I'm Really a Superstar

During the live broadcast.

Central TV Sports Channel's host, Yu Yingyi, announced loudly, "The match has begun. Professor Zhang is going to play first as the black stones while Peter takes White. Now then, let me introduce our guest commentator for today, the currently highest ranked female Go player in the world, Chen Ying 7-dan. Let's welcome her."

Chen Ying said, "Hello, everyone."

Yu Yingyi said, "For today's game, do you, Teacher Chen, have any predictions on how it'll turn out?"

Chen Ying said, "It's hard to predict, but this is a do-or-die battle for Professor Zhang."

Yu Yingyi looked at the screen curiously. "We can see that even though Professor Zhang is playing as Black, he has not made his first move yet. No one knows what he's thinking about right now. Teacher Chen, does Professor Zhang have a strategy in place for today's game?"

Chen Ying said, "I don't know what Professor Zhang's strategy is, but according to our earlier analysis, he should mainly be adopting a careful and steady approach. After all, his opponent is a machine and its computational power is too strong. It doesn't allow us any room for mistakes. If we want to win the game, we'll first have to make sure that every one of our moves can stand up to scrutiny. Otherwise…"

At this moment, Zhang Ye took control of the mouse and clicked on the Go board on the computer screen with a smile.

Yu Yingyi said, "Professor Zhang has made his move!"

When Chen Ying saw it, she exclaimed, "What?!"

The Americans were stunned!

Those in the spectator room were also stunned!

Wu Changhe nearly cursed out loud. "What the heck is he doing!"

"This, this…" Li Yi 9-dan gasped!

Hu Liang was close to tears. "What kind of a blunder is that?"

Xu Han panicked. "Isn't Professor Zhang messing around this way! What in the world is this?"

A female pro player shrieked, "Is Professor Zhang not fully awake yet? How could he make a move like that?"

Even Xiang Rong 9-dan was stunned!

The home viewers who knew how to play Go were all scared out of their wits!

In the focus of the live broadcast camera, Yu Yingyi exclaimed in surprise, "Teacher Chen, w-why haven't I seen an opening like this before? What kind of playstyle is this? What kind of strategy does he have?"

Chen Ying nearly fell out of her chair. She was thinking to herself how it was not only Yu Yingyi who hadn't seen this before, even she herself had never fucking come across something like it either. "For this opening, we'll have to watch and see how it goes from here. From the looks of it, Professor Zhang did not make a mistake with that move. But as for what kind of opening 1 this is, I do not know. In the entire development of Go up until now, there shouldn't be anything left to talk about when it comes to openings. The conventional ways of playing and board shapes have been generalized. For anything that falls outside of those, we just call them unconventional openings. But I can confirm that there isn't this type of opening in the consolidated list of unconventional openings either. Professor Zhang's first move was played slightly above the board side star point at 11-5. Th-This is just too unexpected."

Yu Yingyi said, "Look, Peter is also clearly wondering about that move. It still hasn't responded with a move yet."

Zhang Ye's first move had shocked everyone!

However, he didn't seem like he was aware. Instead, he crossed his legs and wiggled his toes carefreely. He was even tapping his finger rhythmically without a care in the world against the mouse in his hand. It didn't feel like this was a critical match that would decide the life and death of the Go world. It was as though he was playing the game from home or something.

The Americans started laughing mockingly after the sense of shock faded!

What a layman!

He is totally such a layman!

Do you even know how to play Go? Making a move in that position for your opening?

What kind of playstyle is this? Are you trying out a suicidal opening? Ha!

Soon, Peter replied with a move!

Yu Yingyi quickly said, "Peter has made its move!"

Chen Ying 7-dan explained, "Peter has made a move at the bottom of the board. This is a very good response. If Professor Zhang does not take defensive action, he'll immediately fall very far behind right from the start of the game. I still don't understand why his first move was placed there. But what I know for sure is that Black's second move definitely won't repeat the same—"

Before she finished.

Zhang Ye lightly clicked the mouse and placed another stone!

Chen Ying was dumbstruck. "This...a 6-4 point? What kind of playstyle is this?"

Some of the Go players on the Internet were going crazy!

"Holy shit!"

"Is this even a coherent opening?"

"This has got to be a fucking suicidal opening!"

"What is Professor Zhang thinking?"

"He's making blunders right at the start?"

"This opening of his is just too goddamn unconventional! It's the fucking most unconventional opening of unconventional openings there are! What on earth is he trying to do?"

"I'm gonna cry!"

"This is just too unconventional!"

"He's going to lose this game as well! If Peter grabs hold of the position, it'll be over!"

If even the amateur Go players could see it, then the pro players understood even better!

Wu Changhe was ready to curse. "Did this kid forget to take his medicine?"

Li Qinqin said, "Who knows if Little Zhang might have a purpose?"

Liu Hong 9-dan said, "What purpose could he possibly have? He's walking on a knife's edge! Besides, there has never been such a way of playing ever before in the many centuries of Go!"

Hu Liang paled. "Peter has played its stone!"

"It's over!"

"It really played at that position as expected!"

"Professor Zhang has been forced into passive play!"

But when they looked at Zhang Ye, they noticed that he did not have an expression that looked like he had made the wrong moves. Instead, he was grinning. Almost without needing to think, he played his third stone.

