in this magazine. The ones that are included are basically some iconic matches.

The interview that Wenqing originally wanted to do was "Ten Years of Domination: The Go Life of the Devil's Muscle Man". After all, as the long-time number one amateur Go player in China, Che Da still has certain value and deserves half a page of coverage.

But after Yi Zheng won the championship, the magazine reporter decisively only listened to the laughter of the newcomers and ignored the cries of the old ones after reporting, and quickly changed the title to "The First Case in History: The Birth of a Champion Career".

Of course, there will definitely be an interview later about Che Da’s feelings as a loser, but he will just go from being a flower to a green leaf.

The reporter, who goes by the pen name Zhuyegao, looked at the lights that had been set up and the photographers in place. After confirming everything was correct, he coughed and cleared his throat. "Okay, then our interview is officially starting. Don't be nervous. We'll just ask a few simple questions."

As the only professional chess player in recent decades to win a national amateur tournament, how do you feel about that?

Yi Zheng thought about this for a moment and said, "I'm very surprised because before this competition I never thought that it would become my career. I only found out about this after I won the championship. It seems that most people don't know about this rule because it seems that no one has ever achieved it.

I had been planning to take a flight back to the capital tonight to participate in the professional Go ranking tournament. Although I missed two games, as long as I win a few more games and limit my losses to two games, I should be able to become a professional.

But I didn't expect such a pleasant surprise to happen suddenly. It felt like a pie in the sky fell on me. It still feels a little unreal."

"So, what are your thoughts on this final? Are you satisfied with your performance?"

Yi Zheng recalled the previous match: "Actually, I had prepared a lot of strategies to target Cheda 8th Dan Chinese Style, but I didn't expect it to be in vain.

In fact, this mentality was a bit problematic at the time. After all, I prepared for a long time but ended up with nothing.

So at the beginning, I adjusted for about three to five minutes and didn't make any moves. Later, I figured it out. It was just that everyone was back to the same starting line.

On the contrary, at that moment I suddenly felt a calmness I had never felt before. I was just thinking about finishing this game of chess. Today's game was actually the calmest game in recent times. There were almost no distractions. I didn't come back to my senses until the game was over.

Perhaps this is just a sense of normalcy. I'm quite content with this mindset, feeling that this state of mind is something you only encounter once in a while. I hope to maintain this mindset in future matches."

Bamboo Leaf Cake: "I saw that you won first place in the exchange competition among the seven major chess academies with a perfect record. To some extent, you have already been confirmed to become a professional.

Who do you think will become professional players like you this year? What do you think of them?

Yi Zheng: "The strongest one should still be Shi Yu, who is obviously already at a professional level.

There are many other players worth paying attention to. There are also some who are younger and not as good as me, but I feel that their performance is very interesting and may have greater development in the future.

It is still unknown who will become a professional. After all, in addition to strength, mentality and luck also play a certain role. "

Listening to Yi Zheng's bland answer, Zhuyegao felt a headache. There would be no breaking point in the interview if it continued like this.

"So what are your expectations after becoming a professional?"

Zhuyegao was about to ask the last normal question before trying to figure out how to get Yi Zheng to say something controversial. After all, the three elements of journalism are fragmentation, paraphrase, and creating opposition.

But unexpectedly, Yi Zheng said something shocking after hearing this normal question.

"I hope to win the Super Slam, that's something I definitely want to achieve."

Hearing this, Zhuyegao immediately stopped writing: "Super Grand Slam? This seems to be an unofficial concept, a relatively beautiful expectation.

So far, it seems that there hasn't been a single chess player in China who has achieved such a feat, right? It seems there hasn't been one in the world either."

Each of the nine Super Slam tournaments is very important, especially some of them are held only once every four years. It is very difficult to get a place in the competition in China, let alone win the championship.

Especially in recent years, the competition in the Olympics has become more intense, and the investment in Go in Europe and the United States has increased massively, and many powerful players have emerged.

Even the chess master Jiang Mobai only won the World Championship. The last Chinese Go individual champion in the Olympics was twelve years ago, and the only medals won in the past three sessions were bronze and silver medals.

Yi Zheng's expression remained unchanged, and he simply said, "I think I can do it."

Zhuyegao silently began his attack: "Let's not talk about the difficulty. If we only talk about short-term goals, the three musketeers who have entered the national team this year are about the same age as you, and have already achieved results in professional competitions.

It will take a long time to make up for the gap between me and my peers, and a Super Slam feels like a distant dream."

"There are indeed many strong players in our generation in China, not just the Three Musketeers, but also some other players with good strength.

There is an objective gap in strength at the moment, but I think we can catch up with them in about two years."

Yi Zheng objectively evaluated his own progress and with the help of the plug-in, he felt that it would not be a big problem for him to catch up with his friends within two years.

But in the eyes of others, this is blatant bragging.

In just two years, he went from being a beginner to almost being a national business champion. Isn't the gap a bit too big?

This means that it takes you about two years to advance from 1st dan to 7th dan, which is incredible.

Not to mention that others will not stand still and wait for Yi Zheng, but will continue to move forward.

Zhuye Gao hadn't expected Yi Zheng to be so bold: "We'll probably report what you're saying now. Aren't you afraid that your fellow chess players will bring up old issues and backfire in the next few years?"

It feels good to brag, but you will not only be laughed at now, but you will be laughed at even more when you don’t have time.

Yi Zheng smiled and shook his head when he heard this: "A friend of mine told me that if you become number one in the world, no one will care about how many big words you said before but didn't come true.

But if you are no longer the best in the world, even if your boasts come true, people will find fault with you.

In a competitive match, the winner is the king, and the loser is wrong even to breathe.

When I am one of the last, there will be great scholars who will debate the classics for me."

(End of this chapter)