On the other side.
After Yu Shao returned home and finished his homework, the game he had played against Zheng Qin at the Go club that afternoon rose involuntarily in his mind again.
That game actually came close to being a loss. Although it was mainly because I underestimated my opponent, I really do have a major weakness when it comes to attacking and killing.
In his previous life, Yu Shao had already understood his own weakness very clearly: he was not good at attacking and killing. His style was meticulous. He would often first make himself impossible to defeat, then wait for his opponent to become vulnerable.
He was skilled at Pressuring with Momentum, often using invasions, reductions, and transitions to surround territory without a sound, slowly strangling his opponent. Fierce, wide-open attacks were indeed one of his biggest shortcomings.
Actually, there was a very counterintuitive phenomenon in Go: in most games, the one who attacked frequently was often the weaker player.
That was because attacking was not the best strategy in Go. It exposed weaknesses in one's own shape. Matches between two experts were often so subtle that they became terrifying the more one thought about them, with a process that wound through twists and turns.
Experts calculated far into the future. They had many objectives in mind and were better at strategizing from behind the scenes and planning the entire board. The saying "One who does not plan for ten thousand generations is unfit to plan for a single moment" meant exactly this.
But because they planned the entire board, their moves often appeared to lack aggression. They did not fight for the present; they fought for eternity, seeking to coordinate the whole board.
Once a player of this kind launched an attack, either the situation had already turned unfavorable and they had fallen behind, or they had calculated everything completely and were about to slaughter the dragon.
Of course, there was another type of player: the pure attacker.
Their control over the whole board might not match that of players like Yu Shao, but they had an extraordinarily keen sense for attacking and killing. Their understanding of dead stones, thickness, and weakness was far above that of ordinary players.
They could accurately locate the key points on the board and unleash a fierce offensive like a raging storm, killing their opponents until they could barely defend themselves. In this way, they seized control of the game and dictated its rhythm.
However, players of this type were extremely rare among high-ranked professionals. Moreover, when they faced players with a meticulous style like Yu Shao's, their records were at most evenly matched.
After all, even if one's attacking ability was truly outstanding, when facing an expert of equal strength, the fiercer one attacked, the more weaknesses one exposed, and the easier it became to counterattack.
Yu Shao felt that his attacking ability was lacking precisely in comparison with players of this type. Otherwise, if today's game had really turned into a contest of internal strength, Zheng Qin would never even have had a chance to fight back.
As for players who possessed both Zhou De's meticulous calculations and the most ferocious attacking ability, Yu Shao knew only one: Go AI.
When looking at Go AI game records, one could often see that while taking the whole board into account, Go AI could also fight until heaven and earth grew dim.
Especially in games between two Go AIs, they often slaughtered each other until the sun and moon lost their light, leaving human players drenched in sweat.
At this thought, Yu Shao suddenly remembered the strange reactions of everyone at the Go club after he played 3-3 Point.
"Could it be that this world really hasn't developed Go AI yet?"
Yu Shao felt somewhat perplexed.
The technological level of this world was almost identical to that of the world he had transmigrated from. It had computers, smartphones, and VR glasses, so Yu Shao had never considered that this world might not have Go AI.
Yu Shao thought for a moment, then entered his study, turned on the computer, and began searching online for all kinds of information about Go AI.
However, after browsing several webpages in succession, Yu Shao did not see any news about Go AI.
The only thing even slightly related to Go AI was a post on a Go forum asking whether a computer playing Go could defeat human players.
The replies were almost unanimously negative.
I Win by Half a Stone: Brother, how could that be possible? Other games might be doable, but Go is absolutely impossible!
Memoirs of My Deceased Wife: Let's analyze this rationally. Do you know how many possible variations there are in Go? 10 to the 170th power! The number of variations is even greater than the total number of atoms in the known universe combined! Even if your computer calculated until it smoked, it still couldn't figure them all out.
The Strategist Enters the Game Himself: Go is far too complicated. With other board games, computers can easily calculate every possible variation, but Go is different. When you think about it, people who can play Go well are truly incredible.
"There really isn't one?"
Yu Shao was dumbfounded. The comments on the forum were all too familiar to him. Before Go AI emerged in his previous life, no one generally believed that Go AI could defeat human players. Their reasons were exactly the same as those given on this forum.
And that was indeed the truth. Even the most advanced Go AI of his previous life was still far from exhausting every possible variation in Go.
However, Go AI did not actually need to exhaust every possibility in Go. It did not need to be perfect; it only needed to be better. That alone was enough to sweep across the entire Go world and make every human player prostrate themselves before it.
Unconvinced, Yu Shao began searching online for various Go joseki.
The final result was—
None of the joseki or playing methods from the AI era had appeared yet. Many joseki that had been eliminated during the AI era were still among the mainstream joseki in this world!
This was a Go world that had yet to experience the torment of Go AI!
Yu Shao stared blankly at the computer.
He had been able to break into the world's top five in a Go world that already had Go AI. In this world without Go AI, wouldn't he be able to crush everyone with ease?
However, contrary to Yu Shao's expectations, he was not that excited.
It was true that he could rely on the playing methods of the AI era in his mind, combined with his own Go strength, to crush this era with ease. But what meaning would that truly have?
Go was only interesting when there were evenly matched opponents. After all, one person alone could never play a famous game.
"No, that's not it..."
An idea suddenly surfaced in Yu Shao's mind!
Attacking and killing had always been his weakness. The main reason was that he actually did not dare to attack and kill. In his previous life, he had carried the expectations of too many people. He did not dare to lose, and he could not afford to lose.
But in this life, could he work hard to become an attacking player and make up for his weakness?
"If I do that, could my Go strength reach an entirely new height?"
In his previous life, he had also tried to overcome his weakness and climb to a higher level. But whenever he played in major tournaments, he still inevitably chose the style of play he was best at.
But perhaps this reincarnation was an opportunity to start over?
Become an attacking player?
Yu Shao stood dazed for a long while, then suddenly blinked.
"Wait, what was I thinking just now?"
"I've already played Go for my entire previous life. Now that I've been reborn, of course I should enjoy my youth first!"
"I must have caught Zhou De's condition. My brain's getting a little muddled."
Yu Shao shook his head, stretched, then stood up and shut down the computer. He was getting ready to take a shower and go to bed.
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(P.S. Please help me with follows and stats, boohoo.)
Please follow! Please follow! Please follow!
Brothers with stats, please send some over. I'll kneel and thank you!
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