Special correspondent Coca reported that on April 17, the third game of the 38th "Tongli Cup" Tianyuan Battle Finals was held in Tianyuan Garden, Tongli Ancient Town, and the challenger Lian Xiao Jiuduan Zhibai 168 hands defeated the reigning Tianyuan Yuting Jiuduan, won two games in a row, and successfully challenged 2-1, and won the Tianyuan position again after 7 years. He also became the former Tianyuan after Ma Xiaochun's nine-section "restoration" of Tianyuan in 1994, and the restoration after 30 years.
In this year's Tian Yuan Battle Competition, Lian Xiao defeated Chen Zhengxun 8th Duan, Wang Xinghao 9th Duan, Xue Guanhua 6th Duan, Fan Yin 8th Duan, and Li Weiqing 9th Duan, and entered the Tian Yuan Challenger Decisive Battle for the third time after 2017 and 2023, and won the right to challenge again after 7 years. Seven years ago, Lian Xiao defeated the defending champion Chen Yaoye Jiudan 2-0 in the decisive battle of Tianyuan, ending the latter's 8 consecutive championships, and becoming the only domestic chess player who has won the three major titles of chess saint, celebrity and Tianyuan.
The two and Tian Yuan are both fated to fight, Qi Yuting lost his first challenge to Tian Yuan in 2015, and in 2022 he made a comeback, 2 to 1 to defeat the incumbent Tian Yuan Gu Zihao Jiuduan, and in 2023, he defeated the challenge of Dang Yifei Jiuduan in two straight games and achieved two consecutive championships. After Lian Xiao won the title of Tianyuan in 2017, he successively repelled the challenges of Xie Ke's ninth dan and Fan Yunruo's eighth dan to achieve three consecutive championships. In 2020, he lost to the challenger Yang Dingxin Jiudan in the decisive battle, and after four years, he returned to the final of the Tianyuan War and participated in the decisive battle of the Tianyuan War for the fifth time.
In the 38 years of the Tian Yuan War, there are only a handful of people who have returned to the finals after losing the Tian Yuan position. In 1994, Ma Xiaochun's nine-section was successfully restored in the Tianyuan War, and in the next 30 years, the Tianyuan War never reproduced the scene of the former champion restoring to the top. In this Tianyuan War, Lian Xiao rewrote this historical record.
The decisive battle of this year's Tianyuan War started on April 14 in Tongli Ancient Town, and in the first game, Yu Yuting won the black middle game, only one step away from winning the 3th consecutive championship. After a day of rest, in the second game on April 16, Lian Xiao, who was in charge of black, pulled back a city and tied the score at 1-1.
In the third decisive game, the two re-guessed the first, Qi Yuting guessed that the black chess went first, in the lower right corner of an ancient formula handover, the two simply set the shape, although the white chess won the first move, but the black chess slightly benefited, and the winning rate was ahead. Then white had just set up a formation on the upper side, and Qi Yuting immediately entered it and actively sought to fight.
After a lot of twists and turns, the two sides made a switch between the field and the outside situation, and the ground gain of black was solid and the lead was extended. Turning to the middle of the game, white relied on the external momentum of the lower board to launch an offensive against black solitary chess, which was originally a stalemate and stalemate, but Qi Yuting stubbornly continued to return to the remnants, intending to retain the offensive against the peripheral white chess, but this intention was too far away, and the situation of the chess game was reversed.
Lian Xiao, who had the advantage in his hand, became more and more courageous, and by taking advantage of the momentum of the black block on the left, the shape of the black piece in the middle belly was shattered, and the defense line was on the verge of collapse. Qi Yuting resisted with two ways of robbery, intending to forcibly kill the upper left white corner, but his own large external qi was limited, and he was slaughtered instead of slaying the dragon, and to 168 hands, Qi Yuting threw himself into defeat.
Lian Xiao Jiudan won two games in a row and successfully reversed, restoring the top position after 7 years, becoming the first restorer in 30 years, winning the championship bonus of 400,000 yuan, and Qi Yuting won the runner-up and 200,000 yuan bonus.