The Gap That Wasn't There
The first move with the black stone in Kim In-ha's hand landed on the hoshi point.
Kang Seong-jung responded on the diagonal opposite hoshi point as if he had been waiting for it.
'He'll put it on the small knight.'
Mumyeong valued the balance of early solidity and influence.
The Go was played for sure gains in the local areas rather than the center.
As expected.
Kang Seong-jung swallowed his smile and responded with the small knight.
'Let's follow my flow.'
He continued his prepared sequence without disruption.
The black's three-three invasion.
Blocking on the left side and taking the sente.
Observing the response on the black's small knight with a diagonal attachment.
Reducing the liberties and preemptively blocking the fight.
This was the flow he had intended.
'The center can be left open as much as possible.'
In the AI era, the value of thickness and influence had been reevaluated.
But only top players could properly understand and utilize it.
The center could become territory or not.
It could turn into an illusion at any time.
Kang Seong-jung gradually dismantled his formation centered on solidity.
Slowly, and viciously.
Focusing on minimizing the room for battle and avoiding fights.
Although the flow was a bit off, he didn't mind.
The board was expanding.
Black's influence was accumulating.
But so was In-ha's solidity. Moreover, he had the komi.
However.
The difference in solidity compared to what he had prepared was not as large as expected.
'……It's fine. It's okay to be a bit behind in the early opening.'
He steadied his mind.
Although In-ha's opening was more aggressive than expected, it was still within his calculated range.
'Endure. If we enter the middle game, mistakes will definitely come out.'
Kang Seong-jung continued his moves with near-certain confidence.
Narrow fighting on the side.
Light reduction.
The pattern created by the diagonal attachment on the side.
He placed stones only on positions that were extremely slanted towards solidity.
Endure.
Wait.
If you endure, a gap will definitely appear.
Between the AI's flow and human intuition.
The moment of transition.
He waited for that moment with all his might.
'There will always be an opportunity.'
A near-certain belief.
However.
A stone.
Another stone.
Something was off.
In-ha's moves were all too smooth.
No unnaturally jumping moves.
Some moves were slow, some were urgent.
But they were placed exactly where needed, as if existing within a completed picture.
'Why…… Why?'
Kang Seong-jung did not understand the current situation.
No mistakes.
No disruption.
Not even a hint of hesitation.
His eyes shook violently.
The plan in his head and the actual development began to diverge.
'This, this can't be. There must be a weakness in the gap……'
At that moment, the black stone pierced between the center and the left upper corner.
It looked gentle and quiet on the surface.
That move on the vaguely open boundary line.
'I can't not take it.'
He bit his lip.
He couldn't take it now.
But when he precisely pressed the timing, he couldn't refuse to respond.
No, not just this move.
The following black stones slowly erased his picture.
'Ah.'
Kang Seong-jung picked up a stone, froze for several seconds.
Then quietly repeated placing the stone down.
Only then did he realize.
That the 'transition moment' he had been waiting for had already passed.
If this moment could be called the boundary line, the early to middle game had ended here.
'From the beginning…… there was no weakness like that?'
The solidity he had endured and accumulated.
The flow he had avoided and endured.
The gap he had waited for.
All of it became meaningless.
Now, there was no reason to wait, no justification to endure.
From now on, it was pursuit Go.
He, who held the white stones, not black.
He had already been behind for quite some time.
* * *
'Strange.'
It had been like this from the moment he placed the first move.
His eyes were clearly alive.
The tension in his fingertips.
The rhythm of picking up stones.
The will contained in each move.
It was clear he was playing to win.
But.
The Go wasn't like that.
An inexplicable sense of unease kept coming.
His eyes seemed to be aiming for something.
But the white's moves were heavily suppressed.
'Why is he so obsessed with solidity?'
Retreating.
Backing off.
Shrinking.
Abandoning influence and thickness, only chasing solidity.
Moves full of caution to not lose, not moves to win.
'There must be a plan……'
There was no lack of momentum.
But it wasn't disrupted Go.
But the momentum and the content of the moves were completely disconnected.
It was enough to make me, the opponent, more confused.
'Don't mind it. I just need to play my Go.'
