Corruption in Chinese chess exposed

With reigning Asian Games champion and several grandmasters banned for life, the latest crackdown on corruption in xiangqi, or Chinese chess, has exposed a serious integrity crisis tarnishing the board game's profile in China. Three more high-profile players — 2023 Asian Games gold medalist Zheng Weitong, silver medalist Zhao Xinxin and Wang Yang, who all previously held grandmaster titles — received lifetime bans from the sport on Sunday, joining Wang Tianyi and Wang Yuefei, two former world champions who had been banned for life since September, as the governing body announced the latest penalty targeting over 40 players found cheating in domestic events at different levels. Fourteen players, including the five banned for life, have had their technical titles stripped, while violations such as "buying and selling matches" were uncovered as early as in 2012, according to the administrative center of chess and cards sports under the General Administration of Sport of China. "The huge temptation of benefit for a high-ranking player to maintain his place and for a lower-ranked player to earn more money was too big to refuse sometimes in a game, especially between commercial clubs," Cai Yi, a former Chinese chess player and a lawyer with Beijing-based DeHeng Law Offices, told China Central Television.