In the first final match of the first Quzhou Langke Cup World Go Championship in June, South Korea's first player Shin Jin-jin easily defeated Koo Zihao in the middle set. After the match, the prediction that Shin Zhenzhen would easily defeat Koo Zihao 2-0 was overwhelming, and the call for Shin Huang's invincibility was overwhelming. However, amid the pessimism, the Chinese chess player Xie Ke's view is unique. He believes that Shin is not invulnerable.
After the first game of the Langke Cup three-way chess final, Sheko was interviewed by reporters.
Xie Ke said: Today's Shen Zhenzhen is indeed very strong in chess, the kind of strength that has no obvious shortcomings. From the continuation of the repression, all aspects of suppression, but compared with Lee Chang-ho in his heyday, Shin Jin-hyun has not yet reached that height. The gap in strength with his contemporaries is not so obvious. Now I look back at Lee Chang-ho's chess score and find that he is significantly higher than his contemporaries. You see that many of his half-eyes are victorious and half-winning, in fact, many of them are the result of his concessions. Shin Jinzhen still has flaws, at least two places in this chess game give Gu Zihao a chance, compared to Lee Chang-ho, Shin Jin-chen's advantage is actually not much.
Before the game, some netizens arranged a paragraph in order to highlight Shen Zhenzhen's efforts and ridicule Chinese chess players playing games:
The reporter interviewed Xiao Shen: "Someone gave you a nickname called the greedy goblin, what do you think?" ”
Xiao Shen was confused: "Goblin? What is a goblin? ”
Reporter: Ah, you don't even know what a goblin is? is an online game word, many Go players in China understand, they play online games are traditional, can be energetic!
Xiao Shen: I really don't know, I spend my free time practicing chess, and I don't have time to play online games.
Goblin is the name of a race in the online game World of Warcraft, who was once a slave of the troll on Kozan Island and was forced to dig for Kaga ore for a long time. However, prolonged contact with Kaga ore makes the goblin race surprisingly cunning and intelligent.
Shin Zhenzhen has been making his mark at the World Series since 2016. In the first three years, he participated in 13 world competitions, winning 2 semifinalists, 2 runners-up and 1 Asian Cup title. In 2019, it began to break out, and by 2022, it has won 4 championships, 3 finals, 2 semifinals and 1 Asian Cup in 13 world competitions. The 75% semifinalist rate is terrifying.
From 1995 to 2003, Lee Chang-ho participated in 35 World Series tournaments, winning 15 championships and 10 semifinalists, with a semifinalist rate of 71.4%. In 1998, Lee Chang-ho won four titles and one runner-up, and his dominance was terrifying.
Shin has reached 10 World Series finals so far, but has only won 4 world championships. This is still a relatively big gap compared with Lee Chang-ho's record. Therefore, Sheko believes that Shin Zhenzhen's chess does not know the advantage, appropriately retreats and accurately grasps the situation, and is a little too greedy. The gap between this and Lee Chang-ho's ability to accurately control the situation is still obvious.
In Xie Ke's view, after the emergence of the AI era, the use of AI to analyze and summarize Lee Chang-ho's chess can clearly see that Lee Chang-ho's strength is obviously much higher than that of his contemporaries.
However, at that time, many netizens also thought that this was Xie Ke cheering himself up and Chinese chess players. There is a suspicion that Wang Po sells melons. Sheko will play Shin Zhenzhen in the final of the ninth Ying's Cup in August. Before the game, almost no one was optimistic about Sheko winning the championship, and even extreme netizens thought that Sheko's chances of winning the championship were zero.
However, after Gu Zihao unexpectedly defeated Shen Zhenzhen 2:1 to win the Rotten Ke Cup, it is believed that the probability of Shin Zhenzhen winning the Ying's Cup has dropped a lot, and many netizens believe that Xie Ke is also likely to win the championship. Gu Zihao's victory also shows that the professional top chess players' understanding of Go and Shen Zhenzhen is far from being comparable to ordinary Go enthusiasts.
Interestingly, before the final, both Koo Zihao and Li Xuanhao chose Xie Ke as their training opponents, and this month Li Xuanhao will play the three-way final of the 14th Chunlan Cup with South Korea's Bian Xiangyi Jiudan.
Sheko's popularity is not surprising. If there is any chess player who has studied Shen Zhenzhen the most deeply and attentively, it is definitely Xie Ke. From the end of 2020 to prepare for the Ying's Cup final with Shin Zhenzhen, it has been dragged on until 2023, and it can be said that Xie Ke has studied Shin Zhenzhen thoroughly.
Lee Chang-ho created an era and suppressed an era. Lee Chang-ho's strength is ahead of its time.