The Americans were smirking and sneering, but those smirks quickly froze!

Wait!

This…

What is going on here?

Chen Ying didn't know how to react either. "Professor Zhang has played another 6-4 point move? This way of playing has really never been seen before. If that's what it is, then…Eh? Wait a second, why does this opening look a little familiar?" She suddenly froze, then cried out, "Isn't this the ' three star points in a row 2 ' opening? But he pushed the three star points up and in by two coordinate points?" She suddenly got excited. "Professor Zhang is not playing randomly! He is definitely not playing randomly for this game's opening! This…this…Peter has to stop him! If Professor Zhang can join up the 'three star points in a row,' the upper side of the board will be his to take!"

Xiang Rong's expression suddenly changed. He said, "He did that on purpose for his opening!"

Dan Donghe pointed at the screen. "Look at that, Little Zhang is…"

After just a few moves, everyone suddenly realized that this opening was much too fearsome. It could even be described as devious!

Peter also realized this and immediately went back to stop it!

But it was already too late!

Zhang Ye placed down his stone for Black's fourth move.

In order to wreck its opponent's plan, Peter's fourth move had to be placed at the 5-4 point in the upper right corner!

Meanwhile, Zhang Ye thought for a moment, then quickly placed his fifth move at the 6-4 point in the lower right corner of the board!

Peter's fifth move came in with a piercing attack!

Zhang Ye smiled and turned it aside!

Peter immediately ran out of steam!

The audience was shell-shocked!

Yu Yingyi was stunned. "This play!"

No one had expected it to be this way!

The present array of stones on the Go board dumbfounded them all!

Chen Ying became so excited that she could feel her blood coursing through her veins. "This is brilliant! Brilliant!" She explained to the viewers, "After White's knight's move on move four, if Black had continued to occupy and join up with the upper right corner's 6-4 point to form a fighting shape in response, White would've just had to make a large knight's move to cut him off for its fifth move, and the black stones in that area would have been snubbed. Instead, Professor Zhang turned his attention to taking the 6-4 point at the lower right side. He seems to be intending to construct another 'three stars in a row' at the bottom of the board. After White's fifth move attack, Black did not immediately take a position on the side of the board because he wanted to leave the opponent with a dilemma: If Peter chose to play on the sides of the board, which are not efficient for scoring, in order to break Professor Zhang's setup, then so be it. Professor Zhang could always continue to build up in the upper right corner and take all three corners under his control! If Peter is not willing to take this loss, then Professor Zhang would be able to form the shape that he desires! If Professor Zhang really manages to connect the desired shape that he wants, and which we still have no idea of what exactly it is, even if we haven't come to that part of the game yet, I would still imagine it to be absolutely terrifying!"

It went quiet!

The entire Qiyuan was silent!

Chen Ying stared fixedly at the screen and said, "How will Peter choose to proceed? What will Peter do now?"

One minute.

Three minutes.

Five minutes passed.

Peter made a compromise!

It could only compromise as it did not dare to take the risk!

Sunken expressions were on the faces of the Americans!

Many of the professional Go players in the spectator room cheered at this moment. It was as though they had finally released all of the pent-up stress from these recent days!

Xiang Rong 9-dan cheered, "Great play!"

Wu Changhe couldn't conceal his excitement either. "Good! Alright! Great!"

"This is so awesome!"

"Professor Zhang, that was a good one!"

"I've got the goosebumps!"

"My heavens!"

"Professor Zhang is so awesome!"

Chen Ying continued saying loudly inside the commentary booth, "Peter is now at a disadvantage! It has been taken advantage of by Professor Zhang greatly in less than a dozen moves at the start of the game! This is a really unconventional opening that has never been seen before! What an unconventional opening! What kind of playstyle is this? What on earth is it?"

…

Zhang Ye's mother said dumbfounded, "Little Ye is in the lead?"

His father shouted, "That computer program has been tricked by our son!"

Chen Guang said, "What the!"

Yao Jiancai laughed heartily, "Hahahaha! You're really something, kid!"

The same boisterous reactions were seen online!

"He's in the lead!"

"Teacher Zhang has gained the initiative!"

"Fuck, Peter has been tricked in less than a dozen moves!"

"What kind of playstyle is that?"

"Teacher Zhang really is a fucking goddamn genius!"

"Don't get happy too soon! The game isn't over yet!"

"Right! Let's continue to watch!"

"Don't fucking tell me that Teacher Zhang might really be able to win against that AI?"

…

A playstyle that no one had ever seen before!

An opening that no one had ever witnessed before!

There were also many others who were wondering what in the world they had seen!

Even Xiang Rong, Wu Changhe, Li Yi, and the others were confused by it!

If Zhang Ye could hear the commentary outside the game room, and if he could see all the heated discussions by the netizens, he would surely answer them with one line: This is what you call the " Apollo Opening 3 "! It was a famous and old unconventional opening from his previous world! Naturally, the people of this world would never have come across it before!

https://senseis.xmp.net/?StrangeOpenings

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuseki

2. Sanrensei (A variation of https://tinyurl.com/y99qlaow)

3. https://senseis.xmp.net/?GanSiyang