The tragedy of Chinese Go was well known before 2005, and Chang Hao, for example, reached the world series final six times without success. If the six final defeats are all because he is not as skilled as a person, it is understandable, the key is that some chess games have given him N chances, but unfortunately he has not been able to grasp it. In addition to technical factors, what is more important is psychological reasons. When a person embarks on the field with the pressure of the whole country, it is indeed rare that he can do it without deformation. Obviously, Chang Hao failed to do this, which was the main reason for his cups.
Chang Hao's journey to the first six World Series finals was definitely a period of unforgettable years, and in hindsight, 2-3 of them were his perfect opportunities to reach the top, and perhaps he lacked a little luck and finally regrettably missed them all. The 6th Samsung Cup final I introduce to you today, the fight between Chang Hao and Cao Xuanxuan, is such a classic case.
In the semi-finals before that, Chang Hao brilliantly beat the world's first person Lee Chang-ho 2:1, which was the first time that Shi Fo had lost to a player outside the Korean Chess Academy in a chess match, and it also had milestone significance for Chang Hao, who had repeatedly lost battles. Because of this, before the final, everyone generally believed that Chang Hao's victory over the old Cao Xuanxuan should be ten to nine.
Chang Hao and Lee Chang-ho
Another factor affecting the outcome of the final was that the match originally scheduled for South Korea was changed to Shanghai, because the organizers saw Chang Hao enter the final stage and temporarily changed the competition city in order to expand the influence of the company and the event. Logically speaking, arranging the game to Chang Hao's birthplace of Shanghai makes him have the convenience of home, which is beneficial to him, but this puts Chang Hao in a situation where he can only win and cannot lose, and invisibly carries greater baggage. In the end, Cao Xuanxuan defeated the young Chang Hao at the age of 49 and won the eight crowns, which was Lao Cao's penultimate title. Next, let's see how Chang Hao completed Cao Xuanxuan step by step.
The first game of the sanban chess final was played on December 11, 2001, and Chang Hao took the lead with a slight advantage of half a goal. Chang Hao said after the game: I guess Cao Xuanxuan will choose the familiar layout to go down, when he hangs in the lower left corner, I targeted a "two high clamp" change. I applied this change twice in this year's "Lebaishi Cup" match with Hu Yaoyu, and I have studied this chess shape, and I am naturally confident and handy, and I already have an advantage in the prologue. By the time of the mid-set, he had gone a little too far, so that he gave the other side the opportunity to turn the situation around. Fortunately, after entering the second reading, Cao Xuanxuan did not have time to calculate carefully and missed the opportunity.
Just as the champion was waving at him more and more, the second game began on the 12th, and Chang Hao would win the first World Championship gold cup of his Go career. The situation of this game was repeated several times, and the young Chang Hao missed the opportunity to win in the final stage, and was pulled back by Lao Cao with the smallest advantage of half a purpose.
Chang Hao lost to Cho Hyun Hyun in the second set of the Samsung Cup final
Regarding the ups and downs of the second game, let's look at the report on the official website of the Korean Chess Academy: Cho Hyun Hyun soon gained a lot of ground on the right side of the game and started to lead early, but Chang Hao's mid-game battle strength was very large, and he pulled the game back to a subtle situation by attacking the white chess dragon. After the balance of victory and defeat at the last minute fell several times between the two players, Cho Hyun Hyun was lucky enough to win with half an eye, winning a chance for himself to win a showdown.
The WEGO Go website believes in the report that although Cao Xuanxuan has achieved some advantages in the layout stage, chang hao is actually leading when the chess game is carried out to the final stage, if it is not Chang Hao's omission in the reading of seconds, the reversal of the "God of War" is simply impossible. When Chang Hao was about to win the first world championship of his career, Cao Xuanxuan used his unique "stirring skills" in 150 hands under unfavorable circumstances, and Chang Hao did not guard against this, and he was always calm at the last moment, and finally lost with half a eye. Looking forward to the showdown on the 14th, the article believes that although Chang Hao lost the game, he had already withstood the test of the three chess battles when he defeated Lee Chang-ho in the semi-finals 2:1, and believed that the final decisive battle would be a big bloody battle, and Cao Xuanxuan would not take any advantage.
Chang Hao lost to Cho Hyun Hyun in the third set of the Samsung Cup final
However, the course of the third set is completely different from the analysis of the Korean reporter, and Chang Hao, who missed the second set, was almost beaten all the way in this set, and did not play his own level at all. The advantages of the layout and the black chess pieces after the middle game are great and almost unshakable. At the stage of the official, Chang Hao was very tenacious and chased back the situation a lot. In the final stage of the small official, Chang Hao Baiqi has a chance to flip the game in one fell swoop, if the 212 hands of the white chess go to the position of 254, it will definitely be overturned, but perhaps due to the reason of falling into the second reading, Chang Hao did not seize this last opportunity, and Cao Xuanxuan's 213 hands immediately made up for the defect, and Chang Hao finally drank with 2 and a half eyes.
For this heart-wrenching defeat, a domestic reporter commented: From the perspective of this game, Chang Hao's psychological quality and experience in the final of the World Series are obviously not as good as Cao Xuanxuan, and Chang Hao's desire to win is a good thing, but too nervous has led to the deformation of the chess type. The process of the first half of the game Chang Hao obviously made a serious mistake, and after the mistake failed to brake in time, the situation in the first half of the game was actually judged, the back is just waiting for Cao Xuanxuan to make a mistake, but Cao Xuanxuan, who has won the World Cup six times, is obviously very experienced, and he will close it when he sees it, and the second half of the set almost does not give Chang Hao the opportunity to turn over. So far, this is chang Hao's fourth defeat in the world series final, losing to Cao Xuanxuan twice and Lee Chang-ho twice, respectively, in the face of the indestructible Cao Lee master and apprentice, Chang Hao seems to be a bit weak. At the end of the article, the reporter issued a soul torture question: Lee Chang-ho's master Cao Xuanxuan still wins the world championship many times, and where is Chang Hao's master?!
Nie Weiping and Chang Hao were apprentices
In an interview with a Chinese reporter after winning the Samsung Cup, Cao Xuanxuan's thinking is still relatively clear. Because the Chinese reporter asked him such a question: You and Lee Chang-ho have always had a high winning rate for Chinese chess players, what is the reason for this? Cao Xuanxuan smiled and said, "Lee Chang-ho is because his strength is very strong, he wins by strength, and people like me who are slightly weaker have to rely on luck."
Summarizing the three games of chess in the Samsung Cup final, Cao Xuanxuan said: When the second game was almost final, he already felt desperate, and even wanted to throw a throw and concede defeat, but in the end Chang Hao gave him a little chance, and he was lucky to win with half an eye. Today is obviously a game that Chang Hao does not play very well, and there is a simple miscalculation. Although he won, but in the final set, there was still a miscalculation, and if it were not for the advantage of the first half of the set, he might have lost this round, so he felt that this time to win the championship, on the whole, was relatively lucky.
There is a saying called: the strong man has eternal luck. For Master and apprentice Cao Li, in addition to good luck, there is also strong strength, a calm mentality, and decades of concentration; on the contrary, for Nie Chang's master and apprentice, when they drink water on their backs, they will stuff their teeth, in addition, what is lacking is a normal heart.
Unlike Chang Hao, who was later crowned triple crown, Nie Weiping was a rare chess player in the Super Bowl of the same era (and one was Masao Kato) who did not have a world championship title, and from this point of view, Chang Hao was lucky, and the title of "Rensheng" was worthy of the name.