Chapter 1139: The astonishing variations of the Great Slant Joseki!

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

Ten minutes went by!

But Peter was still not making any moves!

With both parties allocated two hours of game time, Peter only had an hour and forty-five minutes left on its timer. A precious dozen minutes had been wasted on just this one move!

The two referees gave each other baffled looks.

The Americans were unable to sit still any longer. They kept looking in the direction of the machine, afraid that there was some bug with the code that led to Peter freezing up. But when they checked the machine's status lights, they found nothing wrong with it, nor was there an error. This showed that Peter was working normally and that it was just "thinking." Further, it was "deep in the tank."

Why?

What the hell was going on?

Why did it just stop making moves?

No one could understand what Peter's hesitation was!

Perhaps only Zhang Ye knew. This joseki was known as one of the three most complex josekis in his previous world because it was one of the hardest to play. That was because the Great Slant Joseki had too many variations. To say that it was infinite would be an exaggeration, but it was definitely not as easy to resolve as others would think. There were just too many ways to play it. Furthermore, with every new play made, there would be many more choices of play appearing. If one was not careful, the entire game would be lost!

It could be used to kill the opponent!

Or it could kill oneself!

This was what the Great Slant Joseki was, an extremely dangerous joseki to play. Even in Zhang Ye's previous world where most of this joseki's variations were studied in depth, the top players in the Go world would not freely resort to playing it during a critical tournament. If they were careless with just one move in the sequence, they might even end up hurting themselves rather than the opponent. This was not something that hadn't happened before!

And today, Zhang Ye had to take this risk. He had to test out this weakness of Peter's that he found out about yesterday!

Yu Yingyi said in a speechless manner, "Peter seems to have slowed down? Didn't they say that it was given an upgrade? Why does it seem like it was even better before the upgrade happened?"

Chen Ying was not willing to draw a quick conclusion. "Perhaps there's something more to the move?"

"Something more to it?" Yu Yingyi asked.

Chen Ying said, "I don't understand it either, but since Professor Zhang played that move, there should be some kind of deeper meaning to it. Besides, Peter taking so long to process this move and not play should also prove that this move is not that simple." She was a little dismayed and felt that her Go skill was still lacking by too much. It had been like this since yesterday's game. For this battle between these two grandmasters, she could barely understand any of the moves with her skill level.

So she said, "I'm not skilled enough, but it seems like this position is another crucial point. Is there a producer around? Can we check if we can invite Teacher Xiang Rong to join us?"

Soon after, Xiang Rong 9-dan actually came over.

Yu Yingyi said, "Hello, Teacher Xiang."

Xiang Rong nodded in greeting and sat down.

Chen Ying immediately asked, "Master Xiang, I really don't understand this move of Professor Zhang's. Can you please explain it to our viewers?"

Xiang Rong nodded.

Chen Ying sighed.

But Xiang Rong went on to say, "Then let me say this that I actually don't understand this move either."

Chen Ying was floored!

Yu Yingyi fainted!

The home viewers were also floored!

The atmosphere turned really awkward. But then, Peter stirred!

"It's made its move!" Yu Yingyi shouted.

Peter cut across 1 the large knight's move enclosure!

When Zhang Ye saw this, he smiled and responded instantly!

Afterwards, Peter went silent again!

It wasn't until five minutes later that Peter played another move.

But Zhang Ye did not even stop to think and replied with a bump!

Peter pondered and went deep in the tank a third time!

A cut across?

An open battle?

Alright then, I'll play along with you!

Zhang Ye looked utterly relaxed.

By now, if the pro Go players still could not tell what was going on, then they shouldn't be pros!

Xiang Rong was to first to look surprised. "What a large slant that is!"

Chen Ying was also dumbfounded. "How fearsome! This is too fearsome!"

Yu Yingyi could not understand. "Just what is happening?"

Chen Ying was so astonished she was sweating. "I had thought that Peter's cut across move was a very good one at first since it could advance or retreat from there. But from the looks of it, that move has dragged Peter down into the quagmire! Professor Zhang's follow up has forced Peter with no choice but to fight it out! What's more, the variations increase with every move. If Peter responds with a horizontal stretch, Professor Zhang can counter it. It's impossible to make any predictions after that as they are all variables. But if Peter gets into the corner and Professor Zhang chooses to forcefully attack, he would gain the ko threat 2 after another three moves. With so many variables, it's impossible to see who will gain the upper hand. Besides, even if one side gains the initiative, the variables over here will still exist. There will still be a chance for the other to counter that! Th-There is simply a myriad of variations!"

