China Weiqi League

The China Weiqi League is a championship of utmost importance in China. Every big city or province is represented by a team of professional players, and compete in order to win a major national title.

Two teams will be in Bordeaux during the first weekend of the congress, and will play their match on Monday 25^th, in the morning. The afternoon will be dedicated to game commentaries.

• Chinese League - description
• Officials and Accompanists
• Shanghai Team
• Xi'an Team

How does it work?

This championship used to be held once a year in a single event. However, in 1999 it was decided to adopt a new formula, in order to make this tournament more popular. It is now being played over the year, from May to December.

There are three leagues, namely A, B and C. The A and B leagues are made of 12 teams which include four players, one substitute, and a manager. In the A-league, every pair of teams will play against each other twice, according to a round-robin system. There are 22 rounds in total.

Each match is played with two different time-settings. Three games are played with a slow time-setting of 2h40 +5*60 seconds of byo-yomi, and a 4^th game is played with a fast time-setting of 30 seconds for the first move, followed by a byo-yomi of 10 * 60 seconds. This particular feature makes the tournament more dynamic, and the TV broadcasts more attractive to the public.

The purpose of the B-league is to qualify for the A-league. Every year a seven-round tournament is organized. The best two teams earn the right to play in the A-league the following year, while the last two teams of the A-league drop to the B-league. The 12 teams competing for the A-league this year are Chongqing, Guizhou, Shandong, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangxi, Dalian, Anhui, Liaoning, Xi’an, Zhongpingmei and Aimu.

The C-league is made of 18 teams, including this year a Taiwanese team. Amateurs players sometimes take part in a few teams.

A large-scale event

The China Weiqi League is one of the most important go events in the country, and thus attracts a lot of sponsors. Most teams have their own supports, and the league itself is sponsored by a big company every year. The sponsor this year is the mobile company Gionee (http://www.gionee.com/eng/aboutus.asp). The championship is also supported by the China Qiyian, a national sports department managing mind games such as bridge, chess, and of course the game of go.

The league to come to the EGC in Bordeaux

We are very happy to welcome Shanghai and Xi'an teams for the 55^th EGC. They will play one of their rounds on the campus. Shanghai team is one of the most famous ones, and has already won the competition in 2004, 2005 and 2007. Chang Hao 9P is part of this team, and has won many famous titles such as the Ing cup or the Samsung cup. Also members of this team are Hu Yaoyu (8P) and Qiu Jun (8P, won several times the national go individual championship and several other competitions). Xi'an will be represented by a young team of promising players trained by Wang Runan 8P, who is also very involved in national and international go associations.

The official website : http://games.sports.cn/zhuanti/weijia/index.html (available in chinese only).

Officials and accompanists

Shangai Team

This team won the Chinese League on 3 occasions. Its member were at that time:

• 2004: Chang Hao, Hu Yaoyu, Liu Shizhen, Qiu Jun, Sun Mengxia
• 2005: Chang Hao, Hu Yaoyu, Qiu Jun, Liu Shizhen, Zhu Yuanhao
• 2007: Chang Hao, Hu Yaoyu, Qiu Jun, Liu Shizhen, Zhu Yuanhao

Trainer & Accompanist: Liu Shizhen 5P

Members:

Xi'an Team

Trainer: Wang Runan 8P

Accompanist: Li Xing 6P

Members: