Beijing, CHINA - The Chinese strength in draughts has been a surprise to many of the draughts participants at the 1st WMSG in Beijing. But not to everyone. When speaking to ten-times world champion Alexei Chizhov, he is not amazed at all.
Within a one years time the Chinese were able to learn the art of playing draughts at a very acceptable level. Of course that is the result of the way draughts sports is being implemented due to the Chinese mind setting regarding sports. Much knowledge comes from the ideas and experiences of Casper van der Tak, a Dutch businessman who lives in China. He was the first person to teach this board game and was a big help to the Chinese draughts organization. Their path of discovery led them to Ufa, a Russian city well known amongst draughts players. The goal of their visit was to learn how to organize a draughts tournament. When in Russia, Chizhov was contacted and invited to come to China, and so he did.
Booming
On May 18th Chizhov, one of the candidates favoured to win the WMSG draughts competition, came to China for a 10 day stay. It was a period of some sessions with simultaneous play, analyzing games and maybe even more important, he trained the Chinese trainers. A little while after that draughts schools with professional trainers were established. This way, the host country of the 1st WMSG could independently educate the talented players. Besides being talented, the by now 200 players in China possess two other important qualities; mind sports experience and enthusiasm. The Chinese potential is well recognized by Chizhov. Draughts is a booming sport in this Asian country. When the Chinese were able to train 200 young people play draughts this well in only one year, what will happen in a longer period of time? At this rate will China be competing for the highest ranks in 2015?
WMSG participants
Back to the present, the WMSG, held in Beijing. Chizhov came to China on the 14th of September to finish a training period for the qualified participants of the WMSG. The full training period lasted two months. The days were filled with two training sessions of three hours each. When adding up the draughts homework and the online playing, it becomes clear that the draughts capacities did not come out of the blue, but were the result of hard work.
As young as they are, the Chinese participants of the WMSG international draughts competition have all played another mind sport at high levels; this includes go, xiangqi and chess. One of them, Ce Zheng, is a professional 3rd dan go player.
The youngest player in the men’s tournament is the ten year old Quinrang Zeng. All eyes were focussed on him in the 3rd round when he forced Lithuanian master Kudriavcev to a draw. When bringing this fact to the attention of Chizhov, he simply says: ‘he is just one of a group of kids his age, who all play equally well.’
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