“Small knight?”
Seeing that Yu Shao hadn’t resigned and continued playing, Zhu Xinyuan looked at the small knight move on the board and froze for a mont.
The surrounding crowd stared tightly at the board. Though the room was completely silent, everyone’s heart was stormy and restless, far from calm.
That small knight—it was too subtle. It gave off the illusion of a follow-up, sothing hidden and terrifying.
But in a situation where a fifty-point dragon had just died... was there really a follow-up strong enough to reverse the tide?
Did White… really have sothing prepared?
Or was it all just smoke and mirrors?
Zhu Xinyuan steadied himself, his expression growing serious again. After a brief contemplation, he reached into the bowl, pulled out a stone, and placed it again.
Tap!
Column 11, Row 6 — Diagonal!
“Solid. Cautious.”
Everyone’s attention was drawn to this move.
“Despite having just slaughtered a massive dragon, Black didn’t get arrogant. On the contrary—he responded with the most prudent play.”
“After all, having killed a fifty-point dragon, he’s now playing carefully, reinforcing.”
Yu Shao quickly picked up a stone and dropped it.
Tap!
Column 9, Row 6 — Small knight!
Zhu Xinyuan stared at the stone that had just landed, calculating every possible variation in his mind.
“The position is complex, and the variations are hazy. No matter what I play, White seems to have many options. It’s impossible to clearly predict where he’ll go…”
“But still—nearly fifty points, a full quarter of the board’s worth of White stones—I killed them all. My lead is unshakable!”
“If he attacks the right side, I’ll strike the top—compensate for it.”
“If he pokes in to attack my outer frawork, I’ll just extend and secure territory.”
“But…”
Zhu Xinyuan looked at the stormy board in front of him, then slowly raised his head and looked across at Yu Shao.
“Sohow, I find myself... secretly hoping that he, my opponent, will overturn the entire ga.”
Zhu Xinyuan retracted his gaze and looked back down at the board.
“On the one hand, I definitely want to win.”
“But on the other… I hope to see sothing from him—sothing beyond what I’ve ever witnessed. A move so far out of reach I can only stare up in awe.”
“What kind of move... could reverse a fifty-point loss?”
“If he really does have sothing to reverse this situation…”
“Then let keep my eyes wide open and witness it for myself!”
Finally, Zhu Xinyuan dropped another stone.
Snap!
Column 11, Row 5 — Attach!
“As long as I keep control of the board and avoid entangling with White, there’s nothing White can do!”
Under everyone’s gaze, black and white stones kept falling across the board.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The massive fight in the upper right had ended with the annihilation of White’s forces. Now, another war was breaking out in the center!
More and more people fell silent, and the only sound in the chess hall was that of stones landing on the board.
But as the stones kept falling, suddenly, the expressions of a few people began to change. Their eyes were filled with shock. One, two, three more followed...
“What’s happening…?”
Zhu Xinyuan stared at the board. Suddenly, his pupils shrank. It was as if he had realized sothing. His left fist clenched involuntarily, and his right hand picked up another stone.
“The stones have grown heavy!”
“This side... I can only connect!”
Soon, the black stone dropped!
Yu Shao looked at the newly placed stone on the board, showed no hesitation, and swiftly responded:
Tap!
Column 4, Row 10 — Push!
“How is this possible…”
Zhu Xinyuan stared blankly at the board, dazed.
At this mont, the room had completely erupted. Everyone stared wide-eyed at the board, their eyes filled with utter disbelief.
“How is this happening?”
“I can’t follow anymore!”
“By all logic, White shouldn’t be able to shake Black’s position—but... White’s earlier knight’s move along the ninth line already hinted at a counterattack!”
“That Black connection should’ve been a solid response—but for so reason, it feels so heavy. After White’s push, Black’s shape... is starting to fall apart!”
Soone even rubbed their eyes and leaned forward uncontrollably!
“No way—how can this be happening?!”
Under the shocked stares of the entire room, black and white stones kept raining down.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The more they watched, the stronger the astonishnt in everyone’s eyes grew.
They completely couldn’t understand it anymore!
The central battle between Black and White had beco so complex and so brutal—Zhu Xinyuan’s forehead now glistened with sweat running down his cheek.
Tap!
Black: Column 9, Row 12 — Sky jump!
As soon as Black’s stone landed, Yu Shao instantly dropped a move in reply—like racing against ti!
White: Column 5, Row 6 — Tiger’s Mouth!
“He played the tiger’s mouth!”
“Black tried to escape with a big jump, but White’s tiger’s mouth reverses the attack and defense completely!”
