I Really Didn’t Mean to Play Go!
Chapter 195: Rebirth Through Struggle

"If she performs the same way in an official match as she does in online games... it might be a problem."

Yu Shao silently thought to himself.

After playing several online games with Wu Zhixuan, he could clearly feel the difference between her and Xu Zijin.

Wu Zhixuan was undoubtedly talented, but she lacked the killer instinct necessary to dominate in competitive play.

Her moves were fluid and creative, but they lacked sharpness.

She wasn’t aggressive enough.

She didn’t observe deeply enough, and when she fell behind, she wasn’t tenacious enough.

Even when she had an advantage, she couldn’t put enough pressure on her opponent to force mistakes.

If he were playing against Xu Zijin, he wouldn’t have been able to relax like this.

Wu Zhixuan completely missed it.

But Xu Zijin?

She probably would have caught it.

Of course, this was just an online game, and neither of them was playing with full focus.

Maybe Wu Zhixuan would adjust her mindset after losing to Xu Zi.

Maybe, on the real battlefield, she would become a different player.

As the game continued, Wu Zhixuan’s huge blunder earlier meant that the match ended quickly.

After a brief review, Wu Zhixuan let out a dramatic sigh.

"Alright, next time then! I’m starving—I’m off to eat. Bye-bye!"

"Bye."

Yu Shao responded casually, then took off his headphones and placed them on his desk.

His mind, however, lingered on the thought of the global Go scene.

"Not only are Korea and Japan filled with rising stars, but even the West has strong players. The Go world in this era is far from boring."

A slight anticipation flickered in his eyes.

He was now walking a completely different path than in his past life.

And if he wanted to go further than ever before, he had to continuously clash with the strongest—to sharpen himself in the fires of battle.

Luckily, in this world, the Go culture was incredibly rich.

International tournaments were highly prestigious, and top players from all over the world were constantly pushing the boundaries of the game.

There wasn’t just one or two strong opponents.

There were dozens, maybe even hundreds of players obsessed with reaching the peak of Go.

And although this world didn’t have AI Go, Yu Shao himself was beginning to shift the course of history.

Maybe, one day—

When he finally patched up his weaknesses, he could reach heights even his past self had never touched.

After all, in this life—

He was only seventeen.

Yu Shao thought for a moment, then picked up his phone.

He opened WeChat and sent a message to Xu Zijin.

"I heard you lost your match yesterday?"

Since they were classmates, both professional players, and had known each other for so long, it only felt natural to ask.

After sending the message, Yu Shao put his phone down and was about to play a game when his phone suddenly vibrated.

"Already?"

He was a little surprised.

Picking up his phone, he saw that Xu Zijin had actually replied immediately.

Xu Zijin: "Mm."

A short and simple response.

Yu Shao smirked and typed:

"Why the slow reply?"

He saw "Typing..." appear on the screen.

After a brief delay, another message arrived.

Xu Zijin: "I don’t have many WeChat friends."

Yu Shao blinked.

For a second, he didn’t understand.

What did having few WeChat friends have to do with replying late?

But after thinking for a moment, he got it.

Because she didn’t have many contacts, she immediately checked messages when they came in.

If she had tons of messages, she wouldn’t always respond right away—especially if she was busy.

So, in other words—

She had seen his message immediately but was just too busy to respond at the time.

"Why does this feel like a reading comprehension question?"

Yu Shao chuckled to himself, but he still wanted to confirm.

"Were you busy just now?"

Xu Zijin: "Mm. I was reviewing yesterday’s match."

She then sent a file.

Followed by another message—

Xu Zijin: "Next time, I’ll win."

Yu Shao opened the file.

It was a game record—the match she had lost to Ni Sheng’ang.

It was clear—

Xu Zijin had memorized the entire game after losing.

She had likely replayed it over and over to figure out where she went wrong.

—

Meanwhile, in Jiangling City

Inside a luxury apartment, Xu Zijin put down her phone and returned her focus to the Go board in front of her.

Sitting beside her was Chang Yan, 9-dan, who watched with an amused expression.

"Who was that?"

Chang Yan asked, raising an eyebrow.

"When we were reviewing earlier, you brushed off every message with a simple ‘Busy right now,’ but this time, you actually replied?"

Xu Zijin’s expression remained calm.

She gently tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Yu Shao."

Chang Yan’s eyes lit up slightly.

"Oh?"

Xu Zijin picked up a stone from the bowl and placed it on the board.

"He asked if I lost yesterday."

"Yu Shao, huh..."

At the mention of his name, Chang Yan, 9-dan, couldn't help but think about the Demon Blade Opening.

Shaking her head, she sighed.

"Such a shame... No one really plays this large-scale variation anymore. I haven’t run into a single person using the Demon Blade in ages."

Then, her expression suddenly shifted into a mischievous smirk.

"I’d love to see the look on those guys’ faces when they finally realize the Demon Blade doesn’t actually work!"

Xu Zijin calmly responded.

"I played it once against Chu Xiongdian, 3-dan."

