Rumors of fraud and at the same time rude and uncivilized behavior: the world of Chinese chess is in turmoil and the national champion has had the title he had won a few days earlier revoked. Xiangqi is the game of Chinese chess, an ancient board game, very popular for hundreds of years throughout Asia.
The Chinese national championship was won last week by Yan Chenglong, who was crowned “King of Xiangqi”. But his joy was short-lived, because yesterday the National Association revoked his title and also the prize money that was associated with it. It happened that rumors began to circulate on Weibo, the Chinese social network, denouncing the fact that the 48-year-old had cheated in the tournament: he would use anal beads equipped with wireless transmitters to send and receive signals, via a code, to a computer that responded by sending him instructions on what moves to make in the form of vibrations.
Meanwhile, while the controversy raged on the web, he was already celebrating, but he did it wildly. It was the Chinese Xiangqi Association that reported it: he reveled in his hotel room «first with a party of alcohol, together with others, on the night of December 17, then the following day defecating in the bathtub of the room where he was stayingan act that damaged the hotel’s property, violated public order and good morals.”
That was enough for the Association. “Based on what has been ascertained, it is currently impossible to prove that Yan cheated via ‘analytical beads’ as speculated on social media.” But Yan was not only stripped of the title but also banned from playing for a year.