His human intuition and sensory moves came alive.
Instead of relying on AI's moves, he started leading the center of the board with moves that mixed data and intuition.
Slow but heavy, densely.
He pushed his breath into the tightly woven structure.
Kang Seong-jung's response was still cautious.
Continuing to retreat and avoid.
That was rather a chance.
'Predictable moves are hard to hide.'
He pierced the weakness he was forcing to hide.
He converted the stones placed in advance to target it into an attack.
"……"
Kang Seong-jung picked up the stone, repeated placing it down several times.
The embarrassment was fully transmitted.
He kept his lips tightly shut, but his eyes were speaking.
At the end of the long thinking, he played a single move.
'This is a desperate move.'
Once, twice……
Continuous misses.
An awkward sudden transition trying to forcibly cut the flow.
It felt empty, like losing his own Go.
As these moves accumulated one by one, the situation began to tilt rapidly toward him.
I unfolded the prepared moves in order.
The thickness that white had given up to take solidity.
The big dragon of white that had been desperately trying to survive from that influence lost its way.
The big dragon of white that went all out to live by giving two eyes.
However, the price of opening the center for me was heavy.
Like sinking in water, the big dragon had no place to breathe.
A heavy attack.
A decisive cut.
He pressed the head firmly so the big dragon couldn't come up to the surface.
Eventually, the strength left the big dragon of white.
Drowned.
It died without a place to breathe.
Kang Seong-jung's shoulders visibly slumped.
The sound of catching his breath was heard.
The head that had barely been holding on fell heavily.
"……I lost."
A small voice.
But its echo descended over the entire Go board.
A few tens of seconds later, President Lee Gwang-seop gestured quietly.
"The broadcast will be paused for a moment, so you two can tidy up the stones and come out."
Kang Seong-jung started tidying the stones without a word.
His hand movements were somehow hurried.
As if he wanted to erase the scene of defeat itself quickly.
After finishing the stone arrangement, he bowed his head and stood up.
"It doesn't seem like Seong-jung's Go today. It was a pity."
The words were sincere.
From around the middle game, he had vaguely noticed.
He hadn't played his own Go today.
Conscious of me, buried in pursuit, he had lost his own rhythm and center.
Of course, he didn't intend to belittle his preparation and effort.
It was just the method that was wrong.
A moment.
Kang Seong-jung turned his head slightly.
Was it a direct hit?
More than confusion, there was a look of shame.
It seemed he realized that his Go today had ultimately been the one he himself had broken.
"Thank you for the game."
With a short greeting, he left the studio with quick steps as if fleeing.
Watching his back, an unfamiliar feeling brushed his chest.
'……Someone who is being pursued.'
It was the first time someone had become his target.
He had analyzed them thoroughly, tried to dismantle them, and clung to them tenaciously.
Perhaps it would continue, but he didn't dislike it.
It was evidence that he was advancing forward.
He wanted to stand in that position for as long as possible.
* * *
At that time.
On the 4th floor of the Baduk Association, in another waiting room.
Amateur ranking 1st place.
Park Jun-soo was watching the Challenger Deciding Match between Kim In-ha and Kang Seong-jung through the monitor.
"Hah, to self-destruct without even playing a proper Go."
It was a short remark, but it contained cold analysis and disappointment.
The opponent who Kang Seong-jung knew better than anyone.
He knew his style and tendencies.
Looking at the board now, he roughly guessed what he was aiming for.
Perhaps he had analyzed the game between Mumyeong and Lu Yuan 6-dan and planned to bet on the early to middle game gap.
"Not enough preparation to face him."
Kim In-ha wasn't just a good amateur player.
Unparalleled completion and immersion,
And overwhelming depth in reading.
More than enough to be a pro.
'Dong-gyu hyung said he's a monster.'
Kim Dong-gyu 7-dan, who lost to Kim In-ha in the first round of the integrated preliminaries, and Park Jun-soo were in the same study group.
While reviewing that game together, Park Jun-soo was literally shocked.
The opening of Kim In-ha, which hadn't stood out even when they faced each other in the Presidential Cup, had changed.
He had understood the AI's moves and gained a high-completed sense of structure.
The same for early to middle game.
