World championship duel for grandmasters
Hong Kong's masters of Chinese chess expect to take one of the top three places at the Fifth World Xiangqi Championships, which opened yesterday at Kowloon Park.
Team member and grandmaster Li Kang-wah anticipated the mainland would win the top prize, because it had two of the best players in Su Yinchuan and Lu Qin, but he said the SAR was fielding a strong four-man team capable of beating others, despite stiff competition from Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Prizes are divided between teams and individuals.
'We have a strong chance of getting second or third place,' he said.
Mr Li was a member of the Hong Kong team which finished in second place at the Asian championships in Jakarta last year, coming in behind the mainland team.
More than 80 top players from 28 countries and regions will compete in the world's most prestigious Chinese chess competition, being held in Hong Kong for the first time.
Organiser and Hong Kong Chinese Chess Association general affairs executive Lo Hung-kui said that the championship was being held in Hong Kong to celebrate the handover and also in an effort to popularise one of the oldest games in the world.
'We want to promote Chinese chess because it has the potential to be as international as Western chess,' he said.
'Everyone can play, not just Chinese.' Chinese chess is believed to have originated 1,000 years ago during the time of the Tang dynasty.
