The MitD outwitting Xykon.

[Reverent-One]

There are two lines in a strip from 450 pages back that might support this conclusion, as opposed to dozens of strips demonstrating absolute and utter cluelessness. Speaking personally, I'd prefer a little more buildup than that.

I didn't just link to the Go strip.

Actually, go is a very simple game, at least to play badly. The rules are about as complex as drafts or checkers, significantly easier than chess or its relatives.

The board position we're shown looks like a game between players who are quite weak though not utterly clueless. That probably describes Monster-san. I'm guessing it might take an amateur under instruction a few dozen games to play as well as Monster-san did. That's a huge guess.

O-Chul might be stronger - probably is - but if so he's treating the game purely as a teaching exercise and not trying to win. Which would be normal in that situation.

The emphasis O-chul places on how quickly the MitD is learning implies it's surprising how well he's taking to it, and when the MitD later shows more intelligence than is expected, it becomes obvious foreshadowing.