When he checked the game between Mumyeong Kim In-ha and Lu Yuan 6-dan again, the early to middle game was a mess.
The impression was strong that he was wandering between AI moves and his own intuition.
But now it was different.
He couldn't even feel the gap in that part.
Not perfect, but he definitely had strength above top rankers.
"……Don't be mistaken. It's not just you who is growing."
Eliminated in the 64th round of the Presidential Cup.
Park Jun-soo took that defeat as an opportunity to review his own Go.
Approach to AI moves.
Self-reflection on his own style.
The meaning and utilization of thickness.
After that day, Park Jun-soo's Go changed unrecognizably.
Pros say that skill doesn't grow steadily but explodes like accumulated things at some moment.
Park Jun-soo agreed with that.
His current state was exactly that.
'It's a pity I lost in the fourth round of the integrated preliminaries……'
It was because the opponent wasn't good.
He had just not received a seed, and even if classified as a championship candidate, it was not strange for a top player.
He had faced Zhou Rui 9-dan.
If he had won then, half of the spotlight Kim In-ha was receiving would have been his.
'That's irrelevant.'
What mattered was that he had lost a half-point Go against Zhou Rui 9-dan.
Now, at last, he felt his Go opening its eyes.
He didn't have to obsess over dan points, and he gained confidence to go to the pro stage in promotion matches.
In that sense, this match was special.
A rematch against a rival he had once lost to.
An ideal opportunity to test his current strength.
And 30 million won in prize money.
This time, he would definitely show it.
For the day he would face again on the pro stage someday.
To neatly organize the vaguely remaining hierarchy.
At the current point, who is the amateur strongest.
"I will stomp on it properly."
* * *
I also tidied the stones and walked out of the studio.
President Lee Gwang-seop approached with a warm smile.
"A wonderful game. The reading that tightens the big dragon's breathing is truly art."
"Thank you."
"Go up to the waiting room and rest for about 20 minutes, then come down again. I look forward to a good final game as well."
I lightly greeted and moved my feet with the branch manager.
Although the camera followed me closely, I pretended not to notice.
I entered the room on the 4th floor with a sign saying 'Challenger Waiting Room'.
The Go board, chair, and review monitor.
It was just a normal game room atmosphere.
The branch manager took out drinks, coffee, bananas, and simple snacks from an envelope on the table.
"You worked hard, Kim staff. Take a breather."
"Thank you."
I drank a sip of the cool drink that the branch manager personally poured.
Then, suddenly.
'This, is it okay to be filmed?'
This relationship between the branch manager and me.
I was now somewhat used to it.
But because of the camera following over my shoulder, this scene felt strangely unfamiliar.
'If someone sees it…… I seem more like the superior.'
The way I call the branch manager like a manager.
A picture that others would easily misunderstand.
But the branch manager didn't seem to care at all.
Rather, he peeled the banana peel by hand as if it was natural.
"By the way, Kim staff."
"Yes."
"Earlier, Seong-jung looked red-faced when he left. I guess he was really upset about the big dragon being captured."
I kept silent for a moment.
To the branch manager's eyes, the scene of capturing the big dragon and winning seemed coldly reflected.
The subtle unease within that flow, he hadn't seen.
I slowly exhaled and said.
"He seemed to have prepared hard…… but it seemed too much."
"Is that so? I don't know. There must have been something visible to Kim staff."
I nodded shortly at the branch manager's words.
When Kang Seong-jung lost his Go, it was already equivalent to being defeated.
"However, it was too powerless for that…… No, was Kim staff too ruthless?"
"Not trying your best is rather disrespectful. I just played with my whole heart."
This is an official game.
It's not guided Go.
120 moves, big dragon annihilation, resignation……
In the end, all of that combined into a place where only win or loss remains.
You have to play with full power.
The branch manager chewed my words and nodded.
"That's right. That's correct. But sometimes, you know."
He glanced at my side profile.
"Kim staff, you only say right things, so do you know even crueler things?"
"Such…… I do?"
I smiled awkwardly and avoided the gaze.
I don't know if it was cruel.
But I didn't give any leeway.
That was enough.
Because I hadn't played a Go that was embarrassing to myself.