TWO PREMIERES AT
HAMBURG:
THE FIRST YOUTH WORLD
CHAMPIONSHIP OF XIANGQI
AND THE FIRST OUTDOOR
SET OF XIANGQI IN INTERNATIONAL DESIGN
By Dr. René Gralla,
Hamburg (Germany)
There has taken place a historic event of Chinese
Chess at Hamburg, Germany - because for the first time in the 2200 years of the
history of Chinese Chess, there has been battled out a Youth
World Championship of Xiangqi,
and that very "
'Caissa Cup' 1st
World Youth Xiangqi Championship"
has been battled out on August 17th and August 18th,
2016, at Hamburg,
Germany.
The event has been
realized after the German journalist and Xiangqi-enthusiast Dr. René
Gralla had presented a corresponding proposal to Mr. Xue Zhong, Deputy
General Secretary of the World Xiangqi Federation (WXF), some years ago.
And now that vision has become true: Mr. Xue Zhong - who actually lives in
Munich and who already organized the Xiangqi World Championship 2015 there
during the late days of August last year - has realized that vision of
Xiangqi-girls and -boys from different countries deciding over the board
who are the brightest of all those hopeful kids from over the
planet.
But why has that
premiere of a World Youth Xiangqi Championship taken place at Hamburg,
Germany, after all? And not in China - as one might have
expected?!
Since China promotes Chinese Chess to be exported
- as being part of Beijing's foreign cultural policy - , therefore the big
port city Hamburg/Germany has been chosen to host the historic event because
Hamburg that the Chinese expatriotes use to
call "Han Bao" is the unofficial capital of the Chinese people in
Germany. And since Germany is an important country in Europe, therefore China
has chosen Hamburg to host that event since Hamburg is the gateway to
Europe.
The 1st World Youth Xiangqi Championship has been
organized at the scenic Chinese Tea House "Yu Garden" at Hamburg. The event
has been part of the official program of the German-Chinese Year of Youth
Exchange 2016. In order to underline the significance of that event, Ms. Chen Zelan, the Senior Vice
President of the World Xiangqi Federation (WXF), and Mr. Wang Xinting, the Mayor
of Xingyang (being is the cultural capital
of Xiangqi), have flown in from China in order attend the
event.
76 rising stars
from four countries - namely China,
Vietnam, Russia, and Germany - have competed in the
event.
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(photo to be inserted here!)
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In the end either
Chinese or Vietnamese players have won the
competitions in all the relevant
age groups - and that was no
surprise, of course! But there have happened
two other surprising
things as having been part of the parallel program of the
event.
First of all,
there has been presented a colourful set of Chinese Chess in fancyful figurine style that has been
produced by the German journalist and lawyer René Gralla
...
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(photo to be inserted here!)
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And
not enough with that: There has been introduced to the public
an
innovative set
of Outdoor-Chinese Chess
that has been created as well
by the German Xiangqi enthusiast Rene
Gralla on the basis of the
design of Outdoor-International
Chess! And
that very set has been exhibited
during the event at Yu Garden too.
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"That very set of Outdoor-Xiangqi in the design of International Chess
underlines the
fact that Chess is just one big
family, be it Chinese Chess or
International Chess!" That has been the statement by the creator Rene
Gralla on the occasion of the 1st
World Youth Xiangqi Championship at
Hamburg.
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The creation of that set has been realized by a way that can be copied by every
enthusiast of Xiangqi .
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Herewith the description of the way that very set of Outdoor-Xiangqi in the design of International Chess
has been created by Rene
Gralla:
- the "board" of Outdoor-Xiangqi will be marked by chalk on the ground, just have a look at the photos;
- one takes five of the
white Pawns and five of
the black Pawns of International
Chess in order to represent the Pawns of Xiangqi;
- the Rooks of International Chess
will represent the Chariots
of Xiangqi;
- the Knights of International
Chess will represent the Horses
of Xiangqi;
- the Bishops of International
Chess will represent the Elephants
of Xiangqi;
- the two Kings of International Chess
will represent the opposing Generals of Xiangqi.
Plus: one
needs one additional White Queen and one additional Black Queen - in order to represent the four Advisors of Xiangqi by
using the two White Queens and the two Black Queens for that very
purpose.
Finally one has to create the Cannon-pieces, and that works as follows: one takes two white
pieces of Outdoor Checkers and two black pieces of Outdoor Checkers, and one fixes white and and black Pawns respectively on top of those white and black pieces of
Checkers. In the end
those combinations
of pieces of Checkers plus Pawns of International Chess look like Cannons
of Xiangqi, just have one more look at the
photos.
And the fun of
playing Xiangqi out there in the sun can get started!
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That innovative set of Outdoor-Xiangqi in the design of
International Chess was a great success at Hamburg too: The kids loved to play with
that!
Therefore the WXF should consider to create sets like that
too ... in order to invite more people to play Xiangqi in the outside. And that
is very important these days because all
too many kids - let them be from
China or from everywhere else - , use turn to International Chess rather than to
Chinese Chess ... because all too many kids think that
International Chess is supposed to be more "modern" than Chinese
Chess!
Therefore that outdoor set of
fusion chess invites all
people - and kids in particular
- to try out Chinese Chess again!
