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Chapter 193
Of course, this was just the tip of the iceberg. As more and more international friends came to compete, the program's influence on the masses grew even deeper.
Besides the honor of representing the country in battle, the program 'Brain Battle' successfully led the public to pursue knowledge during this summer.
Among them, Ji Ruochu was undoubtedly the best promoter. Apart from being a familiar face on the screen since childhood, more importantly, she never hesitated to give her fans "the whip of love."
[Did you finish today's homework?]
[Did you preview tomorrow's lessons?]
[It doesn't matter about grades, but you can't stop acquiring knowledge.]
Adding to that, during the entire international competition, her occasional battles were clean and astonishing to everyone.
Facing the provocative challenger from Country I, she calmly completed the decisive move in the shortest time, truly letting people know the meaning of "Hua Country speed."
Against formidable opponents, she could turn the tide when her team was far behind, achieving a stunning reversal that let the audiences, both on-site and in front of screens, experience an "adrenaline rush."
It could be said that she was the anchor of her team. As long as she was there, no matter what difficulties arose, a solution could be found.
For example, at this moment, it was the last match of the international competition - the chess showdown.
The first round was a pure memory contest.
Quan Tianheng faced a competitor from Country A. It's worth mentioning that both were memory masters, and recently, this player from Country A had just broken Quan Tianheng's record.
After an intense battle, Quan Tianheng was unfortunately one point behind.
The second round was a spatial visualization contest.
Representing their side was Chai Jiazi, the second-best in spatial imagination after Ji Ruochu.
Unlike Ji Ruochu's high-profile style, Chai Jiazi took a more low-key approach. During the domestic preliminary rounds, many tried to dethrone her from the frontline position.
Who would have thought that this girl was just incredibly lucky? Whenever the questions were drawn, no matter if it was her or her opponent's turn, the questions always seemed to involve spatial imagination.
As a result, no need to elaborate, no matter how the other positions changed, she and Ji Ruochu, the fan favorite duo, remained firmly in place, unshakable.
It wasn't until an evaluation from Mr. Jin that people finally understood.
"For Chai Jiazi, as long as it's a three-dimensional object and she takes a look, her brain instantly rotates and analyzes it multiple times. To put it bluntly, her brain is like a CT scanner with its own scanning and parsing system."
It was precisely for this reason that in the final round, with Ji Ruochu as the last ace up their sleeve, this spatial visualization task inevitably fell to Chai Jiazi.
And she did not disappoint, winning this round. At this point, the two sides were tied at one round each.
Thus, the decisive round once again rested on Ji Ruochu.
[...This scene looks familiar.]
[Ahhh, so tense, so tense! Although Ji Ruochu has performed amazingly so far, she's competed in several rounds already.]
[Come on, if she wins this time, I'll never criticize her again.]
[The critic above has such a small mindset, unlike me. I've already stopped criticizing her, win or lose.]
[????]
...
Amid the rapidly scrolling comments from netizens, the countdown for the match began on site.
Unlike the previous two rounds, the third round could be considered a mixed bag. First, in terms of memory, the contestants only had two minutes to observe the chessboard.
After two minutes, the contestants had to be blindfolded and turn away from the screen before starting the match.
Not only that, every two minutes, all the chess pieces on the board would simultaneously shift one square to the right, with the piece on the far right being moved to the far left.
The board would shift like this every two minutes, repeating until a winner emerged.
In other words, contestants not only had to remember the changing layout of their own pieces but also keep track of their opponent's pieces, using this information to strategize.
Adding to the complexity, with the board shifting every two minutes, contestants had to constantly re-analyze the changing board positions in their minds.
All while engaging in a battle of wits against their opponent to determine the winner.
The sheer difficulty of these rules was enough to make one gasp, let alone the contestants themselves.
The atmosphere on site became increasingly tense.
"Second row, column C, left diagonal three forward."
"Row seven, column D, one forward."
...
"All pieces on board, commencing shift..."
"Resume battle."
...
"Third row, column E, right diagonal one forward."
"Sixth row..."
...
"No decisive outcome, commencing shift..."
"Resume battle."
...
As time passed, the situation on the board grew increasingly heated.
Although neither side had lost any crucial pieces yet, with the increasing number of shifts and piece movements, the overall computational complexity became daunting.
Regarding this, the observing Mr. Jin and the international judges unanimously agreed:
"Whoever makes the first mistake loses."
Similar to Chinese chess, each piece in international chess has different movement rules. If there's a memory lapse and a bishop (meant to move diagonally) is mistaken for a pawn, then... it's a complete loss.
Moreover, international chess has the added rule of "pawn promotion."
However, both contestants were clearly highly skilled, and it wasn't until the tenth minute that a crucial piece was captured.
"White bishop captured."
As soon as this announcement rang out, the venue erupted into a commotion. The reason was simple - the white pieces belonged to Ji Ruochu.
At this point, a slight smile finally appeared on the competitor from Country A's face, although beads of cold sweat had formed on his forehead.
In contrast, Ji Ruochu remained calm to an astonishing degree, as if the captured crucial piece wasn't hers at all.
"No decisive outcome, battle resumes."
...
"Commencing shift."
...
"White knight captured."
...
"White rook captured."
...
"White bishop captured."
...
As one announcement after another rang out, everyone's hearts were gripped with tension.
Clearly, even though neither contestant had made a mistake, Ji Ruochu had begun losing pieces one by one, putting her in a highly disadvantageous position.
By the twentieth minute of the match, the white pieces were reduced to just two lonely rooks, two bishops, two knights, and a few pawns.
Although the white king and queen were well-protected, after so many piece losses, there was a growing sense that the tide had turned against the white pieces.
Even those not too familiar with international chess could see this. While the audience felt regretful about this, they also expressed understanding. After all, after so many rounds of intense competition, coupled with the extreme difficulty of this final round, losing was still -
"Black pawn captured."
Suddenly, an announcement rang out, instantly snapping the audience back to attention.
What piece?
Black?