On April 29, a game of chess in Japan's 77th Honinfang Tournament Qualifier attracted much attention, and the two sides were 69-year-old Koichi Kobayashi and Zhang Xu, 41. Both are world champion winners, both former Japanese chess saints, with career champions 60 on one side and 41 on the other, accumulating more than 100 crowns. But these don't add up as attractive as a single introduction: this is a rare battle of weng and son-in-law in the professional Go world.
Before the game, the son-in-law bowed relatively.
In 2003, Zhang Xu, who was already one of Japan's top chess players at the time, married Izumi Kobayashi, who was four years older than him. Kobayashi Izumi is the daughter of kobayashi Koichi, a generation of grandmasters, while Zhang Xu is under Lin Haifeng and is the disciple of Wu Qingyuan, the "uncrowned chess saint", and Kobayashi Koichi is the son-in-law of Mugu Shi, who is full of peach and plum. The combination of this pair of male and female professional masters is the remnant of Wu Qingyuan and Mugushi, the two great heroes of the times, and it is enough to become a good story for liufang hundreds of generations.
After marriage, Izumi Kobayashi concentrated on her husband and godson, and even the status of the first Japanese woman was not regrettable. In 2020, the love crystallization of Zhang Xu and Quanmei - the eldest daughter Zhang Xincheng entered the professional door, and Mugu Shi's Go bloodline was passed down to the fourth generation, which made people admire the strength of perseverance.
In 2012, Koichi Kobayashi (fourth from right) held a grand celebration party when he was 60 years old, and four professional chess players from the family of Zhang Xu (first from left), Izumi Kobayashi (fourth from left) and Zhang Xincheng (second from left) left a rare group photo.
With the renewal of the Japanese chess world, Kobayashi Koichi and Zhang Xu, who once stood alone in the world, are no longer the characters on the peak, but they still insist on chess and compete. In the 77th Battle of Honinbo, Kobayashi Koichi started from the lowest-level preliminary C, winning consecutive victories over Kobayashi Kyaw's sister Chitoshi Kobayashi, Hiroki Fujii, Tomoho Mimura, and female chess player Chiei. Zhang Xu went directly to the pre-selection A, and after defeating Zhang Fengyi, he met with Kobayashi Guangyi.
Weng's son-in-law has not fought many times in history, and half of them are before Zhang Xu and Kobayashi Quanmei married. After marriage, Kobayashi Koichi won slightly more, the most recent being the 21st Ahan Kiriyama Cup Quarterfinals in Japan in 2014, and Kobayashi Mitsuichi, who was in a trough at the time, won the sunset record of "Sixty-two Year Old Final Four".
Kobayashi Hikari held his arms in contemplation, and Zhang Xu sat cross-legged, both of which were the classic matchmaking postures of the two chess players.
After seven years, the relatives will meet again. In the few minutes waiting for the game to start, Kobayashi Koichi also took the initiative to chat with Zhang Xu about a certain Go change, without any big battle imminent, and the air was solemn and tense. Guessing before the game, Kobayashi Guang grabbed 26 white seeds one by one, Zhang Xu guessed the wrong guess, and the father-in-law held the black first.
Kobayashi Hikaru's third hand of black chess directly points into three-three, and the characteristics of the AI era can no longer be obvious. It is worth noting that after the two sides exchange chess boxes, the chess clock is still in Kobayashi's right hand, which shows that there are no strict rules on the placement of chess clocks in the Japanese Go community (under the Chinese Go rules, the chess clock must be placed on the right hand side of the white bearer).
Although both sides showed the AI moves at the beginning, they quickly entered the rhythm of mutual stereotyping and surrounding the air. After the popularity of AI, the audience's eyes were wide open, and there may be insufficient interest in this lack of combat, but this is the pattern that the two top players were best at in their heyday.
Kobayashi Koichi's habit of asking the recorder for paper chess scores during matches has not changed since he was old.
It may be that they know each other too well, the chess game has maintained a delicate balance, and the winning rate given by AI has not been opened for a long time. Relatively speaking, it should be the situation that Kobayashi Koichi, who was known as the "first in the world" forty years ago, preferred. Nearly seventy years old, he can fight with his juniors to this extent, and Kobayashi's skills are indeed superb.
During the lunch break, Yoshio Ishida, who was competing at the next table, also came over to pick up the record paper and watch it carefully.
The victory and defeat came after 160 hands, and in the official battle that could not be wrong one step, Zhang Xushi exhibited a beautiful hand tendon but revealed a thin taste, and Kobayashi Koichi, who maintained a rock-solid style, finally waited for the dawn of victory. However, in the exquisite closing sequence above, Black 175 and 177 made mistakes inadvertently in succession, and were propped up to the fullest by the white chess, and the balance of victory and defeat was tilted because of this very fine sand, and the black chess piece had no chance to win after that.
The number of Japanese rules, after the two sides of the dead son backfilled, the white chess on the board surrounded 50 mesh, black chess surrounded 55 mesh. Because the black has to be pasted back to 6 and a half eyes, so the white 1 eye is half victorious.
After the review, Zhang Xu bowed deeply to Kobayashi.
Kobayashi Koichi's disciple Kono Rin also came to watch the review.
On April 29, in addition to Kobayashi Koichi and Zhang Xu, four active professional chess players of the Kobayashi Zhang family were playing. Her husband won her father-in-law at the 77th Battle of Honinbo, wife Izumi Kobayashi defeated the man Kudan Onda Indrahiko in the newly started Battle of the 70th Throne, and daughter Zhang Xincheng lost to Suzuki Izodan in the 47th Battle of the Kiyoshi.
The depth of the Go family's love affair, what else can compare!