Zheng Yanlong（郑彦隆）won the Hong Kong Xiangqi Individual First Division Championship!
On 26 March 2023, the Hong Kong Open Xiangqi Individual Championship, hosted by the Hong Kong Xiangqi Federation and funded by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, came to a successful conclusion. The competition was resumed in March after a three-year gap due to the pandemic.
Games were conducted for four week-ends interval, arranged into four divisions: A, B, C and Women, with a total of 137 participants. After the month-long tournament, which was intense and bitterly fought, the newcomer Zheng Yanlong defeated veteran champion Huang Xueqian（黄学谦）and became Hong Kong's Champion for the first time.
The division A tournament used the "8+1" format, which was an eight-round Swiss affair, the top two players going into qualifying final for 1st and 2nd places.
Zheng Yanlong playing Red, made the first move, opening with the "Angel's Guidance", and Huang Xueqian opted for the counter-attack system. It was a Screen Knights, Double-Headed Snake（屏风马两头蛇）versus Delayed Central Cannon（后补中炮）battle. Huang Xueqian tried to break through in the central file, but Zheng Yanlong successfully neutralized it. The two sides were evenly matched in the middle game, but on move 30th, Huang Xueqian made a weak Guard's move, allowing Zheng capturing his Cannon! The game then took a sharp turn. At the 57th move, Zheng won the Hong Kong Championship for the first time, and also obtained the title of Xiangqi Master of Hong Kong.
Ms Huang Jiabao（黄嘉宝）, General Secretary of the Hong Kong Xiangqi Federation, presented the award to Zheng Yanlong, the new Champion.
The division B as always, was the group with the most players, the top eight players in this division are to be promoted to division A for next year's competition. In the end, Wang Zhiwei（王智韦）and Wu Nuoxing（吴诺行）both got 7 wins and 1 draw, however, Wang Zhiwei won the Championship due to a slightly better tie-break. It is remarkable that Wu Nuoxing is promoted to the first division at the tender age of 14, tying for the record of the youngest promotion player in Hong Kong.
International Xiangqi Master Li Jinghua（李镜华) presented the award to Wang Zhiwei, winner of division B.
In order to further promote the development of the Hong Kong Xiangqi Competition, division C was newly added this year so that more newcomers can participate in the tournament.
At just 11 years old, Cai Shihong（蔡时泓）won the Championship in division C, and Hong Kong Xiangqi Master Huang Xueqian presented him with the winner's prize.
Ms Liang Weishan（梁玮姗）became the youngest player in history to win the Women division Championship.
In the competition, the 15-year-old Liang was not afraid of facing a group of senior players, she did not lose a single game in the 10-rounds of the double round-robin, dominating the Women division with relative ease, while Chen Yanping（陈艳萍）, even as she is visually impaired, won the runner-up in the competition.
2023 Hong Kong Open Xiangqi Individual Championship Results (1st to 4th places):
Men's division A: Zheng Yanlong, Huang Xueqian, Chen Zhenjie, Liang Damin
Men's division B: Wang Zhiwei, Wu Nuoxing, Huang Zhengwen, Yang Ziyan
Men's division C: Cai Shihong, Shen Jiaxi, Ma Weiliang, Shan Weihao
Women's division: Liang Weishan, Chen Yanping, Kuang Ziqiao, Wu Ziying
2023全港公開象棋個人锦标賽成績（第一至第四名）：
男子甲组：鄭彥隆、黃學謙、陳振杰、梁達民
男子乙組：王智韋、吳諾行、黃正文、楊梓延
男子丙組：蔡時泓、沈家熙、馬維亮、單偉豪
女 子 組 ：梁瑋珊、陳艷萍、鄺子翹、吳紫熒
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Source: World Xiangqi Federation
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