That move shocked everyone. No one could stay calm—people even stepped forward instinctively, all fixated on the moves White had been playing since his fifty-point dragon was slain!
Stunned.
Everyone was filled with overwhelming, even slightly eerie, awe.
“How is this happening?”
Even Jiang Changdong could no longer remain calm. He stared at the board, reviewing every move both players had played.
“Even if he had so hidden follow-up—even if there was a way out—you can’t reverse this in just a few moves.”
Jiang genuinely couldn’t accept it. But the board in front of him didn’t lie.
Zhu Xinyuan looked at the board, face pale, his eyes full of disbelief. Monts later, he clenched his fist and played again.
Tap!
Column 6, Row 13 — Press!
“A press—an extrely solid move, reinforcing the upper flank’s connections—but…”
Nearby, a bespectacled pro had his glasses slip down to his nose, but he didn’t even notice.
Even though he was nearsighted, he didn’t have the ti to push them back up. He simply refused to take his eyes off the board.
“But it gives up sente!”
Stones continued to fall. With every drop, the situation grew even more strange, even more threatening—each piece radiated killing intent.
“White has seized montum—there’s no stopping it now!”
A guest stared at White’s sequence, heart pounding with excitent and shock.
That jump from White completely exposed the knife. The two sides were in close combat now—crisis lood!
Black tried local resistance with the best responses—not countering each threat, but racing to control the center, aiming to defend by attacking, hoping to restrict White.
But White's moves were even more eye-opening—shaping on top, forcing Black to reinforce, then jumping to launch a brutal assault on the center—it was chilling!
Yu Shao calmly gazed at the board, reached into the bowl again, and drew another cold white stone between his fingers.
Snap!
Column 8, Row 3 — Diagonal!
Seeing this move, cold sweat slid down Zhu Xinyuan’s face.
“Totally outside my expectations…”
“The roles of attacker and defender... have completely reversed!”
Everyone’s gaze was drawn to that white stone—it was impossible to look away.
Just twenty-sothing moves ago, White’s dragon had just died. A fifty-point loss—defeat seed guaranteed.
But after just a couple dozen moves, reviewing the position again—the entire board had undergone an unthinkable transformation.
White’s lonely stones in the center had beco solid strength. Black’s frawork turned into floating stones. The powerful upper formation with the diagonal and knight’s move had completely vanished. The three stones in the upper left were now surrounded!
In just twenty moves, the landscape had changed, the mountains had fallen—the world belonged to Liu now.
In those twenty moves around the center, every one of White’s plays was like divine movent—like a lone crane flying free, every move a stroke of genius.
“These twenty-sothing moves... this is the kind of masterpiece a player dreams of creating in a lifeti.”
Soone stood there dazed, staring blankly at the board, muttering: “Black… is in danger.”
“White—though I still can’t figure out how—has truly... worked a miracle.”
A young pro stared at the board, his eyes unfocused: “No... not a miracle. This is divine.”
In the crowd, Jiang Changdong opened his mouth but said nothing.
He could only watch. Sweat from his brow dripped slowly down his cheek.
No words.
Utter silence.
Before, everyone thought that with a fifty-point deficit, no one could co back.
Yet… in their hearts, they still held a tiny hope—
Hope that Yu Shao could deliver a performance so dazzling, so earth-shattering, that even the heavens would yield.
And now—they had their wish.
But this performance... was almost too dazzling. So dazzling it felt unreal, even frightening.
Silence.
Dead silence.
“Why...”
Zhu Xinyuan stared at the board, dazed and lost.
“A fifty-point lead isn’t sothing that gets overturned in twenty moves.”
“Unless...”
He stared at each piece on the board—he could still vividly recall how every black and white stone was played.
“Unless, even when I killed the White dragon, I wasn’t ahead.”
“That’s the only explanation for how things flipped after just twenty moves.”
“But why?”
His eyes filled with confusion.
“Why, when I slaughtered White’s dragon, took fifty points—was it still not a lead?”
He tried to decipher the mystery hidden within the moves, searching for the truth buried in the ga.
Suddenly—his expression shifted. He seed to realize sothing!
In that mont, his entire body froze. He couldn’t move.
“Zhuang Weisheng... why?”
In the crowd, a young pro had been trying to understand the board for a long ti, but still couldn’t.
Finally, he couldn’t help but whisper to Zhuang Weisheng, “Black was ahead by fifty points. How could it flip? I just… can’t believe it.”
Zhuang Weisheng stayed quiet for a long while.
“Look carefully at this ga.”
Eventually, he spoke.
“Huh?”
The young pro looked back at the board, puzzled. He still didn’t see anything.
