IF THERE IS A DAY in my life I would like to change it's not the day I learned about Chinese chess. Being able to represent Finland three times in The Forshang Cup just makes that a little bit easier to say. During last year's closing ceremonies in Honolulu the organizers had raised the hopes of the European participants to get The Third Forshang Cup held in Europe. Unfortunately that didn't happen. 

On the other hand, considering the number of participants who didn't want to leave Hawaii after last year's tournament, Honolulu as a tournament venue again wasn't such a bad choice either. For players in Europe it unfortunately also meant long flights and tiring jetlag - we just happen to be on the opposite side of the Earth.

The Forshang

Forshang World Foundation was founded in Taiwan in 1994 and today it is established in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver, Toronto and Hong Kong. It is a non-profit organization engaged in the propagation of Chinese culture, Buddhism, academics and international cultural exchange.

The President of the Forshang World Foundation, San-Don Lee, starts the tournament.

The connection between the primary purpose of the Forshang World Foundation, -  to promote Forshang Buddhism - and Chinese Chess, is how the game requires patience, intense concentration, and a cool and calm mind in order for a player to grow and develop. Likewise, these characteristics are promoted in Buddhist practice. The president of the Forshang World Foundation, Master San-Don Lee, who had a dream since he was little to hold the biggest Chinese chess contest, expressed his thoughts in the First Forshang Cup tournament booklet:

'...I sincerely believe, there is no enemy in all chess contests. It is only a way for communication, a way to make a friend from the depth of your heart.'

The opening draw

The opening draw was held at Ala Moana Hotel where the teams stayed during the tournament. Even though the Chinese team dropped out of the contest last year after playing only four rounds - due to some unresolved disputes about what flags should be displayed at the playing area - the organizers were very optimistic about the Chinese team's participation this year. But it was not a big surprise that China didn't come, considering the latest developments between Taiwan and China. 

This meant the tournament favourites would be the Taiwanese players but the success of Vietnamese players would not be a big surprise either. The players were divided to two groups of 20 players who would play the first six rounds separately. 

In my opinion the second group, players 21-40 was probably a little bit tougher - no, I didn't play in it. It's true that in the final eight top-finishers there were four players from each group, but the players from the second group did much better in the final knock-out matches as well as had a clearly better rating average (according to INGO ratings by Siegfried Huber).

Tournament conditions

Imagine an old villa with a large garden growing all kinds of tropical plants and trees. Some of the old trees have roots which alone could offer shadow enough to hold a small chess tournament. You can walk among them, pick up a fresh nut and try to open it. There is a small stream where you can see a tiny crab - which will pinch your finger if you try to be too friendly! On the other side there is a Japanese-style garden with small bridges and ponds - and large toads.

The tournament conditions were very unlike any other xiangqi tournament I have taken part in. The twenty games were played outside under two big tents on the garden's grass field, sheltered from the sun and the occasional shower. The games were played on beautiful boards made especially for the Forshang Cup.

During the games there were some strong gusts of wind which blew anything from the table but not the board and the pieces. Definitely a good reason to use Chinese-style pieces - flat discs instead of western chess style three-dimensional ones! During the rounds, selected games were shown to spectators on big video screens - from which I had some trouble recognizing the pieces.

The time control for the games was demanding for the players as well as for the arbiters. First you had to make 25 moves in an hour and after the hour you had ten minutes for eight moves. As the control point was the one-hour mark and not the number of moves, the time controls were usually at different moves for the both players. So, in order to know both yours and your opponents time control you had to follow both scoresheets - where the next time control was marked with colour after each fall of flag. In addition, you couldn't save your time for the next time control, which was always the same ten minutes. 

During last year's competition, I discussed the time control with Mr. Lai from the U.K. and the organizers and it's differences compared to the western-style control where you can at some point take a long thinking break if you make your remaining moves quickly. We thought the western style was better but the organizers said they wanted in fact to emphasize the 'fighting' nature of Xiangqi - a really good point.

Olympic attention

The opening ceremonies were held at the playing site. There were speeches and a Hawaiian drum music group performing. At the playing site, in addition to all participating nations' flags, there were five flags more visibly in view - the U.S., Hawaii, the Forshang Foundation, Taiwanese and the International Olympic Committee flags. 

The Olympic attention of the Forshang Cup started from the 2nd Cup in 1998, when IOC members Anita Defrantz and Ching-Kuo Wu attended the tournament ceremonies. Since then the presence of the IOC has been notable. The IOC members assured the tournament participants about their positive attitude to include mind sports in general, and hopefully Chinese Chess, in the Olympic movement. Also President Juan Antonio Samaranch greeted the tournament with a letter.