Gresham Hotel on the weekend of February 6-8th 2015
Rory Wales, the president of the Irish Go Association (IGA) has been in touch with the ICU concerning the above event.
The Irish Go Association, The UCD Confucius Institute for Ireland, The Chinese Ambassador, and a Beijing Sporting Authority are hosting a special Chinese mind games event, specifically the games of Go (Weiqi) and Chinese Chess (Xiangqi), at the Gresham Hotel on O’ Connell Street in Dublin City Centre from 6 – 8th.
The UCD Confucius Institute has sponsored the annual Irish Open Go tournament (called the Confucius Cup) over the last few years, and for 2015 it would like to make it a much bigger event, incorporating Chinese Chess (an Irish first), and have professional players from both disciplines flying over from Beijing to attend.
While the IGA expects at least 50 Go players to attend the event, they don't know how many people play Chinese Chess, so the IGA have asked us to publicise the event amongst our members to establish if there is any interest amongst chess players in taking part in the event.
It is understood that Chinese Chess has similarities with Chess itself. The main differences are the size of the Board (9 x 9) and the absence of a queen. It is understood that the “knight” is a horse in the Chinese version, the “Rook” is an elephant and the “bishop” is a messenger.
At the event itself, there would be an opening ceremony on the Saturday morning, followed by 3 one-hour-per-player games of both Go and Chinese Chess - occurring simultaneously - during the day, followed by drinks and a buffet dinner that evening.
Then on Sunday there would typically be 2 more games, following by prize-giving and a closing ceremony at around 5pm. 1st prize for the Chinese Chess tournament is expected to be about €500.
If any members already play Chinese Chess and/or are interested in playing in this event, please contact Rory Wales, President of the IGA at for further information.
For more information please see the links below:
- Go: Overview of Go on Wikipedia.
- Chinese Chess: Overview of Chinese Chess on Wikipedia.
- Irish Go Association: Website of Irish Go Association.
- UCD Confucius Institute for Ireland: Home.