"If I hadn’t pulled out the Demon Blade in that game, I might not have won. But Chu Xiongdian didn’t seem to notice anything off—he just blamed himself for playing poorly later on."

"Of course," Chang Yan said matter-of-factly.

"He’s not strong enough to notice."

"The higher the skill level, the faster they’ll see the problem. Against high-dan players, this kind of play might work once—but that’s it."

"If you played it in a high-level match, with so many people watching, it’d become a hot topic the next day. By the third day, people would have figured out that it doesn’t hold up. And by the fourth day, it’d shake the entire Go world."

Chang Yan let out a deep sigh.

"That kid, Yu Shao, is a real anomaly. I have no idea what’s going on in his head. What made him think of charging forward in a way that, at first glance, looks like a total loss?"

Xu Zijin fell silent.

Chang Yan noticed and smiled slightly.

"Don’t worry," she said.

"With your talent, you can definitely catch up. We female players aren’t necessarily any weaker than the men."

Xu Zijin said nothing, just shook her head, then turned back to the board.

After a moment of thought, she moved a few stones and spoke.

"Earlier, you said cutting here would be better for Black?"

"Yes, this was the key moment. Because you didn’t respond properly, you ended up on the back foot."

Chang Yan nodded, moving a few stones as she continued.

"Here, instead of blocking, Black should press. White extends, and instead of cutting, Black can actually clamp."

Xu Zijin’s eyes lit up.

"A clamp?"

She quickly saw the brilliance in the move.

"I see… It looks like a reckless push forward, but it actually forces a positional exchange?"

"Exactly."

Chang Yan studied her carefully.

She had long known that Xu Zijin had exceptional intuition, but even she was surprised by how quickly Xu Zijin grasped the deeper meaning of the move.

"When you're under pressure, you don’t always have to fight head-on. If the timing is right, you can trade one group for another. If you had done this in the actual game, you would’ve taken the advantage immediately."

Chang Yan added thoughtfully—

"Most players below 7-dan wouldn’t have seen this move at all."

Xu Zijin reached out to explore the follow-up moves—

But before she could place a stone, her phone vibrated.

Her hand froze midair.

Seeing this, Chang Yan chuckled knowingly.

"Go ahead and reply."

Xu Zijin hesitated briefly before putting the stone down and picking up her phone.

A new message had arrived.

She stared at it for a second, her expression subtly changing.

"Hmm?"

Chang Yan narrowed her eyes slightly, sensing something.

"What is it? Who messaged you?"

"Yu Shao."

Xu Zijin looked between her phone and the board, furrowing her brows slightly.

"He said... if I had played a large knight’s move at move 127, it would have posed a major challenge for White."

Chang Yan’s eyebrows lifted.

"Move 127?"

She glanced at the board.

A moment later, her eyes sharpened.

They had just been discussing move 93—the moment where Xu Zijin had missed the best exchange.

But move 127…

That was when Xu Zijin had gone all-in, forcing a life-and-death battle.

Chang Yan wasn’t surprised that Yu Shao had missed move 93—after all, only a handful of top pros would have caught it.

But move 127?

Her gaze locked onto the exact spot where the move had been played.

And then—

She froze.

"He’s saying... I should have ignored the fight and played a large knight’s move?"

That made no sense.

In that position, abandoning the fight would have meant certain death for Black’s entire group in the lower-left.

If White attacked immediately, that entire section of Black’s stones would be wiped out.

Was Yu Shao suggesting a sacrifice?

No—if he were sacrificing, he should have at least gained something in return.

But in this situation, there was nothing to gain.

A simple loss, with no compensation?

"Is Yu Shao’s life-and-death reading... that bad?"

Xu Zijin also seemed uncertain, her brows furrowing as she studied the board.

Then—

"Wait!"

Chang Yan’s expression suddenly shifted.

She stared at the board for a few more seconds.

And then—

Her eyes widened in shock.

"No way…"

A realization hit her like a thunderclap.

"He... he found the hidden leverage!"

Inside her mind, an imaginary board unfolded, replaying all possible sequences.

One by one, she visualized the potential attacks, the possible counters, the shifts in territory—

And then she saw it.

A completely unorthodox, illogical, borderline insane sequence—

But one that worked.

"If Black ignores the immediate danger and plays elsewhere..."

"Then even if this entire group dies—"

"It won’t truly be dead."

Chang Yan took a deep breath and turned to Xu Zijin.

Xu Zijin was still frowning, struggling to see what Yu Shao had spotted.

Chang Yan picked up a stone and began placing the sequence on the board.

As Xu Zijin watched—

Her expression tensed, then shifted to astonishment.

Finally, after a long silence—

She murmured—

"No matter whether these stones live or die..."

"The overall position remains even."

She exhaled slowly.

"This group... is neither a sacrifice nor a loss."

Chang Yan nodded.

"It’s a brilliant move."

But internally, she was completely shaken.

"Did Yu Shao just miss the earlier, more standard move?"

"Or did he see both—but chose this path because he believed this was the real turning point?"

"My original move would have led to a safe exchange—"

"But his suggestion? It’s an absolute gamble. A move that can only be described as—"

"Rebirth through struggle."