Chinese Weiqi Association

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

Chinese Weiqi Association, also known as Zhongguo Qiyuan, (Simplified: 中国围棋协会; Pinyin: Zhōngguó Weíqí Xíehuì) is the major go organization in China. It oversees professional players as well as strong amateurs, functioning in the same way as the Nihon Kiin and other such groups.

Although go was invented in China more than 2000 years ago, in modern times it had lost some of its popularity. In 1960, China's Foreign Minister, Chen Yi, a fanatical go player who had carried a go board with him during military campaigns, arranged for five Japanese professional players to visit. The government had by then recognized go as a national sport and established go institutes in Beijing and Shanghai; however, the Japanese team won 32 of its 35 games. In the annual "Super Go" exchanges that followed, China's improved and younger players appeared on the team, showing the increasing popularity of go in China. The exchanges were interrupted by the Cultural Revolution, but resumed in 1972. The China Weiqi Association as it is known today came into being in 1973. By 1979, Chinese player Nie Weiping was strong enough to win the first World Amateur Go Championship, thereby declaring a challenge to the hitherto unchallenged supremacy of Japanese players. In the 1980's the Chinese turned the tables, besting the Japanese year after year and eventually dominating international go until the rise of Korean players from the Hanguk Kiwon in the 1990's.