“Maybe... those fifty points weren’t Black’s gain.”
Zhuang spoke softly.
The young man looked up in shock.
Zhuang’s expression was unusually serious. He stared intently at Yu Shao, as if trying to see through him—to discover what truly lay beneath that young face.
“That wasn’t Black’s spoils. It was White’s discard.”
“Because it was so much—nearly a quarter of the board—almost no one could believe it was intentional.”
The young man looked back at the board, and finally understood. A deep look of awe appeared on his face.
“Better to lose a group than lose initiative…”
He muttered: “But… fifty points…”
“That’s the eternal truth of Go,” Zhuang said calmly. “Throwing away a hundred points to seize sente isn’t unheard of. But losing fifty points cleanly, just to fight for initiative—that, I’ve never seen.”
“That sacrifice was so massive, no one believed it. But in this ga, White played the concept of sacrificing for initiative… to the absolute limit.”
The young pro stared blankly at the intricate, densely packed board.
“How is that possible…”
His heart raced—he couldn’t accept it.
“Sacrificing fifty points for initiative… in theory it’s viable. But only in theory.”
Zhuang finally looked away from Yu Shao and back to the board.
“Go’s variations are as vast as the stars—no one can fathom them all.”
“To trade a clean fifty-point group for a center group and initiative—you’d have to transform those center stones into strength, and turn initiative into full-blown offense...”
“You can’t make even a single mistake. No slips allowed. That’s insanely difficult.”
“No one would play like this. No one would believe they could.”
“But in this ga—White did.”
“There have been countless legendary sacrifice gas throughout history. But none—not one—can match this one.”
Zhuang looked at Yu Shao again, eyes filled with gravity and curiosity, as if trying to see who he truly was.
“This kind of farsighted, proactive sacrifice… is not sothing a human should be capable of.”
The young pro was speechless.
No other sacrifice ga... could match this one.
What kind of praise was that?
As a pro who had studied countless ga records, his instinct was to refute it.
But having witnessed this ga—he couldn’t say a word.
A ga for the ages.
To have seen such a ga unfold in front of him—as a Go player, it was a mory to treasure forever.
He slowly raised his head, unable to control himself, and looked at Yu Shao—this youth five or six years younger than him, now soone he could only look up to.
“He’s younger than —but already stands at a height I can never reach.”
Tick, tick, tick.
The chess hall was dead silent. Only the clock’s second hand on the wall kept moving.
No one knew when, but everyone in the hall had gathered around this board.
Gao Wanwan, the owner of the chess hall and a Go player herself, looked at the board—not with shock now, but with deep, helpless awe.
“No matter how this ends—just this sacrifice battle alone makes it a ga for the ages…”
“And it happened... in my hall…”
Ti passed.
Zhu Xinyuan still hadn’t played.
No one rushed him. No one was impatient.
To witness this ga was a blessing—like the man from the Lanke legend who watched immortals play for a hundred years. He forgot ti, imrsed in the ga.
Watching this ga—everyone seed to glimpse the universe.
Facing White’s divine reversal, Black had been pushed to the brink. But the board still had room. There was still hope.
“What's Zhu Xinyuan thinking now?”
Soone whispered, “After seeing this godlike sequence of twenty moves... what must he be feeling?”
“If it were —facing such an opponent—I’d have lost all will to fight.”
“There’s no way to win. He’s... just too strong. No hope at all.”
“But Zhu Xinyuan is still calculating. Does that an he hasn’t given up?”
“But… can he really win?”
As everyone waited in silence, ti ticked on.
“My thickness has beco weakness.”
Zhu Xinyuan seed unaware of ti. All he saw was the board.
“My knight’s formation is gone.”
“My three stones in the upper left... are surrounded.”
“I know. The ga isn’t over. But winning now—nearly impossible.”
“There may still be a way to live. But even if there is—it’ll be a brutal road.”
“And my opponent... is soone who can sacrifice fifty points and still win.”
His thoughts raced through all possible developnts—his expression grew more serious.
“I need to disrupt the position—but I can’t clash head-on. I must isolate and trade.”
“If I go for the small corner, I might lose shape. White gains thickness, and my center group faces more pressure.”
“But that’s my only shot at survival.”
He'd already worked out the variations of saving the corner group—and what might happen next.
“Life-and-death—making weak groups live—is the most difficult, most unpredictable part of Go.”
“Ti’s running out. How long can I hang on?”
Zhu Xinyuan finally looked up at Yu Shao across the board.
Clack.
He reached into the bowl, pulled out a stone.
And placed it.
Tap!
Column 9, Row 7 — Attach!
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