Yu Yingyi said dumbfounded, "Peter made a wrong move?"

Chen Ying said, "It shouldn't have cut across the large knight's move enclosure. If it had played a horizontal stretch—"

"Peter did not play wrong," Xiang Rong interrupted.

"Eh?" Chen Ying looked at him.

Xiang Rong laughed and said, "When the stone that led to Professor Zhang's large knight's move enclosure being formed was played, the setup was complete. I only understood just now why Peter had been thinking for so long. Come and look at this." He grabbed a laptop and replayed the moves on it. "If Peter plays a horizontal stretch here, the outcome will still be the same. Professor Zhang could've played over here and things would still be as dangerous as it is now."

Chen Ying said in surprise, "Then what about a diagonal move?"

Xiang Rong said, "It could do that. But Professor Zhang would follow up, and Peter would play over here with Professor Zhang fighting back in response. If we did an even more detailed analysis of the board state, it would get even more complex! Or an underneath attachment 3 over here would also be a way to cope with that move. If it were played this way, then followed by this move, Professor Zhang would probably end up playing over here before Peter counters it. The variation, in this case, would not be that great anymore and it would also be a simple way of avoiding the joseki. But if the setup gets broken, Peter would probably have to take a two or three point loss and be down in the score. I believe that with Peter's upgraded computational power, it would definitely not choose that outcome. Between an uncertain outcome and a bad outcome, it would definitely not choose the latter!" Taking a pause, he then added, "Perhaps there might also be a better way to avoid this problem? But as the board state is too complex, it would require a long time to analyze it before we can determine how to best play the moves. It would take much effort to work out all the different possible variations. I'm afraid that it would take more than a year to do that!"

A year?

Yu Yingyi was stunned on the spot!

Chen Ying gasped!

Xiang Rong said in admiration, "Professor Zhang is indeed a genius. This is definitely a new type of complex joseki. Every new step in the sequence brings along a frightening amount of variations!"

Chen Ying suddenly asked, "But why does Professor Zhang seem like he does not need to think through his moves? Look, every move in response is played after an instantaneous judgment. He does not hesitate at all!"

Xiang Rong gave a wry smile. "I don't know."

Yes, he really did not know why!

At the other side.

The Qiyuan's people were also astonished!

Hu Liang's mouth was agape as he said, "A new joseki?"

"This is too complex!"

"Damn, I'm going to go crazy watching! Th-This is way too messy!"

"There are too many ways to play this joseki! But most of them would lead to a dead group 4 forming. Once a wrong choice has been made, they will be doomed! How did Professor Zhang come up with this joseki?"

"Holy shit, Professor Zhang has played some miraculous moves again!"

"Why does he not need to think it through?"

"Oh, you're right! How does he do that?"

"With every branch of variations, there ought to be several hundred to thousands of moves possible. Even the goddamn computer has been confused by it! Even an upgraded AI was made to think for a long fucking time! So why does Professor Zhang not even need to think? Moreover, he can just play any move and it leaves Peter with several dozen choices of moves to make?"

"Could he be more computerized than the computer is?"

No one knew how Zhang Ye did it!

Logically, such a fearsome joseki that even managed to confuse Peter should also befuddle Zhang Ye a bit. He should also have a headache over how to play it!

If Peter could talk, he would probably be cursing right now!

Why?

There was no why actually.

If Peter's "brain" contained all the records of this world's Go games?

Then Zhang Ye's brain also contained many of the games from his previous world. No one in this world knew or researched the Great Slant Joseki, one of the three most complex josekis that had been studied extensively in his previous world. Some of the key variations of the joseki were already imprinted into Zhang Ye's mind, so why would he need any time to consider his moves!

You can depend on data?

Hur hur! So can I!

1. 跨断/kuā duàn/tsuke-koshi - Cuts by striking across the knight's move, away from the supporting black stones. | https://senseis.xmp.net/?TsukeKoshi

2. 劫材/Jié Cái/kōdate - Ko threat may refer either to one of the moves in a ko fight, or to a move which will only be valuable if played during a ko fight. | https://senseis.xmp.net/?Ko

3. 托/tuō/shitazuke - https://senseis.xmp.net/?UnderneathAttachment

4. 死棋/Sǐ Qí/shini - https://senseis.xmp.net/?Dead

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