Chess in China

Chess In China

The People's Republic of China is a major chess power, with achievements such as the 2006 37th Chess Olympiad in Turin where the men's team came second and the women's team third for the best overall result among all participating countries. Chinese progress has been underpinned by large government support and testing competition in numerous tough events. Currently five of the world's top hundred players, as well as the reigning Women's World Chess Champion Hou Yifan are from China. However, countries like Russia, Ukraine, Germany and Israel still have an edge in experience over their Chinese counterparts.

Chess has only gained popularity in China in the last few decades and still trails Chinese chess (xiangqi) and go (weiqi) by a considerable margin. There are about three million people in China who play chess of which 300,000 are in the federation players.

In 1974 a seminal meeting was held in Kuala Lumpur that was attended by Malaysian Chess Association President Dato Tan Chin Nam, a prominent businessman; Lim Kok Ann, then President of the Singapore Chess Association; President of the Japanese Chess Association Yasuji Matsumoto; FIDE and Philippine Chess Federation President, Florencio Campomanes and two observers from the Chinese Embassy. The aim of this important meeting was to figure out how to raise the technical level of chess in Asia in order to reach the highest levels.

It was decided to promote chess first in China where it was believed to have the biggest potential for success. The plan came to be known in Asian chess circles as the "Big Dragon Project" and the man behind it was Dato Tan Chin Nam. He was instrumental in gaining China entrance into FIDE in 1976 and has since backed Asian and Chinese chess in particular financially. The Big Dragon plan called for the Chinese to reach world-class status by the end of the century, something that was largely achieved. The women, led by former Women's World Champion GM Xie Jun, have won the gold medal in two previous Olympiads while the men won silver in 2006 (their highest ever position).