Chinese chess - Brief recollections of Xiangqi World Champs

Author

Brief recollections of Xiangqi World Champs

Alain Dekker

2005-08-11, 8:32 pm

My name is Alain Dekker. I played recently in Paris in the Xiangqi world
championships as part of the UK team (as a South African resident in the
UK). I just wanted to give a few recollections. I hope that more will
follow:

Firstly, the experience was wonderful for me. I've only known the rules for
a little more than a year, but I really love this game. Chess players will
find that playing Xiangqi is actually beneficial for their chess and vice
versa.

The Chinagora hotel was very pleasant to stay at, though it was a little far
from all the action of central Paris. This was probably a good thing
overall, since we were there to play Xiangqi after all!

The playing venue was very good, and the boards were absolutely fanstatic to
play on. Beautifully weighted pieces and very clear characters. A pleasure
to play each game. I'm sure the manufacturers will sell many boards on the
back of this tournament. I was seriously tempted, but as I already have 2
boards I decided against it in the end.

It was super to see the top players from Taiwan, China and Vietnam battling
it out in sometimes baffling endgames on the top boards. The top three
players impressed me greatly. I was particularly impressed with the man from
Vietnam, Nguyen Vu Quan, who ended up coming 3rd. Lu Qin also showed his
strength by slowly clawing his way back into top position after a loss to
Lei Kamfun from Macau (a superb display from the man who came 2nd and
defeated, I believe, the 1st, 4th and 5th players in the process!).

On the negative side I have to say that I was sick of Chinese food by the
end of the week! I started sampling some French food by the Thursday or
Friday and this hugely improved my morale :o) If you try to eat Kosher, you
have about 0.1% chance with Chinese-style cooking!

Also, the WXF and organising committee made a bizzarre choice of time
control which caused at least 7 disputes that I personally witnessed
including one of my games where my opponent lost on time. It took over 20
minutes patient explanation from the chief arbiter for him to finally
concede. For those who weren't there, the basics were as follows:
1) The digital clocks had 4 characters xx:xx which were started at 03:01
(they should have started at 3:00 in hindsight);
2) You had until 02:01[:00] to make 25 moves and 01:31[:00] to make 50
moves, but as you could not see the seconds, you frequently had to make
several moves "blind". By this, I mean you couldn't be sure if you had 59
seconds or 1 second left before the minute digit changed;
3) If your clock showed 2:00 and you had not *completed* (made move and
pressed clock) 25 moves, you lost.

Now this was clear to me and most players, but by no means everyone was
comfortable with this, including several Chinese players. Its just not
normal - in Western chess you can see the seconds before these rapid time
controls are up, and also you'd naturally expect the clock to go to 1:59
before losing on time and not 2:00. Anyway, the organising committee have
had several complaints on this matter and this will hopefully improve for
next time.

I'd say that the clocks were the organisational low point.

My last complaint is that in the playing venue, the noise level was too high
with frequent interruptions from talking players, cell phones and,
bizarrely, announcements (!!) in Chinese (!!!). I think this is more natural
in Chinese culture, but is certainly not something a Western chess player
will be used to. I think this can be improved by enforcing a no-cell phone
rule and setting aside an analysis room so palyers can discuss their game
without disturbing players who have yet to finish.

In general, a great experience. I recommend more Western players take up
this wonderful game. To my mind, its not a "superior" game to chess, but the
wierd material balances and the much more complex endgame (the opening is
quite a bit simpler in Xiangqi than chess - much less memorisation of 25
move Najdorf lines!) make every phase of the game interesting and enjoyable.
In my experience, playing Xiangqi improves your chess skill, and vice-versa.

Also, with the excellent prize funds currently on offer for non-Chinese
players and the relatively low numbers, you can enjoy quite a bit of success
that may have eluded you at chess up to this point. I personally had a
string of good results towards the end and made 5.5/11. This was at least 2
points better than I expected to do!

Onward to Macau 2007, and hopefully some tournaments in between! :o)

Regards,
Alain Dekker (UK, South Africa)

E.Nigma

2005-08-12, 3:31 am

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In article <42fbe043$1_2@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com>
"Alain Dekker" <abdekker@NOSPAM.fsmail.net> wrote:

(SNIP SNIP)
|
| In general, a great experience. I recommend more Western players take up
| this wonderful game. To my mind, its not a "superior" game to chess, but the
| wierd material balances and the much more complex endgame (the opening is
| quite a bit simpler in Xiangqi than chess - much less memorisation of 25
| move Najdorf lines!) make every phase of the game interesting and enjoyable.
| In my experience, playing Xiangqi improves your chess skill, and vice-versa.
|
| Also, with the excellent prize funds currently on offer for non-Chinese
| players and the relatively low numbers, you can enjoy quite a bit of success
| that may have eluded you at chess up to this point. I personally had a
| string of good results towards the end and made 5.5/11. This was at least 2
| points better than I expected to do!
|
| Onward to Macau 2007, and hopefully some tournaments in between! :o)
|
| Regards,
| Alain Dekker (UK, South Africa)

Excellent followup to your wonderful time Alain. I too was impressed
by the Xiangqi Sets, and I have the address of the folks that make
them. I'm not sure if they'll sell to me but I'm certainly going to
give it a try.

Your "firstly" didn't have a "secondly", but I was taken by you as a
wordsmith.

Well done.

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HeroJang

2005-08-12, 8:31 pm

you are very good player, i wish u will get luck more and more.

youhao

2005-08-12, 8:31 pm

Many congratulations, Alain, and onward to Macao 2007, why not !

Regards